Mersa Matruh sits on Egypt's northwestern coast, roughly 290 kilometers west of Alexandria and about 300 kilometers east of the Libyan border. During World War II, the town served as a staging ground for both sides of the Western Desert campaign. Rommel, commanding the Afrika Korps, used these natural caves overlooking the Mediterranean as his forward headquarters during the push toward El Alamein in the summer of 1942. The caves offered protection from Allied air raids and a commanding view of the coastline below. From here, Rommel coordinated the movements of German and Italian forces across hundreds of kilometers of desert, racing to reach the Nile before the British Eighth Army could regroup.

In 1977, the Egyptian government made an unusual decision: it would open a museum honoring a general who had fought against Egypt's wartime allies. The initiative came with support from the West German government, and the guest of honor at the opening ceremony was Manfred Rommel, the field marshal's son and then the Lord Mayor of Stuttgart. The younger Rommel donated several of his father's personal belongings to the collection, including maps, a field coat, and military documents. The museum reflects a curious thread of admiration that runs through Egyptian memory of the war. Rommel never occupied Egypt, and his Afrika Korps, unlike the British forces that had been there since 1882, was not associated with colonial rule. For many Egyptians of that era, the Desert Fox was simply a skilled adversary who passed through.

The museum displays a modest collection of wartime artifacts: Rommel's personal effects, period photographs, military maps showing the ebb and flow of the North African campaign, and weapons from both Axis and Allied forces. The caves themselves are the primary exhibit. Visitors walk through the same passages where staff officers once hurried with dispatches, where Rommel studied the terrain maps that would lead him to his farthest advance at El Alamein, just 150 kilometers to the east. After several years of deterioration, the caves underwent extensive restoration work, and the museum reopened in 2017 with improved displays and structural reinforcements to the ancient limestone.

The museum is not Mersa Matruh's only nod to its wartime visitor. An island offshore bears Rommel's name, as do a beach and a bridge near the museum. A Rommel Cafe and a Rommel Hotel serve tourists who come for the turquoise waters of Egypt's northwest coast and stay to wander through history. The naming reflects something more than tourism marketing. Mersa Matruh was a backwater before the war brought it to world attention, and the battles that raged across this coastline remain the most significant events in the town's modern history. The museum draws visitors who might otherwise never stop between Alexandria and the Libyan border, offering a quiet hour underground while the Mediterranean glitters outside.