The State of Eritrea is a nation of northeastern Africa with a long coastline on the southwestern side of the Red Sea. The country's modern history is rather complex. Eritrea became an Italian colony in the 1880s. During World War II British troops captured the country in 1941 and occupied it until 1952, when the United Nations decided Eritrea should be an autonomous region within Ethiopia. There followed a long and bloody war in which Eritreans won their independence from Ethiopia in 1991. An extensive shoal, the Dahlak Bank, lies between the central Red Sea and most of the Eritrean coast. This forces ships approaching Massawa, the national capital and major port, to follow hazardous channels close to the coast. There are additional lighthouses on certain Red Sea islands formerly claimed by Eritrea but in 1999 the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague awarded these islands to Yemen. Arabic, English, and several indigenous languages are spoken in Eritrea. The Arabic word for a lighthouse is mnarh or manara (منارة). Ra's is a cape, jaza'ir or jazirat is an island, mina' is a harbor, and shi'b is a reef. Transliteration of Arabic to Latin characters can be done in many ways, so alternate spellings are common. Aids to navigation in Eritrea are the responsibility of the Maritime Transport Department. The Department is not making any effort to maintain coastal lighthouses but it works to provide lights for the two ports of Massawa and Āseb. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Lights on this page were formerly included in volume E of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals but in 2013 they were moved to volume D with new numbers. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Difnein Island Light, Red Sea, August 2007 photo copyright Konni and Matt Hahnewald; used by permission |
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![]() Massawa Harbor Range Rear Light, Massawa, January 2011 Wikimedia public domain photo by Reinhard Dietrich |
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![]() Shumma Island Light, Red Sea, April 2008 Flickr photo copyright Tom and Amy Larson; used by permission |
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Adjoining pages: North: Sudan | South: Djibouti
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Posted June 27, 2005. Checked and revised November 28, 2023. Lighthouses: 12. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.