Tall al Kabir

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Tall al Kabir
native_name = الكبير




image_caption =Also known as: ,
"Tel-el-Kebir"


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timezone = EET
utc_offset = +2
timezone_DST = EEST
utc_offset_DST = +3
latd=30 |latm=32 |lats=44 |latNS=N
longd=31 |longm=46 |longs=41 |longEW=E
latitude = 30°33'N
longitude = 31°46'E
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Tall al Kebir or Tel-el-Kebir (الكبير Arabic) [Other names: At Tall al Kabīr, Et Tell el Kebīr, Tell el- Kebîr, El-Tell el-Kebîr, Tell el- Kebir, At Tell al Kebir, El-Tell el-Kebir, At Tell al Kebīr, Tel el Kebir, Et Tell el Kebir] ("great mound") is located 110 kilometres north-north-east of Cairo and 75 kilometres south of Port Said on the edge of the Egyptian desert at the altitude of 29 meters. Administratively it is a part of in Muhafazat al Isma`iliyah, Egypt.

In the ancient times the city of On (modern Matariyah) mentioned in Genesis 41:45 [also known as Beth Shemesh, Aven, Heliopolis] 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 Tel-el-Kebir which was fought between the Egyptian army led by Ahmed Urabi and the British military. The ancient runs of On were fortified into an entrenched camp by the Egyptian troops.

First World War

During the First World War, Tel el Kebir was a training centre for the First Australian Imperial Force reinforcements, No 2 Australian Stationary Hospital, and also a site of a large prisoner of war camp. Some 40,000 Australians camped in a small tent city at Tel-el-Kebir of six miles in length. [p.64, Ramsay & Ramsay] A military railway was eventually constructed to take troops from the camp to their vessels in Alexandria and elsewhere for embarkation to Gallipoli landings.

The Tel-el-Kebir village was described by an Australian soldier in 1916 as

a very dirty little place with a few dirty shops in it [Ernest George King, A DIARY OF THE WAR, 2ND REINFORCEMENT, 19TH BATTALION, 5TH INFANTRY BRIGADE A.I.E.FORCES, INTERMEDIATE BASE DEPOT, EGYPT, FEBRUARY 12, 1916 [http://users.bigpond.net.au/rhearne/egypt.htm#Egypt] ]

The Allied War Memorial Cemetery is situated about 175 metres east of the railway station and the Ismailia Canal. 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 internment sites. The camp was converted for use as a holding camp for refugees from what used to be southern Russian Empire.

econd World War

During the Second World War, Tel 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 [REME Base Workshops & REME Station Workshops Tel-el-Kebir M.E.L.F. 11 [http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Canal/Reg.htm] ] including the RAOC Base Vehicle Depot Tel-El-Kebir, Egypt BVD(E) which remained for several years after the war as part of the Tel 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 ["The Argus", Phil Everest, Not forgotten, 17 October 2002] , that supplied every type of vehicle used by the British Army in the Middle East Theatre [Aerial views and plans of some camps in the Suez Canal Zone 1950 - 1955 [http://www.suezcanalzone.com/czcamps.html] ] until the Suez Emergency was declared, and fought in the Canal Zone. [Hansard HC Deb 21 January 1947 vol 432 cc19-20 [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1947/jan/21/workshops-tel-el-kebir] ]

The cemetery now contains 65 Commonwealth graves from the First World War and 526 from the Second World War. There are also 84 military graves of other nations in the cemetery.

Citations and notes

References

* Ramsay, Roy, & Ramsay, Ronald James, "Hell, Hope And Heroes: Life in the Field Ambulance in World War I", Rosenberg Publishing, Kenthurst NSW, 2005