GET A ROOM: ABODE OF THE WEEK
“At night it is so quiet that you begin to hear the stars.” -Benedict Allen, Harper’s Abroad
Swoon. In honor of Earth day, please welcome the environmentally sensitive, electricity-free Adrère Amellal Oasis. The name is Berber for “white mountain,” and at times it’s hard to tell where the mountain ends and the resort begins. With a tagline like “A Place out of Time,” you know you’re not only off the clock, but off the grid.
Indeed, this eco-friendly retreat seems to have stepped out of time. Alexander the Great journeyed here in 331 BC seeking answers from the renowned oracle of Amun. Located a nine-hour drive from Cairo at Egypt’s Siwa Oasis, the hotel’s design (it’s made out of Earth) blends in with its desert surroundings. The 40 hand-built rooms are all unique and dressed with furnishings crafted by skilled Berber artisans. With no electricity, the rooms are lit only with beeswax candles and light from the stars.
Sand dunes stretch on forever. Salt lakes beckon from the sun.
And those desert stars, in the vast, encompassing silence, sing.
