Ask someone who has stayed at Al Moudira to describe the hotel and chances are good that person will eventually use the word “oasis.” Unlike so many places in North Africa that claim that descriptor, this one, which opened on the furry green edges of Luxor in 2002, fully deserves it on many levels. First, there is its physical remoteness from the city of Luxor: on the western bank of the Nile, far from the bustle and cacophony of river cruisers and tourists. The generosity of its gardens is another: bougainvilleas foam on the edges of the roofs, hundreds of mature date palms cast skeins of shadow, fountains chatter in the cool patios of the low pavilions with pink walls. The food is elegant; the ultra-competent staff. There is a bar furnished with legged chairs and sofas and suzani-style curtains. At night, when it is lit by candles, you almost expect to find Lawrence Durrell or Jean Cocteau at court.
The hotel buildings, each organized around a central courtyard, were designed by Olivier Sednaoui, the London-trained Egyptian architect who also designed Christian Louboutin’s house a few miles away. The rooms and suites they house are huge. The gilded vaulted ceilings studded with stained glass eyes rise to 5m high; the walls are decorated with trompe l’oeil muqarnas, decorative motifs and botanical motifs; Nile green tiles shine on the bathroom walls. The unblemished eye for good antiques possessed by Zeina Aboukheir, the woman who built Al Moudira, is present everywhere, whether in Syria in the 17th century or in France in the 1930s. The hotel’s most striking quality, and still its main selling point, is its pervasive and, in some ways, totally believable atmosphere of bygone era and early 20th century glamour.
Aboukheir, who is Italian-Lebanese, remains an intrinsic part of daily life at the hotel she created; but she is no longer its owner. In 2022, he sold to a company controlled by Florian Amereller, a Cairo-based lawyer with several business interests in the MENA region, who was captivated by Al Moudira when he booked it for his wife’s birthday festivities in 2018. “Zeina built this place in the middle of the desert and made it a home for inspiring people from all over the world,” says Amereller. Of his decision to buy it, he says simply: “I thought Al Moudira had the best bones in Egypt.” With the acquisition come plans for further expansion and elaboration, both of the physical facilities and the ideas behind them.
While artichoke pizzas cooked in the wood-fired oven he has just installed near the pool, he expresses his goals. Proximity to must-see archaeological sites – the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, the temples of Seti I and Hatshepsut, and the Tomb of Tutankhamun, among them – has always been an obvious part of Al Moudira’s appeal. But Amereller believes it has the potential to be the best hotel in the country. What’s more, he wants to make it a destination in its own right, one of those international centers of social gravity that offers something much more ineffable and attractive than mere accommodation. He is optimistic about attracting a traveler “who has been everywhere and for whom luxury is something simple and with all the right details.”
The evolution has been assertive and rapid, as is Amereller himself. There is now a new independent cafe, Khan Al Moudira, serving oriental cuisine on its large parasol-lined patio, to complement the more continental-leaning fine-dining restaurant and casual pool pavilion. The food is simple and exactly what you want, the flavors sing from the crunchy ta’ameya (Egyptian falafel; the bright green color comes from fava beans) and the creamy garlic babaghanoush. Next to this is a new event hall for weddings and celebrations; On the upper floor, an open-plan coworking space with a large roof terrace: 300 m2 of space, in which there will initially be only 10 workstations. It is mainly intended for a group of long-stay “apartments”, which look more like small terraced houses, just on the other side of the courtyard; but any guest can use it.
From the garden’s sea of palm trees rises a striking new quadrangular structure with an octagonal dome and an immutability similar to that of Jantar Mantar: a library “tower”, in which Amereller plans to install around 7,000 books from his own extensive collection : architecture, archaeology, gastronomy, fiction and first editions of Baedeker Egyptpublished in English in 1898.
