.jpg) Tahrir Square in December 2020 | |
  Location within the Nile Delta | |
| Former name(s) | Ismailia Square |
|---|---|
| Location | Downtown Cairo, Cairo, Egypt |
| Coordinates | 30°2′40″N31°14′9″E / 30.04444°N 31.23583°E /30.04444; 31.23583 |
| Other | |
| Designer | Khedive Ismail |
Tahrir Square (Arabic:ميدان التحرير,romanized: Maydān at-Taḥrīr,Egyptian Arabic pronunciation:[meˈdæːnettæħˈɾiːɾ]; English:"Liberation Square"), also known asMartyr Square, is a publictown square indowntown Cairo,Egypt. The square has been the location and focus for political demonstrations. The2011 Egyptian revolution and the resignation ofPresidentHosni Mubarak occurred at the Tahrir Square.[1]
The square was originally called "Ismailia Square", after the 19th-century ruler of Egypt,Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on theNile'.[2][3]
After theEgyptian Revolution of 1919, the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square.[4] In 1933King Fuad I (r. 1922–1936), the son of Khedive Ismail, renamed the square officially to Khedive Ismail Square (Maydān al-Khidaywī Ismā‘īl).[3] Before the end of his reign in 1936, a roundabout with a garden was created at the center of the square.[3] Under his successor,King Farouk (r. 1936–1952), a pedestal was installed in the center of square which was intended to support a statue of Khedive Isma'il, but the commissioned statue was never installed.[3][5] The square was officially renamed to "Tahrir Square" in 1953, after theEgyptian Revolution of 1952 which changedEgypt from aconstitutional monarchy into arepublic.[3]
On 13 October 1981, one week after the assassination of President Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat, the square was renamed as "Anwar El Sadat Square" (Maydān Anwar al-Sādāt) and a statue was planned to be erected.[6] This new official name, however, never entered popular usage and was not familiar to most Egyptians.[3][5] The statue-less pedestal erected by King Farouk was eventually removed in 1987 during the construction of the Sadatmetro station under the square.[3]
The square was a focal point for theEgyptian Revolution of 2011 and subsequent protests, up to the2013 Egyptian protests which led to theoverthrow of President Morsi. In November 2013, after these events, the interim government erected a memorial to activists and protesters who were killed by security forces during the 2011 and 2013 protests. On 19 November, less than a day after its official inauguration, the new monument was destroyed by protesters and activists, who criticized the government's intentions and accused it of attempting to whitewash recent history by creating its own memorial to those who died in the protests.[7][8][9][10] In 2015, the government ofPresident el-Sisi erected a large flagpole flying theEgyptian flag in the center of the square, which authorities judged would be a more neutral monument that would attract less controversy.[11]
In 2020 the government erected a new monument at the center of Tahrir Square featuring an ancientobelisk from the reign ofRamses II, originally unearthed atTanis (San al-Hagar) in 2019, and four ram-headedsphinx statues moved fromKarnak.[12][13][14] The installation of the sphinxes in particular has been criticized byarcheologists and academics, who state that the softsandstone of the sculptures will be vulnerable to the pollution and heat of downtown traffic.[12][15][14] Some critics have also alleged that the creation of the new monument is part of an ongoing effort to tighten state control over this public space and obscure the memory of the2011 revolution whose central events took place here.[12][15]
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At the centre of Tahrir Square is a large and busytraffic circle. An obelisk of Ramses II, previously at Tanis, was installed in 2020. On the north-east side is a plaza with a statue of nationalist heroUmar Makram, celebrated for his resistance against Napoleon I's invasion of Egypt, and beyond is the Umar Makram Mosque.[16]
The square is the northern terminus of the historicQasr al-Ayni Street, the western terminus ofTalaat Harb Street, and viaQasr al-Nil Street crossing its southern portion it has direct access to theQasr al-Nil Bridge crossing the nearbyNile River.
The area around Tahrir Square includes theEgyptian Museum, the Folklore Arts House, theMogamma government building, theHeadquarters of the Arab League building, the Nile Hotel, Kasr El Dobara Evangelical Church and the originaldowntown campus of theAmerican University in Cairo. TheNational Democratic Party-NDP headquarters building stood here until it was set on fire during the revolution and demolished in 2015.[17]
TheCairo Metro serves Tahrir Square with the Sadat Station, which is the downtown junction of the system's two lines, linking toGiza,Maadi,Helwan, and other districts and suburbs ofGreater Cairo. Its underground access viaducts provide the safest routes for pedestrians crossing the broad roads of the heavily trafficked square.
