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| Africa | ||
| Eritrea |
| Asmara |
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http://www.world66.com/ *********************The content is published under a creative commons licence : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0 / ). |
| Asmara Travel Guide Edit This The best resource for sights, hotels, restaurants, bars, what to do and see photo_1 Asmara is the capital of Eritrea. It is located some 60 km inland at an altitude of 2432 meters. It is a lot cooler and more pleasant than Massawa on the coast.Temperature ranges from -5°C (winter night-temp.) and +35°C ( summer day-temp.) The city is a nice mixture of Italian colonial buildings and Eritrean architecture. Asmara's very diverse cultural heritage is obvious: three of the most prominent landmarks in the city are the Catholic Cathedral, the Al Khulafa Al Rashiudin Mosque and the ENda Mariam Coptic Cathedral. |
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| Not far from the Cathedral is the very buzy shuq district, with its stalls
of fruits and vegetables, spices, chickens and eggs, used furniture,
ceramics, and clothes. Side by side with the stalls are small workshops and
shops. The city is the cleanest city in Africa. Walking in the streets of Asmara surrounded by palms colorfull trees makes you feel in pardise.It is a place that must be visited. _______Sights Edit This i Italian architecture prevails in the center city. The main avenues are shaded by palm and other trees. Bougainvillea flowers are everywhere. Both the top floor of Nyala hotel and the Cherhi bar offer vistas of the city. Liberation Avenue is the center of city life. It extends from Government Administrative Center eastward to September First Stadium. Asmara Theater (built in 1918), the City Administration, the Ministry of Education, the Supreme Court, the Catholic Cathedral; and the Central Bank are all on Liberation Avenue. In the late afternoon and early evenings, Asmara residents stroll up and down the avenue to meet their friends and enjoy coffee, tea, fruits drinks and pastries at one of the bars and coffee shops. There are many beautiful churches and mosques in Asmara. The Catholic Cathedral on Liberation Avenue was constructed in Lombard style in 1922. The main mosque, Khulafa el Rashidin, was built in 1937 with Dekemhare travertine and Carrara marble. Inda Mariam, the main Orthodox church, was built between 1917 and 1920. Both Khulafa el Rashidin and Inda Mariam are a few blocks northeast of the Catholic Cathedral. The former Ghibi or palace, residence of various colonial rulers, is across from the Government Administrative Center at the western end of Liberation Avenue. Reopened as the National Museum after Eritrea was liberated in May 1991, it was built by Ferdinado Martini, the first Italian civil administrator, in 1897. For a brief period in the 1940s it was an English school.The museum has sections on art, culture and the independence struggle as well as a lovely garden. The extensive central market, north of the Catholic Cathedral, is worth visiting. There are stalls grouped in sections for grain, vegetables, spices, used parts, used furniture and clothing, baskets, pottery, crafts carved from wood, and textiles and clothing among other things. Gold and silver jewelry can be found in the streets between the main mosque and the Government Administration Center. Other point of interest are Asmara University and the Mai Jahjah fountain. At the edge of town on the road to Dekemhare and Massawa, there is a British cemetery and what remains of the zoo which was run down during the war. _________History Edit This imperial palace imperial palace DAWIT REZENE Although it would be easy to think of Asmara, the Eritrean capital, solely as an Italian built colonial city, its origins actually reach back some 700 years. Originally, it is said, there were four clans living in the Asmara area on the Kebessa Plateau: the Geza Gurtom, the Geza Shelele, the Geza Serenser and Geza Asmae. Encouraged by their women, the men united the four clans and defeated the bandits who preyed on the area. After the victory, a new name was given to the place, Arbaete Asmara which literally means, in the Tigrinya language, "the four are united." Eventually Arbaete was dropped and it has been called Asmara, though there is still a zone called Arbaete Asmara. Another legend tells that in this region the Queen of Sheba gave birth to the son of Solomon, Menelik I. Asmara was made the capital city in preference to Massawa by Governor Martini in 1897. It is by far the largest city in Eritrea, with a population of some 400,000. Asmara sits atop (2,350m) the Eritrean highlands on the eastern edge of the escarpment. Unlike many of the other towns in Eritrea it is relatively undamaged, the Ethiopian forces having fled the city without fighting a full-scale battle at the end of the war. Under thirty years of Ethiopian occupation, the city was allowed to deteriorate, but it still retains its essential beauty and since coming under Eritrean control in 1991 it has been undergoing a rapid improvement in infrastructure, building repairs and repainting. |
