Afrinkong
Nature & Landscapes
The Escarpment
The plateau drops two thousand metres to the Red Sea in about ninety kilometres.
East Africa · Afrinkong
Eritrea
Art deco Asmara, and the Dahlak islands.
A modernist capital on a highland plateau that UNESCO listed whole, a steam railway down to the Red Sea, and three hundred islands off Massawa that almost nobody visits.
Where it is
Africa · East Africa · Eritrea
The land in brief
- Spans
- 710 km E–W, 620 km N–S
- Latitude
- 18°N to 12°N
- Borders
- 3 countries
- Sea
- Has a coast
- Best time
- October to April. Asmara is temperate all year; the coast is only bearable in winter.
Also in East Africa
BurundiThe southernmost source of the NileDjiboutiWhere three plates pull apartEthiopiaThe roof of AfricaKenyaWhere the safari was inventedRwandaLand of a thousand hills
Compare Eritrea with another countryAll fifty-four, worked through the same twenty-seven categories.When to come
JFMAMJJASOND
October to April. Asmara is temperate all year; the coast is only bearable in winter.
01Highlights
What Eritrea is known for.
Six of the twenty-seven, and the ones most people come for. The rest are below — and none of them is filler.
Nature & Landscapes
Wildlife
Danakil and Dahlak
Wild ass in the Danakil, dugong and turtle in the Dahlak archipelago.
Emba Soira
3,018 metres in the southern highlands, with terraced farming right up the sides.
The Dahlak Archipelago
Three hundred and fifty islands, four of them inhabited, and reefs almost nobody has dived.
The Green Belt
Semenawi Bahri, a strip of cloud forest on the escarpment an hour from the capital.
Culture
Nine Groups, Two Faiths
Tigrinya, Tigre, Afar, Bilen and five more, roughly half Christian and half Muslim.
02Experiences
25 ways to spend the time.
Every country we cover works through the same twenty-seven categories, so you can hold two of them side by side and compare like with like rather than one brochure against another. Compare Eritrea with another → The two not listed here are the hero picture and the case for going, which has a section of its own below.
Landscapes
- The EscarpmentThe plateau drops two thousand metres to the Red Sea in about ninety kilometres.
- Emba Soira3,018 metres in the southern highlands, with terraced farming right up the sides.
- Seasonal OnlyThe highland streams run in the summer rains and are dry the rest of the year.
- The Red Sea CoastNo permanent rivers to speak of — the water here is the sea, and it is very warm.
- The Dahlak ArchipelagoThree hundred and fifty islands, four of them inhabited, and reefs almost nobody has dived.
- The Green BeltSemenawi Bahri, a strip of cloud forest on the escarpment an hour from the capital.
Wildlife
- Danakil and DahlakWild ass in the Danakil, dugong and turtle in the Dahlak archipelago.
- Not the Business HereThere is no safari circuit. The wildlife is coastal and marine, and it is worth the swap.
- Terraces That Hold the SoilHighland terracing built by hand over centuries, and still the reason the topsoil is there.
- CyclingEritrea is a cycling country — the Tour of Eritrea climbs the escarpment.
People and culture
- Nine Groups, Two FaithsTigrinya, Tigre, Afar, Bilen and five more, roughly half Christian and half Muslim.
- The Afar and the RashaidaThe Afar on the southern coast, and the Rashaida who came across from Arabia in the 1840s.
- Meskel and EidMeskel bonfires in September, and Eid in Massawa, in the same country and often the same street.
- Filigree and BasketrySilver filigree from Asmara's goldsmiths, and coiled straw baskets from the highlands.
- Injera, Zigni and MacchiatoEritrean stews on injera, and an Italian coffee culture that never left.
- The Safest Capital AroundAsmara is small, walkable and calm, and children are everywhere in it after dark.
- The PasseggiataAsmara walks Harnet Avenue in the evening. Everybody does, and nobody hurries.
Places
- Asmara and MassawaOne a cool art-deco plateau town, the other a coral-block Ottoman port on the sea.
- Futurist and CoralFiat Tagliero's concrete wings in Asmara, and Massawa's buildings cut from the reef itself.
- Adulis and QohaitoA Red Sea port that traded with Rome, and a highland city on the escarpment above it.
- Asmara, Listed WholeThe first modernist city anywhere to be inscribed as a World Heritage site, in 2017.
Ways to travel
- The Massawa RoadDown the escarpment by road or by the restored steam railway, two thousand metres in a morning.
- Modest, and ImprovingA handful of restored Italian-era hotels in Asmara. Nothing on the coast yet.
- Deco in Low LightAsmara's facades in the late afternoon, when the plaster goes warm and the streets empty.
- The Tank GraveyardA hillside outside Asmara stacked with the wreckage of thirty years of war.
03Why go
The case for Eritrea.
Why Visit This Country
Why Eritrea
Nowhere else has a whole intact modernist city, a steam railway and an unfished reef.
Hidden Gems
The Tank Graveyard
A hillside outside Asmara stacked with the wreckage of thirty years of war.
Eco Tourism
Terraces That Hold the Soil
Highland terracing built by hand over centuries, and still the reason the topsoil is there.
Heritage
Asmara, Listed Whole
The first modernist city anywhere to be inscribed as a World Heritage site, in 2017.
04Go deeper
All of Eritrea, four ways in.
Who would take youAfrinkong
The ground is ours right across Africa: your vehicle, your driver for the whole journey, and the days shaped around what you came for.
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Begin
Your Eritrea starts here.
Tell us the month, or simply the thing you want to see, and a guide who works there will answer.