I’ve explored many parts of Egypt over the years, but visiting El Alamein was something I had long wanted to do. It’s not one of the country’s great temples or pharaonic wonders, but it holds a different kind of weight, quieter, but no less powerful.
El Alamein is a name etched in history as the site of two major battles during World War II, where Allied forces halted the Axis advance across North Africa. The cost was immense, tens of thousands of lives lost in the desert sands. Today, it's home to war cemeteries and memorials that feel almost out of place in the vast silence that surrounds them.
The drive from Alexandria alone was worth the journey, open, coastal, and almost completely deserted. That silence set the tone for the day.
There’s something deeply moving about standing in a place so marked by history, yet so peaceful in the present. The breeze, the vastness, the sense that time has softened what once was unimaginable… It’s not a place that asks for much, it just stays with you.
El Alamein doesn’t draw crowds. It’s not polished for tourists. That’s part of its power. It invites quiet reflection, not photos. Stillness, not spectacle. And in that stillness, I found something unexpected: peace.
This wasn’t a typical tourist stop. It was a personal one. A day I carried with me long after I left. And a reminder of how travel can touch us deeply, even or perhaps especially in the most unassuming places.