Asmara (ኣስመራ — "They Made Them Unite" in Tigrinya, population 963,000 — the capital of Eritrea and one of the most extraordinary and least visited capitals in Africa) is the city that UNESCO called "a modernist city" and listed as a World Heritage Site in 2017 (the UNESCO citation: "Asmara: a Modernist African City" — the 36th UNESCO World Heritage Site in Africa): an Italian colonial city built between 1935 and 1941 (the Italian colonial period in Eritrea: 1890–1941) by Italian architects (the Fascist regime under Mussolini used Eritrea and the other Italian East African territories as a laboratory for Italian Rationalist and Futurist architecture — the urban design of Asmara was the most ambitious example of Fascist colonial urbanism in the world) in the complete Italian Modernist style (Rationalism, Futurism and Art Deco applied to every building in the city: the Fiat Tagliero garage (the most audacious building in Asmara — the 1938 concrete aircraft-hangar-shaped petrol station with the 30m cantilevered concrete wings that extend without any central supports: the engineer who designed the structure was forced to produce the building at gunpoint by the Italian military commander who threatened to shoot him if the concrete wings collapsed when the scaffolding was removed (they did not collapse)), the Cinema Impero (the 1937 Art Deco cinema), the Bar Vittoria (the 1938 Modernist café with the curved glass facade), and the covered market (the 1937 Rationalist market building with the distinctive arcaded facade)). Eritrea is one of the most closed and isolated countries in the world (the "North Korea of Africa" — the government of President Isaias Afwerki (in power since independence in 1993: the only leader Eritrea has ever had) controls all media, prohibits independent journalism, requires an exit visa for citizens to leave the country and severely restricts tourism): the result is a city almost completely preserved from the 1930s–1940s in aspic — the economic underdevelopment and isolation that have impoverished Eritrea have inadvertently preserved the Italian colonial architecture intact.
Fiat Tagliero Building (1938 — designed by the Italian engineer Giuseppe Pettazzi for the Italian Fascist regime in Eritrea: the petrol station and automobile service center built in the shape of an airplane (the Futurist-Fascist celebration of the machine age, aviation and speed): the central concrete body (the "fuselage" — the two-story service center building) with two 30m concrete cantilevered wings (the "wings" — the canopy sheltering the petrol pumps on both sides: the wings extend horizontally for 30m without any central supporting columns (the cantilever is among the most ambitious concrete structural feat of the 1930s — structurally comparable to any contemporary bridge span)): the legend of the construction: the Italian military commander General Daodiace forced the engineer Pettazzi to oversee the removal of the scaffolding at gunpoint — threatening to shoot him if the concrete wings collapsed when the temporary supports were removed: the wings did not collapse (the calculation was correct) and both men reportedly burst into tears of relief: the most extraordinary anecdote in the history of 20th-century African architecture.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHarnet Avenue ("Liberty Avenue" — the former Corso Italia: the main commercial boulevard of the Italian colonial city of Asmara: the most complete surviving Italian Modernist urban streetscape outside of Italy (and arguably more complete than any surviving Modernist streetscape in Italy itself, since the Italian cities have undergone significant commercial and architectural change since the 1940s): the entire length of Harnet Avenue (the 1.5km boulevard from the Cathedral to the central market) is lined with Rationalist, Futurist and Art Deco buildings from the 1935–1941 period: the Bar Vittoria (1938 — the most elegant Art Deco café in Asmara, with the curved glass facade and the neon sign), the Bar Imperiale (the most popular bar on the boulevard — the meeting point of Asmara social life since the 1940s), the Cinema Impero (1937 — the most important Art Deco cinema in Africa: the curved Rationalist facade, the neon lettering, the original film poster cases), and the Cubist apartment buildings (the three-story residential blocks with the flat roofs, the horizontal window bands and the balconies).