Photo : Ayman F. Khalil — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Fayoum · Beni Suef
Sannur Cave
An alabaster cave at the end of a quarry track, opened by a quarry blast.
The cave opens in the Eastern Desert, south-east of Beni Suef, in the middle of a belt of alabaster quarries: a quarry blast opened it, and the site is now a protected area. Below the surface there is one large chamber, with calcite formations, stalactites and translucent flows that the lighting washes with colour when it is switched on. It is a karst cave: water cut into limestone that was an Eocene sea floor. The alabaster taken from these quarries is the same stone — a translucent calcite — as the ancient jars.
The extra bit
Get someone to ask the day before — your hotel in the Fayoum, or a driver from Beni Suef: the site does not open every day, and whoever unlocks the gate and switches the lights on is not always there. A driver who knows the road will save you hunting for the entrance among the quarries.
Know before you go
You go down into the chamber by a steep stair, into warm damp air: the visit suits neither bad knees nor a wheelchair. The track runs through working quarries, with lorries and no shade at all: vehicles do pass, but do not count on being rescued — a car with decent ground clearance, water in the boot, and tell someone your route. Nothing is on sale at the site. The walls keep the mark of fingers and cannot be repaired: you look, you do not touch.
