Asmara

Asmara or Asmera (/asˈmaɾa/ [azˈma. ɾa] Tigrinya: ኣስመራ Asmerà ʾAsmära, Amharic: አስመራ Äsmära, in Arabic: أسمرا‎, romanized: Asmarā) is the capital and the most populous city of Eritrea. Located in the northern part of the Eritrean Altiplano. It concentrates a good part of the country's textile, processed meat, beer, footwear and ceramics industry. Formerly it was a small village, which in 1898 the Italian colonizers turned it into the capital city of their colony Eritrea: it had 1,500 inhabitants in 1900 and 105,000 in 1940, and by 2020 the city has more than one million inhabitants (considering the Metropolitan area).

Etymology

According to oral tradition collected by the Italians, the name is due to four clans, namely: Gheza Gurtom, Gheza Shelele, Gheza Serenser and Gheza Asmae who inhabited the current territory of the city on the Kebessa plateau. In the XVI century, before the attacks of the Tigré tribes, the women of each clan decided to unite them and divide the land among the same; for this reason they called the common settlement: Arbate Asmerà (ኣርባዕተ ኣስመራ), which in Tigrinya means "These four united them". Finally, the numeral, arbate (compare Hebrew arvá, אַרְבַּע) was dropped, leaving the name Asmerà which means "They brought them together".

History

Map Asmara 1929

Asmara was formed in the 12th century from four villages as a trading post and later as the capital of Prince Ras Alula. It was colonized by Italy in 1889, becoming the national capital in 1897. In the late 1930s, the Italians changed the image of the city with new structures and new buildings; It was then called Piccola Roma (Little Rome). Currently most of the buildings are of Italian origin and some places have names in that language.

During the war for independence against Ethiopia, the city's airport became the key to the conflict and was used by Eritreans to obtain weapons and supplies from abroad. It was the last city to fall to the Eritrean Popular Front for the Liberation (FPLE) in the independence war in 1990, and Ethiopian Army troops surrendered without a fight on May 24, 1991.

Demographics

Asmara Development Graphic between 1900 and 2020

Asmara has a population of around 564,000, making it the largest city in Eritrea. Although all of the country's ethnic groups are represented in the capital, the largest groups are the Tigray (77%) and Tigre (15%). The most spoken language in the city is Tigrinya. Arabic, Italian and English are also spoken by a large part of the population.

According to the national census of the Eritrean government in 2003, 99.67% of the households in Asmara had access to drinking water, 96.9% toilets, 2.1% latrines and 1% had no sanitation. The literacy rate is 95.2% for men and 89.95% for women, the highest in the nation for both sexes. In 2006 it had about 578,000 inhabitants (1,062,676 in its metropolitan area).

Religion

Church of the Virgin of the Rosary (Asmara)

Asmara is very diverse when it comes to religion. The religion with the most believers in Asmara is the Eritrean Orthodox Church (60%), Sunni Islam (25%) and Catholicism (15%). Three great landmarks of the city are the Cathedral of Saint Joseph of Asmara of the Catholic faith, the Enda Mariam Coptic Cathedral of the Eritrean Orthodox Church and the Al Khulafa Al Rashiudin Mosque of the Islamic faith. Christians and Muslims have lived together in peace in Asmara for centuries.

Italo-Eritrean

Asmara Cycling race Tour, Asmara Eritrea

Casa degli italiani Asmara Restaurant, Eritrea

The city has a significant population of Eritrean Italians. These are Eritreans descended from Italian settlers, as well as long-term Italian residents of the city. Those born from mixed-race unions are called hanfets. Their ancestry dates back to the beginning of the Italian colonization of Eritrea in the late 19th century, but it was only after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War of 1935 that they settled in large numbers. In the 1939 census there were more than 75,000 (more than 10% of the population), most of them (53,000) lived in Asmara. Many settlers left the colony after its conquest by the Allies in November 1941 and dwindled to just 38,000 in 1946, though many of the remainder stayed behind during the decolonization process after World War II. Today there are about 900 Eritrean Italians remaining in the Asmara region. However, there are an estimated 100,000 Italian descendants in the city of Asmara's population of 600,000.

