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Our conversation today will be about a place that was discovered by chance, in 1992, while quarry workers were blowing up surrounding caves in search of alabaster marble, they saw a very small cave crater behind them, which is wadi Sannor cave, which is located in the ground 70 km east of Beni Suef, and about 200 km from Cairo, to be one of the most beautiful caves in the world.

Historically, this cave dates back to the middle Eocene period, and it was declared a nature reserve in 1992. And if we talk in more details about this cave, we must mention that it is a unique cave, as there is no equivalent to it except the one in Virginia, USA. It is the result of chemical reactions of groundwater below the surface of the earth and mixing it with limestone which produced the best types of marble in the world, which are used in the manufacture of ornamental pots, “Alabaster” marble.

The shape as a whole takes a crescent shape surrounded by circular ways and Rocky Mountains. Inside the cave we find rare geological structures known as stalagmites and stalactites, which was formed as a result of leakage of water solutions saturated with calcium carbonate salts through the ceiling of the cave, and then evaporated leaving these mineral salts that accumulated in the form of deposits from stalagmites and stalactites. Also it contains beautiful morphological forms which are known as “Aspeliotim” and entire karstic range preserved in the reserve, which are divided into an upper zone of soil which is known as “Terrarosa” and a lower zone of soil of which wadi sannur cave is a part of it with various forms and sediments of calcite.

It is really an underground geological masterpiece that you can access through one small opening about three meters above the ground, which is located approximately in the middle of the cave.