Around the Qasr al-Baron

On my way to the Cairo airport yesterday I stopped in the Heliopolis neighborhood that is home the the Baron Palace. It is a Cambodian-Hindu-temple-inspired mansion that is now gutted down to the stone and metal and an almost ruin. Below is a photographic study of it taken from the outside of the property fence. I don’t think that access is allowed to anyone, it’s very public and there is a guard on duty. Of course I would have paid $100 to be able to roam around inside but the guard looked pretty serious. The rest of the photographs that follow are from the surrounding neighborhood. I didn’t get to spend enough time exploring Heliopolis since I had to get to the airport, but it is an interesting place having been constructed as a New Cairo in the very early 20th century and has been given its own architectural stylistic classification.
The castle itself was originally built in 1910 for Baron Empain designed by the French architect Alexander Marcel. The Baron and his companies are responsible for the construction of the greater Heliopolis development.




































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