The great battles of El Alamein in 1942 saw fighting between the British VIIIth Army under the command of General Montgomery and Italian and German troops led by Marshals Bastico and Rommel. The Italian troops put up a determined opposition, but the technological supremacy and aerial dominance of the British were decisive. The Allied victory in North Africa considerably influenced the outcome of the Second World War.

British authorities began the collection of the bodies of the fallen in 1943, which was completed between 1949 and 1960 by a delegation from the General Commission for the Honouring of the Fallen of War, led by Colonel Paolo Caccia Dominioni. The monument is located along the coastal road that connects Alexandria to Marsa Matruh on a large area of land given in concession to Italy in 1952. Colonel Caccia Dominioni himself designed the monument, which was built between 1954 and 1958. It consists of an octagonal tower, slightly tapered towards the top, with a large pavilion housing the remains of over 5,200 Italian soldiers at the base.

The complex also includes the cemetery of the Libyan Ascari, troops within the Italian army, with an adjoining mosque and a small museum of war relics. Not far away lies a German War Memorial, which houses the remains of Germans recovered as part of the same collection campaign started by the Allies.

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