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Articles: Travelogue
Journey to Massawa
- Dr. Rajeshwar Mittapalli
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The bus wound its way through the hills, small towns and villages a further 20 km and we were actually inside the clouds. The bus had to go on headlights and move at a greatly reduced speed. It seems at this altitude (1.5 - 2.0 km above the sea level) clouds are permanent guests and the roads and slopes are perennially wet. All around therefore it was pleasantly green. Maize crops and vegetable gardens were a common sight. Water collected in ponds, the size of swimming pools, and they were a great sight to me, used as I was to the vast stretches of level ground around Asmara with hardly any water bodies in sight, except perhaps the Mai Sirwa Lake which is fed by a spring, and a much smaller lake at village Embaderho. As the bus reached low lands after about 3 hours it began to get warmer by the minute and I was required to take off my winter clothes. As I got off the bus and walked, pulling along my small luggage, I felt the full blast of tropical heat and humidity. For the first time in four months I began to sweat! It was then that I understood why they say that in Eritrea one can experience 'three seasons in two hours.' The beach hotel, into which we checked, was not particularly comfortable but mercifully every room was air-conditioned. The roar of the Red Sea and the sight of the wind-swept beach took my thoughts off the hotel. People were seen rushing into the sea in their bathing trunks and swimsuits as soon as they arrived at the hotel but I took my time to get acclimatized, planning to swim in the sea that evening. But, unfortunately for me, it was raining in the evening and by the time the rain stopped it was too late to venture into the sea. So, instead, my companions (who consisted of two couples, a child and a male colleague in the Faculty of Medical Sciences) and I went for a walk along the coast. As we walked, marveling at the ships that seemed to emerge from and disappear into the horizon, my Medical Sciences colleague enlightened me on how the Red Sea got its name from the algae named trichodesmium erythraeum. It seems these algae, upon their death, turn the water slightly reddish. I looked around and there indeed were traces of what looked like dead algae along the coast apart from shells and other offerings of the sea. Another theory, which I stumbled upon days later, has it that in the 3rd century BC, while rendering the Book of Exodus (which contains several references to the Red Sea) from Hebrew to Greek the Hebrew expression Yam Suph (Sea of Reeds -- yam = sea; suph = reeds or rushes) was mistranslated as Erythra Thalassa (Red Sea). This theory readily appealed to me because it looked more plausible. It also perhaps offers a clue to the etymological origin of ‘Eritrea’ since there is obvious and unmistakable similarity between the two words ‘Eritrea’ and Erythra.

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