The village stood on a flat spot on the central coastal plain. A network of secondary roads intersected at al-Mansura, and one of them crossed through the village of 'Aqir and joined the highway leading to Ramla. The Jaffa-Jerusalem railway line ran 1 km east of it. Edward Robinson passed by the village in 1838; he described it as 'small.' In the late nineteenth century, al-Mansura was a moderate-sized village built of adobe brick. During the Mandate al-Mansura, classified as a hamlet by the Palestine Index Gazetteer, featured houses made either of adobe brick or cement that extended along the road to 'Aqir. Its entire population was Muslim, and the children attended school in Ramla and the neighboring villages.
The villagers' main source of income was rainfed agriculture. They cultivated principally grain, as well as vegetables and fruits. Citrus and olive groves were concentrated on the east and west sides of the village. In 1944/45 a total of 2,113 dunums was allocated to cereals.
Al-Mansura's location would place it naturally among the positions seized during Operation Barak (see al-Batani al-Gharbi, Gaza sub-disctrict). However, Israeli historian Benny Morris indicates that it was attacked some time before this, on 20 April, at the same time as the nearby village of al-Mukhayzin. This suggests that it may have been captured in the course of one of the sub-operations (probably Operation Har' el) mounted in the Jerusalem corridor between mid-April and late June. Following on the heels of Operation Nachshon (see Bayt Naqquba, Jerusalem sub-disctrict), these sub-operations were centered around the village of al-Latrun and aimed at securing control of the Jerusalem-Jaffa highway. AI-Mansura was almost certainly attacked by the Giv'ati Brigade, which acted in coordination with the Jerusalem-based Har' el Brigade during this period. But it may not have come under complete Israeli control until the subsequent operation.
There are no Israeli settlements on village land.
The site is planted with sycamore trees and there are also cactuses growing on it. The surrounding land is cultivated by the settlers of Mazkeret Batya (134140); this settlement was founded in 1948 on land belonging to 'Aqir.