Senafe ar, صنعفى, ti, ሰንዓፈ is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in southern

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopi ...

, on the edge of the Eritrean highlands ሶይራ. The surrounding area is inhabited by the

Saho people The Saho are a Cushitic ethnic group from Eritrea, and they also inhabit some parts of northern Ethiopia. They speak Saho as a mother tongue. Society Ethnicity and societal structure According to Abdulkader Saleh Mohammad, most of the Saho ...

and the Tigrinya people, its well known by its cultural and religious historical background. some of these historical places includes KASKASE,ABUNE ANBES and BELEW-KELEW. Senafe is known for the ruins of Metera (also known as ''Balaw Kalaw''), Qohayto to the south, and for Kaskase to the north. The soil is derived from volcanic

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surro ...

, and Senafe sits on the southeastern edge of a twenty kilometer wide caldera.

History

The original name for Saanafè was "Hakir", a Saho word. Local tradition states that the name was changed by a man named Abdullah from

Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

; he settled in the Awdie district of Hakir, and upon marrying a local woman he was quoted as saying "Sana-fen" which means in Arabic "where is Sana'a" he was relating to his hometown; thus the town was named Sanafe; his descendants form a tribe and are also known as Saanafè. An early record of Sanafe is on the

Egyptus Novello map In Latter-day Saint theology, Egyptus () is the name of two women in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. One is the wife of Ham, son of Noah, who bears his children. The other is their daughter, who discovered Egypt while "it was u ...

, published in 1454. This map shows Sanafe at the Southern part of Eritrea. Due to war (1998-2000) between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Senafe's economy was damaged badly. The highest mountain located in the Senafe municipality is Soira. Other high mountains that surrounded Senafe include: Metera,Emba Saum,Emba-tarika and Emba Derho. Senafe all over view

During Italian rule, the town grew notably: The modern town suffered extensive destruction during the

Eritrean War of Independence The Eritrean War of Independence was a war for independence which Eritrean independence fighters waged against successive Ethiopian governments from 1 September 1961 to 24 May 1991. Eritrea was an Italian colony from the 1880s until the d ...

and the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.Okubaghergis, Biyan Ghebreyesus. (2020
"The Impact of the Eritrean-Ethiopian Border on the Borderland Communities (2000-2018): A case Study of Senafe and Tserona."
PHD thesis,

University of Cagliari The University of Cagliari ( it, Università degli Studi di Cagliari) is a university in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It was founded in 1606 and is organized in 11 faculties. History The ''Studium Generalis Kalaritanum'' was founded in 1606 alon ...

. Requires subscription.

Climate

The prevailing climate in Senafe is known as a

steppe climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi ...

Notes and references

{{coord, 14, 42, N, 39, 25, E, region:ER_type:city, display=title Southern Region (Eritrea) Populated places in Eritrea