Qohaito is one of Eritrea's great archaeological treasures, and yet one of the least known in the world. On a windswept plateau more than 2.500 metres up, right at the edge of the Great Rift Valley, lie the ruins of an ancient pre-Aksumite city. It thrived as a stop on the trade route between the powerful kingdom of Aksum and its port of Adulis on the Red Sea. Temples, tombs, an ancient dam and age-old rock art are scattered across a spectacular landscape.
Qohaito is often identified with the ancient Koloe mentioned in classical sources. It covers a huge area, about 15 km long, and holds one of the best-preserved archaeological complexes in sub-Saharan Africa. The rock art in the area points to human presence going back thousands of years, and the city survived until around the 6th century AD. Highlights among its remains include the pre-Aksumite temple of Mariam Wakiro, the Safira dam and the painted caves of Adi Alauti.
This practical guide explains how to reach this remote site, what you can see there, why it mattered so much in the ancient history of the Horn of Africa, and what to keep in mind when you visit: permits, guides, altitude and logistics. It's a destination for travellers with an explorer's spirit, happy to climb up to the plateau and walk among the ruins of an ancient civilisation under an immense sky.
Qohaito was a pre-Aksumite and Aksumite city that prospered as a stop on the route between Aksum and the port of Adulis on the Red Sea, from roughly the first millennium BC to the 6th century AD. It stands more than 2.500 metres up on a plateau at the edge of the Rift and is usually identified with the ancient Koloe of classical sources. What remains includes the Mariam Wakiro temple, the Safira dam, many tombs and columns, and the rock art of caves such as Adi Alauti, with examples dating back to the fifth millennium BC. It is one of the largest and best-preserved archaeological landscapes in sub-Saharan Africa and is now on UNESCO's Tentative List. You'll find its full story on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The archaeological heart of Eritrea: the southern plateau of Debub holds the pre-Aksumite ruins of Qohaito and the Aksumite ruins of Metera, among baobabs, ancient steles and stone villages.
Read the history of The historic south: Debub →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The history of Qohaito goes back much further than the ancient city whose ruins we admire today. The rock art preserved in caves and rock shelters in the area, such as the well-known Adi Alauti cave, shows that people have lived in these highlands for thousands of years. Researchers date this prehistoric presence to around the fifth millennium BC. The paintings show animals and scenes that point to communities of hunters and herders on the plateau.
That long span of time makes Qohaito much more than a site from a single period. It is a cultural landscape where thousands of years of human settlement sit layer on layer. The plateau stands more than 2,500 metres above sea level, on the edge of the Great Rift Valley. It gave those communities a strategic setting, with seasonal water, farmland and a commanding position over the routes that linked the highlands with the lowlands and the Red Sea.
This long earlier settlement explains why Qohaito was already a known and valued place when the first great civilisations of the Horn of Africa appeared. The historic city that flourished later did not come out of nowhere. It grew on land where people had lived for thousands of years, in this high and magnificent corner of what is now southern Eritrea.
Many researchers identify Qohaito with ancient Koloe, a city named in Greco-Roman sources such as the 'Periplus of the Erythraean Sea', a 1st-century AD guide to sailing and trade. If that identification is right, Koloe was a key stop on the route linking the great port of Adulis, on the Red Sea coast, with the interior of the highlands, and especially with the capital of the Kingdom of Aksum.
Qohaito did lie roughly halfway between Aksum and Adulis, at a point that caravans had to pass on their way up and down between the coast and the highlands. Ivory, gold, hides, incense and other African goods travelled along this route and were traded for goods from the Mediterranean, Egypt, Arabia and India. In this long-distance trade, a well-placed city on the plateau could thrive as a place to trade, rest and stock up on supplies.
So Qohaito grew into a pre-Aksumite city that later came under the sway of the powerful Kingdom of Aksum. Aksum was one of the great powers of the ancient world, a contemporary of Rome and Persia. The wealth from trade paid for temples, tombs and public works, and it supported a large population in a place so high up and so exposed to the weather.
At its height, Qohaito was a very large city. The archaeological site covers more than thirty square kilometres and stretches for about fifteen kilometres across the plateau. That makes it one of the largest and best-preserved archaeological landscapes in sub-Saharan Africa. Its remains include temples, columns, tombs, building foundations and other structures that point to a planned city with monumental buildings.
The most famous monument is the temple known as Mariam Wakiro, where several stone columns still stand. They are evidence of pre-Aksumite religious architecture. The Christian name 'Mariam' (Mary) shows that the place of worship was reused later, on top of the original shrine. Besides its temples, the city had burial grounds and some remarkable public works.
The most notable of these is the Safira dam, an ancient stone structure built to store and manage water. It shows how advanced the technology of the civilisation that lived on the plateau was. At this altitude, with only seasonal rain, controlling water was vital. This ancient dam shows that the builders of Qohaito had skilled water engineering, comparable to other great works of the Aksumite world.
Like so many ancient cities, Qohaito did not last forever. Research suggests the settlement survived until around the 6th century AD and then declined. Its fortunes were tied to the trade that supported it. The routes and the balance of power around the Red Sea changed as Aksum weakened, Islam rose and trade flows shifted. Cities such as Qohaito, and the port of Adulis itself, then lost their purpose and were abandoned.
For centuries, the ruins of Qohaito were forgotten, left to the wind and time on their remote plateau and known mainly to local communities. Only in modern times, as travellers and archaeologists became interested in the past of the Horn of Africa, did the site draw attention again. The research, still limited, confirmed how important and how vast it is, but much of the site remains unexcavated.
The fact that so much of it is still unexplored is now part of Qohaito's appeal and value. The site has been added to the UNESCO Tentative List as the 'Qohaito Cultural Landscape'. This recognises its importance as evidence of the region's ancient civilisations and as one of Africa's most remarkable and least-known archaeological sites.
Today Qohaito is an almost untouched archaeological site, with no tourist facilities and no crowds, so a visit still feels like a discovery. Exploring its columns, its ancient dam, its tombs and its rock art with a guide who knows the area is a rare experience today. You can walk freely among the ruins of an ancient civilisation, under the vast sky of the plateau, with the canyon of the Great Rift Valley visible on the horizon.
For Eritrea, Qohaito is central to its historical identity. It proves that advanced civilisations, linked to the great trading world of antiquity, grew up in these lands long before the colonial era and the wars of the 20th century. Together with Adulis on the coast and Metera near Senafe, it forms the triangle of Aksumite and pre-Aksumite sites that the country claims as an essential part of its heritage.
Visiting Qohaito takes effort: permits, long distances, dirt roads and altitude. The reward is one of the most authentic and memorable archaeological experiences in East Africa. Qohaito is the record, still largely waiting to be uncovered, of a city that lived for centuries on trade between the highlands and the Red Sea. Today it sleeps, majestic and silent, high on its Eritrean plateau.
