Experts find evidence of Bosnia pyramid
By AMEL EMRIC, Associated Press
Last updated: 12:12 a.m., Thursday, April 20, 2006
VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Researchers on Wednesday unearthed
geometrically cut stone slabs that they said could form part of the
sloping surface of what they believe is an ancient pyramid lying
beneath a huge hill.
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Archaeologists and other experts began digging at this central Bosnian
town last week to explore the team leader's theory that the 2,120-foot
hill covers a step pyramid, which would be the first ever found in
Europe.
"These are the first uncovered walls of the pyramid," Semir Osmanagic,
a Bosnian archaeologist who studied the pyramids of Latin America for
15 years, said of the stonework found Wednesday.
"We can see the surface is perfectly flat. This is the crucial material
proof that we are talking pyramids," he said.
Osmanagic believes the structure will prove to be 722 feet high, or a
third taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza.
The huge stone blocks discovered Wednesday appeared to be cut in cubes
and polished.
"It is so obvious that the top of the blocks, the surface is man-made,"
Osmanagic said.
Earlier research on the hill, known as Visocica, found that it has
45-degree slopes pointing toward the cardinal points and a flat top.
Under layers of dirt, workers discovered a paved entrance plateau,
entrances to tunnels and large stone blocks.
Satellite photographs and thermal imaging revealed two other, smaller
pyramid-shaped hills in the Visoko Valley.
Last week's excavations began with a team of rescue workers from a
nearby coal mine being sent into a tunnel believed to be part of an
underground network connecting the three pyramid-shaped hills.
They were followed by archeologists, geologists and other experts who
emerged from the tunnel later to declare that it was certainly
man-made.
The work at Visoko, about 20 miles northwest of Sarajevo, will continue
for about six months. Two experts from Egypt are due to join the team
in mid-May.
"It will be a very exciting archaeological spring and summer,"
Osmanagic said.
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