Climbing the Great(est) Pyramid

Bosnia is not really known for much, but that may be about to change soon. Archeologists have recently discovered the Bosnian valley of the pyramids and tourists are already beginning to flock to these wonders which are claimed to be much bigger and much older than the more well known and significantly smaller Egyptian pyramids.

Rising up from the river valley of Visoko, a small town in the geographical center of Bosnia, the pyramids tower above the town like mountains. Abandoned for thousands of years, maybe even tens of thousands of years, forests and greenery have grown over the soil that has settled over the stone and concrete structures.

With six massive pyramids and vegetation concealed temples encircling the town as well as an extensive network of underground tunnels, I expected our week in Visoko to be quite busy. We began by visiting the main tourist site, the famed tunnel that according to information in town was built more than 12,000 years ago and extends for tens of kilometers underground in a network that connects the pyramids.

This seems to be the most popular of the pyramid-related tourist sites in Visoko as hundreds of people, mostly Bosnians, were crowded around the entrance when we arrived. My father was eager to enter the tunnel as people in town had explained to him that the crystals in the tunnel emit a special healing gas that is healthy for the lungs. Someone even mentioned that breathing in the air in the tunnels might provide more protection against Covid-19 than the vaccine.

With hundreds of unmasked people marching shoulder to shoulder into the narrow opening of the tunnel, it seems that the protection of the crystals may be working as the country has a very low rate of infection despite not getting much of the vaccine.

Dozens of booths and small shops around the tunnel sell an assortment of souvenirs, including mini-pyramids, crystals, rocks from the tunnels, flutes and bead necklaces. Other shops offer services such as aura reading and crystal healing.

Besides the tunnels, hundreds of people wander the adjacent park where they can meditate on an energy platform, hug a magic tree or touch an aura field amplifier. As ND and NG run from one attraction to the next with what looks to me like a brief expression of puzzlement at the instructions for each, I watch as middle aged men line up to take their turns walking an energy labyrinth, a collection of stones arranged in a spiral. The men walk around and around until they reach the center where they sit and absorb the energy.

I am, unfortunately, a very close-minded person and so hurried through most of the magic energy circus without giving a close look to many of the signs or activities. I think Tola and my father could have spent all day there if I didn’t encourage them to speed it up. I was eager though to start what I expected to be a quite long hike on a day that was slowly disappearing at the energy park.

From the park we hiked up a forest trail that would follow a mountain ridge for a few miles to the Pyramid of the Sun, the most prominent of the many pyramids in the area. The shade of the forest provided little relief from the heat though as the high humidity made it feel more like a jungle.

We plodded slowly on, ND and I trying to stay far enough ahead of the rest to avoid hearing the complaining. My father spent as much energy hiking as he did reminding us of his age and that he might drop dead at any time. After only a mile, we decided to cut through a village and find a way home. The Pyramid of the Sun would have to wait for a cooler day.

After another day of sweltering heat unusual for the mountains of Bosnia in which we did little except play video games and join the evening crowds walking along the riverside cafes, we attempted another grueling hike.

The Pyramid of the moon is another massive structure with three triangular sides and a flat top. The way to the top of the pyramid follows a dirt road along a lower ridge through villages, farms and forests. This region saw fighting between the Croatian, Bosniak and Serb armies during the war in the 1990s and we noticed that signs warned of mines in the region so we were careful not to stray from the path. The kids noticed, first by smell and then by sight, a rotting deer just off the road and were convinced it must have stepped on a mine.

Not too far after passing the deer, we had to step to the side to allow a rusty Yugo to roar past. These cars always seem to require some speed to get up hill and it’s not unusual to see them gunning it in order to make the ascent. If a driver had to put on the brakes for a deer, he would probably have to slowly back down the entire mountain to gain the speed he needed to go again.

