Downtown Collectables: A new chapter on Tahrir Square One of Cairo's most visible city landmarks is destined never to be seen in the same way again. Before the 25 January 2011 revolution, Tahrir Square was just one of several important squares in the capital. Ramsies Square boastsed the train station and the minibus terminus. Ataba might have lost its former charm, but it was still home to one of the country's main commercial centres. With the revolution, all this changed. Tahrir became symptomatic of revolution, a household name worldwide, and an inspiration to oppressed people everywhere. A French squaree has even been renamed Tahrir. For visiting dignitaries, a pilgrimage to the suqare is a must. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that being in the square gave him a shiver. Hillary Clinton, when she came to Cairo on 15 March, went for a walk there. In an unprecedented act of revolutionary homage, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf spoke to demonstrators in the square, telling them that he drew his legitimacy from them. There have been calls for the next president to take the oath of office in Tahrir. Tahrir was given its name by the 1952 revolution. In royal times, it was known as Ismailia Square, after Khedive Ismail, the man who aspired to give Cairo the looks of his favourite city: Paris. There has always been so something intensely political about it. Before the 1952 revolution, anti-British demonstrators often marched to the square to vent their grievances. The western side of the square, now comprising the Arab League and what used to be the Nile Hilton Hotel, was once the site of the British barracks, a symbol of foreign occupation. No wonder protestors converged on the square during the 1919 uprising, and also after the abrogation of the 1936 treaty. When martial law was declared during WWII, the Egyptian opposition held protests in the square. More protests calling for the ousting of King Farouk were staged in February 1946. Interestingly, the then Prime Minister Ismail Sidqi joined the protestors in denouncing British occupation. This did o't prevent the British from using armoured vehicles to disperse the protestors. On 17 March 1947, British forces pulled out of Cairo and King Farouk hoisted the Egyptian flag on the barracks. The barracks, originally built for the Egyptian army and occupied by the British only after the defeat of Ahmed Orabi in 1882, were once again Egyptian. The Mogamma, which came to symbolise red tape and convoluted bureaucracy, was built in Farouk's reign. It was also during this reign that a massive granite pedestal was brought to Tahrir Square, intended as a pedestal for a statue commemorating Farouk's grandfather, Khedive Ismail. The statue never made it to the square. It arrived in Alexandria just as King Farouk was departing in his royal yacht, having abdicated the throne. Protestors converged on the square again in November 1956, to show their solidarity in the face of the Suez War, known locally as the Tripartite Aggression. In 1964, the first summit meeting bringing together all Arab kings and presidents was held at the newly-built headquarters of the Arab League. In September 1968, student protestors gathered at the square to voice resentment over the lenient prison sentences handed down to the commanders of the air force, who were blamed for the 1967 defeat. Gamal Abdel-Nasser, with customary flair, told the students that he was on their side. Later on, he issued the famous 30 March 1968 Declaration in which he promised a new constitution and an overhaul of the country's key political body, the Arab Socialist Union. Nasser died on 28 September 1970, shortly after attending an Arab summit dedicated to the Palestinian-Jordanian rift. The Arab leaders who attended the summit at the Arab League stayed in the adjacent Nile Hilton Hotel. In January 1972 it was Anwar Sadat's turn to face the music. Student demonstrators briefly occupied the square to protest against his perceived reluctance to face Israel in battle. Their protests were one of the reasons why Sadat sent the army into war in 1973. Five years later, in January 1977, bread riots broke out in protest at the government's decision to raise of basic food prices. Sadat immediately cancelled the rises. In February 1992, a bomb exploded at the Wadi Al-Nil Café, part of a violent campaign by Islamic extremists bent on overthrowing the regime. When the coffeehouse reopened a few months later, artists and intellectuals attended the opening to show their contempt of terrorism. Tahrir saw protests before and after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Anti-Mubarak demonstrations, although tiny compared with the January 2011 revolution, were regularly