"the great mound")[1] is 110 km north-north-east of Cairo and 75 kilometres south of Port Said on the edge of the Egyptian desert at the altitude of 29 m. Administratively, it is a part of the Ismailia Governorate.

In the ancient times the city of On (modern Matariyah) mentioned in Genesis 41:45[2] was identified by some as located south-west of the mound, which according to the Egyptian legend was the first place where cotton was cultivated.

The location is famous for the Battle of Tell El Kebir which was fought in 1882 between the Egyptian army led by Ahmed 'Urabi and the British military.

The War Memorial Cemetery was used from June 1915 to July 1920, and was enlarged after the Armistice many graves were transferred in from other temporary interment sites.

During the North African campaign of the Second World War, Tell El Kebir was a site for the Eighth Army vehicle park, a military hospital and a large ordnance depot, with many military mechanical and electrical repair workshops[7] including the RAOC Base Vehicle Depot Tell El Kebir BVD(E) which remained for several years after the war as part of the Tell El Kebir Garrison which was surrounded by a perimeter wire and minefield, and heavily guarded due to the tense atmosphere in Egypt at the time,[8] that supplied every type of vehicle used by the British Army in the Middle East Theatre until the Suez Emergency was declared, and fought in the Canal Zone.