Under a hill shrouded in legends

Apr 21, 2006 12:00 GMT  ·  By

When Semir Osmanagic, a Bosnian archaeologist who studied the pyramids of Latin America for 15 years, looked at the shape of a hill near the town of Visoko, 30 km north of Sarajevo, a though had suddenly crossed his mind: this is a pyramid! (And judging from Google Earth image it does indeed look like a pyramid.) The hill is also surrounded by various local legends. So, he and other archeologists began digging in the search for the more than 100 meters high pyramid which was supposed to be buried under the hill.

And indeed it is - the first pyramid ever found in Europe: "These are the first uncovered walls of the pyramid,'' said Semir Osmanagic of the stonework found Wednesday. "We can see the surface is perfectly flat. This is the crucial material proof that we are talking pyramids. It is so obvious that the top of the blocks, the surface is man-made."

The huge stone blocks discovered on Wednesday appear to be cut in cubes and polished. Moreover, under layers of dirt, workers discovered a paved entrance to what could be an underground network of tunnels. The archeologists, geologists and other experts who entered a tunnel having almost 4 km in length, declared that it was certainly man-made. They found two intersections with other tunnels leading off to the left and right. "This is definitely not a natural formation," said geologist Nadja Nukic.

Satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other potential smaller pyramids under two hills in the Visoko Valley, which archaeologists believe the tunnels could lead to.

Archaeologists will continue to work for about six months, with the first results expected in the next three weeks. Two experts from Egypt are due to join them in mid-May. "It will be a very exciting archaeological spring and summer,'' Osmanagic said.

This site is a classic case of civilizations building on top of the remains of the previous ones. Archeologists have found Neolithic artifacts, and have also found evidence of ancient settlements 7 000 years old. The Roman Empire then had built an observation post on top of the ruins of the ancient settlement and afterwards, during the Middle Ages, the Bosnian kings built a fortress, which was Bosnia's capital, over the Roman settlements. The pyramid is thought to be about 12,000 years old.

UPDATE: This entire story seems to be total nonsense. Check this out: Archeologists Are Outraged by the Bosnian 'Pyramid' Stories

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