Statue of Rommel I rebuilt around Alexandria, initially (8)
I believe the answer is:
memorial
'statue' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'rommel i rebuilt around alexandria initially' is the wordplay.
'rebuilt' indicates anagramming the letters.
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'alexandria' is 'a'.
'rommel'+'i'='rommeli'
'rommeli' anagrammed gives 'memoril'.
'memoril' going around 'a' is 'MEMORIAL'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for memorial that I've seen before include "Monument to commemorate" , "may be brass" , "Relic, monument" , "Statue or monument that commemorates" , "Record" .)