ANZAC Memorial Centre

The story

The ANZAC Memorial Centre is a heritage site and a museum in the Old City of Beersheba, at the southern end of the British military cemetery. It was dedicated on 31 October 2017, on the completion of one hundred years since the Battle of Beersheba and the entry of the ANZAC forces into the city, in the presence of the Prime Minister of Israel, the Governor-General of New Zealand and the Prime Minister of Australia. The architect of the building is Udi Kassif. This is a building cast in white exposed concrete, recalling on the one hand desert stone and on the other fortifications; its form — the head of a horse — was created as a reference to the charging horsemen that characterized the battle for Beersheba. Visitors enter the central space, in which information is presented on the march to the Land of Israel, on the battles at Gaza and up to the Battle of Beersheba. From there they are directed to a hall that combines film and performance, designed as an outpost of the period; the short film is based mostly on excerpts from the Australian film “The Lighthorsemen” of 1987, which portrays what befell the ANZAC soldiers in the campaign. At its end the visitors look out from the museum's balcony over the landscape of the cemetery, in which stand the gravestones of the ANZAC soldiers and of the British army. The museum also displays original exhibits of the ANZAC soldiers, photographs and films documenting their activity.

• 1917
• Commemoration
• Museums
• War
• Beersheba