A new dimension

Night falls over the Baa Atoll. That iconic Maldivian palette – turquoise water, pearly sand – disappears and an entirely different, equally mesmerising view unfurls: a diamond-studded black velvet canopy that stretches overhead. One of the more superior lookouts is aboard Soneva Fushi’s yacht, which drifts on calm waters through the balmy evening. The soft sound of the in-house astronomer’s voice gently explains that the isolated Indian Ocean islands are blessedly free from light pollution. The stars shine brighter here, so it’s easier to navigate the sea by the different sparkling clusters, like so many explorers have done before.

What’s more, the resort’s location close to the equator means you can observe both the northern and southern constellations. This brings with it a deep connection between stargazing and soul-searching, and in the autumn, Soneva Fushi is hosting a wellness-centric SOUL Festival on the moonlit sands, to allow you to contemplate your path in this world and beyond.

To look at the stars, to chart their movements, to retell ancient stories about them is to become part of a galactic network that has inspired and guided civilisations for millennia. Early records of the constellations date as far back as 3,000 BC, when they were carved into ancient Mesopotamian clay writing tablets.

Today, designated Dark Sky Reserves can be found in remote corners of the globe – if you know where to look. These otherworldly ethers support our desire to escape stressful, digitally connected lifestyles by quite literally turning attention to higher things. Thinking in light years rather than minutes and seconds, deep time instead of deadlines, feels like a rare luxury. Some of history’s greatest thinkers and creative minds have celebrated the concept of solitude and its benefits, but in our everyday, ever connected world, it’s become much harder to truly achieve.

Space exploration is often chalked up as an exercise of ego or nationalistic pride, from the Space Race of the 60s to Elon Musk’s latest endeavours.

But standing beneath the stars on a tropical island, African desert or remote mountaintop, such worldly matters – jostling for prestige or politics – seem to shrink away entirely and one instead feels absorbed in something bigger, borderless, beyond.

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