The Asmara-Massawa railway is one of the great feats of colonial engineering in Africa and today a gem of the world's industrial heritage. Built by the Italians between the late 19th century and 1932, it links the Asmara plateau with the port of Massawa on the Red Sea, overcoming more than 2,300 metres of height difference in just 118 kilometres, through dozens of tunnels, bridges and impossible curves carved into the escarpment.
After being destroyed and abandoned during the wars of the 20th century, a group of Eritrean railway veterans rescued the line in the 1990s, relaying sleepers by hand and restoring the old Italian-built Mallet steam locomotives. Since then the train has run for tourists, and watching it climb the mountain puffing smoke, with 1930s engines still in service, is a literal journey into the past.
This guide explains how to enjoy the experience from a practical angle: how to hire the steam train charter, which sections are covered (the classic Asmara-Arbaroba), what to expect from the ride along the escarpment and which permits you need. It is one of Eritrea's most unusual attractions, a must for lovers of trains, history and mountain scenery.
The Eritrean railway was built between 1887 and 1932 under Italian colonial rule, connecting the port of Massawa with Asmara by 1911 and later extending inland. The narrow-gauge line (950 mm) came to have more than 39 tunnels and 65 bridges to overcome the almost 2,400 metres of height difference between the sea and the plateau. Damaged by the wars of the 20th century, it was rescued in the 1990s by a group of veteran engineers and drivers who restored two locomotives and relaid the track, making it operational again around 2003. Today it is used exclusively for tourism, on a charter basis. The full story is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The heart of Eritrea at 2.300 metres: Asmara, the astonishing art deco city on the World Heritage List, and the temperate plateau from which the legendary railway descends to the Red Sea.
Read the history of Asmara and the central plateau →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
When Italy established its colony in Eritrea in the late 19th century, it ran into a formidable geographical problem: between its port of entry, Massawa, at Red Sea level, and the highlands of the interior, where the climate was healthy and the land was best, rose a steep escarpment that climbed more than 2,000 metres in just a few kilometres. Moving troops, goods and settlers along mule tracks was slow and gruelling. The solution was a railway.
Work began in 1887, starting from Massawa, and pushed on for decades in extremely harsh conditions: scorching heat on the coast, mountainous terrain, a lack of water and the huge technical challenge of getting a train up the escarpment. The builders chose a 950 mm narrow gauge, cheaper and better suited to the tight mountain curves, and a route full of horseshoe bends, tunnels and bridges. In 1911 the line finally reached Asmara, the colonial capital, linking the sea with the plateau.
The railway kept growing. It was later extended further inland, towards Keren and Agordat, and by 1932 the network had reached its greatest length. The whole construction, between 1887 and 1932, was a colossal undertaking for its time. The 118 km Massawa-Asmara section became the backbone of the colony and one of the most remarkable mountain lines on the African continent.
What makes the Asmara-Massawa railway legendary is its technical achievement. In just 118 kilometres, the train climbs some 2,300 to 2,400 metres, from sea level to Asmara at over 2,300 metres, on gradients of up to 3.5%, which is extraordinary for an adhesion railway. To pull it off, the engineers carved more than thirty tunnels into the escarpment (some sources say over 39) and built around 65 bridges and viaducts, many of them in stone, stitching together the mountainsides.
The route is a marvel of tight curves, loops and switchbacks that let the train gain height gradually, giving passengers ever-changing views of valleys, cliffs and the distant Red Sea. To work these gradients, the railway used articulated Mallet-type steam locomotives, able to handle the tight curves and haul trains uphill. They were built in Italy, mostly by the Ansaldo company of Genoa.
For decades this railway was the colony's technological pride and a key part of its economy, carrying salt, goods, passengers and troops between the coast and the interior. Its mix of engineering daring and scenic beauty placed it among the world's great mountain railways, on a par with the famous Alpine lines.
The 20th century was not kind to the railway. After Italy's defeat in the Second World War, the line kept running under British administration, and later under Eritrea's federation with, and annexation by, Ethiopia. But the long war of independence (1961-1991) was devastating. The track, bridges and rolling stock were caught in the middle of the conflict: part of the infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, and it is said that rails and sleepers were even pulled up during the fighting to build fortifications and trenches.
Over the years the railway stopped running and fell into neglect. The locomotives were left rusting in the depots, the tunnels and bridges deteriorated, and what had been one of Africa's great engineering works seemed doomed to vanish, like so many colonial lines on the continent. When the war ended in 1991 and independence was confirmed in 1993, the country inherited a dead, ruined line.
Yet the story took an unexpected turn. Instead of writing off the railway, the young nation of Eritrea decided to bring it back to life, relying on an extraordinary resource: the veteran railway workers themselves, who had worked on the line decades earlier and still had the know-how needed to revive it.
The rebuilding of the Eritrean railway is one of the most heart-warming stories in the world's industrial heritage. In the 1990s, after independence, a group of engineers and engine drivers, by then elderly and many of them trained in Italian times, set out to rescue the line. With minimal resources, they salvaged and restored rusted steam locomotives, made by hand parts that were impossible to find, repaired tunnels and bridges, and relaid sleepers and rails along the escarpment. It was slow, hands-on work, guided by the memory and experience of those veterans.
Thanks to that effort, by around 2003 the Asmara-Massawa line was running again, at least in sections, with original steam locomotives from the 1930s back in service, including a Mallet built by Ansaldo in 1938. The rolling stock running today is essentially the same that rolled along these tracks almost a hundred years ago, which makes the railway a genuine working, living museum.
Since then, the train has been used only for tourism, on a charter basis: groups of travellers and railway enthusiasts hire the steam train to ride, above all, the spectacular upper section between Asmara and Arbaroba. Watching the old locomotive puff its way up the escarpment, with the veterans at the controls, is a trip into the past and a tribute to the people who refused to let this masterpiece die. Today the Asmara-Massawa railway is one of Eritrea's top attractions and a symbol of its people's tenacity.
