Tahrir Square: The Pulse of Egyptian Identity

Abstract

“Squares, boulevards, Favelas, refugee camps - have served throughout history as the setting for political protest and revolt.”(Weizman et al., 2015). These protests play a vital role in identifying what societal and political views a population uphold. Architecture is usually a representation of societal views, incidents and political ideologies (Fletcher, 2020). However, authoritarian or colonial regimes instill elements and design public spaces to sometimes stray away people from objecting against their policies. Contrarily, in instances where large scale massacres took place during these protests; the public square and the surrounding context become a place of remembrance. For Example, in the Melanesian archipelago, French colonialists publicly executed a group of indengious locals in front of their tribes men to invoke fear in the Kanak people who tried to challenge their regime the execution site is now known as the “Memorial of Uvanu” (Lambert, 2020)[2]. Comparably, in Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab, similar actions were taken by the British colony in India, where a large-scale massacre took place due to the protest against British imperialism (Pletcher, 2021).
Tahrir square formerly known as Ismailia square in Cairo, Egypt is a location where protests, massacres and overthrowing of colonial regimes took place. The square was built under the request of the Sultanate of the autonomous entity of the Ottoman Empire that ruled Egypt; Khedive Ismail Pasha. It was designed to appropriate the Parisian boulevards of France after his visit to the French capital in the mid 1800s. Although the architectural design of the area was finalized in his era; the square’s construction was finished in the 1900s. The structure of the square and the surrounding context has undergone many changes that symbolize the changing regimes and social classes in the country.

The main research will focus on examining Egypt in the 1900s as a French postcolonial nation. Consequently, it will address the extent in which Paris shaped the planning of Ismailia (Tahrir) square and its urban context, and how it changed over time. Furthermore, the thesis will address the impact of the shifting of political ideologies in Egypt that influenced these physical changes.

The thesis will inspect the varying photos of Tahrir square since it was first established till present. Furthermore, an examination of drawings found in archival architectural journals published by Sayed Karim in the 1940s is used to understand the various unrealised proposals for Tahrir. In addition and an observation of the political movements through news articles and official statements found on archival websites . Additionally, Journal articles and books explaining the culture of Egyptian society and its effect on urban space will be reflected to support the argument. Finally, an excursion has been conducted where i visited the Nile Ritz Carlton to view Tahrir from a different perspective.

My Hypothesis is that Tahrir square and its urban context greatly resembles the Parisian boulevards in terms of urban planning and architectural design as seen in the photographs found in ‘Paris Along the Nile’. However, due to its extensive history in Egypt’s many revolutions, it gradually transformed to represent Egyptian various identities in spite of its French reference.