CAIRO - Three days before former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, Mahmoud el- Taweil had an idea how to remember the martyrs of the revolution: a monument in the centre of Al Tahrir Square, the iconic plaza in central Cairo. El-Taweil, a Faculty of Fine Art graduate, was among the thousands who were camping in Al Tahrir Square and participating in the revolution. He says he hoped to become a martyr, but it wasn't meant to be. He also dreamed of being a doctor, helping all those injured during the protests, or a military officer protecting the youth of the revolution. He used his drawing tools, pencil and paper, to draw sketches of people's faces in Tahrir Square. “The martyr memorial” would be similar to the one of the unknown solider, el-Taweil explains. He registered his drawings with the Public Notary to avoid problems. El-Taweil sent his suggestion for the memorial to the Morale Department of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities Authority. They all welcomed his idea. However, el-Taweil hopes that the Interior Ministry will carry out the construction of the memorial and by doing so it will apologise to the martyrs, and also create new bridges of confidence between police and citizens. El-Tawil is inspired by the obelisks of Ancient Egypt. His plan is to sculpt 400 small obelisks to be laid down in the middle of Liberation Square, an obelisk for each martyr, with outstretched arms and hands emerging from the obelisks. The hands would hold each other. Each obelisk would be on a low granite plinth with the martyr's name in Arabic, English and hieroglyphs. The size of the obelisks would vary, similar to human bodies, and their arrangement would create communication amongst each other. There would be arteries connected to all obelisks, leading to a larger one in the centre, symbolising Egypt as the mother of all (to show that the martyrs' blood was not spilled in vein but went to Egypt, the mother, who would give new life to the country). Meanwhile, Abdel Ghaffar Shedid, the founder of the history department at the Faculty of Arts, would like to add his contribution to the memorial. “He will provide the hieroglyphic letters for the martyrs' names,” el-Taweil told the semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper. “Pharaonic obelisks are the best architectural expression for this memorial. Many countries were keen to own original obelisks, they are a symbol of Egypt,” Shedid added. He suggested to use an ancient obelisk from el- Masala park in Zamalek in Cairo for the memorial. “It will add to Tahrir Square's attraction as a tourist site, particularly since it is the symbol of the revolution and close to the Egyptian Museum,” Shedid noted. El-Taweil is fully committed to his idea and doesn't want to wait for financial support. He is inviting sculptors to contribute by sculpting one obelisk each. He added that the families of the martyrs welcomed the idea of the memorial and would like to see it in Liberation Square as soon as possible.
