The Ancient City of Marsa Matrouh

Marsa Matrouh is considered one of the most beautiful tourist cities. Many Egyptians and foreigners from different countries visit to spend time at its lovely beaches and hotels. Marsa Matrouh is located 200 km west of Alexandria, close to the Libyan border.

The city is well known for its long history, going back to Alexander the Great, who was said to have built it. In the old days, Marsa Matruh was called Ammonia because it was the beginning of the road leading to Siwa, where Alexander the Great regularly visited Amun’s temple. During the Roman era, it was an important port for the export of goods and crops to Rome. 

Marsa Matruh has a moderate climate with cold winters and warm, dry summers. It has many beaches with soft sand and beautiful, crystal-clear water.

Marsa Matrouh is famous among the locals for its beautiful beaches, spread throughout the city, and for the archaeological and tourist attractions that people love to visit and see, especially in the summer. So, let us see the most famous places you can visit while you vacation in Marsa Matrouh, one of Egypt’s top summer destinations.

The Most Important Archaeological and Tourist Attractions in Marsa Matrouh

Marsa Matrouh has a rich and diverse range of attractions. Here are some of the best places to visit on your Egyptian holiday.

1. Rommel’s Hideout

It is located on one of the most beautiful beaches in Marsa Matrouh. The beach is also named after Rommel and is considered one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city. There are many water sports, such as windsurfing and skiing, and games like banana boats and jet skis.

Rommel’s Hideout is a trench dug into the mountain rocks that the commander of Hitler’s guard force used to hide in during World War II. In 1977, the cave was turned into Rommel’s Museum, where Manfred Rommel, mayor of Stuttgart, sent some belongings of his father to display. The museum contains some personal collectables, like his own coat, photographs, and master maps, in addition to some remnants of war helmets.

The place was closed for several years due to the emergence of some dangerous cracks in the cave. At the beginning of the restoration work, the cave was sterilized by spraying a substance to stabilize soil particles and prevent erosion. After that, it was opened again to tourists. 

2. Queen Cleopatra’s Bath

The Marsa Matrouh region witnessed a chapter of the love story of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Some stories say that after the assassination of Julius Caesar, ruler of Rome, Queen Cleopatra invited Mark Anthony to visit Egypt, and he was impressed with the queen and married her. 

The Egyptian Queen built a palace, and its ruins were found next to her famous bath near Marsa Matrouh. It is located about 8 kilometres northwest of the city of Marsa Matruh, and visitors can walk on the glass walkway as a crossing to the bath, which is 70 meters long, until they reach the natural bath in the middle of the sea.

The makeshift rock bath in the sea is a natural swimming pool, and it is believed that this area was the resting place of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Tourists sunbathe and enjoy the fresh air, calm, and landscape. Queen Cleopatra’s bath consists of a massive rock in which seawater passes through naturally carved tunnels, entering the rock and flowing back through its openings.

3. Libya Market

Libya Market is the largest commercial area in Marsa Matrouh. It is located on a street called Al Galaa with 350 shops. The market is named Libya Market because it is famous for selling products that are also sold in Libya. 

It is a famous market in the city that tourists visit during summer to buy herbs, Bedouin products, and pure olive oil, for which the people of Siwa and Bedouins of the desert are famous. Also there, you can buy clothes, bags, and school supplies imported from abroad, which merchants sell at the lowest prices, in addition to sanitary ware and detergents, especially for their quality and low prices, which are not found in the markets of major cities.

4. Alexandria Street

Alexandria Street is one of the most prominent streets in Marsa Matruh and is the main street connecting several parts of the city. Many shops, famous hotels, and Egyptian trade fairs are on the same street. That name is named the street due to the presence of several products and clothes from Alexandria and the fact that it has the most significant number of visits from Alexandrians each year.

The street also includes the National Circus, which offers shows led by the stars of the National Circus and the International Circus and opens its doors during the summer only. 

5. Marsa Matrouh Archeology Museum

The museum is the first in Marsa Matrouh and includes about 1,000 artefacts from the Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic, and Islamic eras. It is located in the middle of the city, in an area of 1560 meters. This museum was opened recently to serve the tourism movement in the city and to be an archaeological and cultural landmark there.

