The monastery received its first archeological examination by E. Litton, who led a German expedition to northern Ethiopia in the early 20th century. By the time that
David Buxton saw the ancient church in the mid-1940s, he found it "on the point of collapse". A few years later, an English architect, DH Matthews, assisted in the restoration of the building, which included the rebuilding of one of its wood and stone walls (a characteristic style of
Aksumite architecture).
Thomas Pakenham, who visited the church in 1955, records a tradition that Debre Dammo had also once been a royal prison for heirs to the
Emperor of Ethiopia, like the better-known
Wehni and
Amba Geshen. The exterior walls of the church were built of alternating courses of limestone blocks and wood, "fitted with the projecting stumps that Ethiopians call 'monkey heads'". Once inside, Pakenham was in awe of what he saw:
Rumours of Destruction On 7 May 2021 a YouTube video was published by Denis Wadley in which the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mathias, claimed that several churches had been burned during
Tigray War. The claims included Debre Damo, in which he stated that a monk was killed. He did not specify who was responsible. Visitors to the monastery in early 2025 refute the claims; the monastery and the compound are intact. File:ET Tigray asv2018-01 img01 Debre Damo surroundings.jpg|Debre Dammo amba File:ET Tigray asv2018-01 img05 Debre Damo surroundings.jpg|The way up to the monastery File:ET Tigray asv2018-01 img12 Debre Damo Monastery.jpg|The main church of Debre Dammo File:ET Tigray asv2018-01 img18 Debre Damo Monastery.jpg|Interior of the main church File:ET Tigray asv2018-01 img27 Debre Damo Monastery.jpg|Debre Dammo Monastery, seen from a different angle. File:ET Tigray asv2018-01 img25 Debre Damo Monastery.jpg|Bell tower ==References==