Tell El Kebir

Tell El Kebir, Arabic for the great mound, is a place in the Ismailia Governorate of Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo and 75 kilometres south of Port Said, on the edge of the Egyptian desert at an altitude of 29 m. According to Egyptian legend the mound was the first place where cotton was cultivated, and in ancient times some identified the city of On, modern Matariyah, mentioned in Genesis 41:45, as lying south-west of it. The location is famous for the Battle of Tell El Kebir, fought in 1882 between the Egyptian army led by Ahmed Urabi and the British military.