held by Kefaya, the 6 April Movement and the We Are All Khaled Said Movement. The square is home to such landmark buildings as the Egyptian Museum, the American University in Cairo, the Mogamma , the Arab League, the old foreign ministry, the former Nile Hilton and the Omar Makram Mosque. It is adjacent to the Abdel-Moneim Riyad and Simon Bolivar Squares. Here is a brief background on the history of these sites: Abdel-Moneim Riad Square Born in 1919, Riad graduated from military college in 1938 and took part in WWII. In 1946 he studied in England and in 1955 in Russia, where he earnt the nickname the "Golden General". On 30 May 1967, he was appointed commander of the advance command centre in Amman. During the 1967 war he commanded the Jordanian Front. On 11 June 1967 he became chief of staff of the Egyptian army and is credited with restructuring the army after the 1967 defeat. He is also credited fwith drawing up a plan for the destruction of the Bar-Lev line, helping to bring about the 1973 victory. Riad was killed on the front on 9 March 1969. On 11 February protestors climbed Riad's statue and placed an Egyptian flag in his hand. Simon Bolivar Square Behind the Omar Makram Mosque at the south side of Tahrir is a small square leading to the Shepheard and Semiramis hotels and the American and British embassies. Before the 1952 revolution, this square was called Qasr Al-Dubarah, a reference to a royal palace complex that once covered a large part of what is now Garden City. In the 1960s, when tension between Abdel-Nasser and the US was high, the government renameed the square after the Latin American liberation hero, a move that it believed would offend American sensibilities. The American University in Cairo The university building housing the university was originally a palace owned by Greek wine maker and tobacconist Nestor Gianaclis. Part of the palace was residential, while the other housed the Gianaclis tobacco factory. The National University (later Cairo University) rented the palace in 1909, before moving to another palace belonging to Mohammad Sidqi on Falaki Street. The American University rented the Gianaclis Palace in 1919. The Egyptian Museum The French architect Marcel Dourgnon designed the neo-classical museum building in 1896. The then antiquities chief, Gaston Maspero, supervised the transfer of the antiquities to the museum in 1902. Currently, the museum displays 136,000 pharaonic pieces with many more in storage. The League of Arab States After its creation in 1945, the League of Arab States, or Arab League, inhabited the Bostan Palace, owned by King Fouad and situated a few blocks to the east of Tahrir. In 1956 the Arab League was granted a piece of land on the site of what used to be the British Barracks. The building was inaugurated in 1958. The Nile-Hilton Hotel Built on part of the area once occupied by the Qasr Al-Nil Barracks, the hotel was opened in 1959 and is now undergoing renovation by its new owners, the Ritz-Carlton group. The Mogamma When this grandiose complex of government offices opened in 1950, it was believed to be the largest administrative complex in Africa and the Middle East. It is the work place of 15,000 employees and provides various services to nearly 50,000 visitors per day. Qasr Al-Nil Bridge This was the first modern bridge to be built on the Nile, and is immensely popular among tourists thanks to the four oversized bronze lions guarding its access. The construction began in 1869 under Khedive Ismail, and the brisge the bridge opened in 1871. At first pedestrians and vehicles were made to pay a toll of 0.25 piastres for adults and two piastres for loaded vehicles. A sign shown in one of the Studio Lumiere films declares that the passage charge was two millimes for mules, animals, and men, whereas "gazelles and beautiful girls" were exempt. The bridge was named after the palace of Qasr al-Nil, built by Mohammad Ali for his daughter, Zeinab. When Said Pasha acceded he demolished the palace and turned it into barracks, used first by the Egyptian army then the British. In 1933, the current bridge with doubled capacity was built, which King Fouad named Khedive Ismail Bridge after his father. This bridge cost LE300,000 to build and is 382 metres in length and 24 metres wide. The Omar Makram Mosque Omar Makram (1750 -- 1822) was born in Assiut and received his education at al-Azhar. He became chief of the Association of the Ashraf (descendents of Prophet Mohammad) in 1793 and led a popular uprising against the French in 1800. The Omar Markam Mosque stands on the site of what was once a small mosque dedicated to Sidi El-Abit, a local saint with who was buried there. Omar Markam himself is entombed in the Ghafir Cemetery. Compiled by Mekkawi Sayed
