There's not much I can say about this remarkable image. I took this photo today on Qasr Al Aini Street, looking down Sheikh Rihan Street. The wall was built after the December clashes in front of the Egyptian cabinet building. There had been a sit-in there for about a month to protest the installment of a new government by SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, i.e. the de-facto presidency) in the wake of earlier clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street. The clashes ended with the building of this and another wall and the gating off of the entire compound that holds the cabinet building and the parliament buildings.
Artists are volunteering to paint these images, in an attempt to honor fallen comrades, challenge the military non-violently, and keep the people's attention on recent events. Painting real images on the walls is just one strategy, but it appears popular and has begun to appear on other walls as well.
One artist I spoke to said, "To them this is a wall, to me it's a canvas." He was working on a wall nearby pictured below, which if I understood correctly refers to a scene described in an ancient Egyptian mythological story. The imagery is not yet clear to me, but the main quote on the wall says, "Let us see the light of the day."
The scaffolding on the left-hand side surrounds the Egyptian Institute, a building that once stored thousands of ancient manuscripts from Napoleon's scientific invasion of Egypt in the late 18th century. It was burned nearly to the ground during the December clashes, only some of the priceless artifacts were salvaged.
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