Eritrea

Asmara was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017 as 'A Modernist African City' — the most concentrated body of 1930s Italian Rationalist, Futurist and Art Deco architecture anywhere in the world, almost entirely intact. The Cinema Impero (1937), the Fiat Tagliero service station (1938, a futurist building shaped like an aircraft with cantilevered concrete wings), Bar Zilli, the Asmara Bowling Club, the Catholic Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, and hundreds of villas and offices show what Italian modernism could do when given a clean slate. Walking tours of central Asmara along Harnet Avenue are the standard introduction.

Massawa, on coral islands joined to the mainland by causeways, was the principal Red Sea port of successive Ottoman, Egyptian and Italian rulers. The Sheikh Hanafi Mosque (one of the oldest in East Africa), the ruined Imperial Palace of Haile Selassie, the Italian-built Banca d'Italia, the Ottoman houses with their wooden mashrabiya screens, and the relentless heat of the coast (averaging 30°C+ year-round) give Massawa an atmosphere unlike any other African port city. Best visited in the cooler months (November to March).

The Eritrean Railway from Massawa up to Asmara — begun by Italian engineers in 1887, completed in 1932 — climbs more than 2,300 metres in just 118 kilometres of route, through 30 tunnels and 65 bridges across the dramatic edge of the Hamasien escarpment. The line was largely restored after independence and now runs partial heritage services with original 1930s Italian Mallet articulated steam locomotives. The Asmara–Nefasit section is the typical visitor experience and one of the world's great mountain railway journeys.

The Dahlak Archipelago, some 200 islands off the Red Sea coast (only four permanently inhabited), offers diving on reefs that have escaped the pressure faced by other Red Sea destinations. Whale sharks, dugongs, manta rays, dolphins and a full suite of Red Sea reef species are present in healthy numbers. Liveaboard diving expeditions from Massawa are the standard access; permits and arrangements through specialist operators in Asmara are required well in advance.

Keren, the country's second-largest town in the western highlands, hosts the famous Monday camel and livestock market, the colonial-era Mariam Dearit shrine inside an enormous baobab tree, and the largest Italian military cemetery in Africa — a memorial to the Battle of Keren (1941). The surrounding Bilen, Tigré, Hedareb and Beni Amer communities preserve distinct Tigré, Bedawiet and Bilen cultures with active markets, traditional leather and silver crafts.

Qohaito, on the southern highlands plateau, is the site of a pre-Aksumite settlement (1st millennium BCE) with the standing temple of Mariam Wakino, ancient cisterns and the Sembel rock paintings. Adulis, on the Red Sea coast south of Massawa, was the principal port of the Aksumite Empire (3rd–7th centuries CE) trading with Rome, Byzantium and India — current Italian-Eritrean joint excavations have uncovered Greek-inscribed altars and basilicas. Both sites require permits arranged through the Ministry of Tourism.

Italian colonial rule (1890–1941) left a lasting imprint on Asmara's daily life. Espresso, cappuccino, pastries, gelato, fresh pasta, pizza and home-style Italian cooking remain part of everyday Asmara culture in a way found nowhere else in Africa. Caffè Asmara, Sweet Asmara Caffè and Bar Cinema Roma are among the long-standing favourites. Italian is still spoken by older generations alongside Tigrinya, Arabic and English.