Visited September 2023

Knowing that visiting the mine itself – a reservation should be made a good while before the visit, I called the number found on silex.mons 6 weeks before the planned journey to Mons, made a reservation and paid for the underground tour. I arrived to Mons by train from Tournai the day before the visit to the mine, I spent the night in Mons (and I was really, really surprised, because the city is much prettier than Tournai or Charleroi; plenty of B&B and hotels in the city, and a very ‘good looking’ and wonderfully located youth hostel just below the unesco-listed belfry; and many restaurant in the grand’ place, and weekend morning market with local products and second hand stuff). In the morning on the day of visit I went to tourist information office to rent a bike – they open at 9:30 and have only a dozen bicycles so it is better to be earlier to get a bike, especially on weekends. First I went to Grand Hornu (WHS 1344 The Major Mining Sites of Wallonia), but this is not the topic of this post… BTW: Mons is a very good base for 5 WH sites – on bicycle!)

Then I rode to SILEX museum in Spiennes and I have to admit that the area has a lot of cycle paths! The museum is not too easy to find if you go there from Hornu, but the distance of 15 km is doable in one hour even if you lose yourself couple of times… Note that the area inscribed on the list is much bigger than the place around the museum, look around while approaching to it – lots of flint fragments scattered all around and the greener dots in the grass indicate the prehistoric entrances or wells or pits to the underground shifts.

The on-site museum/visitors centre is a bit disappointing; displays are not very informative and simply boring. You can buy some publications which explains the mystery and uniqueness of the site. As I have booked a guided tour on and underground (no English speaking guide the day I visited) our guide went through all the displayed info and finally, we were able (12 persons in group but in my group 3 have decided not to go down – the descent seems a bit… I do not even know how to say but… risky) to go to the mines as they were a long time ago… Tour was interesting, but what was annoying is… no pictures in the mines… Why? The question was asked, and the answer was: “this is the policy of the museum”. Of course, you can secretly break that policy… About the history of the site, you’ll find lots of info online, so no reason to repeat it here.

For me this site is one of the oldest industrial sites that I’ve ever seen – 5000 years ago people were excavating and working flint tools not only for their personal use but to exchange them to other goods. In the forest to the west of the museum, officially out of reach and encircles with a wire fence, you can see the archaeological site with outlines of neolithic houses! To the north-east you can find a field covered with flint debris.