The Shâria Karâfet Bâb el-Wezîr, the S. prolongation of Shâria es-Sultân Ahmed, leads to the Citadel (comp. p. [453]).
2. Excursion to the Heliopolis Oasis and Heliopolis-On. The new Heliopolis Oasis is most quickly (10 min.) reached from Cairo by the Metropolitan Railway (p. [441]), or by railway and electric tramway viâ Palais de Koubbeh (20–30 min.; comp. below); tramway No. 10 in ca. 50 min., see p. [440]; cab, see p. [441].
The Heliopolis Oasis or New Heliopolis (hotels, see p. [440]), called by the Arabs Masr el-Gedida, i. e. ‘New Cairo’, is a new ‘suburb’, founded in 1906 by a Belgian company, about 5 M. to the N.E. of Cairo. On this healthy site an entirely modern town, consisting of villas and buildings mostly in the Moorish style, is being laid out on an ambitious scale. Broad avenues planted with trees and streets pleasantly interspersed with spacious squares intersect the town, while recreation grounds of every description and a race course provide for the residents’ entertainment.—Heliopolis Oasis is connected with Cairo by a beautiful Avenue (cab, see p. [441]), the favourite promenade of the inhabitants and visitors in Cairo, which, close to the Oasis, passes the not yet completed British Barracks.
The visit to Heliopolis-On may be combined with the route just described by way of rail. station Palais de Koubbeh (tramway, see below). If, however, we make our visit from Cairo direct we go by railway from the Pont Limûn Station (p. [439]; trains every ½ hr., in 21 min.; also several fast trains in ¼ hr.; return-fare 4½ or 3 pias.).
The train crosses the Ismaîlîyeh Canal (p. [438]). 2 M. Demîrdash, or Demerdache, station for the villa-suburb of Abbâsîyeh. 4¼ M. Palais de Koubbeh, with the Khedivial Palace; from the station an electric tramway, in connection with the trains, runs to the S.E. to (1 M.) the Heliopolis Oasis (see above). 5 M. Ezbet ez-Zeitûn, a group of villas; 6¼ M. Matarîyeh.
At the village of Matarîyeh (hotel), in a garden to the right of the road, is the Virgin’s Tree, a sycamore marking the spot where the Holy Family is said to have resided during their exile in Egypt. A little to the E. of the station is an Ostrich Farm (adm. 10 pias.), with a belvedere.
From the Virgin’s Garden the Shâria el-Misalleh (obelisk street) leads to the N. to the site of Heliopolis-On, one of tho most ancient places in Egypt, famous for the cult of the falcon-headed sun-god Rē-Harakhtē. The Obelisk of red granite is the oldest in the land. Scanty fragments of the temple and of the town-wall are the only other ruins.
3. We may next visit Old Cairo (tramway No. 4, p. [440]).
The route is by the Shâria Masr el-Kadîmeh, the continuation of Shâria Fum el-Khalîg (Pl. A, 7; p. [455]). On the left, at its beginning, is a hexagonal Water Tower, which once supplied an Aqueduct (El-Kanâtir) built by El-Ghûri (p. [449]), extending to Bâb el-Karâfeh (Pl. E, 7), and still traceable in its ruins, 66 ft. high.
About ¼ M. beyond the new Abbâs Bridge (p. [461]) the Shâria Gâmia Amr, on the left, leads to the picturesque old Coptic convent Deir Abû Sefein and the Amru Mosque (see below).