Anseba

The Anseba River begins on the central Eritrean highland plateau northwest of Asmara and flows northward through the mountains of Rora Habab and Sahel. Near the Sudanese border it joins the Barka, linking the cooler plateau to the drier northwestern lowlands. The Anseba region around this valley averages roughly 1,800 to 2,100 metres in elevation. Keren is its capital and largest city, while Halhal is another notable town. The north-south course makes the river a natural route between highland farms, mountain corridors and lower arid country. Rainfall in the region averages about 508 millimetres and reaches the land in two seasons, a heavier summer rain and a lighter spring rain. These conditions make the soil suitable for agriculture, although the wider landscape includes far drier ground toward the Red Sea and Sudan. The valley is not uniform desert: cultivated plateau, mountain slopes and dry lowland support different livelihoods in close proximity. Tigre-speaking Muslim pastoralists, among them the Beni Amer, moved their herds between the Anseba and the Barka with the seasonal rains, while farmers worked the plateau valleys. The river’s descent through several elevation bands produces a sequence of cooler upland, mountain corridor and increasingly dry lowland environments.