Semir Osmanagic is not easily daunted. The 50-year old businessman, author and amateur archaeologist has been trying to convince the world that ancient humans constructed pyramids near the town of Visoko, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most mainstream scientists dismiss the theory, but he remains convinced.
"My discovery will change human history," Osmanagic says on his website.
Visoko happens to be surrounded by three hills of roughly pyramidal shape, and according to Osmanagic, this is no accident. They are, he insists, the sites of three prehistoric structures which together form a perfect triangle.
The largest, the Pyramid of the Sun, is located under Mount Visocica. Next in size is the Pyramid of the Moon, under Pljesevica Hill. Third is the Pyramid of the Dragon.
He says he has found evidence of a network of tunnels -- created up to 30,000 years ago -- connecting all three.
Osmanagic's explorations have triggered massive media coverage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has invested large amounts of his own money to fund his quest.
Taxpayers are also helping to pay for it. Responding to the intense public interest, in 2007 the Federation of BiH allocated more than 100,000 euros for a team of experts and workers, headed by archaeologist Lidija Fekeza.
Was this money well spent? Not according to international and domestic experts in history and archeology. The majority ridicule Osmanagic's pyramids as, at best, wishful thinking and at worst, a deliberate hoax.
"This comedy is not backed by official science or experts, archaeologists or historians. ... Anyone with a minimum reasonable education knows what age, area and civilisation such buildings belong to," archeologists said in a collective statement issued in 2008.
Osmanagic's tunnels -- one of which was discovered next to an old factory -- were dug by miners during the medieval era, skeptics say, adding that the former Yugoslav Army was well aware of their existence. Records suggest they were known even during the Austro-Hungarian occupation.
Backing Osmanagic's claims is US author Paul Von Ward, an "interdisciplinary cosmologist", who has written books on reincarnation and extra terrestrial intervention in human history.
"The Bosnian Valley of Pyramids is the most exciting and most important archaeological site in the world. The Bosnian pyramids are bigger than Egyptian ones," the Croatian Times quoted him as saying. "They are a stunning blow to conventional history -- these mammoth structures were built bigger and better and even earlier -- thousands of miles away in Europe - than the pyramids in Egypt."
He said he supports a new campaign in BiH to have the pyramids officially recognised as the oldest and largest in the world.
Are these bold claims true? Or are they just a delusion concocted by a dreamer and pseudo scientist? The debate continues. Meanwhile, the intrigue has earned Visoko a place in the tourist brochures, and some hope the "pyramids" will become one of BiH's major attractions.
Source: SETimes