CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 104 of 120

Correct — C, Cairo. Heliopolis is a district of Cairo, and the Heliopolis Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery lies there, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It holds roughly four thousand Commonwealth burials and commemorations from the two World Wars, about two thousand from the First and seventeen hundred from the Second — and of that total some 3,727 are Indian, which is what makes an Egyptian cemetery a fixture in Indian current affairs. Two memorials were relocated into it: the Port Tewfik Memorial, which commemorates about four thousand men of the Indian Army who fell in the First World War and have no known grave, and the Aden Memorial. Regiments named on the stones include the Rajputana Rifles, the Kumaon Regiment, the Sikh Regiment and the Jat Lancers. The cemetery returned to the news on 25 June 2023, when the Prime Minister of India visited it during his state visit to Egypt — the same visit on which he received the Order of the Nile.

• (a)Marseille — A French Mediterranean port with its own war graves, but the Heliopolis cemetery is not there. Heliopolis is a Cairo district.
• (b)Washington D.C. — The United States was not a Commonwealth theatre and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission does not maintain a Heliopolis cemetery there.
• (d)Athens — Greece has Commonwealth war cemeteries of its own, including Phaleron near Athens, but Heliopolis belongs to Cairo — the name is that of the ancient Egyptian city.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains the graves and memorials of the Commonwealth service personnel who died in the two World Wars, in some 23,000 locations across the world. Egypt mattered enormously to both wars: it guarded the Suez Canal, it was the base for the Middle East campaigns, and it received casualties evacuated from Gallipoli, Palestine, Mesopotamia and the Western Desert. Indian troops served in all of those theatres in very large numbers, which is why an Egyptian cemetery carries thousands of Indian names.

The trap in this item is treating it as pure recall of a foreign place name. It is not — Heliopolis is one of the best-known names in Egyptian geography, an ancient centre of sun worship that survives as a Cairo suburb, and no other option is even an Egyptian city. That alone decides it. The Indian angle is the reason the question was set at all: the cemetery holds India's war dead from the Middle East campaigns, and the Port Tewfik Memorial moved into it commemorates Indian Army men of the First World War with no known grave. As of the September 2023 exam this was a fresh news item, three months after the Prime Minister's visit of 25 June 2023.

• Heliopolis is a district of Cairo, Egypt, and the site of the Heliopolis Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery.
• About 4,000 Commonwealth personnel are buried or commemorated there, of whom some 3,727 are Indian.
• Roughly 2,000 of the dead are from the First World War and about 1,700 from the Second.
• The Port Tewfik Memorial, commemorating around 4,000 Indian Army men of the First World War with no known grave, and the Aden Memorial were both relocated into this cemetery.
• The Prime Minister of India visited the cemetery on 25 June 2023, during the state visit on which he was conferred Egypt's Order of the Nile.

• Reading Heliopolis as a Greek place because the name is Greek — it is the Greek name of an ancient Egyptian city, now a Cairo suburb.
• Assuming Commonwealth war cemeteries are confined to Europe; the Middle East and North Africa hold many of the largest.
• Confusing the Port Tewfik Memorial, now inside this cemetery, with a separate site.

As a one-line location question tied to a recent high-level visit, or as part of a statements item on India's war memorials abroad.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for

  • (a)Repatriating the remains of soldiers to their home countries
  • (b)Maintaining the graves and memorials of Commonwealth personnel who died in the two World Wars
  • (c)Awarding gallantry decorations across the Commonwealth
  • (d)Administering pensions to Commonwealth war veterans

  Answer(b) Maintaining the graves and memorials of Commonwealth personnel who died in the two World Wars, at sites in many countries.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Egypt's highest civilian honour, conferred on the Prime Minister of India in June 2023, is

  • (a)Order of the Nile
  • (b)Order of Zayed
  • (c)Order of the Yellow Star
  • (d)Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer

  Answer(a) Order of the Nile — the Order of Zayed is of the United Arab Emirates and the Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer of Kuwait.