Currently, tourism typologies have become increasingly varied, reaching very specific sectors of travelers. One of these typologies is dark tourism, also known in Spanish as black tourism, grief tourism, or thanatourism, or war tourism in the case of war scenarios. This type of travel promotes the respectful visit to places where great human tragedies have occurred, such as war battles. The First World War (1914-1919) and the Second World War (1939-1945) were conflicts whose consequences mobilize many travelers. Some of Mandala Tours’ destinations are closely related to them, as we tell you below.
Çanakkale and Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey
One of the key moments in the early stages of the Great War had the Gallipoli Peninsula as its theater of operations. The Ottoman Empire, allied with the Central Powers, closed the Dardanelles Strait to block communications between the Allies and Russia. For this reason, British and French decided to attack on several occasions, assisted by tens of thousands of Australian, New Zealand, and Indian soldiers. The result was an Ottoman victory, with numerous casualties on both sides.
And this can be seen in the numerous memorials, museums, and interpretation centers scattered throughout the Gallipoli Peninsula, where Turks pay homage to their “martyrs” and to the emerging figure who commanded them, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and where numerous Commonwealth tourists come to pay tribute to their compatriots, many of them direct ancestors. The figures speak for themselves: 40 cemeteries to shelter more than 150,000 fallen soldiers, according to some estimates.
Aqaba and the Arab “offshoot” of the Great War
One of the main “offshoots” of the Ottoman Empire’s entry into World War I was the quest for independence of the Arab peoples of the Near East. This is known as the Arab Revolt (also referred to as the Great Arab Revolt), which lasted from 1916 to 1918. The result was not effective independence but the end of Ottoman domination in the area.
Jordan was the epicenter of the Arab Revolt, and therefore it is solemnly remembered here. Especially in the Wadi Rum desert and Aqaba, where the main related monuments are located and where “the first shot was fired”. Notable are the Great Arab Revolt Square, with its imposing Arab flag (not to be confused with the Jordanian one) and the building that was the residence of its leader, Al Hussein Ben Ali. However, the main memorial monument of this episode is in the capital, Amman, in the so-called Martyrs’ Museum.
Battles of El Alamein, Egypt
North Africa and the Mediterranean Levant were a strategic battle area between the contenders of World War II. The Allies, settled in northern Egypt, repelled and later countered attempts to seize this position by German Nazis and Italian Fascists, eager to take control of the Suez Canal. It was in El Alamein where the main hostilities broke out. And it is there where the main memorials are located, which are overwhelming due to the numerous casualties and the imposing commemorative architecture.
Notable are the War Museum, which dedicates a pavilion to each of the four major countries involved (United Kingdom, Egypt, Italy, and Germany), the Commonwealth Cemetery, the German Memorial, and the Italian Memorial. In total, more than 15,000 soldiers lost their lives, resulting in extensive cemeteries full of tombstones, as well as phrases highlighting the heroism of the combatants, such as the one read in the Italian enclosure: “Fortune was lacking, but not valor”.
