discover eritrea 10 interesting facts he didn't know about it eritrea is an independent country
in africa's horn eritrea is bordered on the east and northeast by the red sea on the southeast by
djibouti on the south by ethiopia and on the west by sudan it is the world's 99th largest country
with 4 to four hundred six square miles and including parts of the hanish islands and the
dalak archipelago it has a population of roughly five million people and is a multi-ethnic country
eritrea along with india venezuela and brazil is a member of the united nations the african union and
the arab league as an observer eritrea is small enough to be easily overlooked while being dwarfed
by two considerably larger neighbors despite its tremendous tourism potential the country is
already near the bottom of tourist arrivals in africa and makes little attempt to attract new
visitors those who are aware of what eritrea has to offer are frequently deterred from going since
organized trips remain out of reach for most budgets and eritrea's hotels consistently fail
to match international standards it also doesn't help that despite obvious changes in recent years
eritrea's visa procedure remains opaque unpredictable and inconvenient here are some
interesting facts about eritrea please subscribe to africa reloaded as we begin the countdown
10. over 30 of the eritrean freedom fighters were women women played an important role in
eritrea's independence struggle accounting for more than 30 of the country's freedom fighters
in comparison to all previous liberation movements on the earth this one had the
biggest percentage of women the ethiopian forces were the adversary in the independence war
following ethiopia's takeover of eritrea the country's official language was changed to inherit
9. one of the world's oldest hominids was discovered in eritrea in eritrea's afar area
a million-year-old cranium was discovered having features consistent with both homo sapien and homo
erectus the skull serves as a link between the first anatomically modern humans and the hominins
prior to this finding the oldest fossil with contemporary human characteristics
was found six hundred thousand years ago in bodo
ethiopia ernesto abbey and an international team of paleoanthropologists on earth the skull
the nearly entire skull was discovered in ancient river and lake sediments deposited
in the volcanic northern danukil formation together with two incisors and two pelvic pieces
eight the highest point in eritrea is in baswar
the tallest peak in eritrea is in baswara which stands at 9902 feet
and baswara is located on the southeastern side of deva and is part of the eritrean
highlands a paved road leads to the mountain from senate city 83.9 kilometers south of smart
7. the name eritrea is derived from the red sea's ancient name
and it was first used in 1890 when the italian eritrea was founded the name of the country is
derived from the region's previous name earthrise which is related to the ancient greek name
for the red sea parithrean sea during the ethiopian and british occupations that followed
the name remained the country's independence vote in 1993 reaffirmed the name eritrea
6. the name of the eritrean capital city asmara means they made them unite
in the present day esmara area there were once four clans the gaza serenza gaza shallow gaza
guertin and giza gizusmi the communities from the low lens and the head of the central mayor of
malash were constantly attacking these clans as a result the ladies of these tribes decided to band
together against their mutual foes in order to keep the peace the men decided to call themselves
arbeit asmara arbeit asmara is a tigranian name that means before brought them together
5. eritrea was part of the ancient kingdom of aksum the kingdom of aksum
was an ancient country based in what is now ethiopia eritrea and the thai grey region
the kingdom lasted from 100 until 940 a.d and its capital was axem the commercial route connecting
ancient india and the roman empire was led by aksum the queen of sheba is said
to have lived at aksum and the ark of the covenant is said to have been buried there
4. eritrea has no official language eritrea is a multilingual country and the country's
constitution declares that all languages are equal taegrinia is eritrea's de facto national language
with about two million five hundred forty thousand speakers in two thousand six
tigranya is extensively spoken in the country's central and seven regions
tig nara saho kanama bailan bijav afar and arabic are some of eritrea's other national languages
the de facto working languages are english and tigrinya
but the government does not recognize italian their previous colonial language
three eritrea is home to one of the oldest port cities in africa at your lies a port city in
eritrea is one of the ancient african cities that was founded during the axonite kingdom
100 ad to 940 a d atlas was located on the red sea zula gulf some 25 miles south of
misawa achoblais was a metropolitan city and the axomite kingdom the axamite kingdom was able to
become a major player in the red sea thanks to its control of this port virtualized ruins can
be seen in the modern day city of sula the empires of axamite indeed included a july's
during the second and third century a.d the port was frequented by roman merchants
2 asmara the capital city of eritrea is also referred to as new rome or italy's african city
asmara is known as new rome since italian architecture can be found in many of the
city's older structures benito mussolini attempted to convert asmara to little rome after assuming
power in eritrea as a result he constructed a number of enormous structures featuring excellent
italian architecture because eritrea was occupied by the italians for such a long time the city has
a particular italian flavor over 400 structures including the cinema capital cairn casa del fasio
orthodox cathedral and the villa in december reflect an italian architectural style some stores
such as ferramenta pastic syria matarma and bhar vitoria continue to employ italian names
one eritrea has never held a presidential or national election since independence eritrea
is a one-party state that declared independence from ethiopia in 1993. since 2004 eritrea has
not hosted regional or municipal elections while national and presidential elections have not been
held since 1993. since 1993 eritrea has only had one president president of foreign isis has long
been critical of western-style democracy in an interview with al jazeera in 2008 the president
indicated that his country will wait nearly four decades before conducting an election
the national assembly's 75 members were elected in 1993 while the others were appointed
visiting eritrea can be both exciting and frightening depending on what you want to
do and when you visit if you plan to remain in eritrea for an extended period of time
be prepared for the country's cultural peculiarities and strict legal systems
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