Tahrir Square ("Liberation Square") is the principal public space of modern Sana'a — a broad plaza ringed by ministries, banks, and the National Library, lying just west of the old city and serving as the symbolic centre of the modern Yemeni state. It was named after the 1962 revolution and has been the site of major political gatherings ever since, from the 1960s onward and again during the 2011 Arab Spring protests.
The square itself is more functional than beautiful, but its position makes it the natural junction between the new city's shops and offices and the old city walls only a few hundred metres east. The Al-Mutawakkil Library and the Military Museum face it.