About Alamein

There is a local war museum with collectibles from "the civil war" and other North African battles. Visitors can also go to the Italian and German Military Cemetery on Tel el-Eisa Hill just outside the town. The German cemetery is actually an ossuary containing the remains of 4200 German soldiers which is built in the style of a medieval fortress. The Italian cemetery is a mausoleum containing many galleries of tombs. Wherever possible, each tomb bears the soldier's name, but many are simply marked "IGNOTO" - "Unknown". There is also a Commonwealth war cemetery with graves of soldiers from various countries who fought on the British side. This has monuments commemorating Greek, New Zealand, Australian and South African forces. The Commonwealth cemetery, as is common at many such cemeteries in the world, consists of parallel rows of gravestones, each one bearing an engraving of the deceased soldier's unit emblem, his name and an epitaph from his family. Rows upon rows of gravestones stand witness to the battles' human cost.