Tahrir Square (Arabic: ميدان التحرير‎ Mïdän at Taḥrǐr IPA: [meˈdæːn ettæħˈɾiːɾ], English: Liberation Square) is a major public town square in Downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square was originally called Midan Ismaileyya (English: Ismailia Square), after the 19th-century ruler Khedive Ismail, who commissioned the new downtown district's 'Paris on the Nile' design. After the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 the square became widely known as Tahrir (Liberation) Square, but the square was not officially renamed until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which changed Egypt from a constitutional monarchy into a republic.