The Resort

The resort portrays the Nubian grace in consideration of the cultural, social, and historical features of the preserved land. Designed and conceptualised by Egyptian talents and built by homegrown hands from Nubia and Upper Egypt, aiming to reduce carbon emissions by relying on solar power, natural ventilation, natural lighting, local raw materials, homegrown talents, and human resources, avoiding machinery intervention.

Building Orientation

The building is nestled towards the north to obtain the best lighting, natural ventilation, and sun heat reduction during the daytime to reduce electricity consumption and carbon emission. In the conservation of the natural surroundings of mountains, back passages are designed for the rooms’ doors between the building and the mountains to act as a path for wind movement, which decreases the external temperature and creates a healthy environment. The northeast orientation of rooms towards the river Nile significantly contributes to benefiting from the sun’s rays in the early morning and receiving positive energy from the scenery of surrounding nature. 

Construction Materials 

The building is formed in domes and arches utilising red bricks, 40 cm walls thickness, and natural sandstone, which reduces the temperature of the internal spaces by 5°C to 7°C to maintain the reduction of electricity and carbon emission. The resort building and finishing work are made of the soil materials excavated during the land levelling, including sandstone, granite, sand, and loamy soil. The construction relied on the skills of the Egyptian workforce following the ancient building methods in Egypt for thousands of years that depended on brick units for building walls and domes, lifting the brick loads smoothly from one brick to another, which provides strength and sustainability to the building against any external factors such as wind and earthquake. The technique manifests the structure as a single construction unit and avoids machinery, heavy equipment, concrete, and iron contributing to carbon reduction during the resort development. 

Solar Energy

Solar heaters and solar energy are used for external lighting, while energy-saving bulbs are used for internal lighting.

Artwork and Furnishing

All artwork and sculptures on the building are staged by Egyptian artists who followed the techniques used in ancient Egyptian temples relying on handmade sculpturing, abandoning any machines, modern technology, and manufactured elements. Interior and exterior paints are aquarelles based, locally manufactured, and environmentally friendly. The furniture is manufactured in the surrounding villages in Upper Egypt using local natural wood. The decorative supplies relied on local ecological ingredients utilising wicker, pottery, and carpets from recycled cotton and local raw materials. All ornamentations are handmade by locals in the surrounding villages in Upper Egypt, preserving the tradition of art craft manufacturing while evading the carbon emissions caused by the long-distance shipping process, contributing to the development of Egyptian villages.

Go Green

Healthy nutrition is a core pillar of our resort concept; harvesting farm-to-table fresh food is fulfilled by our organic farm that delivers the freshest vegetables. Furthermore, fruit trees and therapeutic plants are cultivated all over the resort, including the Moringa trees, which have been renowned for curing for thousands of years. 

The external landscaping is designed in line with the desert nature of the site and the land history, soliciting cacti to resemble the planting pattern around the resort to reduce water consumption.  

Building Philosophy

Human-friendly.

The building harmoniously interacts with human senses to receive positive energy from the creative handicrafts in the interior and exterior designs which enriches the internal human power from environs made by humankind, not machines.

Civilization Friendly.

The positive energy is derived from the artistic elements in the building and the delicate adornments of rooms and restaurants, which are inspired by Nubian and ancient Egyptian heritage creating the first connection to the timeless ancient civilization.  The rooms are named after great legends in the history of ancient Egypt who had an ethical impact on our history, starting with viziers Kagmeni and Phatahotep, renowned for their moral teachings; their wisdom and insights are among the oldest literature in the world. Each room tells a noble tale connecting with the lofty principles of ancient Egypt civilization.

Environmentally Friendly. 

The building integrates with the surrounding nature of the desert and Nile River, relying on natural materials in the surrounding environment in construction, such as Aswanian granite – sandstone – pottery – earthenware ceramics. The region’s environmental dimension is considered in colour curation according to the desert environs. The hot colours of yellow and brick are extracted from the oxides of stones and desert minerals. The cold colours convey Nile River shades of green-blue grades.

The project aims to reduce carbon emissions during construction or operation by relying on solar power, natural ventilation, natural lighting, local raw materials, homegrown talents, and human resources, avoiding machinery intervention.