Egypt Guide
The Canal Zone
The Military Museum
Address: Sharia 23rd July
Opening time: Daily: summer 8am–2pm; winter 9am–2pm; Fri opening hours can be erratic
Price: £E10
The Military Museum gives a strong sense of the Canal's embattled history. The 1956 Anglo-French-Israeli invasion is commemorated by lurid paintings and dioramas, while another room is dedicated to the October War of 1973. This gives pride of place to the storming of the Bar-Lev Line, a heroic feat of arms ultimately wasted by the high command's failure to exploit Egypt's breakthrough in Sinai. Curiously absent from the large display of weaponry are the Soviet-made Strella and Molutka rockets that enabled Egyptian infantrymen to destroy Israeli jets and armour, rated by strategists as a minor revolution in modern warfare.