The first floor of the museum includes an open exhibition, with two statues of the Sphinx and statues of some of the kings and leaders who lived on the land of Matrouh during the different historical eras, such as Ramses II, Ahmose II and Alexander the Great. The second floor includes small statues of various sizes, hunting tools, spears, swords, coins, astronomy tools, antiquities from the Coptic era, some icons, crosses, and an old manuscript of the Bible, in addition to artefacts from Islamic times such as mashrabiyas, arabesques, carpets, and many other things.

6. El Alamein Military Museum

El Alamein Museum is located 105km on the Alexandria-Matrouh road. It contains many kinds of weapons, armour, and models of the battles of El Alamein and the forces that participated in them, as well as maps of the course of the battles and some collectables belonging to the armies’ leaders. 

It was opened on 16 December 1965. The museum was developed in coordination with the countries that participated in the war, and a hall showcasing Egypt’s military role during the historical periods was added. The museum underwent several developments before finally reopening on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein on 21 October 1992.

The museum consists of five halls. The main hall has murals that tell stories of the war, carved pictures of the leaders of the warring armies, including the English commander Bernard Montgomery and the German commander Erwin Rommel, and war maps of the regions of North Africa. 

When you enter the lobby, you will see the memorial, a work of art consisting of 6 white steps on either side of a marble staircase. These steps symbolize the years of World War II, from 1939 to 1945. At the top of the monument is a model of a group of white pigeons, indicating that the years of war ended in peace. 

The five halls, named after the countries that participated in the war—Egypt Hall, Britain Hall, Germany Hall, and Italy Hall—are in addition to an open arena for displaying equipment, heavy weapons, and aircraft.

7. Commonwealth Cemeteries

The Commonwealth Cemeteries are spread in 16 cities in Egypt, one of which is located in El Alamein, on the northern coast of Egypt. There, 7,367 soldiers and officers who participated in this war were laid to rest. You can also find the names of 11,945 of the officers who went missing in the war written on the walls of the tombs. You’ll find the Commonwealth and Italian and German cemeteries on opposite sides of the road. 

The Italian Cemetery is located 5 kilometres west of El Alamein city, and its architecture is magnificent. When you visit the cemetery, you will see a chapel, a hall, a small museum, and a mosque for visitors to the Libyan soldiers who fought on the side of Italy 4,800 soldiers and officers are buried in the Italian cemetery; the names of the dead and more than 38,000 lost in the desert are written on the walls.

The German cemetery is 3 kilometres west of El Alamein and overlooks the seashore. It was built on a high hill with about 4,231 soldiers and officers buried there. There is also a hall for soldiers’ holdings.

8. Cleopatra’s Eye

It is located in Siwa Oasis, an oasis in the Western Desert that administratively belongs to the Matrouh Governorate. It is about 300 km southwest of the city of Marsa Matrouh. The oasis contains more than 200 natural springs from which water flows continuously. This water is used for irrigation, drinking, treatment, and bottling of mineral water bottles circulated throughout Egypt.

The place attracts tourists who enjoy its beautiful scenery. It was also called the eye of the sun, and sometimes it was called the eye of Juba. This name was given to it in the Greco-Roman era, and it is said that Queen Cleopatra swam in it by herself during her visit to Siwa Oasis. It is the primary source of water for more than 840 square kilometres of gardens and orchards in Siwa Oasis, surrounded by palm trees on all sides, and located near the Temple of Amun, Alexander’s coronation hall, and Mount Dakrour.

9. Temple of Ramses II

One of the temples of Ramses II, who was one of the most powerful pharaohs in ancient Egypt, dates back to the twenty-sixth dynasty. The temple is located about 24 km from Marsa Matrouh, in a place called Om El Rehem, and it includes the remains of a temple with hieroglyphic inscriptions. It was discovered by the Egyptian archaeologist Labib Habash in 1942. You will also find next to the temple the ruins of the Citadel of the Pharaoh, especially the remains of the stone wall surrounding it, which was built to protect Egypt from the attacks of the Libyan tribes.

