Heliopolis

This planned suburb northeast of central Cairo was laid out in the early twentieth century by a Belgian industrialist as a garden city, with broad avenues, grand apartment blocks and a distinctive architectural style blending Islamic, European and Moorish motifs. Its landmarks include a great basilica, a former palace and a historic hotel building. Designed with wide boulevards and arcaded frontages, it remains one of Cairo's most coherent examples of early modern urban planning.