The Dahlak archipelago is an island group located in the Red Sea off Massawa. There are two large and 124 small islands. The pearl fisheries there were known to the Romans and still produce a few pearls. In the 7th century the group formed an independent Muslim state, but it was subsequently conquered by Yemen and later by the Ottoman Turks. Long part of Ethiopia, the islands became part of Eritrea after that country's independence in 1993.