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UNESCO to probe Bosnian ‘pyramid’

Bosnia's mystery pyramid will be probed and inspected by a team of experts from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagic stands at the foot of a hill that he claims is an ancient pyramid.
Amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagic stands at the foot of a hill that he claims is an ancient pyramid.Hidajet Delic / AP file
/ Source: Reuters

Bosnia's mystery pyramid will be probed and inspected by a team of experts from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

"We shall send a UNESCO expert team to Visoko to determine exactly what it is all about," UNESCO Secretary General Koichiro Matsuura said in an interview published Monday in the newspaper Dnevni Avaz.

Amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagic has caused a stir with his find, with local and European archaeologists denouncing it as nonsense.

Aly Abd Barakat, an Egyptian geologist sent by Cairo to assist Osmanagic's team last month, has said that the Visocica hill did appear to be a primitive human-made pyramid of uncertain age. Barakat said huge stone blocks found on the three sides of the hill used the same type of artificial cement used in ancient Egyptian pyramids.

Osmanagic's team is also investigating the Pljesevica hill — which he calls the Moon Pyramid — as well as underground tunnels that he believes connect three pyramids.

The researchers say they also have found a sandstone monolith in the underground tunnel with enigmatic symbols engraved on it, which will be sent to Egypt for analysis.

Osmanagic, who studied pyramids in central America for the past 15 years, said that satellite and radar analyses have revealed a geometry governing Visocica shape, as well as an  alignment of its sides with four cardinal points.