Asmara: Eritrea’s Famous City Where Legend Says The Queen Of Sheba Gave Birth

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Asmara is one of Eritrea’s oldest cities, designed by the Italians. The city’s foundations are thought to have been laid 700 years ago. It became a testing ground for architects interested in medieval designs.

The result is thousands of buildings built in distinct styles such as Futurist, Novocento, Rationalist, and Art Deco as part of the grand city plan that included boulevards and wide sidewalks, according to the World Monuments Fund.

A large number of the structures were built between 1935 and 1941, when Asmara was the main city of Italian dictator Mussolini’s empire in Africa.

The city grew to become a sizable town by the 1920s after becoming the capital of the Italian colony in the late nineteenth century. Many Italians moved to the region in the 1930s in preparation for Mussolini’s planned invasion of Ethiopia.

Historians are correct when they say Asmara is an Italian-built colonial city. However, the residents have an interesting history of the Eritrean capital that they cherish. Asmara is thought to be made up of four clans on the Kebessa Plateau: the Gheza Gurtom, the Gheza Shelele, the Gheza Serenser, and the Gheza Asmae.

According to oral tradition, the women of the region that would become Asmara advised the four clans to band together and fight the enemy who was waging war against them. Arbaete Asmara became the new name for the area where the four united clans lived. According to asmera.nl, Arbaete Asmara literally means “the four are united” in Tigrinya. Arbaete was eventually dropped, and the area became known as Asmara. According to another local legend, the Queen of Sheba gave birth to a son, Menelik I, in Asmara.

Governor Martini declared Asmara the capital of colonial Eritrea over Massawa in 1897. That explains why Italian infrastructure, architecture, and cultural exports are so prevalent in Asmara.

The modern wars between Eritrea and Ethiopia have had little impact on Asmara’s architecture. Despite being abandoned by Ethiopian authorities during their military occupation of Eritrea, the city has retained its charm and beauty. When the Eritrean government took control of the colonial capital in 1991, it immediately began a massive renovation of the city’s infrastructure.

Asmara is now Eritrea’s largest city, with a population of over 560 people. Asmara, located on a highland plateau in the heart of Eritrea, is regarded as one of the safest cities for tourists. It has something for everyone, from boutiques and coffee shops to restaurants with a southern Italian vibe. In 2017, Asmara was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

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