How Cairo’s Heliopolis heritage managed to remain uncovered
The residents of Cairo's Heliopolis neighborhood have succeeded in stopping a government decision to build a new bridge in the heart of its historical and heritage area.
Residents of Cairo’s affluent district of Heliopolis have recently succeeded in stopping at the last minute the construction of a bridge in the heart of the neighborhood that in the eyes of its residents would have threatened its main heritage area. The project was part of the Egyptian authorities' ongoing plans to develop the capital's infrastructure with the aim of solving its increasing traffic problems and improving the connection with surrounding cities.
The new bridge in Heliopolis would have stretched 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across the neighborhood’s largest and oldest heritage sites, according to the Heliopolis Heritage Initiative, a civil initiative aiming to protect and revive the district’s quality of life that led efforts in stopping the construction of the bridge. The bridge would have run across the most important square in Heliopolis, where its famous 108-year Basilica is located, several buildings of historical importance and Ittihadiya Palace.
“This is the heart of the heritage area,” Choukri Asmar, chairman of the Heliopolis Heritage Initiative, told Al-Monitor. “The Basilica is the center and located on the main square of Heliopolis, and the next street [that the bridge was to cover] is the commercial area of Heliopolis. It would also have been built over two other churches that are more than 100 years old, two or three schools with buildings dating back at least 100 years and roughly 70 heritage buildings.”
The urban planning of Heliopolis — also called the City of the Sun — was initially based on roundabouts acting as focal points from which a network of streets emerged representing the rays of the sun, according to Ahmad Yahia, an architect who has studied its urban design. Heliopolis is also known for its French-style avenues and Islamic buildings following the vision of its founder, Belgian industrialist Edouard Empain, who is buried in the Basilica. “It is a special, one-of-a-kind urban planning in Egypt,” Yahia told Al-Monitor.
