Eritrea

Asmara — the capital of Eritrea (a small country of 118,000km² on the Red Sea coast, population 3.5 million, independent from Ethiopia since 1993 after one of the longest independence wars in African history — 30 years, 1961–1991) — with the Asmara UNESCO World Heritage Site (the finest collection of Italian Futurist, Art Deco, Rationalist and Modernist architecture in the world outside Italy — built by Italian colonial architects 1935–1941 on a highland plateau at 2,325m).

💡 Asmara (listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017 as “A Modernist City of Africa”) has the largest intact collection of Italian Modernist and Art Deco architecture in the world — approximately 400 buildings from the period 1935–1941 when Mussolini’s colonial architects used Eritrea as a laboratory for Futurist and Rationalist architecture. The Fiat Tagliero Building (1938, a Futurist petrol station with 30m reinforced concrete cantilevered wings, no vertical supports — the architect reportedly held a gun to the builder’s head to force him to remove the temporary supports) is the most celebrated Modernist building in Africa.

The Asmara Art Deco and Modernist walking tour — the Fiat Tagliero Building (1938, the most audacious Futurist building in Africa — a petrol station shaped like an aircraft, with 30m concrete wing-cantilevers), the Cinema Impero (1937, a white streamlined Rationalist cinema still showing films in its original interior), the Enda Mariam Cathedral (1922, a Lombard Romanesque cathedral), and the Great Mosque of Asmara (a Rationalist mosque with a colonnaded courtyard — the finest example of Italian Islamic-fusion architecture in Africa).

💡 The Italian colonial architecture of Asmara is entirely intact primarily because of Eritrea’s extreme isolation since independence in 1993 — the underdeveloped economy, the political closure of the country under President Isaias Afewerki (in power since 1993 with no elections, no opposition parties and a closed press) and the lack of investment capital have inadvertently preserved the colonial urban fabric. The buildings are intact because Eritrea has been too poor and too isolated to develop.

Massawa (the main port of Eritrea, 100km east of Asmara on the Red Sea coast, 2,325m descent in 100km — one of the most dramatic road descents in Africa — with the Massawa Old Town (UNESCO-proposed): a collection of Ottoman, Egyptian, Italian and coral-stone architecture on two islands connected by causeways, with the coral-block Massawa Palace and the war-damaged Sheikh Hanafi Mosque — the town was heavily shelled during the liberation war).

💡 Massawa’s Old Town (built primarily in the Ottoman and Egyptian periods from the 16th to 19th century using coral stone quarried from the Red Sea reef — the same building technique as Zanzibar’s Stone Town and Lamu’s old town) was heavily damaged in the 1990 Battle of Massawa, when Eritrean liberation forces captured the city from Ethiopian control after a 48-hour battle. The bullet-holed ruins of the Imperial Palace and the Ethiopian tanks still parked as monuments in the town square are the most visceral reminders of the 30-year war.

The Dahlak Archipelago (209 islands and atolls in the Red Sea off Massawa, the largest archipelago in the Red Sea — almost entirely uninhabited, with some of the least-dived coral reefs in the world, extraordinary Red Sea biodiversity (mantas, whale sharks, hawksbill turtles, spinner dolphins) in water that has seen minimal fishing pressure since the 1970s — accessible by charter boat from Massawa, 2–4 hours).

💡 The Dahlak Archipelago has one of the least disturbed marine environments in the Red Sea — Eritrea’s isolation and the near-absence of sport fishing boats since the 1970s have allowed coral and fish populations to recover to pre-exploitation levels. The reefs of the inner Dahlak are considered by marine biologists to be among the most pristine in the Red Sea, comparable to the uninhabited parts of the northern Saudi coast.

Keren (the second-largest city in Eritrea, 90km northwest of Asmara — the finest market in Eritrea, with the Monday camel market (the largest camel market in the Horn of Africa, where Tigrinya, Bilen, Tigre and Rashaida traders from across the region converge to buy, sell and trade camels, livestock and goods) and the Battle of Keren Memorial (the most important World War II battle cemetery in Africa — both British and Italian soldiers killed in the 1941 battle are buried here).

💡 The Battle of Keren (1941 — a 53-day battle between British-led forces (British, Indian, Free French and Sudanese) and the Italian colonial garrison holding the fortified Keren pass, the key to controlling Eritrea — was the hardest-fought battle of the East African Campaign. 536 British and Commonwealth soldiers were killed; over 3,000 Italians. The battle effectively ended Italian East Africa; both cemeteries are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Qohaito (a large archaeological site on the eastern escarpment of the Eritrean highlands — the ruins of a substantial ancient city of the Aksumite Empire (1st–7th century AD) including the Temple of Mariam Wakiro, a large dam, a necropolis and the remains of a city of 20,000+ people, with extraordinary views over the Danakil Depression — and the nearby Saphira Canyon, a 200m-deep gorge accessible by walking).

💡 The Aksumite Empire (c. 100–940 AD, based in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, at its height one of the four great empires of the ancient world alongside Rome, Parthia and China — according to the 3rd-century Persian prophet Mani) controlled the Red Sea trade routes and minted its own gold, silver and bronze coins. Qohaito and the other highland Eritrean sites (Metera, Matara) are the Eritrean wing of Aksumite civilization, largely unexcavated and rarely visited.

Senafe (a highland town near the Ethiopian border with the ruined Aksumite city of Metera — large stelae, building foundations and inscribed stones of the Aksumite period — and the extraordinary landscape of the Amba Soira plateau at 3,013m, the highest point in Eritrea) before returning to Asmara for departure. Fly from Asmara (ASM).

💡 The Eritrean independence war (1961–1991 — 30 years, one of the longest guerrilla independence wars in African history, fought by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front against successive Ethiopian governments, ending with the military defeat of the Ethiopian Derg regime in 1991) cost an estimated 65,000 EPLF fighters and 65,000 civilians. Eritrea became Africa’s newest country on 24 May 1993 after a UN-supervised referendum returned a 99.83% vote for independence.