Heliopolis (Cairo Suburb)

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This article is about the modern district of Heliopolis. For the ancient city, see Heliopolis (ancient).

Modern Heliopolis (also known as مصر الجديدة, Maṣr el-gidīdah – literally "New Egypt" ) is a district of Cairo, Egypt. The town was established by the Heliopolis Oasis Company, headed by the Belgian industrialist Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain, beginning in 1905. The Baron, a well known amateur Egyptologist and prominent European entrepreneur, arrived in Egypt in January 1904, intending to rescue one of his Belgian company's projects in Egypt; the construction of a railway line linking Matariya to Port Said. Despite losing the railway contract to the British, Empain stayed on in Egypt; a decision due to his love of the desert and/or relationship with Yvette Boghdadli.

In 1905, Empain established the Heliopolis Oasis Company, which bought a large stretch of desert some distance to the northwest of Cairo at a low price from the colonial government. His efforts culminated in 1907 with the building of the new town of Heliopolis, in the desert ten kilometers from the center of Cairo. It was designed as a "city of luxury and leisure", with broad avenues and equipped with all necessary conveniences and infrastructure; water, drains, electricity, hotel facilities, such as the Palace Hotel and Heliopolis House, and recreational amenities including a golf course, racetrack and park. In addition, there was housing for rent, offered in a range of innovative design types targeting specific social classes with detached and terraced villas, apartment buildings, tenement blocks with balcony access and workers' bungalows.

The new city also represented the first large scale attempt to promote what later came to be called Arabesque style, known in its own day as the "Moorish style". Empain's own residence however, adopted a unique style. Alexander Marcel, a French architect and a member of the prestigious French Institute, was commissioned by Empain to build him a Hindu palace. Modelled on Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Hindu temples of Orissa, the palace was erected between 1907 and 1910. It still stands today and remains one of the finest examples of early creative use of concrete, of which it was entirely built. The chosen neighbourhood boasted some of the wealthiest Egyptian residences; to his left facing Avenue Baron was the Arabesque palace, now military headquarters, but originally the home of Boghos and Marie Nubar Pasha. It was the Pasha who assisted Baron Empain in purchasing the 6,000 acres (24 km²) of empty desert at one pound each on which he built Heliopolis. Diagonally opposite stands the former residence of Sultan Hussein Kamel, who reigned over Egypt between 1914 and 1917. Today, that is a presidential guest house.

Modern Heliopolis was originally filled mostly with foreigners and native aristocratic Egyptians. After the 1952 military coup d'état led by Nasser, it became home to much of Cairo's educated middle class. As Cairo has expanded, the once large distance between Heliopolis and Cairo has vanished and it is now well inside the city. Because of the large growth in population, the original gardens that filled the city have mostly been built over.

[edit] See also

Heliopolis (ancient)

Districts of Cairo
Agouza \| Abbassia \| Ain Shams \| Bulaq \| Dokki \| Downtown Cairo \| El-Manial \| El-Marg \| El-Quba \| El-Tagamu El Khames \| Embaba \| Garden City \| Giza \| Haram \| Heliopolis \| Islamic Cairo \| Kerdasa \| Maadi \| Mataria \| Mohandessin \| Muqatam \| Nasr City \| Old Cairo \| Rhoda \| Shoubra \| Shubra El Khiema \| Zaitun \| Zamalek