Asmara

Perched on a plateau 2,500m above sea level on the Horn of Africa, Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, is a majestic city in a magnificent spot, sitting high above the clouds. Its a strategic location, between the Red Sea coast and the hinterland, blessed with a salubrious climate that has sustained villages on this plateau for millennia.

So it was no surprise that after the Italians occupied Asmara in 1889, they designated it capital of what became their East African Empire or Africa Orientale Italiana.

Over the next 50 or so