Asmara

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History

According to Eritrean Tigrinya oral traditional history, there were four clans living in the Asmera area on the Kebessa Plateau: the Gheza Gurtom, the Gheza Shelele, the Gheza Serenser and Gheza Asmae. These villages were frequently attacked by clans from the lowlands, until the women of each clan decided that to preserve peace the four clans must unite. The men accepted, hence the name "Arbate Asmera". Arbate Asmera literally means, in the Tigrinya language, "the four (feminine plural) made them unite". The first mention of Asmara comes from a Latin itinerary during the reign of Emperor Dawit I (1382–1411). Governor Ferdinando Martini made it the capital city of Italian Eritrea in 1897. In the early 20th century, the Eritrean Railway was built to the coast, passing through the town of Ghinda, under the direction of Carlo Cavanna. In both 1913 and 1915 the city suffered only slight damage in large earthquakes. A large Italian community developed the city. According to the 1939 census, Asmara had a population of 98,000, of whom 53,000 were Italian. Only 75,000 Italians lived in all of Eritrea, thus making the capital city by far their largest centre. (Compare this to the Italian colonization of Libya, where the settler population, albeit larger, was more dispersed.) The capital acquired an Italian architectural look. Europeans used Asmara "to experiment with radical new designs". By the late 1930s, Asmara was called Piccola Roma (Little Rome). Journalist John Gunther noted in 1955 that "the Italians built [Asmara] well, like Tripoli, with handsome wide streets, ornate public buildings, and even such refinements of civilization as a modern sewage system ... [Asmara] gives the impression of being a pleasant enough small city in Calabria, or even Umbria.” Nowadays more…

Geography

The city lies at an elevation of above sea level. It lies on north–south trending highlands known as the Eritrean Highlands, an extension of the Ethiopian Highlands. The temperate central portion, where Asmara lies, is situated on a rocky highland plateau, which separates the western lowlands from the eastern coastal plains. The lands that surround Asmara are very fertile, especially those to the south towards the Debub Region of Eritrea. The highlands that Asmera is located in fall away to reveal the eastern lowlands, characterized by the searing heat and humidity of the Eritrean salt pans, lapped by the Red Sea. To the west of the plateau stretches a vast semi-arid hilly terrain continuing all the way towards the border with Sudan through the Gash-Barka Region. Asmara has a cool semi-arid climate (BSk) according to the Köppen climate classification. It has year-round moderately warm weather, with recorded temperatures ranging between a minimum of and a maximum of . It has an average humidity of 51% and an UV-index of 6. Holdridge life zones system of bioclimatic classification put Asmara in or near the subtropical thorn woodland biome. Rainfall patterns differ from month to month with highest precipitation in July and August, and lower precipitation in other months. Asmara has warm, but not hot summers and mild winters. Due to its altitude, temperatures are relatively mild for a city located not particularly far from the hotter surroundings in the country. This climate is characteristic of rainy, wet seasons and dry seasons. Asmara averages about of precipitation annually. Frost, however, is extremely rare in the city. The long dry season of the year extends from September until around April, and a season of occasional showers occurs from April to June. Several…

Most-observed species

• Red-billed Firefinch

  Lagonosticta senegala (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  3
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  3
• Dusky Turtle-Dove

  Streptopelia lugens (Rüppell, 1837) · Aves
  3
• Largeleaf Lantana

  Lantana camara L. · Magnoliopsida
  3
• Thorn-apple

  Datura stramonium L. · Magnoliopsida
  3
• Tree Tobacco

  Nicotiana glauca Graham · Magnoliopsida
  3
• Species 3086240

  Species 3086240
  3
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  3

Most recent

• M 4.3 — 2025-02-22
  32 km WNW of Massawa, Eritrea
• M 4.4 — 2024-04-28
  25 km ENE of Massawa, Eritrea
• M 5 — 2024-04-28
  30 km ENE of Massawa, Eritrea
• M 4.7 — 2024-04-27
  26 km NE of Massawa, Eritrea
• M 4.4 — 2024-04-19
  27 km NE of Massawa, Eritrea
• M 5 — 2023-09-13
  42 km S of Massawa, Eritrea