Tahrir Square

Coordinates: 30°02′40″N 31°14′09″E / 30.044422°N 31.235696°E / 30.044422; 31.235696

Tahrir Square or Midan Tahrir (Arabic: ميدان التحرير‎, IPA: [meˈdæːn el-, ettæħˈɾiːɾ], trans. Liberation Square) is a major public town square in Downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square was originally called Midan Ismaileyya (Ismailia Square), after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on the Nile' design. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, bringing Egypt from a constitutional monarchy with British occupation into an independent republic, the square's name was changed to Midan Tahrir or 'Liberation Square.'^[1]

Contents 1 Features 2 Public use and demonstrations 2.1 2011 protests 3 See also 4 References 5 External Links

[edit] Features

At the center of Tahrir Square is a large and busy traffic circle. On the northeast is a plaza with a statue of Ottoman Egypt era Cairene Omar Makram, and beyond is the Omar Makram Mosque. ^[2]

The square is the northern terminus of the historic Qasr al-Ayn Street, western end of Talaat Harb Street, and near the Qasr al-Nil Bridge crossing of the Nile River. The area around Tahrir Square includes the Egyptian Museum, the National Democratic Party-NDP headquarters building, the Mogamma government building, the Headquarters of the Arab League building, the Nile Hotel, and the original downtown campus of the American University in Cairo.

The Cairo Metro serves Tahrir Square with the Sadat Station, which is the downtown junction of the system's two lines, linking to Giza, Maadi, Helwan, and other districts and suburbs of Greater Cairo. Its underground access viaducts provide the safest routes for pedestrians crossing the broad roads of the heavily trafficked square.

[edit] Public use and demonstrations

Tahrir Square has been the traditional site for numerous major protests and demonstrations over the years, including when people gathered in the 1977 Egyptian Bread Riots, and the March 2003 protest against the War in Iraq.^[3]

[edit] 2011 protests

Tahrir Square is one the main locations of the 2011 Egyptian public protest gatherings, and the primary location in Cairo.^[4] Over 15,000 protesters first occupied the square on 25 January, during which the area's wireless services were reported to be impaired.^[5] After that first day Tahrir Square continued to be the primary destination for protests in Cairo.^[6] On 29 January Egyptian fighter aircraft flew low over the people gathered in the square. On 30 January BBC correspondents reported that the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the seventh day of protests, had grown to at least 50,000 people ^[7], and on 31 January Al Jazeera correspondents reported that the demonstrations had grown to at least 250,000 people. ^[8] On 1 February, Al Jazeera reported that more than 1 million protesters peacefully gathered on the square and the adjacent streets.^[9]

The Square has become established as a focal point in physical place, and as a symbol, for the ongoing Egyptian democracy demonstrations. More recently violence between the pro-Mubarak and pro-democracy demonstrators has erupted in the square and its approaches. The square itself, with its pavement being broken up for throwing as projectiles, provides new resources for its dynamic component in the 2011 Egyptian protests. Within a week of international media coverage, Tahrir Square (and Eng. 'Liberation Square' ) has become known 'worldwide' by images and name. ^[10]

[edit] See also

• Downtown Cairo

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tahrir Square

• BBC News — Tahrir Square's place in Egypt's history
• Satellite view of Tahrir Square - SightseeBySpace.com

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