About: History of Asmara

Eritrean capital, Asmara is located 100 km inland from the coast. Given the Pre-Axumite archeological evidence found in Asmara around Sembel called the Ona culture, Asmara's history goes back to 800 BCE. During the 20th century it has been a staging ground for Italian initiatives in East Africa, collateral of Britain's colonial politics, and subject of the expansion of Ethiopia’s empire until 1993 when the sovereign state of Eritrea was established. Only the large cluster of buildings built in the Avant-Garde stands out of the multifaceted historical look of this city and its urban core almost entirely unchanged for over seventy years.