Revolution in Tahrir Square

Egyptians declared triumph over their "Pharaoh," dancing, singing, cheering and waving flags in a massive street party.

"We have brought down the regime," chanted the hundreds of thousands packed into Cairo's Tahrir Square, the heart of protests that toppled Mubarak in a show of people power unprecedented in Egypt's modern history.

They cried, embraced and ululated when the news reached them through a public address system. Fireworks burst over Tahrir Square as Egyptians wept in joy and disbelief at a day some never thought would come.

Egyptians didn't just turf an unpopular ruler out of office, they also faced off with an apparatus of a brutal police state that had the power to detain anyone for any reason for any amount of time through the use of emergency laws.

The army promised democratic reforms when it assumed power.

Protesters in Tahrir Square saw the commune they built up at the symbolic heart of Cairo as an act of regaining control of their destiny. They established committees to oversee security, food and medical treatment in what became a liberated zone where Cairenes and Egyptians from beyond came to register their rejection of the established order.

"Raise your head, you're an Egyptian!" was one of the refrains heard among the hundreds of thousands thronging the streets.

Egyptians like to call their country "umm al-dunya," or mother of the world, and for much of its history the nation had reasonable claim to the title.