Excavations for Bosnian Valley of Pyramids continue despite ridicule

09/10/2008

Independent researcher and self-pronounced archaeologist Semir Osmanagic is convinced that Mt. Visocica, near the Bosnian town of Visoko, is hiding a monumental pyramid.

By Jusuf Ramadanovic for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo -- 09/10/08

Bosnian pyramidologist Semir Osmanagic (centre) gestures towards one of the locations his team discovered stone plates, near Mt. Visocica. [Getty Images]

Not far from the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is the town of Visoko. Any resident, asked to cite the primary local attraction, will respond, "It's the Bosnian Valley of Pyramids."

Independent researcher Semir Osmanagic, who has no formal training, started digging three years ago. His work enjoys the backing of a full-fledged foundation called the Archaeological Park of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. Osmanagic labours on despite mockery from almost all journalists and scientists in BiH when he claims Mt. Visocica is actually an ancient pyramid, larger and much older than Cheops in Egypt.

According to Osmanagic, there are three pyramids, interconnected through tunnels. He calls them the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Dragon. In already the third season of excavation, the area encompassed is over 20 square km. It has seen 300,000 hours of digging and numerous laboratory tests.

Osmanagic says the three pyramids form an equilateral triangle, with each leg being 2.1km.

He adds that a network of underground tunnels exists under the whole Visoko valley and that this is just the beginning of several decades of research, in which he will prove Bosnia is a cradle of civilisation.

However, the academic community in BiH ridicules his endeavours as the work of a charlatan. University of Sarajevo archaeologist Enver Imamovic likened Osmanagic's excavations to "letting me ... perform surgery". Scholars fear the ongoing excavations may damage mediaeval, Roman and Illyrian relics on the mountain.

Osmanagic's response was to organise the First International Scientific Conference on the Bosnian Valley of Pyramids, which ran from August 25th through 30th in Sarajevo. Among the participants were 19 leading Egyptian archaeologists, geologists and Egyptologists; two Russian academicians; and the British pyramid researcher, Phillip Coppen. The conferees resolved to meet again in two years and to establish a research institute in Sarajevo.

By enlisting such support, Osmanagic aims to gain international credibility, thereby silencing Bosnian sceptics.

Furthermore, claims Osmanagic, "In addition to the stone pyramids in Visoko, based on a satellite recording, we have found that such and similar pyramids also exist at several more locations in BiH." According to Osmanagic, humanity will have to change its concept of the past completely.