El Alamein

Monday December 20, 2010 Day 173

Today we went west of Alexandria in search of the El Alamein battlefield museum. We were the only bus going on this tour. We had an Egyptian military escort again - we were followed by a jeep driven by an Egyptian soldier, with two more armed soldiers in the back of the jeep. Additionally there was a security officer on our bus. I am sure they were totally bored the entire trip - we saw them texting on their cell phones at one point.

Yesterday when we boarded the bus, we were provided with a generous snack pack which we barely needed because the tour included a large buffet lunch stop. Today’s tour was not as well-provisioned; in fact, we were provided nothing. The guide did mention that the driver had water and soft drinks available for a dollar or a Euro each. Otherwise we were on our own. We had brought one bottle of water from yesterday’s excursion.

First stop was the Commonwealth Nations cemetery. It was much as many of the war cemeteries we visited in other nations, with row upon row of headstones marked with the name, date of birth, date of death, rank, and perhaps some other information about the deceased soldier. The primary difference is that this is a desert cemetery so there is no grass. No poppies blow between the crosses, row on row in this burial ground, only sand. There are some lovely bougainvillea vines but the main visual is sand, sand, sand.

Commonwealth Nations cemetery



Commonwealth Nations cemetery - a more distant view. I love the tree in the center.

Next came the El Alamein Military Museum where we viewed a description of the struggle for north Africa between the Allied forces and the Axis troops over a period of almost two years depicted on a table in six stages, then saw various military relics including guns, armaments, clothing, and war paraphernalia inside the museum. Afterward we went outside for a visit to larger equipment including tanks, heavy artillery, a few personnel carriers and an airplane. The museum was small and had an equally small coffee/gift shop attached. It appeared that the only food available was a small selection of chips, cookies, crackers, candy and soft drinks or water. We bought a bag of chips to share and a candy bar each. As we got on the bus, we bought a soft drink each from the driver - the first Coca Cola I have had in ages - probably only the second one since we arrived in France.

Peace sculpture in the courtyard of the museum

Some of the dummies inside the display cases had pretty funny expressions:
"What do you mean you put pigeon poop in these biscuits?"

Another mannequin with an amusing expression.

Roger enjoyed these war toys tremendously

The bus took us next to the German monument - an ossuary. This is a very small affair - an eight-sided building made of local stone, built to resemble a medieval fortress. Inside is a large obelisk. The remains themselves are buried beneath large symbolic caskets, one for each German state.

Inside the German ossuary

Roger outside the ossuary walls

Next was the Italian memorial, different again from the other two. This one is an 80-foot or so tower atop a mausoleum. The approach to the mausoleum is a 500 feet of alleyway lined with bougainvillea in pink and gold and white. Inside the bottom floor of the tower are crypts, one for each soldier. Each crypt bears only the name and rank of the soldier - no dates. There are roughly 4,000 soldiers buried there. A huge cross soars along the inside north wall of the tower, which overlooks the Mediterranean. The memorial is constructed of Carrera marble from Italy. The memorial stands also in tribute to the roughly 30,000 Italians whose bodies were never found.

View of the mausoluem from the road

So many lives lost

Stairs up the tower to the glass-and-brick ceiling

The cross on the wall opposite the stairs

Beautiful bouganvilla lining the alleyway to the mausoleum

Roger was disappointed not to be able to visit the actual battlefields, but we were told that they are strewn with thousands of mines and are therefore too dangerous to visit.

We were back on the bus by about 3:00 and at the ship before 4:00. We headed upstairs for a late lunch. We were pooped after two days of excursions and napped in our room for a time before walking some and having dinner. The evening’s entertainment was a magic show by a husband-and-wife magician team called Sander and Allison. They were quite good, and apparently came on board with about a dozen doves, a huge yellow snake, a white rabbit and a white cat. Part of his act included the use of fire, which I am sure did not thrill the captain!