What is it?

Massawa is Eritrea's ancient Red Sea port, a cluster of islands and mainland districts stitched together by causeways, where three empires left their fingerprints in stone. Wander the old town on Batse Island and you'll find coral-block buildings with carved wooden balconies and arched colonnades — Ottoman, Egyptian and Turkish styles blending into an architecture found almost nowhere else on earth — many still shell-pocked and roofless from the brutal 1990 battle that helped win Eritrea its independence. The air is thick, salty and searingly hot; the light bounces white off the coral walls, and the call to prayer from the 500-year-old Sheikh Hanafi Mosque drifts over silent alleyways. Fishermen unload the morning catch at the port while the shattered shell of Haile Selassie's Imperial Palace stares out to sea, its dome half-collapsed, a monument to everything the city has survived. Evenings bring the city alive: grilled fish and cold beer under bare bulbs, families strolling the waterfront, and the strange, haunting beauty of a place caught between ruin and revival.

Where is it?

Massawa sits on Eritrea's Red Sea coast, roughly 115km east of the capital Asmara — a spectacular three-hour descent from 2,300 metres of highland plateau down through hairpin bends, mist, cactus and desert to sea level. The old town on Batse Island, the greener Taulud Island with its palace ruins, and the mainland Edaga district are the essential areas to explore, and the port is also the launch point for boats to the coral-fringed Dahlak Archipelago. Visit between November and March; summer temperatures regularly exceed 40°C and Massawa is one of the hottest inhabited places on the planet.

What makes it worth it?

Few places convey the weight of history as physically as Massawa — you can put your hand on a bullet-scarred coral wall built by Ottoman masons and feel five centuries at once. Travellers consistently describe it as melancholy and magnificent in equal measure, 'a city that looks like a beautiful ruin and lives like a village', where children play football between collapsed arcades and old men drink spiced tea in the shade of shrapnel-marked doorways. The journey down from Asmara alone — one of the great road descents in Africa — reframes what a country can contain, from cool alpine air to shimmering desert coast in a single morning. Because so few outsiders make it here, you'll rarely see another tourist, and the welcome you receive from Eritreans is warm, curious and utterly genuine. Years later, what stays with you is the light: that fierce white glare on coral stone, and the sudden cool of a Red Sea evening as the fishing boats come in.

How accessible is it?

The physical demands are minimal — Massawa is flat and walkable — but the logistics are the real challenge. Eritrea requires a tourist visa arranged in advance through an embassy or consulate (often via an invitation or approved tour operator, and approval can take weeks), plus a separate government travel permit to leave Asmara, which must be obtained in the capital and can take a day or two. Getting there is by shared minibus (roughly US$5–10), hired car with driver (US$80–150 per day) or a slow but scenic bus; there's no functioning tourist rail service, though heritage steam trips occasionally run on the old Italian line. Accommodation is basic and limited — expect US$30–90 a night at places like the Dahlak or Grand Dahlak hotels — and cash is essential, as international cards and ATMs simply don't work in Eritrea. Bring sun protection, electrolyte drinks and patience; photography restrictions apply near ports, bridges and military sites, so always ask before raising a camera. Only a few thousand foreign visitors reach Eritrea each year, which is precisely what makes arriving here feel like such a privilege.