Tahrir Square

Look around you: this open space is the heart of modern Cairo. In the 19th century it was called Ismailiya Square, in honour of Khedive Ismail, who ruled Egypt from 1863 to 1879 and wanted to turn his capital into a ‘Paris on the Nile’, with broad avenues, roundabouts and European-style buildings.

1A name won by the people

After the 1919 revolution against British occupation, people began calling it Tahrir, ‘Liberation’. King Fuad tried in 1933 to restore the khedive's name, but after the 1952 revolution the popular name became official. Beside the square stood the Qasr al-Nil barracks, occupied by British troops until 1947.

2The eighteen days

On 25 January 2011, tens of thousands of people occupied the square to protest against President Hosni Mubarak. They camped here for eighteen days, with makeshift hospitals, neighbourhood watch committees and stages for speeches. On 11 February, Mubarak resigned. The square filled again in 2013, in the protests that preceded the fall of President Mohamed Morsi.

In 2020 an obelisk of Ramesses II brought from Tanis, in the Delta, was set up in the centre, together with four ram-headed sphinxes from Karnak, in Luxor. Several archaeologists criticised the move.

Few places in the Arab world carry so much recent history in so little space, and Cairenes still call it simply ‘el-Midan’, the square.

3What to look for

• The obelisk and the hieroglyphs of Ramesses II.
• The four sphinxes with rams' heads.
• The Mogamma, the huge curved government building on the south side.