MASSAWA or MASSOWAH, a town on the African coast of the Red sea, chief port of the Italian colony of Eritrea, in 15° 36' N. and 28' E. Pop. (1931) 4,154 including 654 Europeans. The town stands at the north end of the bay of Massawa and is built partly on a small coral island of the same name—where was the original settlement—and partly on the islets of Tautlub and Sheik Said, and the neighbouring mainland. The harbour is formed by the channel between the island and the mainland. It affords good anchorage in from 5 to 9 fathoms. The town possesses several good public buildings, chiefly built of coral, as are the houses of the principal European and Arab merchants. Since 1912 a railway has connected Massawa with Asmara, the capital of the colony. Massawa is the port for northern Abyssinia (of which Eritrea was formerly a part) but commerce is hampered by the lack of rapid means of communication. The trade consists mainly in exporting hides, butter, cotton, coffee and civet, and importing European and Indian made cloth. In 1935 Massawa became the base for the Italian expedition against Ethiopia (see ERITREA).
The island of Massawa appears to have formed part of the Abyssinian dominions for many centuries. It was at Massawa (Matzua, as it is called by the Portuguese chroniclers) that Christopher da Gama and his comrades landed in July 1541 on their way to aid the Abyssinians against the Mohammedan in vaders. Captured by the Turks in 1557, the island remained a Turkish possession over two hundred years, although James Bruce found in 1769 that the governor was paying half the customs receipts to the negus of Abyssinia in return for the protection of that monarch. At the close of the 18th century Massawa was held by the sherif of Mecca, and it afterwards passed to Mohammed Ali of Egypt. The Turks were reinstated about 185o, but in 1865 they handed the island back to Egypt for an annual tribute of 21 million piastres. In Feb. 1885 Massawa was occupied by an Italian force, the Egyptian garrison stationed there being withdrawn in the November following. The port was the capital of the Italian colony until 190o when the seat of administration was removed to Asmara.