Exceptional palm-leaf craftsmanship in Al-Qasr had no reliable route to the customers who would value it most. Local sale meant local prices, regardless of the skill involved. GAAREED was built as that missing route — a direct line from the workshop to homes that would appreciate it.

Al-Qasr is a village in Dakhla Oasis, New Valley Governorate, in Egypt's Western Desert. Its name means ‘The Fortress.’ Founded in the late 12th century under the Ayyubid dynasty on the remains of an earlier Roman settlement, it is one of the most intact Islamic-era villages remaining in Egypt — mudbrick lanes, a mosque with a 21-meter minaret, and formal heritage preservation that keeps its historical character intact.

Dakhla sits roughly 350km southwest of the Nile Valley, sustained by an aquifer that has supported continuous settlement for millennia. The oasis holds Pharaonic, Roman, and Islamic-era sites within a single, relatively compact region — a landscape of palm groves, mudbrick villages, and surrounding desert.

Palm-frond weaving is practiced across the palm-growing regions of the Middle East and North Africa, and is among the oldest continuously practiced human crafts. Fronds are cut, dried in the sun, split into strips by hand, then woven or coiled into baskets, mats, and trays — the same process used in oases across the New Valley, where these skills are traditionally passed down in family workshops.