The best museums Oasis

In this small museum with its traditional architecture, you'll discover a facet of Siwi culture. It's the place to be if you want to get to know it better. However, if you don't have time to visit in the morning, it's advisable to arrange a private tour through the tourist office. You'll find all the traditional objects, culinary, domestic and decorative, that make this oasis a very special place in the Egyptian landscape.

The museum is located next to the Commonwealth Cemetery. It displays collections of weapons, uniforms of both armies, as well as guns and documents relating to the battle. Models reconstruct the evolution of the fighting from 23 October to 4 November 1942. It's all very moving.

The museum consists of five rooms. The first, called the "common room", contains glass boxes containing items from all the countries that took part in the Battle of El-Alamein. Life-size statues of the main players in this battle are on display. In the middle of the room there is a huge wooden table on which a map of the battlefield is drawn up, with the positions of the armies.

The 4 others are each dedicated to one of the countries involved in these battles, Egypt, England, Germany and Italy.

Outside the building is exposed the large military equipment: tanks, heavy artillery, vehicles ...

Mahmoud Eed, a Bedouin artist from Bawiti, presents traditional handicrafts and makes naive figurines. Inspired by the artist Badr from Sarafra, he shapes clay to represent life in the oasis. Dioramas about the region are also on display. A visit to his museum takes no more than 10 minutes. It is free, but if you want to leave something, or even buy a piece of work (the handmade silver jewellery could be a very nice souvenir gift) it will undoubtedly please him.