Metro Stations Singing Outside Their Squares

Among the Cairo Metro stations serving the Downtown area, four do not reflect the reality of the square above them, as though they were singing outside the flock: Gamal Abdel Nasser Station is beneath الإسعاف Square, Anwar El-Sadat Station is beneath Tahrir Square, Martyrs Station is beneath Ramses Square, and Mohamed Naguib Station is beneath Mohamed Farid Square. These names were not chosen by chance, but were arranged without taking this discrepancy into account.

Gamal Abdel Nasser Station
The idea of changing the name of الإسعاف Station, which took its name from the headquarters of the Ambulance Authority above it at the intersection of 26 July and Ramses Streets, where a square with the same name once stood, came from the viewpoint of a member of Parliament at the time. He noticed that the first stations of the metro tunnel coming from Helwan were named after Egyptian leaders: Saad Zaghloul Station because his tomb was above it, followed by Anwar El-Sadat Station. الإسعاف Station was followed by Ahmed Orabi Station and then Ramses Station, which later became Mubarak and then Martyrs. He believed that this sequence carried the names of Egyptian leaders, making الإسعاف an anomaly, and proposed naming the station after Gamal Abdel Nasser. That is what happened.

Anwar El-Sadat Station
The station beneath Tahrir Square was named after Anwar El-Sadat as part of efforts to commemorate President Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat. The square itself had a distinctly Pharaonic character, as the Egyptian Museum was its most prominent landmark. One of the measures taken was to name Tahrir Square after him, and the name was indeed given to the square, but the change did not receive enough publicity or momentum to spread and was eventually forgotten. All that remains of it is the name Anwar El-Sadat on the metro station.

Martyrs Station
The change from Ramses Square Station, named after the colossal Ramses statue that was moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, to Martyrs took place in two stages. The first change came when the metro line connecting Helwan to Ramses Square opened under President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, who was destined to preside over the opening of Egypt’s first metro. It was considered inappropriate for an event of such magnitude to pass without leaving the name of its inaugurator on it, and so the station was renamed Mubarak.
The station retained the name Mubarak until the 25 January 2011 Revolution brought down President Mubarak’s rule. As a result, the station was renamed Martyrs in honor of those who died during the events of the revolution.

Mohamed Naguib Station
The station was named after Mohamed Naguib, although the square above it is centered around a statue of national leader Mohamed Farid, bears his name, and has a street branching from it that also bears his name. The aim was to honor Major General Mohamed Naguib, the first President of the Republic of Egypt after 1952. It was not taken into consideration that renaming the station after him created a stark contradiction between the two names, despite strong reasons for the station to bear the name Mohamed Farid.