El Alamein, Commonwealth War Cemetery

More than 80,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in the series of World War II battles around Alamein.  There are 7240 tombstones in the Commonwealth War Cemetery, most of who died in the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942.

The War Museum covers the campaigns of the main countries involved in the North African campaigns of WWII.  

The P40B Kitty Hawk fighter plane was produced in the USA entering into servivce in 1939. This aircraft was found in the Western Desert in Egypt in May 2012, some 70 years after it crashed. The Egyptian Airforce Workshop managed to restore it to its original condition.

We took a route through the Wadi Natrun to go to Alamein.  The area is known for its Coptic monasteries where thousands of Christians escaped from Roman persecution in the 4th century.  Deir Anba Bishoi is one of only four remaining monasteries which were built as fortresses after Arab raids in 817.  

The Wadi Natrun area was important to the ancient Egyptians because the valley's salt lakes dry up in the summer and leave natron, a substance crucial to the mummification process.