(Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in the horn of Africa’)
The first Greeks arrived in Eritrea in 1875 along with the Egyptians, who controlled the main ports of the Red Sea. Most of them were from the Aegean Islands, Asia Minor or used to live in Sudan. The initial places of the Greek establishment were the cities of Keren and Masawa. Praxiteles Kyriakakis and Vlassis Frangoulis, who arrived around 1880, were two of the pioneers who settled in Keren. Unlike Kyriakakis and Frangoulis, most Greeks settled in Masawa. One of the first Greeks settling in Masawa was Ilias Legas, who arrived in Eritrea in 1887. He dealt with trade and several years later he became a ship chandler in Asmara. In 1887, there were about 100 Greeks who were involved in the trade sector. During the census conducted in 1894, 178 Greeks lived in Eritrea. That time, they decided to build a holy temple in the name of St. John the Baptist in Keren
