Karoleen: Adrère Amellal

tisdag 17 januari 2012

Adrère Amellal

A beautiful place in Egypt that I get have to visit is the Siwa Oasis area or as it's called in Arabic Wāḥat Sīwah. It's located in the Qattara depression about 50 km from the Libyan border and 560 km from the Egyptian capital Cairo. The area is one of Egypt's most isolated settlements, with 23,000 people, mostly ethnic Berbers and is a wonderful location for a serene vacation.

“The famous oasis of Siwa…cannot be said to have fallen from its high estate…only it has stood still while the world went on.”

Wilfred Jennings-Bramly, A Journey to Siwa in October-September 1896

The name Siwa is derived from the Berber-language Siwi and means "the Falconiform protector of Amon-Ra, the sun God.

"This is a place with a very special, luxurious sense of the primitive, surrounded by the kind of magic that only ancient tribes, majestic mountains and ruthless desert climates can conjure.”

W. Geordie Greig, “Nomad’s Land, Tatler Magazine, April 2007

At the foot of a beautiful mountain the Adrère Amellal spreads out lika a beautiful oasis in the coarse desert. The hotel is a reminder of the past and the future has get to arrived. The hotel is built soley from materials in a 30-km area around the oasis. No metal nails or other imported, today buildning techniques have been used. There is no electricity in the hotel and there is no need because of the smart ancient buildning techniques keep the rooms and hotel cool in the hot desert sun. Oil lamps and candles are used to lit the whole hotel at night, to make a romantic and amazing atmosphere.

“One of the first things on arrival in Siwa which delights and rests the eye, after the glare of the desert, is the blue stretch of the salt lakes, seen through the date groves."

Major T.I. Dunn, 1933, “From Cairo to Siwa Across the Libyan Desert with Armoured-Cars.”

The pool is feed from water from an ancient Roman spring and the furniture is carved from local trees. All part of a local sustainable-development plan. There are 40 hand-built rooms, each of them unique overlooking Siwa Lake and the Great Sand Sea.