Eritrea's Red Sea jewel — Ottoman coral-stone arches, Italian modernist arcades, and a port city that survived two colonial eras and a liberation war
Massawa (Mitsiwa) is Eritrea's main Red Sea port — one of the most atmospheric cities in the Horn of Africa, combining Ottoman coral-stone architecture from centuries as a provincial trading port, Italian modernist buildings from the colonial era, and the bombed-out ruins left by Ethiopian air raids during the independence war. The old town sits on two coral islands connected by causeways, with an extraordinary layered architectural heritage — mosques, arcaded Italian warehouses, and a bombed palace all within a few hundred metres of each other.
Massawa was an Ottoman naval and trade base from 1557, and subsequently Egyptian (1865–1885) before the Italians used it as the nucleus of their East African colony — Eritrea was declared an Italian colony in 1890, with Massawa as its first capital before Asmara grew to replace it. The Italians built the railway from Massawa to Asmara (one of the world's most remarkable narrow-gauge railways, climbing from sea level to 2,400m in 118km), and an extensive modernist quarter. Ethiopian forces incorporated Eritrea against the UN's stated wishes; the Eritrean liberation struggle (1961–1991) ended w…