Following decades of neglect, and after almost three years of restoration, Cairo’s exotic Baron Palace opened its doors to the public June 30, with the aim of becoming a new tourist destination in the city and a permanent exhibition on the history of Heliopolis, the elegant suburb-turned-district erected around the palace in the early 20th century.

Located on top of a small hill dominating what back then was the recently established Heliopolis, the alluring palace consists of a main building and a stunning tower and was built between 1907 and 1911 by the Belgian industrialist Edouard Empain. Its characteristic design, inspired by Hindu temples, was conceived by French architect Alexandre Marcel, who imported decorative elements modeled on Hindu and Buddhist icons previously exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1900, to adorn the exterior of the burnt sienna building.

The construction, which is surrounded by two large gardens and has three stylish terraces leading toward its entrance, was also one of the first in Egypt to be built with a reinforced concrete structure; it had an electric lift, a novelty at the time. Its singular character made it the source of inspiration of a number of popular myths and legends over the years.

The story of the palace is intimately tied to that of Heliopolis. Empain arrived in Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century, shortly after one of its companies had built the first tramway in Cairo. Once in the country, Empain formed the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company together with Boghos Nubar, son of the first prime minister of Egypt, Nubar Pasha. The consortium then purchased a plot of 2,500 hectares of desert in the northeast of Cairo in 1905 to build a new town — Heliopolis — and linked it to downtown Cairo, which back then had become as expensive as other capitals in Europe.