El-Alamein
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العلمين El-Alamein |
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| Coordinates | 30 ° 50 ′ N , 28 ° 57 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Egypt | ||
| Matruh | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | EG-MT | ||
| Residents | 5786 (1996) | ||
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El-Alamein ( Arabic العلمين, DMG al-ʿAlamain ) is a small Egyptian town on the Mediterranean coast , almost 110 kilometers west of Alexandria and 240 kilometers northwest of Cairo , with 5786 inhabitants (1996).
At the beginning of the 20th century, El-Alamein consisted of a small train station with a few houses in the area. Oil deposits found in 1966 , which have been extracted since 1968, gave rise to an economic upswing. In addition, there was lively tourism to the military cemeteries established here for those who fell here in World War II and today the importance of the marina as a seaside resort.
history
El-Alamein came during World War II to worldwide prominence when west of the city two decisive battles of the African theater of war took place, in which the UK with the help of allies, South Africa , Free French , (Anglo) India , the Greek Royal Army, Australia and New Zealand , the could beat German and Italian troops decisively.
In the first battle of El-Alamein (July 1 to 31, 1942) the advance of the German-Italian troops under General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was stopped by the Allies.
In the second battle of El-Alamein (October 23 to November 4, 1942), the Allies under Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery achieved victory and turned the tide on the African theater of war. Then began a long, continuous retreat of the Axis powers westwards to Tunisia, where they had to surrender in the spring of 1943. This defeat was secretly referred to in the German Empire by parts of the Germans as the Second Stalingrad .
War cemeteries
Around 4,500 members of the German Africa Corps were killed in the fighting near El-Alamein in 1942 . As far as the situation at the front permitted, they were buried by their comrades. Between 1943 and 1947, British reburial commands transferred around 3,000 German and around 1,800 Italian soldiers to a place near the town's train station. Because of the desert conditions, the German war cemetery El Alamein was built in 1959 as a walled memorial for 4,213 German dead. In addition to this cemetery of the former Axis powers, there is also the Commonwealth War Cemetery, where 7,500 Allied soldiers are buried, and an Italian military cemetery with 5,200 dead.
There is a war museum in El-Alamein, which exhibits items from the fighting for El-Alamein and the fighting in North Africa.
German war cemetery near El-Alamein
Name plaque in the German war cemetery
Commonwealth War Cemetery
Italian war cemetery, entrance from Paolo Caccia Dominioni built
War museum
Land mines
Even 70 years after the Battle of El-Alamein, the area is still contaminated with numerous duds and landmines . Around a quarter of the remains of ordnance are landmines, of which anti-personnel mines in particular still claim victims. The government is not clearing these landmines, but is distributing crutches and prostheses, indicating that they are not a normal part of government health care.
Archaeological excavations
In the 1980s, an ancient settlement was found near the city , which was first excavated in 1987/1988. The remains of the ancient settlement are about six kilometers east of the city of Marina el-Alamein, 1200 meters long in an east-west direction, 800 meters inland from the coast. This settlement is one of the most important Egyptian necropolis excavations of recent times , especially because of the enormous variety of burial forms in the associated cemetery .
tourism
Along the beach around the new Marina complex , there are many kilometers of tourist facilities as gated communities . The Swiss hotel company Mövenpick opened a 5-star hotel in El-Alamein in 2004 . Since then, other hotel chains have also built hotels in the village.
traffic
The place is accessed by the coastal road Alexandria - Sollum as well as by the parallel railway line of the Egyptian State Railways .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTKKTRUXF5o Al Jazeera World - Curse of the Sands.
- ↑ Shahine, Gihan: Mediterranean bricolage ( Memento of August 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), report on the resort from the Al-Ahram Weekly of August 3, 2006, accessed on April 10, 2016.