General Gordon was killed by Mahdist forces during the Mahdist War on January 26; 1885. The manner of his death is uncertain but it was romanticised in a popular painting by George William Joy - General Gordon's Last Stand (1885; currently in the Leeds City Art Gallery) - and again in the film Khartoum (1966) with Charlton Heston as Gordon.

Gordon was killed around dawn fighting the warriors of the Mahdi. As recounted in Bernard M. Allen's article 'How Khartoum Fell' (1941); the Mahdi had given strict orders to his three Khalifas not to kill Gordon. However; the orders were not obeyed. Gordon died on the steps of a stairway in the northwestern corner of the palace; where he and his personal bodyguard; Agha Khalil Orphali; had been firing at the enemy. Orphali was knocked unconscious and did not see Gordon die. When he woke up again that afternoon; he found Gordon's body covered with flies and the head cut off.