Well, if you drive beyond the Hameen village at the edge of Liwa Oasis, in the ‘foothills’ of the mighty Rub Al Khali desert, you will come across Qasr Al Sarab, the Mirage Castle. As thirsty as you might be after the two-hour journey from Abu Dhabi, rest assure, this is no mirage.

Qasr Al Sarab may be in the opinion of its staff the eighth Wonder of the World, but it is a dream-come-true desert resort hotel, which officially 
opened recently.

It features 154 rooms, 42 villas and 10 royal villas. It has three on-site restaurants, plus a nearby tent in the desert for a bedouin-style moonlit dinner prepared under the careful watch of three Michelin star master chef 
Eric Martinet.

The resort has a beautiful swimming pool, the famed Anantara spa and a hammam (under construction), a gym, children’s supervised entertainment area (also to be completed), a library, ballroom, meeting and conference rooms, not to mention plenty of outdoor desert activities managed by well-trained guides.

Most importantly, the resort’s Emirati architecture is truly well researched and designed. In fact, as many as 2,500 artefacts, all authentic jewellery and all kinds of objects collected from souqs and peoples’ homes from the UAE, Oman and Yemen are displayed throughout Qasr Al Sarab.

“We involved the local culture in terms of architectural language and we asked local Emirati people how to deal with specific problems such as the high temperature,” said Marcelo Tholozan, senior design manager of Qasr 
Al Sarab.

“Right from the beginning we cooperated with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and Al Ain Museum, which helped us with the research for artefacts,” he added.

Indeed, the Anantara run Qasr Al Sarab is not an ordinary hotel. Much of Abu Dhabi Government has been involved right from the beginning, three years ago. The Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) helped with the sustainability and recycling aspects, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) helps with the promotion of the resort, ADACH helped with the heritage research for its architecture and interior design, the Western Region municipality gave the local support and Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) is the developer of the 
entire project.

“Liwa is at the heart of Al Nahyan and other important Emirati families’ roots. Traces of life here date back to the Stone Age and later on we will have an archaeological site, which hotel guests will be able to visit,” Shaikha Mahra Khalid Al Qassimi, senior communications manager at TDIC, told Khaleej Times.

“We also found a well, built by Shaikh Zayed, about 35 metres deep, which will be opened for the public.”

When fully complete (a nearby ‘village’ with a souq and local handicrafts shops is to be built next year), Qasr Al Sarab will have at least 400 employees and TDIC would like to see as many UAE nationals as possible.

“We are already working with a local farmer who provides us with dates and seasonal vegetables, another farmer who gives us the camels for desert trips and the local Liwa women will provide us with hand-made Emirati textiles and, later on, work in our heritage village workshop,” said George Chakar, marketing and communications manager at TDIC.

Furthermore, EAD has also agreed to open its 9,000-square-kilometre wildlife park, so guests will soon be able to see Arabian gazelles and oryxes roaming in the dunes.

From morning animal tracking walks in the desert to afternoon camel safari and even archery, most of the Qasr Al Sarab activities are outdoors, but, according to Didier Tourneboeuf, general manager of the resort, there will be indoor fun, too. “We are going to have cooking lessons, to start with,” 
he told Khaleej Times.

One of the first, in fact, to take a cooking lesson, was no other than the resort’s master chef Eric Martinet, who learned and cooked some really tasty Emirati dishes, such as the popular harees, the uzzi rice and tadreeb (chicken with bread and vegetables).

“For now, we are cooking everything with mineral water and on electric appliances, but we expect to have gas next week, which will allow us to diversify the Emirati menu,” he said.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com