Most significant, however, are several new villas built into the edges of the property—the ticket, according to Amereller, for that “best hotel in Egypt” mandate (there are hotels on the Red Sea that offer private villa accommodations; but none, he says, that showcases antiques and crafts, and is its own independent hospitality offering, with full staff and, in addition, all the hotel amenities and facilities). At Al Moudira, these range from two-bedroom bungalows set in their own gardens, to family-style “lofts” with 150-square-metre living rooms, 7-metre ceilings and tall Crittall-style windows enclosed in mashrabiyas, to labyrinthine complexes whose Four or five bedrooms are distributed among small buildings surrounding a large pool.
Amereller has asked Aboukheir to remain indefinitely in a consulting and advisory role. While he radiates conviction in her ideas, he collaborates in the process, consulting with her (and sometimes deferring to her) on aesthetic decisions. “It was very important to me to continue working on the project with Zeina, to maintain her spirit and also trust her understanding of the place,” Amereller tells me. “We laugh about it now, but let’s just say she was a little skeptical at first when we started some of the work.”
While you get the sense that, behind his sphinx-like smile, Aboukheir might be envisioning lofts and co-working spaces, the two share an obvious reverence for beautiful old buildings and their stuff. “All of this shouldn’t seem new and neat; That’s why we use traditional construction techniques,” says Amereller. He has amassed warehouses full of furniture in Cairo and purchased entire salvaged palaces (marble, tiles, wood, carpentry) in Alexandria and other parts of the world. Egypt. Much of it went directly into the new structures, particularly the villas: “It immediately gives the place soul.” From the local sandstone bricks to the layers of decorative paint, the four-poster beds faithfully copied from those of the 19th century, and the old Alexandrian marble that lines the pools, Amereller says guests tell him they “can’t believe” it. new it’s only been there for two years.
Just on the other side of Al Moudira’s long western wall, where the desert stretches towards the Theban Mountain, the second stage of Amereller’s project is taking shape: a self-sustaining farm and cluster of manufacturers’ workshops on a large plot of land that Al Moudira acquired last year. . Space is already used here for carpenters and upholsterers; By 2025 there will be weavers, paper makers and a tailor, all in housing subsidized by the hotel.
Part of the remaining area is allocated to solar energy; Amereller’s goal is to have the hotel running on 100 percent renewable energy within two years. In much of the rest, orchards have been mapped and planted, along with a small olive grove installed by Aboukheir years ago; Along its edges there are now stalls for goats and cows (which provide the milk for the mozzarella and ricotta on those artichoke pizzas), as well as huge sheds filled with chickens, quails and ducks.
As we wander among tractors and chattering birds, with a little donkey following us hopefully, Amereller explains his master plan for self-sufficiency: 12 artisan workshops, updated accommodation for staff and a tea and coffee kiosk for the drivers who transport them to and from archaeological sites, more diverse farm animals and special residences for scholars coming to Luxor. He wants to create “the feeling of being in a village,” he says, “with flocks of animals crossing and a strong element of local farmers in our hotel.”
On the other side of the wall, fountains bubble and jazz plays. Women in long white aprons walk the garden paths holding in the air huge trays of fresh bread, the tantalizing smell of which wafts like incense through the air. Gardeners can be seen amidst the vegetation, pruning the undergrowth of new palm trees and tamarisks.
Aboukheir shows me a well-decorated scrapbook that an old friend made him. Its title: Al Moudira, or La Folie de Zeina – “Zeina’s crazy idea.” “Because the locals thought I was a bit, you know…” she says with a wry smile, momentarily crossing her eyes and wagging her fingers in front of them in a parody of madness. Flipping through the first pages, with their images of the faded, unpromising expanse of desert where construction began 20 years ago, you understand why some skeptics were among the neighbors. She looks up and around and you will understand her satisfaction and Amereller’s investment. Al Moudira’s story is now one folie two.
Maria Shollenbarger was a guest of Al Moudira. Rooms from $300, villas from $2,000; moudira.com