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAsmara Cathedral (the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary — the 1923 Lombard Romanesque-style building designed by Oreste Scanavini: the red brick and white plaster church with the 47m campanile (the bell tower) that is the tallest structure in central Asmara and the first landmark visible from the approaches to the city from the plains below): the most important Catholic church in Eritrea. Enda Mariam Cathedral (the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo cathedral — the most important Orthodox Christian church in Asmara: the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (the Eritrean branch of the Oriental Orthodox Christianity, founded by the "Nine Saints" (the Aksumite missionaries from Syria and Egypt) in the 5th century CE) is the dominant religion of the Tigrinya-speaking highland Eritreans: 50% of Eritreans are Christian (Orthodox), 48% are Muslim, in one of the most balanced Christian-Muslim religious ratios in Africa).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideInjera (the flatbread of the Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine — the most important bread in the Horn of Africa: the injera is made from teff (Eragrostis tef — the smallest grain in the world: the tiny seed (1mm diameter) of the teff grass endemic to the Ethiopian highlands: the teff grain has a very high iron content (the highest of any grain) and is naturally gluten-free: the teff flour is fermented for 2–3 days (the natural fermentation creates the characteristic sour, tangy flavor and the bubbly, spongy texture of the injera), then cooked on a flat clay griddle (the "mitad") until the top surface is covered with the characteristic bubble holes (the "eyes" of the injera)): the injera is the plate, the utensil and the bread simultaneously: it is spread on a large communal tray and the stews are placed on top, and eaten by tearing off pieces of the injera and using them to scoop the stews. The zigni (the Eritrean lamb stew in berbere (the red spice blend: chili pepper, ginger, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, bishop's weed): the most important Eritrean stew) and the tsebhi derho (the Eritrean chicken stew in the same berbere spice, with hard-boiled eggs: the most festive Eritrean dish).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMedeber Market (the "Metal Market" of Asmara — the extraordinary market in the Medeber district of Asmara where every waste material is transformed into a usable product: the most important expression of the Eritrean "fixit" culture (the resource scarcity imposed by the economic isolation of Eritrea has created one of the most resourceful artisan repair and recycling industries in Africa): the tin-can workshops (the workers who transform empty food tins into buckets, cups, water carriers, lanterns and cooking pots), the tire-sandal makers (the cobblers who cut vehicle tires into sandal soles and attach leather or fabric upper straps — the most practical and durable footwear in the Horn of Africa: the tire sandal is also worn by Ethiopian and Eritrean monks as the traditional sandal of the Orthodox hermit), the umbrella repairers, the sewing machine repairers, the electronics repairers, and the most extraordinary: the arms recyclers (the former military equipment from the 30-year independence war (1961–1991) repurposed into everyday objects: the bomb casings as flowerpots, the shell casings as cooking pots, the vehicle parts as furniture).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Tank Graveyard (the collection of 300+ destroyed and abandoned tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery pieces and military vehicles from the Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991) — the 30-year war against the Ethiopian Derg regime (the Marxist military junta that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991) that ended with Eritrean independence in 1993: the vehicles were collected from the various battlefields of the war (the Nakfa front, the Afabet battle, the Massawa assault) and deposited at this site south of Asmara: the tanks are Soviet-supplied T-54 and T-55 main battle tanks (supplied to the Ethiopian Derg by the Soviet Union during the Cold War — the most important Soviet client in sub-Saharan Africa), Israeli-supplied M48 Patton tanks (supplied to Ethiopia before the 1977 revolution), and the captured Eritrean EPLF (Eritrean People's Liberation Front) vehicles. The most extraordinary open-air war memorial in Africa.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNational Museum of Eritrea (on Liberation Avenue, near the former Italian cultural institute): the most important collection of Eritrean history and prehistory: the Buia hominid fossils (the most important discovery: the 1994 discovery of a complete Homo erectus skull (the "Buia skull") in the Danakil Depression of Eritrea: the skull is approximately 1 million years old and provides important evidence for the Out-of-Africa migration of early humans from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world), the Aksumite steles (the carved granite obelisks of the ancient Kingdom of Aksum (100 BCE – 900 CE) — the kingdom whose capital was at Aksum in what is now northern Ethiopia but whose territory included all of Eritrea: the steles are the most important pre-Islamic monuments in the Horn of Africa), and the Independence War gallery (the comprehensive documentation of the 30-year EPLF independence struggle (1961–1991), the most protracted African independence war of the 20th century).