Anzac Heritage and Egypt in 10 Days: Mena Camp, the Cairo War Cemeteries, El Alamein and Luxor

Egypt is where the Anzacs began. The first Australian and New Zealand contingents landed at Alexandria in December 1914 and spent the summer of 1914–15 training in Cairo's desert: the Australian infantry at Mena Camp, at the northern foot of the Giza plateau, and the New Zealanders at Zeitoun near Heliopolis. It was here that the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was formed, and from here that the troops sailed for Gallipoli. A generation later the 9th Australian Division and the 2nd New Zealand Division fought at El Alamein in 1942.

This itinerary links those places in a logical order with a private guide who knows the history and can help you trace a relative. We stay beside the old camp at Giza, visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Old Cairo, Heliopolis and Alexandria, and spend a full day at El Alamein. Before you go, we suggest you search the Commission's Find War Dead database and the Australian War Memorial or Auckland Museum Online Cenotaph records, so that we can plan time at a particular grave or memorial panel.

It is not only a battlefield trip. You also see the pyramids and the Sphinx, the Tutankhamun galleries at the Grand Egyptian Museum, the catacombs and fort of Alexandria, and Karnak and the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. Every journey is private, so we can add Port Said, change the pace or time the trip around Anzac Day if you wish.

Journey highlights

• Standing where Mena Camp stood, with Khufu's pyramid above you, as in the soldiers' 1915 photographs
• Three nights at Marriott Mena House, the hotel the camp grew up beside
• Cairo War Memorial Cemetery in Old Cairo, where many Gallipoli wounded are buried
• Heliopolis War Cemetery and the Zeitoun and Heliopolis story of the New Zealand camp and the Anzac hospitals
• A full day at El Alamein: the Commonwealth cemetery, the Alamein Memorial and the military museum
• Alexandria's Chatby war cemetery, Qaitbay Citadel and the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa
• The Grand Egyptian Museum's complete Tutankhamun collection
• Three nights in Luxor for Karnak, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's temple

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1

   Arrive in Cairo

   Our representative meets you inside the terminal at Cairo International Airport, helps with the visa and luggage, and walks you to your private car. The drive to Giza takes about 45–60 minutes. Check in at Marriott Mena House, whose grounds and the desert flats around them were where the 1st Australian Division pitched its tents in December 1914.

2. Day2

   The pyramids and the Mena Camp site

   Reach the Giza plateau at opening time for the Great Pyramid, the panoramic viewpoint and the Great Sphinx. Your guide then walks you to the Mena House end of the plateau, where the camp stood until April 1915, and talks you through training in the sand, the soldiers' days off in Cairo and the famous photograph of the 11th Battalion on the pyramid's steps. Nothing of the camp survives, but the view is unchanged. Afternoon at leisure.

3. Day3

   Grand Egyptian Museum

   Spend the day at the Grand Egyptian Museum, a few minutes from the hotel, for the colossal Ramesses II in the atrium, the Grand Staircase, the Tutankhamun galleries and Khufu's Solar Boat. Lunch inside the museum, then a quiet afternoon, or a sunset felucca on the Nile in central Cairo.

4. Day4

   Cairo War Memorial Cemetery and Heliopolis

   Morning at Cairo War Memorial Cemetery in Old Cairo, where soldiers who died in the city's hospitals in both world wars lie, many of them wounded brought back from Gallipoli. Time for a short act of remembrance and to find any graves you have researched, then the Hanging Church and Coptic Cairo close by. In the afternoon cross the city to Heliopolis War Cemetery, and drive through Heliopolis and Zeitoun, where the New Zealanders camped and the Heliopolis Palace Hotel served as No. 1 Australian General Hospital. Overnight in central Cairo.

5. Day5

   To Alexandria and the Chatby cemetery

   Drive north on the desert road to Alexandria, about three hours, retracing in reverse the troops' route from the port in 1914 and 1915. Visit Alexandria (Chatby) Military and War Memorial Cemetery, which holds many who died of wounds after Gallipoli, then the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site of the ancient lighthouse and seafood by the Eastern Harbour.

6. Day6

   El Alamein

   Leave Alexandria around 8am for the 110 km drive west to El Alamein, roughly 1.5–2 hours. Spend about an hour at the Commonwealth War Cemetery and the Alamein Memorial, where the 9th Australian and 2nd New Zealand Divisions are remembered alongside their allies, then visit the El Alamein Military Museum and the German and Italian memorials on the coast road. Lunch on the coast and return to Alexandria by mid-afternoon.

7. Day7

   Alexandria and fly to Luxor

   Morning at the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa and Pompey's Pillar, or the Bibliotheca Alexandrina if you prefer. Drive to Cairo Airport, about three hours, for an evening flight to Luxor of around an hour, and transfer to your hotel on the Nile.

8. Day8

   Luxor's West Bank

   Cross the river early for the Valley of the Kings, where your standard ticket covers three tombs, then the terraced Temple of Hatshepsut while it is in morning light, and the Colossi of Memnon on the way back. An optional dawn balloon flight can be added before the touring starts.

9. Day9

   Karnak and Luxor Temple

   Visit Karnak Temple in the cooler morning: the Great Hypostyle Hall with its 134 columns, the obelisks and the sacred lake. After a long lunch and a rest, see Luxor Temple as the sun goes down and the floodlights come on, then walk a stretch of the Avenue of Sphinxes.

10. Day10

    Depart

    Fly from Luxor to Cairo, about an hour, and connect with your international flight home via the Gulf or Asia. Allow a generous connection, or add a night at Cairo Airport if your flight leaves early the next morning.

Where you’ll stay

Destinations on this journey

Cairo & Giza · Alexandria · Luxor