Tahrir Square
The Tahrir Square (Arabic ميدان التحرير, DMG Maidan at- Tahrir, Liberation Square '; [ medæ ː n ettæħɾi ː ɾ ] ) is a major city square of the Egyptian capital Cairo near the right bank of the Nile. He has developed since the 19th century. The course consists mainly of a three-to fünfspurigem roundabout with a green center island. Are important state administration building and some well-known sights and tourist attractions in its immediate vicinity. The court, under which the two metro lines 1 and 2 intersect at the metro station " Sadat " is heavily frequented by buses and private vehicles. In 2011 he was the rally site of the forces that entered for or against the President Hosni Mubarak and therefore became the symbol of the Egyptian revolution.
Location
The space is traversed in an east-west direction from the At- Tahrir Street and forms the northern end of the historic Qasr al - Ayn Street. It is located about 500 meters north of the seat of government, the Interior Ministry, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Embassy.
Is, among other things, the building of the Egyptian National Museum, which was founded by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette in 1858 and in 1902 moved to the neoclassical building on the north side of Tahrir Square. Further east lies the Presidential Palace and the Parliament building to the southeast.
Adjacent district is Qasr ed- Dubara (Arabic: قصر الدوبارة, Qasr al- Dubara, Qasr / Kasr el- Dubara ) with Umar Makram Mosque and the Palace of Princess Nimet Kamāl ed -Din ( Foreign Ministry ) and the el- Mugamma ʿ (Arabic: مجمع التحرير, Muǧamma ʿ at- Tahrir, the " administration on Tahrir Square ", built in 1951). Further south is the Garden City (Arabic: جاردن سيتي Garden City ), connected via the Kasr -el- Aini Street.
Southwest of the museum follow along the Corniche, The Nile Hotel (Hilton Hotel chain) and the high-rise of the Arab League.
To the west is accessed via the Kasr - el-Nil Street and the Kasr - el-Nil Bridge ( Arab: كوبري _ قصر _ النيل, Kūbrī Qasr at - Nīl ) the Nile island of Gezira, inter alia, with the modern opera (1988) and many embassies.
Northwest from the Egyptian Museum closes the headquarters of the National Democratic Party of Egypt, the party of former President Mubarak, to. The building has been severely damaged since a fire in connection with the unrest in January 2011.
East of the square is the downtown Cairo, the most important road link is the period beginning at Tahrir Square, Talaat Harb Street. This street was named after Talaat Harb, the founder of the Egyptian National Bank and is one of the main shopping areas of Cairo.
Tahrir square is also the historic downtown campus of the American University of Cairo.
History
The area east of the Nile was built in the 19th century under the reign of the Ottoman viceroy Ismail Pasha in the desire to reject the infrastructure of the Middle Eastern city with the help of generous boulevards and urban waterfronts to the appearance of Central European cities. In the area of today's Tahrir Square was created in 1863 a barracks for the Egyptian army. The barracks were taken over in 1882 by the British, they were in 1919 and again. Following the Second World War, the scene of protests against the British occupation After the withdrawal of British troops, the barracks was demolished in 1947. The place was given the name " al - Midan Ismailiyya " Ismail Pasha was initially after, after the overthrow of the monarchy by a military coup and the proclamation of Egypt as a republic in 1954 in " Midan at- Tahrir " - Liberation Square - renamed.
As a result, there have been some proposals to redesign the damages caused by the demolition of barracks - free surface. By 1958, the emergence of three major buildings: the Mogamma - building of the city administration, the Nile Hilton Hotel and the headquarters of the Arab League. The actual Tahrir Square had mainly held the post of transport node from 1950. In contrast, the open space in front of the Egyptian Museum was, previously, horticulturally designed the sports ground of the barracks into a park. This park, however, was gradually transformed into the following years into a parking lot.
1977 was the Tahrir Square venue of the spontaneous and violent " bread riots " against the government of Anwar Sadat in 1991 and the center of the protests against the Iraq war. During the revolution in Egypt in 2011, the biggest rallies in the country took place on the court, the order was an important and contested symbol between the parties. On January 25, the first time occupied about 15,000 protesters the square as part of a proclaimed " Day of Wrath". On February 2, it finally came mainly north of the square next to the Egyptian Museum for hours of violent street battles between opponents of the regime and supporters of the then incumbent President Hosni Mubarak.
End of 2011, announced the governor of Cairo that a design competition would be held for the Tahrir Square.
Symbolic meaning
Tahrir Square can be regarded as a geographical and administrative center of Greater Cairo and was repeated to the site of rallies and protests. Since 2011, he received an additional symbolic meaning, which manifests itself in protests and Occupy movements around the world: The " model Tahrir " connects from discourse- theoretical point of view the two forms of protest demonstrations and riots on the one hand and longer lasting cast of camp on the other. " ' Yes we camp ' was after it had been run over in Beijing in 1989 by tanks, reinvented in Cairo and proliferated from there tend to be worldwide." The " week-long Cultural Revolution day and night camp" may "base utopia of egalitarian As- sociation " be regarded as "the model of a new as- sociation, justify the new social rules can " the author points out that " Tahrirplätze " appeared in the northern crisis movements, " for example, next to the Puerta del Sol in Madrid and eventually even in Israel ".