INTRODUCTION
The Bosnian explorer Semir Osmanagic is convinced he has found not only Europe's first monumental pyramids but also the highest pyramids in the world (220m and 100m), dating back to ancient times.
"I was amazed when I first saw them. I'm deeply convinced now that this is the work of an ancient civilisation built many thousands of years ago," he said while standing on Visocica hill above Visoko near Sarajevo.
Semir Osmanagic is so certain three to five pyramids are hidden in Visoko valley that he has spent some 16,000 euros (20,000 dollars) researching the area, located either side of a river about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Bosnian capital. Residents of the nearby town of Visoko have long known about the presence of the two structures they always referred to as 'pyramids' but none of them was ever intrigued enough to investigate further. But Osmanagic, who says he sharpened his eye for archaeology on numerous trips around the world to study ancient civilizations, insists the structures "cannot be the art of nature".
The Bosnian Indiana Jones started his pyramid crusade in April 2006 after visiting the remnants of a medieval royal palace at the top of Visocica hill in 2005.
Osmanagic, a businessman and author of several books on old civilizations, says the two "constructions" are precisely aligned with the four cardinal directions. He says he sees astonishing similarities between them and Mexican pyramids dating back to about 200 AD, which also come in pairs, one representing the sun and the other the moon. This is why he calls Visocica hill "The Bosnian pyramid of the sun" and Pljesevica hill “The Bosnian pyramid of the Moon".
Osmanagic says he believes builders from an unknown civilisation shaped Visocica hill into a 'step pyramid' then coated it with a kind of primitive concrete. The structure now stands some 220 metres high. After conducting initial probes about 17 metres (56 feet) into the earth that revealed "numerous anomalies in the soil," Osmanagic says he returned to the site with a team of people to start his initial excavation work.
Nadja Nukic, a geologist at the site, said she was most puzzled by three layers of brown polished stone that lie an equal distance from each other underground.
The team began excavating a few spots at the site, and soon reached the sandstone layers of the terraces. To back his insistence that the two structures are ancient pyramids, Osmanagic says his diggers uncovered slabs of polished sandstone that formed the "paved entrance" to the structures. The director of the Visoko Historic Heritage museum, Senad Hodovic, admits he is no sceptic. "The pyramids are obviously the work of man. But we need proper and serious analysis to show who built them and when." Hodovic says he has spent years urging authorities to support archeological research of the plateau of the hill, which is recorded in historic annals as the site of a medieval Bosnian town. He says the shape and monumentality of the pyramids is not typical for Middle Age Bosnian constructions.
Osmanagic, who has lived in the United States for the past 15 years where he runs a metal workshop business, says he has no ambitions of becoming famous. "I'm not doing this for my own glory. I just want to encourage local authorities to seriously deal with this site which could become Bosnia's most profitable product," (source www.Bosnian-pyramid.com)
