Manshia (Tahrir) Square

The grand 19th-century square at the historic heart of European Alexandria, two blocks back from the corniche. The equestrian statue of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1873) dominates the centre; the surrounding buildings — banks, offices, the old stock exchange, several insurance company palaces — survive in various states of preservation as a record of cosmopolitan late-Ottoman architecture.

The square is busy at all hours but most worth visiting in the late afternoon. Worthwhile combined with the Ali el-Hendy coffeehouse a couple of blocks away, the Mahmoud Said Museum, and the Cathedral of the Annunciation just to the north. Several decent juice bars and koshari shops cluster on the surrounding streets if you want a quick bite.

things to do sight
A story
Manshia Square — officially Tahrir Square since 1952 — was the centre of the European-built 19th-century city. The bronze equestrian statue at the centre is of Muhammad Ali Pasha, founder of modern Egypt, sculpted in 1873. The square has had a complicated political life: it was here, on 26 October 1954, that Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was the target of an assassination attempt during a public speech. Nasser's reaction — continuing the speech as the shots were fired — became one of the founding stories of his political legitimacy.