Гелиополис: История и архитектура пригорода Каира

Locality in Cairo

Heliopolis (, Maṣr el Gedīda, , lit. (literally) "New Egypt") was an early 20th century suburb outside Cairo, Egypt, which has since merged with Cairo and is administratively divided into the districts of Masr El Gedida and El Nozha in the Eastern Area. Named after the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis, whose ruins have been found nearby in present day Ain Shams, modern Heliopolis was established in 1905 by the Heliopolis Oasis Company headed by the Belgian industrialist Édouard Empain and by Boghos Nubar, son of the Egyptian Prime Minister Nubar Pasha. The population in January 2022 of Masr El Gedida was estimated to be 142,017 and in El Nozha was 244,869 people.

Édouard Louis Joseph, 1st Baron Empain visited Egypt in January 1904 to rescue one of the projects of his company S. A. des Chemins de Fer de la Basse Egypte; the construction of a railway line linking Mansourah (on the Nile river) to Matariya (on the far side of Lake Manzala from Port Said). In 1906, Empain established the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company, which bought 2500 ha (6177 acres) of desert around 10km to the northeast of Cairo to build a semi autonomous garden city of Heliopolis. The new town represented the first large scale attempt to promote its own architecture, known now as the Heliopolis style. It was designed as a "city of luxury and leisure", with broad avenues and equipped with all conveniences and infrastructure: water, drains, electricity, hotel facilities, such as the Heliopolis 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 designs targeting specific social classes with detached and terraced villas, apartment buildings, tenement blocks with balcony access and workers' bungalows. While Heliopolis had features that were fundamentally different from the colonial planning in other African and Asian countries, it was an undertaking that could not have been more colonial. The project was the expression of a dream of one man, the Belgian Edouard Empain, and the buildings were designed by Belgian, French and British architects and, in the beginning, built with materials brought from these countries. And although there is no ‘cordon sanitaire’, there are some more implicit structures that made a more subtle segregation in the city possible. The neighborhood had some of the wealthiest Egyptian residences; on the left facing Avenue Baron was the Arabesque palace of Boghos and Marie Nubar Pasha, now a military headquarters, and diagonally opposite stands the former residence of Sultan Hussein Kamel, who reigned over Egypt between 1914 and 1917, and today, it is a presidential guest house. Modern Heliopolis was originally filled primarily with aristocratic Egyptians, as well as some European nationals. Unlike other modern Cairene suburbs around the start of the 20th century, Heliopolis had a significantly larger percentage of Egyptian citizen residents. After the 1952 revolution led by Nasser, it became home to much of Cairo's educated upper and 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.

Heliopolis contains recreational places, as it was initially established to offer its residents and visitors rest and relaxation. Heliopolis club is one of the most luxurious sporting clubs in Egypt. It was established along with Heliopolis in 1905. From 1911 until 1915, Heliopolis had Luna Park, Africa's first amusement park (the grounds were converted into an Australian field hospital just after the onset of World War I). The Merryland is also a famous recreational park; it contains a lake and was at the height of its elegance in the 1960s and 70s. It now contains a small amusement park. Other sporting clubs include El Shams Club (biggest in size and number of members), Heliolido club, El Ghaba club, El Tayaran club and others. Heliopolis contains modern cafes (including Harris, Starbucks, Cilantro, Costa Coffee, and Beanos) and restaurants along with some Egyptian traditional ones. Some bars and nightclubs can be found. Tens of cinemas can be found in Heliopolis and its extension, Madinet Nasr (Nasr City); Normandy Cinema in Al Ahram street, Cinema Roxy, Cinema Heliopolis along with the new cinemas in Horia Mall and City Stars Mall, one of the biggest and best known shopping malls in Egypt and the Middle East.

The triangular El Korba Square on Baghdad Street and the area surrounding it, popularly known as Korba, is one of the city's favorite public spaces↔︎ and home to historic landmarks like the Baron Empain Palace (Alexander Marcel) and Boghos Nubar Pasha Palace. Originally it was named "Le Courbet" It also houses the Basilica Church, the Korba Church and Heliopolis Hotel (now presidential palace). It´s a popular area for strolling, shopping, cafés and retaurants.

Heliopolis gained a special political and military importance in Egypt and the Middle East in recent decades. The Egyptian Military headquarters and the Egyptian Air Force headquarters are there. The Almaza Military Airbase is very close to Heliopolis. Heliopolis was the residence of the Egyptian ex president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. In 1981, the site of Heliopolis Palace Hotel became the Egyptian Republican Palace (قصر رئاسة الجمهورية) and the president's office.

In contrast with its initial establishment as a quiet suburb, Heliopolis now is considered a main part of Cairo. It is home to celebrities, football players, politicians and wealthy families. The numbers of residents have doubled several times since 1922. A tram system used to serve Heliopolis and parts of the surrounding area but it has been closed and removed entirely since 2015. By that time, Heliopolis was being integrated into the Cairo underground metro's Line 3, which now links it to Greater Cairo's eastern satellite cities, and to its westen extension in Giza, through Abassia, Downtown and Zamalek. Local Heliopolis stations are Koleyet El Banat, Al Ahram, Haroun, Heliopolis Square, Alf Maskan, El Shams Club, and El Nozha. The Heliopolis extension of Line 3 was completed in 2018. In 2019 and 2020, major changes to the infrastructure have occurred including widening several streets and building several bridges to ease traffic (mainly instead of major squares). This is also part of a bigger plan to link the New Administrative Capital in the east to the city of Cairo.