Massawa is one of the most evocative cities on the Red Sea: an ancient port where Ottomans, Egyptians, Arabs, Italians and Ethiopians crossed paths, each leaving their mark on an old town of coral houses, mosques, palaces and carved wooden balconies. Built on coral islands joined by causeways, it has the melancholy charm of a city that was once rich and cosmopolitan and that today shows, alongside its beauty, the scars of war.
Its architecture is unique: the Ottomans built the old town with coral blocks taken from the sea and imported timber, with narrow streets laid out to catch the breeze. Egyptian and Italian buildings were added to that base, and today palaces such as the Governor's Palace (the winter residence of Emperor Haile Selassie, bombed in 1990) and centuries-old mosques stand alongside façades riddled by the fighting of the independence war.
This guide covers Massawa from a practical angle: what to see in its historic coral town, how to get there from Asmara via the escarpment with the right permit, how to organise a trip to the Dahlak archipelago and how to cope with its scorching climate. It is Eritrea's big date with the Red Sea, a place steeped in history, trade and encounters between cultures.
For centuries Massawa was one of the great ports of the Red Sea, controlled in turn by powers that left their mark. The Ottomans took it in the 16th century and built the coral old town in their characteristic Islamic style; it later came under Egyptian administration, and at the end of the 19th century it passed into Italian hands, which modernised it and linked it by rail to Asmara. It was the colony's first capital before the seat moved to Asmara. During the war of independence it suffered devastating fighting and bombing, such as the 1990 offensive. The full story is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓A thousand years of Red Sea history: the port of Massawa with its Ottoman, Egyptian and Italian layers, the almost untouched Dahlak islands and the ruins of Adulis, Aksum's commercial gateway.
Read the history of The Red Sea: Massawa and Dahlak →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Massawa has one of the longest and most cosmopolitan histories on the entire African coast of the Red Sea. Its strategic location, on coral islands in a sheltered natural harbour, made it a key point of trade between the African interior, Arabia, Egypt, India and the Mediterranean from ancient times. Although the great port of antiquity on this coast was Adulis, further south, Massawa gained importance over the centuries until it became the region's great gateway to the sea.
Goods from the Abyssinian interior and the highlands left through its port (ivory, hides, gold, coffee, salt), while merchandise, ideas and religions came in. Islam reached this coast early through trade and the closeness of Arabia, and Massawa became a city with a strong Muslim character, with mosques and a culture tied to the world of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Like so many ports of the time, it was also a hub of the slave trade.
Throughout its history, Massawa was fought over and ruled by one power after another, each seeking to control Red Sea trade. That succession of masters (Arabs, Ottomans, Egyptians, Italians, Ethiopians) left the city with layers of cultures, languages and architectural styles that make it unique. It also explains its mixed character and an old town shaped by so many influences.
The period that most shaped Massawa's appearance was Ottoman rule. In the 16th century, as it expanded across the Red Sea, the Ottoman Empire took Massawa and made it part of its province of Habesh, turning it into an important port within its domain. The Ottomans built much of the old town as we know it today. They used blocks of coral taken from the sea, bound with mortar and reinforced with imported timber beams, in the typical Ottoman Islamic style.
This kind of town planning was clever and suited to the scorching climate. Streets were laid out narrow and angled to catch any sea breeze and give shade, and houses had latticed wooden balconies, inner courtyards and galleries to let air through and keep them cool. The result was a beautiful and practical coral city, with mosques, homes and commercial buildings that reflected the port's wealth and its ties to the Islamic world of the Red Sea.
Later, in the 19th century, Massawa came under the Egypt of the Khedives, who ran it for decades and expanded its role in trade and administration. The Governor's Palace, built in 1872 and one of the city's grandest buildings, dates from this period. The Ottoman and Egyptian legacy, with its coral architecture, is still the soul of Massawa's historic centre.
In the late 19th century, Italian colonial expansion changed Massawa's fate once again. In 1885, Italy landed at the port and pushed inland from there, a push that would lead to the creation of the colony of Eritrea in 1890. Massawa was in fact the first capital of the new colony, until the seat of government moved to cooler Asmara in 1897 to escape the stifling heat of the coast.
The Italians modernised the port and the city. They built docks, government buildings, banks, hotels and shops, adding a layer of colonial architecture to the coral town and, in the 20th century, even Art Deco and Rationalist buildings. The great project that finally bound Massawa to the interior was the railway: the narrow-gauge line that, around 1911, linked the port with Asmara by climbing the escarpment. It made Massawa the sea gateway for the whole colony and for the empire in East Africa.
For decades, Italian Massawa was a busy, cosmopolitan port, home to Italian, Arab and Indian communities and to Eritrea's various ethnic groups. After the Second World War it went, like the rest of Eritrea, through British administration and then federation with and annexation by Ethiopia. As the country's only major seaport it stayed strategic, which also put it at the centre of the conflicts to come.
The 20th century ended tragically for Massawa. During the long war of independence (1961-1991), the city's strategic value as a port made it the scene of fierce fighting. The most devastating episode came in 1990, when the EPLF independence forces launched a daring offensive, known as 'Operation Fenkil', that took Massawa from the Ethiopian army. In retaliation, the Ethiopian air force bombed the city heavily, causing huge damage and destruction.
Many of the old town's historic buildings, including the majestic Governor's Palace, were badly damaged or left in ruins by those bombings. Even so, the capture of Massawa was a decisive military turning point. It cut off the Ethiopian army's supplies by sea and sped up the end of the war, which ended with the fall of Asmara and victory for the independence movement in 1991. Independence was confirmed in the 1993 referendum.
Today, Massawa lives with both its beauty and its scars. It is still Eritrea's main port and a place of great historical value, with its Ottoman coral town, its Italian buildings, its centuries-old mosques and the ruins that recall the war. The extreme heat and the wounds of the conflict sit alongside the charm of a seafaring city full of centuries of history, gateway to the Red Sea and the Dahlak Archipelago. For travellers, it is one of the most evocative and authentic places in the whole Horn of Africa.
