Ana Akhet: Nora Attal in Egypt’s Sahara el Beyda

Sahara el Beyda (White Desert) is Egypt’s connective tissue to the rest of North Africa. Its sinuous valleys are lined with salt lakes and an arcane history of travel and rest–go deep enough, and you’ll find ancient caves casting the lofty shadow of hieroglyphs drawn during moments of reprieve. 

Originally published in Dazed MENA Issue 01| Order Here

Pregnant with symbolism, salt lakes are typically seen as places of both decay and renewal. In their extreme barrenness, they symbolise the absence of traditional life, akin to the lifelessness of the desert. However, they also reflect the potential for creation, as the minerals and salts from these lakes were essential in preserving life (e.g., mummification) and creating balance. In Egyptian cosmology, this mirrors the interplay of opposing forces such as Ma’at (order) and Isfet (chaos). 

Walking this bifurcated tightrope, Photographer Pegah Farahmand and Fashion Director Omaima Salem ventured out to the desert to shoot Nora Attal in an editorial which pays homage to the desert’s semiotic duality. In turn, they created an ethereal mix of the ancient and the topographical, blending natural colour palettes with a dreamy air of nonchalance reminiscent of the ageless breezes which have touched these lands for millennia.

Aptly titled Ana Akhet (Akhet being the first month in the ancient Egyptian calendar when the Nile would flood the lands with abundance), this cover story is an homage to the desert itself and the serenity which accompanies being within it, as well as an ode to the powerful divine feminine embodied in the ancient Egyptian goddesses of times gone by. Attal is a proud Isis-reborn, adorned in onyx and gold pieces by Cartier, clad in a Duran Lantink dress reminiscent of North Africa’s ubiquitous taxi seat covers, embroidered Prada skirts or Nike sweats and more–cool and playful silhouettes against the impossible grandeur of Egypt’s white desert. 

Originally published in Dazed MENA Issue 01| Order Here

Model NORA ATTAL, casting director MISCHA NOTCUTT at 11CASTING, hair stylist Dress PROTOTYPES, flats LUDOVIC DE SAINT SERNIN GILLES DEGIVRY using SISLEY, make-up artist MARIAM HABASHI, set designer MAHMOUD OKASHA, producer FATIMA MOURAD, creative producer MONICA ABADIR, styling assistants JULIETTE DUMAZY and NAHLA BENCHOHRA, camera assistant ISMAIL SABET, set design assistant MOHAMED BAYOUMI, digital operator SHADY ABDELKAREM, special thanks to VILLA BELLE EPOQUE