Mersa Matruh is a modern city that lies about 300 km west of Alexandria along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Mersa Matruh is said to have the most beautiful sand beaches in the world and contains many tourist attractions. However,as modern as this city appears, there are many ancient cites nearby. The city is built upon the ancient Roman town of Paraetonium, which was built to be a military fort at the delta of the Nile River. This ancient city is also known as Amunia and is said to have been visited by Alexander the Great, who built and laid out the city, on his way to pay tribute to the Egyptian God of Amun in order for him to become a Egyptian pharaoh.
Mersa Matruh proved to be in a key location during World War II due to the many British-German Battles fought here. There is more evidence to this at the site of Rommel's Cave which lies nearby. Rommel's cave is where the German Commander, Erwin Rommel, would make his retreat at the end of the day to draw up his military plans. Rommel's cave is now a museum containing Rommel's own armory donated by his son (http://www.middleeast.com/mersamatruh.htm).
Another popular site is Cleopatra's Bath, also known as Ain el-Hammam, a warm spring located about seven km from Mersa Matruh and lies on the path which leads to the temple of Amun. There is no evidence found that says Cleopatra herself actually bathed here, but more likely, the name is simply a romantic attachment used in many Egyptian names (http://www.touregypt.net/alex.htm).
About 24 km from Mersa Matruh, there is an ancient temple from the time of Ramsses II also known as Ramsses the Great. This temple dates back to 1200 BC and could possibly be the personal temple of the great pharaoh himself. However, there seems to be some debate about what this temple was actually used for.
There is also a second ancient site near Mersa Matruh that dates back to the Greco-Roman Period. This site, called Marina Ruins-Alamein, contains temples, tombs and nobles' houses and is considered to be the largest archaeological city second only to Alexandria (http://www.touregypt.net/mersamatrouh.htm). The original Roman name of this city was Leukasis, meaning the White Armour. There was also a temple found in this city thought to be a temple of the Egyptian goddess, Isis. This ancient city was discovered in 1985 (http://alexandriaegypt.com/tourism/komalshoqafa.htm).
