Sounds from a Threatened Suburb: Developing a People's History of Heliopolis as a Route to a Sustainable Urban Future

赫利奥波利斯可以说是非洲第一个真正的现代郊区，但它并没有受到威胁的遗产资产。它古老的大都市社区正在逐渐瓦解，它的建筑腐朽倒塌，甚至它历史悠久的电车也即将消失。除了少数大学专家和老居民外，很少有人了解它对现代埃及的贡献。随着传统人口搬离郊区，赫利奥波利斯的口述历史和故事永远消失了。因此，这个项目试图通过许多家庭和社区的记忆来捕捉Heliopolis丰富而传奇的历史，这些家庭和社区称其为家。这个项目似乎让人们意识到什么受到了威胁，什么我们已经失去了。它寻求发展学者、居民和社区活动家之间的合作，以可持续的形式保护该地区的物质和非物质遗产。它还试图提高人们对埃及现代遗产面临的更广泛威胁的认识，在一个拥有如此悠久和丰富历史的国家，这些遗产往往被隐藏和忽视。人们希望，这将成为埃及其他社区遗产项目的典范，并帮助普通人欣赏周围的建筑和传奇景观。该项目将讲述赫利奥波利斯的伟大建筑的生活——恩佩恩宫、大教堂和赫利奥波利斯宫殿酒店——但它也将考察那些赋予赫利奥波利斯日常人类故事的建筑和地方。这段历史将是电车车站、咖啡馆、摇摇欲坠的酒店、鱼市、潜水酒吧和电影院的历史。它将讲述看门人、擦鞋男孩、卖花小贩、驴车夫、收垃圾的、修车的、卖果汁的、店主、服务员、收房租的——所有这些给郊区建筑带来生命的人的故事。它将揭示埃及积极和世界主义的愿景，其中一个郊区的不同民族和宗教的人在和平和相互尊重中共同生活。它将揭示一段让未来的公民感到自豪和珍惜的历史。

Heliopolis was arguably the first truly modern suburb in Africa, yet is not a threatened heritage asset. Its old cosmopolitan communities are gradually breaking up, its buildings decay and fall and even its historic electric tramway is about to disappear. Its contribution to the making of modern Egypt is little understood outside a few university specialists and old residents. As traditional populations move away from the suburb, the oral histories and stories of Heliopolis are lost forever. This project, therefore, seeks to capture the rich, storied history of Heliopolis through the memories of the many families and communities who have called it their home. The project seems to raise awareness of what is threatened and what we have already lost. It seeks to develop a collaboration between academics, residents and community activists to preserve the tangible and intangible heritage of the area in a sustainable form. It also seeks to raise awareness of the wider threats to Egypt's modern heritage, a heritage that is often hidden and neglected in a country with such a long and rich history. This, it is hoped, will be a model for other community heritage project across Egypt and one which will help ordinary people appreciate the buildings and storied landscape that surrounds them.The project will address the life of the great buildings of Heliopolis - the Empain palace, the Basilica and the Heliopolis Palace Hotel - but it will also examine the buildings and places that gave Heliopolis its everyday human stories. This history will be a history of tram stations, cafes, crumbling hotels, fish markets, dive bars and cinemas. It will the story of the doorman, shoe-shine boys, the flower sellers, the donkey cabbies, the rubbish collectors, the car-repair men, the juice sellers, the shop keepers, the waiters, the rent collectors all those who gave life to the buildings of the suburb. It will reveal a positive and cosmopolitan vision of Egypt, one in which those of different nationalities and religions of a suburb live together in peace and mutual respect. It will reveal a history that future citizens can be proud of and one which they might cherish.