Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun

By Jason Nguyen

What is the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun?

The Bosnian Pyramids

Along side the Pyramid of the Sun, Osmanagic believed that there are four others next to it: The Pyramid of the Moon, Dragon Pyramid, Love Pyramid, and The Temple of the Mother Earth. The most important thing to note about all of these "pyramids" is that they are hills that are supposedly in the shape of pyramids. More specially, the Pyramid of the Sun has taken up much more attention is due to the fact that it is the closest hill to look like a pyramid and that it aligned closely to the Northern Star. Instead of it believing that the hills were formed in this shape out of pure luck, Osmanagic believes that the pyramids in Kisoko are all artificial

Sky view of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun

Bosnia and the Town of Visoko

The Bosnian War has left many scars on the country itself. These scars are a harsh reminder for Bosnians but that changed when Semir Osmanagic "discovered" the pyramids that are located around the town of Visoko. The story of Osmanagic newfound discovery brought new life into the country; something that was not related to the war in anyway. Obviously this drew a lot of attention from the media, but more importantly, archaeologist around the world. Even though archaeologists have determine the Bosnian Pyramids as a scam, individuals are still determined to storm into Visoko to understand mysterious pyramids for themselves .

The town of Visoko with the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun in the background

About the "discoverer" of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun

Semir Osmanagic, who holds a Ph.D in Sociology in History, was the person that started the psedudoarchaeological project known today as the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun which is located in Visoko, Bosnia. According to his website, he received a bachelor degree in political science and another in economics; he also has a masters degree in international economics. Earlier in his life, he worked for United Metal Industry of Sarajevo as fellow in strategic planning. He then moved to Houston, Texas and was a general manager for Houston Protectors, Inc. which is a manufacturing company. His big "archaeological" career started when he "discovered" the lost pyramids of Bosnia, which are all located in Visoko. He spends a lot of time and energy trying to prove that the Bosnian Pyramids (which are hills in the shape of pyramids) are artificial. Since the "discovery" of the Bosnian Pyramids in 2005, he had appear on many media outlets to promote the Bosnian Pyramids .

Semir Osmanagic .

What was the context in its discovery?

In 1992, there was a three-year genocidal war in Bosnia, where over 2 million people were forced to flee, and over 100,00 people were killed. Since that time, Bosnia has struggled to regain a sense of nationalism and pride. When Osmanagich claimed he discovered the largest and oldest pyramids in the world, he offered the people of Bosnia an image of an accomplished past, as well as an opportunity to bring a brighter and more prosperous future to the country .

Even Bosnian officials – including the Prime Minister – are supporting the discovery of the pyramids, and those officials are encouraging the media to support the pyramids as well. A huge tourist attraction has since sprung up around the pyramids, bringing in a lot of income for the country .In addition to stands selling food and t-shirts, tubes have been built underneath the pyramids that tourists can walk through in order to absorb the healing energy that is advertised as being concentrated around and underneath the pyramids

The debate over whether the pyramids are a real archaeological discovery has become both a political and a religious issue as well as a scientific one. Anyone – scientist or otherwise – who calls out the inconsistencies in the argument for the pyramids is abused and threatened for being anti-bosnian .

Since their discovery, Osmanagich has raised enough money from citizens and state-owned companies to fund his excavations for over 8 years. This is in spite of the fact that every core sample has come back as typical for mountains in that area, and every new piece of information dug up has been normal, explainable occurrences. Osmanagich also makes huge claims that he can’t back up; such as saying the pyramids are manmade and over 12,000 years old, or that there are lime-cement blocks making up the pyramids base that were poured by Europeans before the agricultural revolution . Each time a claim is disputed, the citizens of Bosnia threaten, harass, and drown out the scientists who dared to speak up .

Osmanagich’s next goal is to excavate a series of tunnels that he believes connects all of the pyramids. Unfortunately, continuing on that path may destroy actual fossils. There may be several undocumented Medieval, Neolithic, of Roman sites in the area, and without actual archaeologists supervising the expedition, it’s highly possible that Osmanagich may unintentionally destroy priceless fossils .

This picture shows how the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun supposedly lines up with the sun

What is the pseudoarchaeological narrative associated with the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun?