Tahrir Square has been the traditional site for numerous major protests and demonstrations over the years, including the1977 Egyptian Bread Riots, and the March 2003 protest against theWar in Iraq.[18]
Tahrir Square was the focal point of the 2011 Egyptian revolution against former presidentHosni Mubarak.[19] Over 50,000 protesters first occupied the square on 25 January, during which the area's wireless services were reported to be impaired.[20] In the following days, Tahrir Square continued to be the primary destination for protests in Cairo.[21] On 29 January, Egyptianfighter aircraft flew low over the people gathered in the square. On 30 January, the seventh day of the protests, PIKBBC and other correspondents reported that the number of demonstrators had grown to at least 100,000,[22] and on 31 January,Al Jazeera correspondents reported that the demonstrations had grown to at least 250,000 people.[23] On 1 February, Al Jazeera reported that more than one million protesters peacefully gathered in the square and adjacent streets.[24] However, such media reports that so many people congregated in Cairo's largest public square are believed to be exaggerated for political purposes and, according toStratfor's analysis, the real number of gathered protesters never exceeded 300,000 people.[25][26] Other independent crowd-size analyses provided similar estimates, suggesting a maximum capacity of 200,000 to 250,000 individuals within the square and surrounding areas.[27][28]
The square became established as a focal point and a symbol for the ongoing Egyptian democracy demonstrations. On 2 February, violence erupted between the pro-Mubarak and pro-democracy demonstrators there, followed by the 3 February 'Friday of Departure' demonstration, one of the named "day of" events centered in the square. Within a week, due to international media coverage, the image and name of Tahrir Square became known worldwide.[29]
AFacebook page called "Tahrir Square" ميدان التحرير was maintained by a rotating staff of twenty during the uprising, particularly to offset the lack of and/or distorted coverage of events and responses in state-run and state-aligned media outlets.[30]
The 18-day revolt centered in the square provided theEgyptian Armed Forces an opportunity to remove Mubarak from power on 11 February 2011, when the president officially stepped down from office.[31] The announcement that Mubarak had passed all authority to theCouncil of the Armed Forces was made by longtime intelligence chief and new vice presidentOmar Suleiman.[32][33] Tahrir Square erupted in a night-long celebration after the twilight announcement, with shouts such as "Lift your head up high, you're Egyptian", "Everyone who loves Egypt, come and rebuild Egypt", and others.[34] The next day, Egyptian Cairen women and men came to clean up the square, "they came and cleaned up after their revolution," relaying 'projectiles' in the cobblestone paving and removing eighteen days' worth of trash andgraffiti.[34]
Tahrir Square, with 'democracy anniversary' celebrations and visits from foreign dignitaries, continued to be a symbol of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, despite its clear gentrification and depoliticization by the Egyptian government.[35][36] British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron,Catherine Ashton, theHigh Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of theEuropean Union, U.S.Secretary of StateHillary Clinton,John Kerry, Chairman of the AmericanSenate Committee on Foreign Relations, Australian Foreign MinisterKevin Rudd, and American actorSean Penn visited Tahrir Square after the 2011 Revolution.
One of the ships in the plannedFreedom Flotilla II, intended to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza, was named Tahrir after the square. Among its passengers wasHaaretz reporter Amira Hass. Ultimately, the sailing did not take place.[37]
On 29 June 2013, thousands of Egyptians converged on Tahrir Square to demonstrate against the Egyptian PresidentMohamed Morsi, demanding his resignation from office.[38][39] The demonstrators used the slogan "the people want the ouster of the regime," used in the protests that led to the 2011 revolution.[40]
By the 30th, their number had increased[41] and demonstrations were reported to be in progress in 18 locations across Cairo.[42] The demonstration had hundreds of thousands of protesters, although the Egyptian Government claims there were 33 million in the street, this number is highly suspected of since the largest square in Egypt, Tahrir Square, can only hold 200,000-225,000 people maximum, according to earlier crowd-size analyses.[43][44] On 3 July 2013, GeneralAbdul Fatah al-Sisi announced the removal of PresidentMohamed Morsi and suspended theEgyptian constitution afterongoing public protests. The move was described as a "coup d'état" by supporters of Morsi and/or theMuslim Brotherhood and much of the international media,[45][46][47][48][49] but when combined with the protests, it has instead been described by its supporters, as well as other media outlets, as arevolution.[50][51][52]
On 3 April 2021, the square witnessed a hugeparade in which twenty-two mummies were moved from theEgyptian Museum to theNational Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
These are crude numbers but I would venture an estimate of 200,000 max for those four contiguous spaces. There are of course several streets that feed into the "square" and the possibility of another 50,000 or so in those feeder spaces abutting the "square."
A colleague on The New York Times graphics desk, Sergio J. Pecanha, used a satellite photograph of Tahrir Square to estimate that it would hold roughly 225,000 people at maximum capacity
Based on the size of the square (approximately 490,000 square feet) and the average limit of one person occupying 2.5 square feet in a densely packed crowd, Tahrir Square can accommodate approximately 200,000 people.
A colleague on The New York Times graphics desk, Sergio J. Pecanha, used a satellite photograph of Tahrir Square to estimate that it would hold roughly 225,000 people at maximum capacity
Tahrir Square travel guide from WikivoyageCollected from demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square2011–present
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