Known locally as Shiid-birood (“the iron rock”), the El Ali meteorite is 13.6 metric tons of iron and nickel. For centuries the El Ali meteorite, a brownish, pitted boulder some two meters wide and one meter tall, went unnoticed by anyone but locals. “We were, in retrospect, getting quite biased information” about both the removal of the El Ali meteorite and its export to China. Later in 2021 Gessler presented the El Ali meteorite to the Meteoritical Society, recognizing it as the third-largest meteorite discovered in Africa. These minerals lace the El Ali meteorite, residing inside tiny inclusions roughly the width of a human hair.