Why Is This African City Frozen in the 1930s? 🇪🇷

Join me in a new series as we explore the incredible tourism sites of Eritrea, one of Africa's least-visited countries. We start with Eritrea's only UNESCO World Heritage Site: Asmara - A Modernist African City. Located at over 2,000m above sea level, the capital of Eritrea developed from the 1890s onwards as a military outpost for the Italian colonial power. The Italians invested heavily in urban infrastructure and seemed to give their architects a much more free hand to experiment than back home. As such, it is an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context. Asmara’s UNESCO status reflects its extraordinary concentration of early 20th-century architecture — from Italian Rationalist government buildings to Art Deco cinemas and even daring Futurist experiments like the Fiat Tagliero. Together, these styles form one of the world’s most intact modernist urban landscapes. This walking tour features cinemas, churches, theatres, hotels, a synagogue, a garage, the market, former Fascist headquarters, the bowling alley and even the oldest lift (elevator) in Africa! This is a country that I have been trying to organize a visit to since at least 2013. When a very brief window opened up for visa on arrival, I was straight on the plane from Jeddah to Asmara... Many thanks to the Visit Eritrea tour agency for helping make this a reality! I cannot recommended Philemon Kesete (the CEO) highly enough. First off, he's very responsive via WhatsApp (+291 7 190 374), which stands in stark contrast to many other in-country tour providers. https://www.eritreavisit.com/team/phi... My main guide Yemane was also excellent: truly knowledgeable, flexible and passionate about what he was doing. Yemane spoke good English and perfect Italian (from studying at the Italian School in Asmara) and knew so much about the history and architecture of the country, I would have been happy spending another few days wandering around with him, talking about all the beautiful buildings. Yemane is very well connected, and was able to access sites that I would never have thought to visit or been allowed to visit as an independent tourist. You can reach him on WhatsApp via +291 7 190 374 or +291 7558999. ⏱️ CHAPTERS ⏱️ 0:00​​​​ - Fiat Tagliero (1938) 2:02 - Cinema Impero (1937) 2:47 - Teatro di Asmara (1918) 4:51 - Albergo Italia (1889) 7:40 - Capitol Cinema (originally Cinema Teatro Augustus - 1937) 9:07 - Central Post Office of Asmara (1916) 9:53 - Enda Mariam Cathedral, Asmara (≈16th century) 10:58 - Great Mosque of Asmara (1938) 11:15 - Mercato Centrale & Fascist Governor's Palace (1937) 12:27 - Church of Our Lady of the Rosary (1923) 12:46 - Africa's first lift (elevator) (Établissements Stigler) 13:43 - Asmara Synagogue (1906) 14:31 - Cinema Roma (1937) 15:11 - Multi Sport Bowling Asmara (1938) 🇲🇬 🇹🇳 🇬🇶 🇦🇴 MY OTHER WORK 🇦🇴 🇬🇶 🇹🇳 🇲🇬 🇲🇬 Kayak the Mangoky - Source To Sea Along Madagascar's Longest River: 🇲🇬 📚 https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?pa... 🎬    • We Tried to Kayak Madagascar’s Longest Riv...   🇦🇴 Kayak The Kwanza - Source To Sea Along Angola's Longest River: 🇦🇴 📚 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kayak-Kwanza... 🎬    • Kayak the Kwanza - Documentary   🇹🇳 Bradt Guide to Tunisia: 🇹🇳 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tunisia-Brad... 🇦🇴 Bradt Guide to Angola: 🇦🇴 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angola-Bradt... 🇬🇶 Bradt Guide to Equatorial Guinea: 🇬🇶 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Equatorial-G...