Debarwa

Debarwa is a town in the central highlands of Eritrea, south of Asmara, near the Mareb river. From the fifteenth century it was the seat of the Bahr Negash, the governor of Medri Bahri under the Ethiopian emperors. In the sixteenth century it served as a base for the Portuguese force sent to aid Ethiopia and was later occupied for a time by the Ottomans.