, one of the oldest
Coptic churches in Heliopolis , which became a school in 1960 The rise of real estate prices in Egypt coupled with the increasing numbers of expatriates living in the country inspired the Belgian industrialist
Édouard Empain, 1st
Baron Empain to build a new suburb of Cairo. In 1905, his company,
Chemins de fer de la Basse-Egypte bought of inexpensive desert to the northeast of Cairo. A year later, he established
The Cairo Electric Railways & Heliopolis Oases Company. The former would build a railway line linking
Mansourah (on the
Nile) to
Matariya (on the far side of
Lake Manzala from
Port Said). Initially, Heliopolis was designed to be an oasis in the desert, a "city of luxury and leisure", with 8% of its area reserved for public gardens, parks, and playgrounds. In the first design, it was to be composed of two separate oases connected to the center of Cairo by a tramline. The oasis nearest to Cairo would be a tourist area, with the
Heliopolis Palace Hotel surrounded by luxurious homes. The other oasis would be factories and workers’ homes. In 1907, Empain experienced financial difficulties. British financier
Ernest Cassel stepped in and the city was redesigned. In the new design, Heliopolis was planned as a
Garden City. Landmarks were connected by broad avenues, a la Paris, and entertainment facilities like
Luna Amusement Park, golf courses and the
Heliopolis Sporting Club were built to attract Europeans. It naturally had water, drains and electricity, and there was rental housing 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. Facing the Baron's palace was the Villa Boghos
Nubar Pasha, now a military headquarters, and the residence of
Sultan Hussein Kamel, who reigned over Egypt between 1914 and 1917; it is now a presidential guest house. Young architects were brought in as assistants: the Belgians Augustin Van Arenbergh, Charles Willaert, and Antoine Courtens and, from France, Alexandre Collonge, Georges Chaillier and
Camille Robida. Georges-Louis Claude oversaw decor and interiors. The only Egyptian architect on the original team was
Habib Ayrout, who focused on the practical housing that supported the suburb's early expansion–the middle-class homes and workers' homes. Ayrout embedded into European design local Egyptian elements such as arched facades, balcony screens and reception rooms. Ayrout also designed the
Melkite Greek Catholic church Saint Cyril. Two of Ayrout's sons, architects
Charles Ayrout and Maxime Ayrout, would continue to work on Heliopolis over the next few decades. Heliopolis was originally filled primarily with aristocratic
Egyptians, as well as some European nationals. Unlike other modern Cairo 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. Due to the rising population of Cairo following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, in the 1960s, President Nasser built the Nasr City as an extension to Heliopolis. The Heliopolis War Cemetery on Nabil el Wakkad street contains the
Port Tewfik Memorial, a memorial to over 4,000 soldiers of the
British Indian Army who fell in the
First World War, which was originally in
Port Tewfik, but was relocated to Heliopolis after its destruction in the 1970s. And, due to the large growth in population, the original gardens that filled the city have been built over. == Administrative divisions and population ==