But Asmara? There, perhaps, is a name that will make you scratch your head - and pose a fair question, not so much of whether you should go there as to where the hell it is.

A reporter visits Asmara, Eritrea, one of Africa’s most isolated capitals, where stunning modernist architecture clashes with deep poverty. Eritrea is also facing on one of the world’s fastest ...

Asmara was decreed as the capital of colonial Eritrea in preference to Massawa by Governor Martini in 1897. That explains why there is a significant presence of Italian infrastructure, ...

Asmara’s creation and development contributed significantly to Eritrea’s particular response to the tangible legacies of its colonial past. Despite the evidence of its colonial imprint, Asmara has ...

Many of Asmara's Jews used to live in the streets just outside. Now the private houses have become small hotels, shoe shops and coffee bars. But Mr Cohen also remembers the restaurants, tailors, ...

What makes Asmara unique is that it is the one place where, briefly, modernism was granted untrammelled licence. The result, in the end, is an architectural marvel baked in a moral vacuum.

Asmara is one of the oldest cities of Eritrea designed by the Italians. The foundations of the city are believed to have been built some 700 years ago. It became an experimental space for ...