Throwback to before being stuck on Salah Salem was a valid excuse for being late: Once upon a time, a Belgian entrepreneur by the name of Édouard Empain saw in a stretch of desert the potential for a fully equipped “city of luxury,” and went about building what is now Heliopolis. Empain commissioned a French architect to build the Hindu-style Baron Palace in the middle of an enviable amount of empty land — a far cry from its current state of being surrounded by hotels and apartment buildings. Good thing Empain didn’t live long enough to experience gridlock traffic jams for which his town has become notorious.

Tags: