Photo Gallery Calling Tahrir Square Home
"Welcome to Freedom," reads a message greeting new arrivals to Tahrir Square in central Cairo. Thousands of protesters have made the square their home for the last two weeks since demonstrations aimed at toppling the regime of President Hosni Mubarak began.
All entrances to Tahrir Square are tightly guarded, with soldiers and police carefully checking identity papers. Journalists are sent away. The demonstrators themselves have also posted security personnel to search newcomers for weapons. "Anyone interested in peacefully protesting is welcome," says one of the guards.
The mood on the square is a mixture of relaxed celebration and nervous tension. Shouts of "away with Mubarak!" periodically ring out with others singing and dancing. It feels like a collection of hundreds of mini-protests.
Thousands of people have set up temporary homes on Tahrir Square and now live under tarps or in tents.
They say they will not leave until Mubarak steps down -- and that they are prepared to stay for several weeks. This man was injured by a flying stone last week, but after receiving treatment on the square, he has resolved to carry on.
Most of the demonstrators on the square are young and are hopeful of a future with better job prospects and less corruption. The man is sitting on a destroyed sign and observing the square.
Banners display photos of injured demonstrators. "The world should see what happened to us. We aren't the ones who initiated violence," says one of the protesters.
A man walks through the square with a poster. "These pictures are of people who lost their lives in recent days only because they stood up for their convictions," he says.
Not far from Tahrir Square, demonstrators have put blood stained articles of clothing on display which allegedly belonged to activists who died in the demonstrations. Whether that is true or not is impossible to tell. There are also chalk outlines of bodies drawn on the streets where people allegedly were killed. Such drawings, however, are mostly symbolic -- made after the fact by those wishing to call attention to the violence.
Demonstrators and the Egyptian army stand face-to-face on Tahrir Square. Periodically, the military attemps to push forward a few meters into the square.
In order to prevent any further military advances, protesters have set up camp around the many tanks parked on the outskirts of the square.
They sleep, read and chat -- and wait in vain for their demands to finally be met.
Demonstrators have also built several barricades in the Cairo city center with whatever they could find, like this burned-out car in front of the Egyptian National Museum.
Many of the soldiers look as though the don't quite know why they are there. Some of them allow families to climb onto the tanks for pictures. "I hope that we can soon go home peacefully," one of the soldiers said.
The soldiers seem unconcerned about demonstrators sitting in front of their tanks. But some fear that the military will go on the offensive once global interest in the situation in Egypt subsides.
There are several first aid stations set up on Tahrir Square to provide medication and bandages to those camped out there.
The activists on Tahrir Square are in constant search of updates on the situation. This man is being told about the newest intentions and plans announced by the Mubarak regime.
