After successfully developing Cairo's first public tram network, for which he obtained the concession in 1894, the Baron had the idea of building a new town in the desert on land bought cheaply from the Egyptian government in 1905

Heliopolis started originally as a pleasure city for the affluent until it was decided that this trend was leading to nowhere, for it was built for prestige for the affluent rather as an integrated city including the average citizen as well.
 
The plan was subsequently corrected under wizarat Nasim Pasha  to encourage the flux of newcomers from the low and moderate income bracket. Only then did the city become viable and functional.  

Heliopolis is different from other contemporary developments in every aspect : within an area of 6,250 acres, it is a composite urban development based on a garden-city layout with buildings architectural styles which combined the French architectural tradition (apartment blocks above arcades built flush with the facade) with the neo-Arabic style used by the development company. 

A hierarchy of districts and types of housing to suit the future population (manual workers, office workers, and the wealthy middle class) was established, and strict building regulations were imposed on potential buyers. Palm groves, advanced infrastructures for the time such as a sewer system which Cairo did not have, sports facilities, schools and hotels helped to make Heliopolis a cohesive urban development which has retained its original characteristics.

Biography:

Édouard Louis Joseph Empain, Baron Empain (20 September 1852 - 22 July 1929) was a wealthy Belgian engineer, entrepreneur, financier and industrialist, as well as an amateur Egyptologist. 

Empain began his career a draughtsman at a metallurgical company, Société métallurgique, in 1878, and became involved in railway construction when he noticed that transport infrastructure in the countryside was inadequate. After success in Belgium with the Liege-Jemeppe line, his companies developed several railway lines in France, including the creation of the Paris Métro.

Édouard Empain arrived in Egypt in January 1904, intending to rescue one of the projects of his company S.A. des Chemins de Fer de la Basse-Egypte; being the construction of a railway line linking Mansuwrah (on the Nile river) to Matariyah (on the far side of Lake Manzalah from Port Said). Despite losing the railway contract to the British, Empain stayed on in Egypt. ; 
 
In 1906, Empain established the Heliopolis Oasis Company, which bought a very large stretch of desert (25 square kilometres) to the northwest of Cairo at a low price from the colonial government Commencing in 1906-07 this company proceeded with the building of the new town of Heliopolis, in the desert ten kilometers from the center of Cairo.  initially it was designed as a "city of luxury and leisure", with broad avenues and equipped with all necessary conveniences and infrastructure; water, drains, electricity, hotel facilities, such as the Heliopolis Palace Hotel (now the presidential palace of Husniy Mubarak) and Heliopolis House, and recreational amenities including a golf course, race track and park.  Heliopolis still stands today and remains one of the finest examples of early creative use of concrete, of which it was entirely built. The chosen neighbourhood boasted some of the wealthiest Egyptian residences; to his left facing Avenue Baron was the Arabesque palace, now military headquarters, but originally the home of Boghos and Marie Nubar Pasha. It was the Pasha who assisted Baron Empain in purchasing the 6,250 acres (25 km²) of empty desert at one pound each on which he built Heliopolis.

Later on the project was altered to include housing for rent for the moderate income citizens (AKA biuywt al-sharikah), offering in a range of innovative design types targeting specific social classes with detached and terraced villas, apartment buildings, tenement blocks with balcony access and workers' bungalows.

Today, Baron Empain is perhaps best known by modern visitors to Egypt for the building of a palace (Le Palais Hindou) in the Avenue des Palais (renamed  `Urwbah Avenue in the Nasser era) Heliopolis, Egypt. Inspired by Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Hindu temples of Orissa,  it was designed by French architect Alexandre Marcel (1860-1928) and decorated by Georges-Louis Claude (1879-1963), with construction being completed in 1911.

Baron  Empain died at Woluwe, Belgium, and was buried under the Basilica of Notre-Dame d'Héliopolis