The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery and Memorial is located outside of town. It was begun in February, 1916 and remained in use until late 1920. After the war, it was doubled in size to accommodate the remains of soldiers from makeshift cemeteries and desert battlefields, notably in Qatia, Rumani, Magdhaba, El Arish and Rafa. Formally designed in 1919 by Sir Robert Lorimer, the cemetery contains 1,562 Commonwealth burials from World War I and 110 from World War II. There are also 341 war graves of other nationalities. The Kantara Memorial bears the names of 16 New Zealand World War I servicemen presumed killed in action at Rafa and Rumani. In 1961, panels bearing the names of 283 World War I Indian servicemen, interred in the now inaccessible Kantara Indian Cemetery, were affixed to the wall behind the Stone of Remembrance, forming the Kantara Indian Cemetery Memorial.