page_title: Massawa
section_title: Italian rule
hierarchical_section_title: Massawa / History / Italian rule
caption_attribution_description: Massawa , Eritrea
context_page_description: Massawa, or Mitsiwa, is a port city in the Semienawi Keyih Bahri Region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has represented a historically important port for many centuries.
  Massawa was the capital of the Italian Colony of Eritrea until the seat of the colonial government was moved to Asmara in 1897.
  Massawa has an average temperature of 30 °C/86 °F, which is one of the highest found in the world, and is "one of the hottest marine coastal areas in the world."
context_section_description: At the end of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Italy created a modern port in Massawa for their newly acquired colony of Eritrea. In 1885–1897, Massawa (in the Italian spelling: 'Massaua') served as the capital of the region, before Governor Ferdinando Martini moved his administration to Asmara. Ras Alula's attack on nearby Dogali helped precipitate the First Italo-Ethiopian War; the Italians' disastrous defeat at Adwa ended their hopes of expanding further into the Ethiopian highlands for a decade and brought Menelik II's newly formed Ethiopian Empire international recognition.
  The Italian colony suffered repeated earthquakes. Most of the city was completely destroyed by the 1921 earthquake; it took until 1928 to fully restore the port, hampering initially the Italian colonial ambitions.
  Massawa became the largest and safest port on the east coast of Africa, and the largest deep-water port on the Red Sea. Between 1887 and 1932, they expanded the Eritrean Railway, connecting Massawa with Asmara and then Bishia near the Sudan border, and completed the Asmara-Massawa Cableway. At 75 kilometres (47 mi) long, it was the longest ropeway conveyor in the world at the time.
  In 1938, Massawa had 15,000 inhabitants, of which almost 2,000 were Italians: the city was improved with an architectural plan similar to the one in Asmara, with a commercial and industrial area.
  During World War II Massawa was the homeport for the Red Sea Flotilla of the Italian Royal Navy. When the city fell during the East African Campaign, a large number of Italian and German ships were sunk in an attempt to block use of Massawa's harbor.
  From 15 April 1942, later master diver and salvage specialist RNR Lieutenant Peter Keeble (then a complete rookie in both disciplines) was assigned to the clearing of the harbour. He succeeded only in the simple task of salvaging an ex-Italian tugboat. The same month, United States Navy Commander Edward Ellsberg and his handful of crew arrived to take over. The wrecks were salvaged in short order and the port was returned to service, as part of what had now become the British protectorate of Eritrea.
  In 1945, following the end of World War II, the port of Massawa suffered damage as the occupying British either dismantled or destroyed much of the facilities. These actions were protested by Sylvia Pankhurst in her book Eritrea on the Eve.
caption: The War Memory Square in Massawa
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