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideItalian-Eritrean café culture (the most extraordinary cultural legacy of the Italian colonial period in Eritrea: the Eritreans adopted the Italian coffee tradition (the espresso and the cappuccino (the Bar Vittoria and the Bar Imperiale still serve the espresso in the traditional Italian manner — the short, intense, high-pressure extraction in the original La Pavoni espresso machines imported from Italy in the 1940s)), the Italian pasta tradition (the spaghetti al pomodoro, the fusilli and the rigatoni are served in Asmara restaurants as frequently as the injera and stew), and the Italian pastry tradition (the pastry shops (the "pasticcerie") of Asmara serving the sfogliatella, the cannolo and the cornetto with the morning cappuccino). The Bar Vittoria (the most important café on Harnet Avenue — the curved glass facade, the neon sign and the original 1938 interior fittings are all intact): the most extraordinary living time capsule of Italian colonial culture in Africa.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKeren (the second-largest city in Eritrea, 92km northwest of Asmara in the highland valley — the city whose weekly camel market (Monday and Thursday) is the largest camel market in the Horn of Africa: the Beni-Amer and the Beja tribes (the Cushitic nomadic peoples of the Eritrean lowlands and Sudan) drive their camels to the Keren market from the lowlands surrounding the Gash-Barka region): the 1941 Battle of Keren (the most significant engagement of the East African campaign of the Second World War: the British and Commonwealth forces (the 4th and 5th Indian Infantry Divisions) besieged Keren for 53 days against the Italian colonial defense: approximately 3,000 Allied and 3,000 Italian soldiers were killed — the Keren Commonwealth War Cemetery (the Commonwealth Graves Commission cemetery containing the graves of 440 Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Battle of Keren)) and the Italian fort (the hilltop Fascist-era fort used by the Italians in the defense of Keren and now accessible to visitors).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideDebre Bizen (the "House of the Cliffs" — the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo monastery on the 2,400m plateau east of Asmara (accessible by car to the base, then 3 hours on foot): founded in 1390 by Abba Filipos (one of the most important figures in Eritrean Orthodox monasticism): the most important Eritrean Orthodox monastery (1,200 monks at its peak in the medieval period, now approximately 100): notable for the strict prohibition of female entry (no women are permitted to enter the monastery precinct — uniquely, this prohibition extends to all female animals: the monastery grounds are male-only in the most absolute sense in the Ethiopian-Eritrean Orthodox tradition: the monks do not want even female goats, chickens or cows within the sacred precinct). The cliff-edge monastery overlooks the Red Sea coastal plain and the Massawa lowlands (the view from the monastery terrace at sunset: the entire Eritrean central highlands dropping away to the Red Sea).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGursha (the supreme Eritrean and Ethiopian act of hospitality: the host tears a piece of injera, loads it with the stew, and places it directly into the guest's mouth with their hand — the act of feeding another person directly from the hand is the most intimate and most honored expression of hospitality in the habesha (Ethiopian and Eritrean) culture: the larger the gursha (the bigger the portion), the greater the honor): the shiro (the Eritrean chickpea stew — the most important everyday stew of Eritrea: the powdered chickpea flour (the "shiro wet" — the dried, ground chickpea paste mixed with onion, garlic, ginger and the berbere spice blend) dissolved in water and cooked to a thick, smooth stew: the most nutritious and most affordable everyday food in Eritrea, eaten daily by most Eritrean households). The farewell meal in the city that UNESCO said was "Africa's forgotten city of elegance."
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAsmara has more Art Deco buildings per capita than any city on earth — declared UNESCO World Heritage in 2017 as a "Modernist City of Africa". The Italian colonial architects (1930s) built bars as social institutions: Bar Vittoria (1938) and Bar Moderna (1937) still serve espresso and aperitivo in their original chromework interiors. The Eritrean adaptation is the macchiato (the only coffee style served here) and the Asmara beer (the Melotti brewery, est. 1939, still using the original Italian recipe). Eritreans gather at these bars from 20:00 until late — the most sophisticated bar culture in East Africa.