Mons Claudianus

Mons Claudianus was a Roman imperial quarry in the mountains of the Eastern Desert, worked in the first and second centuries AD for a speckled grey granite that was shipped to Rome and used for the columns of the Pantheon portico and the Baths of Trajan among others. The remoteness is the striking part: everything, including water and food, had to be carried a hundred kilometres from the Nile, and what survives is not just the quarry faces but the whole apparatus of running one, a fort, a workers' village of small stone houses, animal lines, cisterns, a temple and a graveyard. Ostraca found here record rations, work rosters and letters, giving an unusually direct account of quarry life. An unfinished column lies broken where it cracked, never shipped.

What you actually see

• The quarry faces - the grey granite worked for Roman buildings.
• A broken unfinished column - abandoned where it cracked, still on the ground.
• The workers' village - stone houses, animal lines and cisterns.
• The Roman fort - the garrison that ran and supplied the operation.

When to go

October to April; desert heat makes this trip unwise in summer. A full day from Hurghada or Safaga, with an early start. Some operators run it as an overnight with camping. There is nobody else there.

Honest expectations

Access is a long four-wheel-drive on rough desert track and requires a guide who knows the route; permits are sometimes needed. There is no water, shade or shelter and no phone signal. The site is unmanaged and unsigned. Trips are occasionally refused depending on conditions.

Nearby

Mons Porphyrites lies to the north; the Red Sea coast road is east.