Often dubbed the North Korea of Africa due to its mandatory conscription, isolationist policies and one-party rule, Eritrea remains one of the least-visited nations on earth. Today, it is estimated that only a few thousand travellers enter the country each year.
At Koryo, we are working to change that narrative. We believe Eritrea's isolation has preserved a culture and atmosphere unlike anywhere else on the continent. And with the recent introduction of the e-visa, it has never been easier to travel to this quietly remarkable African nation.
Located in the Horn of Africa along the strategic waters of the Red Sea, Eritrea is a land of striking contrasts where ancient history and living tradition converge. Bordering the Afar region, the country stakes a claim as a cradle of humanity following the discovery of a million-year-old hominid fossil.
This deep history is mirrored by the capital, Asmara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its impeccably preserved Italian Art Deco architecture. The nation's modern spirit was forged during a gruelling thirty-year war for independence, creating a self-reliant culture that famously finds its leisure in a national passion for cycling. The social fabric, meanwhile, is best experienced through the traditional coffee ceremony, a multi-hour sensory ritual of hospitality that remains the vibrant heartbeat of Eritrean daily life.
Interestingly, Eritrea has no single constitutionally designated official language, reflecting its diverse array of ethnic groups. Three working languages, Tigrinya, Arabic and English, are used in government and public life, and nine languages in total are recognised across the country's communities: a quiet refusal to be easily categorised.
Eritrea possesses one of the most fascinating and complex histories in the world. Its location alongside the Red Sea allowed it to become an early cradle of civilisation.
Early fossil records show that hominids have occupied the area for over one million years, making Eritrea a significant site in the story of human evolution.
Throughout much of history, the people occupying this strategically important stretch of coastline existed as a diverse patchwork of ethnic groups and languages. The region formed part of the ancient kingdom of Aksum, which controlled the Red Sea trade routes and connected the Roman Mediterranean to India and Arabia. This commercial position made Eritrea's coast one of the most strategically contested shorelines in the ancient world.
Eritrea's premier location made it a prime target during Europe's colonial expansion. Italy established its presence in 1882 with the acquisition of the port of Assab, and the formal Colony of Eritrea was proclaimed in 1890, transforming the region into a strategic industrial hub. Under Italian rule, Eritreans were systematically stripped of agency and denied formal education.
The colonial period left a complex physical legacy that is still etched into the capital, Asmara. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city is celebrated for its impeccably preserved Italian modernist and Art Deco architecture, which gives it an atmosphere unlike any other African capital.
After Italian forces were expelled by the British during the Second World War, Eritrea entered a complicated limbo. The United Nations, unable to agree on full independence, federated Eritrea with Ethiopia in 1952 under a compromise arrangement that was meant to preserve Eritrean autonomy.
But Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie had no interest in federation. By 1962, he had dissolved the arrangement entirely and annexed Eritrea as a province. This annexation, carried out without the consent of the Eritrean people, was the act that made conflict inevitable.
By the early 1970s, a fierce independence movement was gaining real momentum. Around that same time, a Marxist military committee called the Derg seized control of Ethiopia. The Soviet Union saw this as a perfect opportunity to gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa and poured billions of dollars into weapons and military advisors to support the Ethiopian regime.
This intervention transformed the Eritrean struggle for freedom into one of the longest and most brutal conflicts of the 20th century, forcing rebel fighters to sustain an uphill battle against a superpower-backed government for three decades.
By the early 1990s, after thirty years of struggle that had consumed an entire generation, Eritrean rebel forces finally broke the Ethiopian occupation. The victory was made possible in part by the fading influence of a weakening Soviet Union, which could no longer sustain its proxy wars.
A UN-supervised referendum in April 1993 produced a 99.8% vote for independence. Formal sovereignty was recognised on 24 May 1993.
The current President, Isaias Afwerki, had led the resistance through the revolution and has remained the nation's sole ruler for all 33 years of independence.
The path since then has not been smooth. A devastating border war with Ethiopia erupted in 1998 and lasted until 2000, killing tens of thousands on both sides over a few kilometres of territory.
In 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Afwerki concluded a surprise peace agreement, ending two decades of hostile stalemate and earning Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.
The rapprochement raised hopes of a new era. Those hopes have since been tempered by the reality that Eritrea's domestic political situation remains essentially unchanged. Mandatory indefinite military service, no independent press, no electoral politics and one of the most closed political systems on the planet.
Yet, despite this turbulent and often dark history, Eritrea remains a land of profound discovery for a traveller.
Travelling to Eritrea requires a specific kind of commitment, and those who make it tend to find the experience more rewarding precisely because of that.
Eritrea is not set up for casual tourism. There is very limited tourist infrastructure by regional standards, the number of foreign visitors is tiny, and conditions that most travellers take for granted, reliable internet, freedom of movement, accessible ATMs, a functioning independent press, are largely absent. What Eritrea offers in exchange is something increasingly rare in contemporary travel: genuine otherness. The feeling of arriving somewhere that the world has largely left alone.
Asmara is the starting point for almost everyone. The capital's UNESCO-listed collection of Art Deco, Futurist and rationalist Italian architecture from the 1930s is genuinely extraordinary. Walking through its wide boulevards feels like being inside a perfectly preserved set from another era of cinema.
From Asmara, the main excursion is down to Massawa, the ancient Red Sea port city, where Ottoman-influenced architecture sits alongside the ruins of the independence war. The descent from the highland capital to sea level is itself a spectacular journey. The Dahlak Archipelago, accessible from Massawa, offers diving and snorkelling in the Red Sea on a coast where very few boats and very few tourists have been. Keren, north of Asmara, is Eritrea's second city and home to a Monday camel market that has been operating for centuries.
All foreign visitors are required to obtain a travel permit to move outside Asmara, which must be arranged through the government tourism body. A licensed local guide is effectively required for most travel. Photography of military installations, government buildings, police personnel and at airports and border crossings is strictly prohibited and should be taken seriously. The Nakfa is the official currency at 15 ERN per dollar, but US Dollars are widely preferred and more useful in practice.
Bring cash. ATMs are unreliable and card payments are effectively non-existent.
Eritrea is not for everyone, and it would be wrong to pretend otherwise. But for travellers who are genuinely curious about a country that has been sealed from the world and has kept something intact as a result, it is an experience that does not resemble anywhere else.
Shaped like a soaring aeroplane, this futuristic 1938 fuel station is one of the world's most extraordinary examples of Futurist architecture. It was designed with massive concrete wings spanning 30 metres on each side with supposedly no support pillars, a feat that still leaves architects in genuine awe.
Eritrea is home to a legendary colonial-era railway that winds through spectacular mountain scenery between Massawa on the Red Sea coast and Asmara. It still uses vintage 1930s Italian steam locomotives, maintained by engineers who often hand-forge their own replacement parts. Riding it is one of the most unusual rail journeys in Africa.
On the outskirts of Asmara, a vast field is filled with the rusted remains of tanks, artillery pieces and military vehicles from the independence war. It has become a haunting, metallic monument to the nation's long struggle for sovereignty, and one of the most visually striking sites in the country.
Social life in Eritrea centres on a traditional ceremony that can last for hours. The beans are roasted by hand, ground with a pestle and mortar, brewed in a clay pot and served in three rounds to family and guests. It is the essential rhythm of daily life and the most immediate expression of Eritrean hospitality.
Thanks to its Italian history, Eritrea is arguably the most cycling-obsessed nation in Africa. On any given weekend, the streets of Asmara are filled with thousands of riders, and the country has produced world-class professional cyclists who consistently compete at the highest levels of the international peloton
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