Asmara Travel Guide

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people. At an elevation of over 2,000 meters (7000 ft), Asmara is on the edge of an escarpment that is both the northwestern edge of the Great Rift Valley and of the Eritrean highlands. Textiles and clothing, processed meat, beer, shoes, and ceramics are the major industrial products. Asmara started with four villages, to being a regional center under Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, to "Little Rome" of Mussolini's unsuccessful second Roman Empire, to being a provincial capital under Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia and lastly a national capital of Eritrea.

Asmara grew from four villages founded in the twelfth century. Originally, it is said, there were four clans living in the Asmara area on the Kebessa Plateau: Gheza Gurtom, Gheza Shelele, Gheza Serenser and Gheza Asmae. Encouraged by their women, the men united the four clans and defeated the bandits who preyed on the area. After the victory, a new name was given to the place, Arbaete Asmera which literally means, in the Tigrinya language, the four (female plural) united. Eventually Arbaete was dropped and it has been called Asmera, though there is still a zone called Arbaete Asmera

The missionary Remedius Prutky passed through Asmara in 1751, and described in his memoirs that a church built there by Jesuit priests 130 years before was still intact.

Asmara undeniably acquired importance in 1881, when Ras Alula Engida whom Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia had appointed governor of the region founded a market in that place. A few years later, in 1884, he moved his capital from Adi Taklay to Asmara and had three stone buildings built to house his troops and serve as his banquet hall. About the same time Ras Alula ordered all of the other markets in the Mareb Mellash province closed (which included Sazega and Kudofelasi in modern Eritrea as well as Idaga Hamus in Ethiopia), giving further economic stimulus to Asmara. The population grew from an estimated 150 people in 1830 to 2,000 during Alula's governorship

During the Eritrean war for independence from Ethiopia, Asmara's airport became a key in the conflict, as it was used by the Ethiopians to obtain arms and supplies from outside supporters. The last town to fall to the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the Eritrean War of Independence, it was besieged in 1990 and was surrendered by Military of Ethiopia troops without a fight on May 24, 1991. In Asmara the main language is Tigrinya. Italian and English are widely spoken and understood

For more information please follow the link - Asmara Travel Guide