Tahrir Square, From Place to Space: The Geography of Representation

Abstract

Tahrir Square, a downtown Cairo roundabout that forms a maze of pavement leading up to the 14-story government building called the Mugamma', which had metamorphosed into a symbol of government, tells the story of a place transformed into a space. Before 2011, Tahrir Square was a place of domination; ordinary citizens once crossed the square in a hurry, trying to avoid any encounter with police or the secret police who were stationed in and around the square. However, when in need of an official document, they walked straight across the square into the Mugamma' to face with dread the monstrous Egyptian bureaucracy. The latest transformation of the square began on Jan 25, 2011, when thousands of citizens occupied the square. The ensuing bloody clashes with the regime's police forces established and defined the core actors. This article argues that the evolution of the actors from a collection of mere subversives to a resisting force that became a revolutionary movement required the physical appropriation of Tahrir Square