10. Salt Cave

The cave was made of 20 tons of rock salt extracted from the ground in Siwa Oasis. Foreign experts were hired to build the cave underground to serve the influx of medical tourism in Marsa Matrouh. 

The components of the cave are entirely made up of natural rock salt, which was used in the construction of the floors, walls, and ceiling of the cave, which makes the proportion of iodine in it very high and gives 5 elements, including sodium, potassium, manganese and iron, and when inhaling iodine benefits the human for the thyroid gland, opens the pores of the body and treats the sinuses It also treats many skin diseases. The session inside the salt cave is 45 minutes, and it can host 45 people in one session.

11. Dakrour Mountain

Dakrour Mountain is located in Siwa Oasis south of Marsa Matrouh City, it is one of the famous Pharaonic monuments in Siwa Oasis and many tourists from all over the world come to it for treatment especially from Rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

In the mountain, two carved caves date back to the late Pharaonic or early Ptolemaic period.

12. Temple of Amun

The Temple of Amun is located 3 km east of Siwa. It consists of three parts: the main temple, the governor’s palace, and the guards’ place. The famous Greek fortune-teller Amon lived there. In 331 BC, Alexander the Great reportedly visited the temple after conquering Egypt. Inside the temple is a mosque, a minaret, rooms for priests, corridors, a hall built to receive Alexander and his coronation, and a well of holy water.

The Temple of Amun witnesses an astronomical phenomenon called the vernal equinox. On this day, the sun is perpendicular to the temple twice a year, in spring and autumn, and day and night are equal 90 days after the shortest day of the year.

13. Mountain of Death

The Mountain of the Dead is located 2 km from the Siwa area and is considered part of the Marsa Matrouh. It was discovered by accident in 1944 when the people of Siwa sought shelter during World War II. 

When you visit the mountain, you will see the Tomb of Si Amon, inscriptions that include a drawing representing the god Nat standing under the sycamore tree. There is also another tomb of Thiber Bathot, which contains drawings and inscriptions dyed in red. Inside, you will see a stone coffin placed on the floor of the burial room.

14. Matrouh Corniche

The corniche is spread throughout the city, where you can walk in the morning and enjoy watching the beauty of the sea and the lovely nature. Then, at night, you can ride a taftaf, a miniature train that takes passengers along the corniche, and sit at any café or restaurant. You will love enjoying the weather, especially in summer, when you can walk and enjoy the fresh air.

Many people who have visited Marsa Matrouh know that besides all these beautiful places, many beautiful beaches are spread all over the city.

15. Porto Matrouh

Porto Matrouh is considered the most beautiful resort in Egypt on the shores of Matrouh, with a full sea view. The place contains the most prominent mall with most cafes and international brands and a five-star hotel at the highest level. 

Beaches in Marsa Matrouh

1. Agiba Beach

The beach is 28 km from Marsa Matrouh, in the middle of a high plateau above sea level. It is also known as one of the famous beaches in Marsa Matrouh and Egypt. It features beautiful nature, distinctive rocks, and crystal-clear water.

2. Obeid Beach

Located 20 km from Marsa Matrouh and away from city noise, the beach is well known for its clear, clean water and is suitable for many water games and sports.

3. Albusite Beach

The beach was named in French Language meaning the beautiful site. Its water is clear and calm, and all the visitors can enjoy a lovely day. It is located in the middle of Marsa Matrouh City.

4. El Fayrouz Beach

The beach is located about 3 km away from the city centre and is well known for its calm waves. It also has facilities for multiple fun water games.

5. El Gharam Beach

This is the place where the famous late singer Laila Mourad sung a famous song in one of her well-known movies and so the site is visited by many Egyptians every year. In the song, she declares her love for the city while sitting on one of the rocks on the beach, now called the Laila Mourad rock. El Gharam Beach is the largest beach in Marsa Matrouh, located 17 km from the city.

If you’re planning a trip, read our guide to the best adventures in Egypt.