According to Osmanagich, there are several reasons why the Bosnian Pyramids could not possibly be a natural occurrence. The first thing that supposedly stood out to Osmanagich was how straight three of the sides were. The fourth side, in his opinion, must have been shaped into the contours of the land and allowed to have greenery grow all over it in order to make the Pyramid easier to climb. The second observation Osmanagich made was that the Pyramid was perfectly aligned with the cardinal points of direction. Each side of the Pyramid was perfectly aligned towards a cardinal direction, which Osmanagich didn’t believe could happen naturally. Osmanagich also claims that the peaks of three of the biggest Pyramids align to form an almost perfect triangle, which also couldn’t be random .

It is also believed that there is a large concentration of healing energy around and underneath the pyramids. This belief has been supported by Osmanagich, who exploited it for tourism. Supporters believe that the healing energy may be one possible explanation for the Medieval ruins on top of one of the Pyramids. Supporters also believe that there are hollow spaces inside of the Pyramids, which may prove they aren’t just natural occurring mountains. This idea was first brought up in the 1990’s, when explosions in the area supposedly created an echo. Osmanagich decided to take separate thermal scans of the mountains in question which showed that certain areas inside of the mountains may cool down faster than others, which proves some kind of density difference. This could be due to water, different kind of material, or some air pockets, but Osmanagich took this idea and ran. He claimed that this must mean there are both hollow spots and buried artificial material inside the Pyramids .

These are some of the reasons why Osmanagich and his followers claim that the Pyramids must be Pyramids, and not mountains, but in addition to the idea fueling Bosnia’s sense of nationalism, Osmanagich paints a clear picture of why he believes that most scientists disagree with his claims. Osmanagich believes that his claims are completely real, but in order for them to fit into what is currently known about history, we would have to reanalyze huge sections of our past. Osmanagich believes that archaeologists are too stubborn to admit that they might have been wrong, and that changing the history books is completely out of the question, so archaeologist just refuse to admit that he might have a point .

The issue with that line of logic is that everything we know has been tested, retested, and proven by independent scientists around the world. The burden of proof is on Osmanagich, and other than a few select people that he rotates and uses to increase his credibility, most archaeologists and geologists who have visited the Pyramids of Bosnia have left convinced that they are nothing but flat iron mountains, and that the entire concept must be a hoax of national and international proportions. In one case, a geologist named Nadja Nukic who studied the Pyramids claimed that certain boulders that Osmanagich claims have markings that date back 15,000 years didn’t have any markings when she first saw them, and when she came back, the markings looked brand new. After Nukic admitted this fact, Osmanagich posted a denial on his website that Nukic had supposedly written . Occurrences like this add to the reasons why most archaeologists believe the Pyramids are a hoax.

None of this phases Osmanagich, who is confident both in his discovery, and that any pushback is temporary. It’s easy to see why he believes this, since he has brought a lot of fame both to Bosnia and himself. To quote Osmanagich, “Ten years from now nobody will remember my critics, and a million people will come to see what we have.” .

Deconstructing these pseudoarcheological claims

Skepticism of Osmanagic's Claims

There are many skepticism surrounding the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun and other surrounding pyramids. One of the main points that was made in an article written by Brian Dunning pointed out one of the critiques that many has; Osmanagic always shows the Sun pyramid from only one angle because it is the only one that makes it look like a pyramid, whereas the other angles makes it look like just any other hill. This would go with the four other hills that are surrounds the Pyramid of the Sun, they are all hills that looks like pyramids. Secondly, another criticism that Osmanagic has been facing from other archaeologist is that the hill, also known as Visočicaor Pyramid of the Sun, is an apparent archaeological site. It is to be believed that the site was built on top of Roman ruins but Osmanagic have been digging there which sparked a great level anger throughout the archaeological community.

To prove that the hills are truly pyramids, Osmanagic founded the Archaeological Park - Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation and even recruited the help of geophysicist Dr. Amer Smailbegovic. The purpose of Dr. Smailbegoyic was to use thermal imaging to see what part of the hill change temperatures at different times of the day. Smailbegovic thermal imaging found that there are five pyramids around Visoko but both Smailbegovic and Osmanagic did not explain how this would happen. They did, however, compared it to the pyramids of Egypt and Latin America.

Lastly, it seems like Osmanagic goal is to reunite Bosnia after the war . With this "discovery" he can take the focus of the Bosnian people off of the war and have them unite for the something else, in this case, the Bosnian Pyramids. Even though Osmanagic claims have been proven to by a scam by other archaeologists around the world, it has still unite the Bosnian people to come together to prove that these hills and in fact are real pyramids of Bosnia.