The hike offered great views of Visoko as well as the Pyramid of the Sun across the valley and the more distant Pyramid of Love, Pyramid of the Bosnian Dragon, the Stone Temple and the Temple of Mother Earth. With names like these, I wondered, how is this not the most visited place on earth?

We arrived at the flat top of the pyramid a little disappointed to find not much there. An orchard of apples, pears and plums grow around a small farm house and tall pines completely obscure all views. The owner of the farm house pointed out an excavation made by archeologists on his property, a pit that looked somewhat like an abandoned well layered with sandstone. Other excavations in his orchards seemed to indicate that the entire flat top of the pyramids was tiled with flat, ordered paver stones just a few feet under the soil. He offered us some homemade fruit brandy and then we hiked back down.

If the names of the Bosnian Pyramids sound a bit familiar, that may be due to the fact that there is are a number of Mayan pyramids in Central America with the same names. In an amazing coincidence, an expert on the Mayan pyramids originally came from nearby Visoko. Sam Osmanagich emigrated from Bosnia to the United States in the 1990s where he became a successful businessman and amateur archeologist. His book on the Mayan pyramids argues that the Central American pyramids were built in part by aliens and that the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012 would be a big deal. Returning to Bosnia in the 2000s, he noticed that the mountains around Visoko looked a bit like pyramids. After a bit of investigation, he confirmed that these were in fact ancient pyramids.

Osmanagic now runs the Bosnian Pyramids Archeological Park. We found ourselves at the ticket booth here the next day paying the $3 per person entrance fee to see the excavations at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun. I’m told that they sometimes charge tourists more than this, but I think the man at the ticket booth could sense that I was hesitant to pay anything, especially after I told him we were only interested in climbing to the top.

Wooden stairs carved into the earth climb the hillside to the excavations. After that, we would have to return back down as there was no way up from there.

A few excavation pits showed what looked like conglomerate and sandstone. The information boards explained that these were ancient artificial concrete stronger than any materials known today. An information board at the tunnel site mentioned that the pyramids were 12000 years old, but the information here explained that they were in fact 29200 years old (plus or minus 400 years).

The kids, until now, had been a bit doubtful, asking me a few times if I was sure that these were pyramids and how come they never heard of them. I explained the facts as they were presented: these are the biggest, oldest and greatest pyramids in the world. That is all the information I have at the moment.

But here ND noticed an information board that proclaimed the Egyptian pyramids as “most probably built by gods,” and his level of belief instantly fell to zero or close to it. Both the Egyptian pyramids and the Bosnian ones were built as “energy machines” according to these sign boards that I paid an entrance fee to read. Besides being greater in height and age, the Bosnian pyramids are also better than the Egyptian ones because they induce self-healing, development of spiritual abilities and numerous other beneficial energy-related effects. Numerous info boards alongside the excavation pits explained the science of this: something about Schuman resonance, negative ions and planetary frequencies.

The stairs ended and there was nothing but forests alongside the steep face of the pyramid above us. A path led into the trees and for the next few hours we climbed up the Pyramid of the Sun, sometimes grabbing roots and branches to scale the steep parts.

At one point on the hike I became a bit lightheaded and it may have been due the magical resonance energy of the pyramid, although I think it was more likely just the heat and exertion as the pyramid claim, as fun as it would be to believe, is clearly BS. There’s a beautiful view from the grassy meadow on top though.

The pyramids have been celebrated within Bosnia by presidents, politicians and celebrities. Even a few academics. I’ve asked a few people in Bosnia if the pyramids are real and every one of them has said “yes.”

But why don’t archeologists take the Bosnian claims seriously? The believers say it is because it would prove scientists wrong about everything and that the Egyptian pyramid people would lose a lot of money as no one would want to visit the significantly less great pyramids of Egypt anymore were the truth to be known.

Hundreds of thousands of believers flock to these pyramids though and even if it is complete nonsense that Bosnia has discovered the greatest pyramids of the world, it is still amazing that Bosnia has manufactured them out of thin air.