Ancient Egypt and Roman Mersa Matruh began as a small fishing town but was important enough to host an
Egyptian temple under
Ramesses II BC. It prospered as the port for the 8th-century BC
oracle of
Amun Ra at the
Siwa Oasis. It became known as
Ammonia (, ) after the
conquest of
Egypt by
Alexander the Great of
Macedon in the 4th century BC. Under the
Ptolemaic dynasty and
Romans, it was also known as
Paraetonium (,
Paraitónion; ,
Tparatonion). It served as a major transit port for
Egyptian grain to
Rome.
Ovid wrote that its patron goddess during his era was
Isis. The city was
Christianised by the 6th century, when a chapel was built in the
Byzantine style. After the 7th-century
Islamic conquest of
Egypt by the
Caliphate, it became known as
Baritun (,
al-Bāritūn). The city also bore other names from at least the beginning of the 20th century: Berek Marsa, Port Mhaddra (Mithr), and Port Bardiah.
World War II During
World War II, the
British Army's
Baggush Box was located to the east of the city. Starting with the completion of an extension from the previous railhead at Fuka in February 1936, Mersa Matruh was the terminus for a single-track
railway, which passed through
El Alamein. Mersa Matruh served as a vital British military base during World War II and was a major objective of
Erwin Rommel's
Afrika Korps, which captured it during the
Battle of Mersa Matruh.
21st Century During the
Arab Spring in early 2011, protests broke out in the city. On the evening of 2 October 2023, during the lead-up to the
2023 Egyptian presidential election, a
Nation's Future Party (Mostakbal El-Watan) rally in support of
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi turned into anti-Sisi protests with protesters burning photos of El-Sisi and chanting slogans against him. == Geography ==