We are all accustomed to the fact that the wonder of the world that has survived to this day, the Egyptian pyramids, are the most grandiose and unique structures on Earth. However, more recently, scientists have made a sensational find. On the territory of modern Bosnia, they discovered a giant pyramid, which in its size is much larger than the Egyptian tombs.
The newly discovered pyramid from Bosnia is much older than the Egyptian "sisters". And it is not made of processed stone, like all ancient structures, but of a material that resembles heavy-duty concrete.
Why did such a monumental structure go unnoticed? The fact is that over the millennia this pyramid was covered with a thick layer of vegetation and looked like an ordinary mountain. Let's try to answer the question of what scientists did find - the structure of the ancients or simply the creation of nature.
Amateur Adventurer Gives A Head start
Mount Visočica, which is 22 kilometers from Sarajevo, did not stand out among its counterparts located anywhere else in Europe. At 213 meters high, it really resembles a pyramid in shape. True, locals from time to time found smooth stones with strange patterns here. But they had no special artistic and material value.
The excitement around this natural structure began only in 2005, when the researcher Semir Osmanagich came here. After taking the first soil samples, Osmanagich made a daring assumption that Mount Visočica is nothing more than a huge pyramid 220 meters high.
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The researchers were skeptical about the words of the researcher, because Osmanagich had long acquired the fame of an amateur archaeologist who was fond of all kinds of mystical excavations. He searched for a Nazi base in Antarctica, an alien and spaceship parking lot. You never know what a person with a similar reputation can see in the mountains of Europe? But Osmanagich was stubborn - a man had a hand in the creation of Mount Visochitsa.
Through his assertiveness, the archaeologist has received significant official support and hundreds of thousands of dollars to uncover the secrets of Bosnia's past.
Moon, Sun and Dragon
Archaeological excavations began a year later. The work involved volunteers who, with great enthusiasm, rushed to look for traces of an ancient civilization. The venerable scientists and archaeologists only grinned skeptically: they say, dig and dig - you won't find anything anyway.
But after a few days of hard work, the volunteers stumbled upon man-made stone blocks docked with each other. Further sensations followed one after another. They began to bump into stone slabs on all sides of Visochitsa. Aerial photography testified to "geophysical anomalies": the two sides of the mountain were absolutely straight and formed equal angles.
Photos from satellites and helicopter added new arguments for the existence of the tallest and first pyramid in Europe. It was possible to establish that the mountain consists of huge stone blocks, steps lead to its top, a road paved with paving stones at the foot, and terraces cut down in the depths. Mount Visochica began to be called the Pyramid of the Sun, in the manner of the Mexican pyramids, with which it has much in common due to its truncated top.
After such finds, the amateur archaeologist has greatly increased its supporters. Two famous scientists from Egypt - the geologist Barakat and the archaeologist El Ha-Didi - admitted that the stone blocks that laid out the entire pyramid of the Sun are very ancient and, most importantly, of artificial origin. With a length of 2 to 3 meters, the blocks are concrete, the composition of the mixture of which is significantly different from the modern one. The concrete version has been confirmed by a number of institutions in Bosnia, including the Construction Institute in Sarajevo.
The Institute of Geodesy of Bosnia made a sensational statement that all 4 sides of the pyramid are oriented to the cardinal points, while the northern one is directed to the North Star. It is known that the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico are oriented in the same way. Further research revealed new sensations - three more pyramidal-shaped hills were found, where in the first days of excavations, researchers discovered stone blocks of artificial origin.
Osmanagich told the whole world at a press conference that only five pyramids were discovered in the valley, once built by ancient architects in honor of the Sun, the Moon and the unknown Dragon deity. All buildings are interconnected by a network of underground tunnels.
Experts have made sure that they all lead under the base of the pyramids, possibly to the interior of the ancient structure. The height of the tunnels is the height of a person, as they approach the pyramids, their walls acquire an ever smoother appearance, and well-preserved masonry is visible underfoot. And in one of the tunnels, a large smooth stone was found with inscriptions reminiscent of runic symbols and the modern letters E and Y.
Disputes, however, flared up about the age of the pyramids. Osmanagich claimed that they were at least 40 thousand years old and they were built either by the Atlanteans or the Hyperboreans, in whose existence the archaeologist sacredly believed. Scientists have significantly "rejuvenated" the buildings, saying that they are not older than 10 thousand years.
After such debates, lovers of antiquities from all over the world began to gather in Visoko, where they found a new wonder of the world. In just a year of excavations, the provincial town was visited by a quarter of a million tourists. Archaeologists, geologists, independent scientists and researchers from Austria, Egypt, Turkey, Serbia, Italy, USA, England, Germany, France, Jordan, Syria …
Photo of the Pyramid of the Sun was included in the list of 10 most important photos of 2006 by National Geographic magazine. Most news channels in the world reported the discovery of the pyramids in Bosnia. Semir Osmanagich became a hero for millions and one of the most recognizable people in Europe.
A big victory was the support of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then the president of the country himself, who visited the Archaeological Park and allocated an item in the budget to provide material assistance in the excavation.
An exaggerated sensation?
After the start of excavations at Visoko, the scientific world split in half. Some foaming at the mouth argued that the Bosnian pyramids are the oldest man-made structures on earth. Others insisted that all this hype was a well-fabricated duck with the aim of attracting as many tourists as possible to the post-war state.
Scientific studies of the hill have shown that the so-called pyramid of the Sun and the pyramid of the Moon are in fact natural formations and that there are no traces of human activity associated with their construction. In addition, geologists have criticized the Bosnian authorities for supporting the pseudoscientific sensation. Osmanagich claimed that experts from many countries took part in his excavations: Australia, Austria, Ireland, Scotland and Slovenia.
However, in practice it turned out that many archaeologists, whose names he referred to, once agreed to participate in his excavations, but in reality they did not come.
As a result, the Ministry of Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent its team of scientific experts to the so-called Pyramid of the Sun, who proved that Osmanagic's find is just a natural formation, albeit of a fairly regular shape. Its appearance is a consequence of natural geological processes and weathering.
The fact that there are so-called “ripple marks” on the surface of the slabs also speaks in favor of the natural origin. By their type and parameters, geologists determine the genetic type of sediments, the direction of wave movement in an ancient reservoir, and some other conditions for their formation.
As a result, the officials decided: although the noise raised around the “wonder of the world” attracts attention to Bosnia, it is not worth starting the cultural history of the new country with dubious scientific events. Therefore, the funding of Osmanagich was stopped.
The reaction of the Bosnian pyramidist turned out to be extremely predictable: he denies all accusations of incompetence and says that by opening the pyramid he did more for Bosnia than the Ministry of Culture for all the years of its independence.
In the summer of 2012, Semir returned to the interrupted excavations well armed: sponsorship money allowed him to hire workers, bring equipment and transport. On the site of the western slope of Visočica, he launched an exhibition presenting the first achievements: excavated blocks, supposedly made artificially, photographs of cobbled paths lying under the earth's cover of the mountain.
In the end, both Schliemann and Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon made their discoveries contrary to the predictions of skeptics. Maybe Osmanagich will be able to prove his case?
Irina STEPKINA