Emba Soira (also transliterated Sowera) is the highest mountain in

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 Ethiopia ...

. Rising above sea level, it is part of the

Eritrean Highlands The Eritrean Highlands are a mountainous region in central Eritrea. Bordered to the south by the Mareb River, it is a northern continuation of the Ethiopian Highlands. The region has seen tremendous deforestation since the colonial period, which b ...

, one side of the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it i ...

which cuts through Eritrea and joins the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

. The mountain is situated in the southeastern part of the

Debub Debub Region, also known as the South Region (Tigrinya: ዞባ ደቡብ, it, Regione del Sud), is an administrative region of Eritrea. The region was formed on 15 April 1996, from the historical provinces of Serae and Akele Guzai. It lies alon ...

(Southern) administrative region in central Eritrea. Emba Soira is reached by a paved road from the city of

Senafe Senafe ar, صنعفى, ti, ሰንዓፈ is a market town in southern Eritrea, on the edge of the Eritrean highlands ሶይራ. The surrounding area is inhabited by the Saho people and the Tigrinya people, its well known by its cultural and r ...

, located 135 kilometres south of the national capital

Asmara Asmara ( ), or Asmera, is the capital and most populous city of Eritrea, in the country's Central Region. It sits at an elevation of , making it the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude and the second highest capital in Africa. The ...

. From there, a very difficult and perilous dirt track heading east for almost 20 kilometres leads to the mountain. The last part must be trekked and takes at least a few hours of travel.

Israeli military listening post

In mid-2016, press messages based on information from the Eritrean opposition suggested that Israel had completed the construction of a military listening post on the Emba Soira to monitor the movement of the Arab coalition involved in the war in Yemen and to eavesdrop on Iran. The installation would also be aimed at observing the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the movement of commercial shipping in the southern Red Sea. In an official press release, the Eritrean Ministry of Information has vehemently denied the existence of this installation, calling it "ludicrous disinformation", "deliberately planted by certain countries and agencies to serve ulterior agendas". The first indication that the listening post was established came in a report from the American geopolitical intelligence platform,

Stratfor Strategic Forecasting Inc., commonly known as Stratfor, is an American geopolitics publisher and consultancy founded in 1996. Stratfor's business model is to provide individual and enterprise subscriptions to Stratfor Worldview, its online public ...

which said in December 2012 that both Israel and Iran had bases in Eritrea.
Stratfor, 11 December 2012. Accessed on 1 October 2017. The report said: "According to Stratfor diplomatic and media sources, Israel has small naval teams in the Dahlak archipelago and Massawa and a listening post in Amba Soira. Israel's presence in Eritrea is very focused and precise, involving intelligence gathering in the Red Sea and monitoring Iran's activities. Various Stratfor diplomatic sources have said that Israel's presence in Eritrea is small but significant."

Climate

References

Mountains of Eritrea Highest points of countries {{Eritrea-geo-stub