Heliopolis (district)
The Cairo district of Heliopolis (Greek for 'sun city'; Miṣr al-dschadīda /مصر الجديدة / 'New Egypt' or 'New Cairo', Egyptian-Arabic Maṣr el-gedīda ) is an upscale district of Cairo, the capital of Egypt . The name refers to the nearby ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis , which is now an archaeological site.
history
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Baron Baron Empain , a prominent Belgian businessman and recognized Amateur - Egyptologist , came in January 1904 to Egypt with the intention to save a development project of his wife, the construction of a railway line between Al-Matariyyah and Port Said . Although he lost the contract to a British company, Empain stayed in Egypt. The following year, Empain founded the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company , which bought 24 square kilometers of land in the desert northeast of Cairo from the colonial government for a relatively small sum - one piastre per square meter -. There he had an exclusive garden city built about ten kilometers from the center of Cairo. The new city embodied the first major attempt to develop its own architectural style, which is now known as the Heliopolis style . It was conceived as a “city of luxury and leisure”, with wide boulevards and equipped with all the necessary facilities and infrastructure: running water, drainage, electricity, hotels, a golf course, racecourse and parks. There was a wide selection of different residential buildings for different social classes, detached villas with terraces, apartment houses and workers' apartments. In 1910 a tram line was built connecting the satellite city with the city center.
Also in 1910, an international air show in front of 40,000 spectators took place in Heliopolis, the Grande Semaine de L'Aviation , to attract wealthy audiences from all over the world to the new city. One of the tasks for the 14 prominent pilots - including the German Hans Grade and the French Raymonde de Laroche - was to fly from Heliopolis in the northeast of the city to the pyramids of Giza , to circumnavigate them and to fly back. Back then, the desert around Cairo was still so undeveloped and the air so clear that you could see the planes with your eyes. However, the event was unsuccessful because many flights had to be canceled due to sandstorms. On the occasion of the air show, the Egyptian Post issued a special cancellation.
Empain himself had a palace built between 1907 and 1910, known as Baron Empain Palace , Palais Hindou or Qasr al Baron . The French architect Alexandre Marcel was commissioned by him to orientate himself on the architectural style of the Hindu . Models were Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Hindu temples in Odisha . An interesting example emerged of the early creative use of concrete from which the palace is entirely. Baron Empain's heirs sold the building in 1957, which subsequently stood empty for many years. In 2012 it became known that the palace would be restored in cooperation with the Belgian government and serve as an international cultural center. The famous Hotel Baron has stood next to the palace since 1980 .
The neighborhood was home to the residences of some of the wealthiest Egyptians, including the palace of Boghos and Nubar Pasha, which is now the seat of a military administration. Opposite is the former residence of Sultan Hussein Kamel , who ruled Egypt between 1914 and 1917 and which now serves as the President's guest house. The former Palace Hotel , the center of elegant life in Heliopolis, was later the residence of Husni Mubarak .
In 1910, Baron Empain himself laid the foundation stone for the Catholic basilica Notre-Dame d'Héliopolis , which is based on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul . Empain had an organ with 1470 pipes transported to Egypt for this church . From 2000 to 2010 the organ was restored by the Belgian organ builder Gerard Pels and put back into operation as part of festivities. Empain, who died in Belgium and whose body was then brought to Egypt, is also buried in the basilica.
At first, the modern Heliopolis was primarily used by aristocratic Egyptians and wealthy foreigners as a place of residence. Around 1928, 25,000 people lived there, almost half of them foreigners. After the military coup in 1952 , more and more people from the affluent middle class moved to Heliopolis. Today (2010) Heliopolis has around one million residents. In the meantime, Cairo has grown so much that Heliopolis has become part of the city. Many of the earlier parks have disappeared and been built over. Heliopolis has several leisure facilities. The Heliopolis Sporting Club was created in 1905 at the same time as the construction of the district. From 1911 to 1914 there was Luna Park , the first amusement park in Africa; An Australian military hospital was built on the property when the First World War broke out .
Important facilities
A campus of the state Ain-Schams-Universität is located in the district . The private Heliopolis University has also had its headquarters here since 2012. The command offices of the Egyptian military and the air forces are located in Heliopolis. In Heliopolis there are also the headquarters of several international organizations as well as the former residence of Husni Mubarak . Cairo International Airport is located on the northeastern edge of Heliopolis .
Also on display in Heliopolis is the 6th of October Panorama , a museum that depicts the 1973 October War in a propaganda way . The Port Taufiq Memorial , a memorial to around 4,000 soldiers of the British Indian Army who died in World War I and has no grave, is located in the Heliopolis military cemetery . The original memorial stood in Port Taufiq and was destroyed in 1967 during the Six Day War. In 1980 a new memorial was unveiled by the Ambassador of India in Heliopolis.
literature
- Andrew Beattie: Cairo: A Cultural History , Oxford University Press 2005. pp. 182-187.
- Agnieszka Dobrowolska: Heliopolis - Rebirth of the City of the Sun . American University in Cairo Press 2006. ISBN 977-416-008-8
- Yasser Elsheshtawy: Planning Middle Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope in a Globalizing World . Routledge 2004. pp. 144-151. ISBN 0-415-30400-8
- Anne Van Loo / Marie-Cécile Bruwier (eds.), Héliopolis , Brussels: Fonds Mercator 2010. ISBN 978-90-6153-930-8
Web links
- Nevine El-Aref: "Cultural enterprise puts a stop to batty tales". In: Al-Ahram Weekly. May 17-23, 2012. Issue No. 1098
- Nadine El Sayed: "Walking through historical Heliopolis". In: Egypt Today
- Historical photos of Heliopolis
Individual evidence
- ↑ The aviation pioneer Hans Grade - a passionate engineer on tg.vdi-bs.de
- ^ Renate Franz : Fredy Budzinski - cycling journalist, collector, chronicler . Cologne 2007, p. 25
- ↑ Dave Lam: The Heliopolis Committee of Aviation on earlyaviators.com
- ↑ Postal History on egyptstudycircle.org.uk
- ↑ Heliopolis' Baron Palace to be put back on Egypt's tourism map on ahram.org.eg v. April 29, 2012 (English)
- ↑ The Baron Hotel Heliopolis, Cairo ( Memento from March 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Celebrating the centenary of the Basilica of Heliopolis and the restoration of its rare pipe organ on ahram.org.eg v. January 11, 2011
- ↑ Atlas of Heliopolis on studio-basel.com (PDF; 3.6 MB)
- ^ Website of the Heliopolis University
- ↑ Egypt's Museums II: The October War Panorama v. October 6, 2010
- ↑ Heliopolis (Port Tewfik) Memorial on cwgc.org
Coordinates: 30 ° 6 ′ N , 31 ° 21 ′ E