Your private guide, a trained historian, will collect you from your Alexandria hotel or ship at 7 am, for the scenic drive west along Egypt's Mediterranean coast to the site of one of the most costly battles of World War II, El Alamein. It was here that British and Commonwealth forces halted the advance of General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps into Egypt in 1942, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of men. Your first stop will be the military museum where four main halls represent the countries that participated in the battle, and a joint hall exhibits weapons and tanks. Here, you have an opportunity to view a series of paintings representing the battle and discover the role Egypt played during the war. Your next stop will be the cemeteries. The famous Commonwealth cemetery, entered by the Alamein Memorial, contains the graves of soldiers from many nations who fought on the British side in the Western Desert Campaign as well as monuments commemorating New Zealand, Australian, and South African forces. You'll also make a visit to the Italian and German cemeteries before returning to your ship or hotel in Alexandria.