Tall Square
Tall Square emerged in the late nineteenth century as a new center outside the old Mamluk city. Ottoman and European-style buildings expressed the modern ambitions of that period; today, their architecture records an important stage in Tripoli’s development.
The square became a busy arrival and departure point for travelers between Tripoli, Beirut and the surrounding towns. Its constant movement made it a natural center of urban life, including for passengers changing transport on their way to Beirut.
The Hamidiya Clock Tower, presented to Tripoli by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and Mansheya Park became its defining landmarks. The park was among the city’s first public gardens.
Restaurants, cafés and hotels gathered around Tall. Before the civil war, Tripoli had more than forty hotels. The district also concentrated commercial, economic and administrative activity: the Ottoman Serail and Ottoman Bank once stood here before their demolition, alongside the tramway station, post office and municipal building.
The upper café was a meeting place for political and intellectual discussion and also had an open-air cinema. The Anja Theatre, associated with Zahrat Al Fayha, belonged to this cultural setting; Umm Kulthum sang there in the 1930s.
In 1915, during the First World War, a French military aircraft landed on the sandy open ground, an event remembered locally as an extraordinary spectacle. In later decades, Tall became a gathering point for demonstrations against the French Mandate and for sit-ins, protests and public movements before and after independence.
