Instead of printed menus, a three-course meal of vegetable-dominated, Mediterranean-inspired dishes would appear, served on vintage silver platters. (“Eight is the ideal number for unified conversation,” Neamatalla told me.) I would find out that dinner locations change every night, but are often outdoors, under the stars.
ARTISAN VILLAGE EQGYPT SERIES
A couple of gin and tonics later, guests were led to a series of tables set for eight people. Adrère Amellal, in Siwa, Egypt, as seen from neighbouring White Mountain.Īt dusk on my first night, I followed a winding path of flickering lanterns to a firepit where drinks were being served. We made traces on the soil before mud and salt blocks were piled up to raise an edifice that is in consonance with its environment.” Image Credit: Manuel Obadia-Wills. “Construction took place without blueprints. “The creation of Adrère Amellal was possibly the freest way of the building there is,” Mahdavi told me from her office in Paris. Neamatalla gives much credit to his longtime collaborator and cousin, the Iranian-Egyptian architect and designer India Mahdavi. “Every morning I would look at the volume of the proposed architecture, and if I felt something was intruding on the mountain I would take it away,” he said. The purpose was to create a sanctuary, a place where his friends and acquaintances could get away from modern life in the vastness of the desert.Ĭonstruction of the complex, which took nearly four years, was guided by its relation to the mountain. I immediately recognised that my fate was tied to these two places.” The seemingly mystical pull that Siwa had on Neamatalla led to the idea of Adrère Amellal, which means “White Mountain” in the local Berber dialect. “I remember lifting my eyes and seeing White Mountain, and directly in front of me the fortress of Shali. “We arrived after twelve hours of driving, and the sun was about to go down,” he said. From left: Off-roading on desert dunes, a popular excursion in Siwa Adrère Amellal’s spring-fed pool. The “White Mountain” – A luxurious sanctuary in Siwa Image Credit: Manuel Obadia-Wills. When an anthropologist colleague suggested he visit Siwa and explore its ruins, Neamatalla readily agreed. EQI was up and running, and he had been working for decades with the government to create a more sustainable waste system for Cairo. In 1996, Neamatalla was 50 years old and at a crossroads in his career. Over mint tea in one of the hotel’s lounges, Neamatalla - casually but impeccably dressed in a linen shirt and pants, with a safari hat to shield himself from the Egyptian glare - explained how he came to Siwa. A massive spring-fed pool was perfect for taking a cooling dip. There is no air-conditioning or electricity at night, guests make their way by the light of candles and lanterns.
ARTISAN VILLAGE EQGYPT WINDOWS
Most of the furniture was made with palm fronds, and thoughtfully placed windows allowed the circulation of even the faintest breeze - an important detail in a place where daytime temperatures in the summer can reach 100 degrees. My room, which overlooked a lake and a grid of organic vegetable beds, was simply furnished, with a packed-earth floor covered in handwoven rugs, a comfortable king-size bed, and a fireplace. From a distance, the buildings appeared to emerge organically from the sand, and then later disappear into the nearby cliffs of the giant, table-topped White Mountain, which towers over the hotel. We Learn About The Language Of Love At Nubian Village, EgyptĪfter more than two decades of anticipation, arriving at Adrère Amellal felt almost surreal. Aside from the glorious white-sand beaches, history buffs can examine several World War II shipwrecks along the coast.)
ARTISAN VILLAGE EQGYPT DRIVERS
Drivers often break up the long journey with a stop in the resort town of Matruh, which sits on the Mediterranean Sea.
(Going by car from the capital takes 12 hours along the coast on bumpy, mostly empty roads. There are no regularly scheduled commercial flights to Siwa, so I joined a charter, which brought us from Cairo International to Siwa’s tiny military airport in 90 minutes. He caught wind of my fascination with Siwa last year and offered an introduction- and the impetus to finally make a trip.Ī quick phone call was all it took to garner an invitation from Neamatalla to join him at Adrère Amellal over Easter weekend. Neamatalla and I shared a common friend in Louis Barthélemy, a French artist, who lives part-time in Cairo. A Cairo native who holds a PhD from Columbia University, he founded Environmental Quality International (EQI), a consulting company that is the driving force behind some of the country’s most significant preservation projects. One of them is Adrère Amellal’s creator, Mounir Neamatalla. The Old Town, meanwhile, resembles an archaeological relic, although it is slowly being restored by private citizens.
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