Climate

Asmara has a local version of the steppe climate, with summers that are warm, but not excessively hot, and winters that are mild. Due to its altitude of 2,325 m, temperatures are relatively mild in a city not far from the desert. Asmara averages almost 520 millimeters of annual precipitation. Snowfall is very rare in the city. July and August form the short rainy season. In fact, on average, around 60% of Asmara's annual rainfall is concentrated in these two months. Conversely, January and February are usually the driest months, with an average of only 7 millimeters of precipitation for the two months as a whole.

Average climatic parameters of Asmara
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	29.0	29.2	30.5	31.0	30.0	29.4	29.4	27.4	27.2	31.0	26.7	26.2	31.0
Average temperature (°C)	22.3	23.8	25.1	25.1	25.0	24.9	21.6	21.5	22.9	21.7	21.5	21.5	23.1
Average temperature (°C)	13.8	14.9	16.3	17.0	17.6	17.6	16.3	16.1	15.7	14.9	14.0	13.2	15.6
Temp. medium (°C)	4.3	5.1	7.5	8.7	10.2	10.5	10.8	10.7	8.6	8.1	6.6	4.8	8.0
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	-4.5	-1.6	-0.8	-0.2	2.0	3.4	3.9	3.7	0.2	1.0	-0.5	-1.4	-4.5
Total precipitation (mm)	3.7	2.0	14.6	33.4	41.1	38.5	174.9	155.6	15.6	15.4	20.4	3.4	518.6
Precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm)	0	0	2	4	5	4	13	12	2	2	2	1	47
Hours of sun	291.4	260.4	275.9	264.0	257.3	219.0	151.9	158.1	213.0	272.8	276.0	282.1	2921.9
Relative humidity (%)	54	48	46	49	48	48	76	80	59	63	66	61	58.2
Source No. 1: NOAA
Source No. 2: Meteo Climat

Administrative division

Asmara is divided into 13 districts or administrative areas. These districts are divided into North, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, East, West, and Central. The thirteen districts (or Neos Zobas) are:

Economy

As the capital and largest city of Eritrea, most of the country's companies are headquartered in Asmara. The city was once an industrial city. During the colonial period, Asmara was an administrative and commercial center of Italian East Africa. When the British entered the country in 1941, many businesses were closed or relocated out of the city. This trend continued under the Ethiopian occupation.

Eritrean Airlines and Nasair are currently headquartered in Asmara. The Eritrean Telecommunications Corporation is also headquartered in the city. In addition, the national television station, Eri-TV, has several studios in various neighborhoods of the capital.

Heritage

Embasoira hotel Asmara, Eritrea.

Hotel Albergo Italy, built 1889

In the city is the National Museum of Eritrea. It is known for its buildings from the early 20th century, including the art deco Cinema Impero, the cubist Africa Pension, the eclectic Coptic Enda Mariam Cathedral and the ancient Opera House, the futuristic Fiat Tagliero, the Catholic church of the Virgen del Rosario, in neo-Romanesque style, and the neoclassical Government Palace.

Asmara is also home to Asmara University and a fort from the 19th century century. It is served by the Asmara International Airport and is connected to the port of Massawa by the Eritrean Railway.

Asmara is the seat of the archbishop of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, which gained ecclesiastical autonomy in 1993. The archbishop was elevated to the rank of Patriarch of Eritrea in 1998, on par with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Education

Asmara is home to most of Eritrea's colleges and universities. The city has always been a national center of education, where many primary and secondary schools are located. Until the recent opening of the universities after the Mai Nefhi dam and the Sawa military center, which was the seat of the only university in the country, now the University of Asmara. During the period of Ethiopian federation and annexation, and also of the university, is linked to what was then the largest institution of higher education in the country, the University of Addis Ababa. Many universities have been opening up across the country since independence, mainly for medicine and engineering.

Universities and Colleges

• University of Asmara
• Institute of Technology of Eritrea
• Orotta School of Medicine
• Official College of Health Sciences