
Heliopolis, formerly known as Iunu, and known in Arabic as Masr al-Gedida, is a former Ancient Egyptian city and a suburban neighborhood of Cairo. Iunu means "the Pillars" in Egyptian, and it was a cult center of the sun god Ra and Horus before Pharaoh Akhenaten built a temple honoring Aten. Alexander the Great stopped at the Temple of Ra during his march from Pelusium to Memphis, and it became a part of the Roman province of Augustmnica beolfre coming under Islamic rule. The ruins of Heliopolis, as the Greeks called it, were massively scavenged for building materials as the Muslim cities of Fustat and Cairo grew, and the site became known as Ayn Shams ("Eye of the Sun"). In 1905, Edouard Empain's Heliopolis Oasis Company refounded "Heliopolis" nearby, and it was designed as a "city of luxury and leisure" with broad avenues and modern conveniences and infrastructure. The city was a predominanlty-Egyptian aristocratic community, and it became home to much of Cairo's educated upper and middle classes after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Today, most of the original gardens have been filled over due to the city's population growth. By 2022, Heliopolis had 387,000 residents.