Travel Guide Massawa

Formerly a major commercial crossroads due to its strategic location at the crossroads of major merchant routes from India and Arabia, located just at the mouth of the Red Sea, the town of Massawa has seen all kinds of goods passing through its port for centuries. Coveted by the largest number, the city was successively occupied by the Portuguese, the Arabs, the Turks, the Egyptians and then by the English, and finally by the Italians who made the capital of their Eritrean colony in 1890, and that for 10 years before replacing it with Asmara. The architecture of the city testifies to this tumultuous history. Ottoman influence is highly predominant because of the long occupation of the Turks in the region (they contrôlèrent the city for three centuries). The Egyptians who succeeded them built some buildings, including the Governor's Palace still visible today, but whose dilapidated state is struggling to see. Then, under the Italian occupation, many sumptuous villas were high, but unfortunately today there are few traces. Formerly known as one of the most beautiful cities of the Red Sea, Massawa was badly destroyed during the war of Independence, and the scars are still well visible: traces of bullets and partially destroyed buildings are omnipresent.Although it is true that Massawa has lost its splendour of yesteryear, it remains a city with a charming charm. During the day, the overwhelming heat that reigns in it obliges the inhabitants to hold themselves in their homes and the small port town is a ghost town. but hardly the sun begins to get down that life resumes. Men join in coffee and women burn incense on the doorstep of their house door. It is soon dark and soft fragrant smoke spreads in the beaten alleys, washed by the gentle evening breeze. The atmosphere is magical, and crossing Rimbaud in the detour of a ruelle seems almost possible.