GUIDE · FEB 10, 2026

Seating along the falaj line

A short guide to laying tables so that water, not the seating plan, organises the night.

A falaj travels in a straight line. People seated along it tend to slow down. There is a reason. The eye follows the channel, the head turns less, the conversation tightens.

When we lay long tables in the Hili palm groves we mark the falaj first and the tables second. Eight metres of water beats eighty metres of bunting.