The Bosnian Pyramids
A hill in Bosnia looks so much like a pyramid that one man claimed it was the oldest and largest ever built.
What was reported
In 2005, Semir Osmanagić, a Bosnian-American businessman, announced that Visočica hill, above the town of Visoko, was not a hill but a giant ancient pyramid, older and taller than the pyramids of Egypt. He named it the Pyramid of the Sun and identified other nearby hills as pyramids too.
The claim drew huge attention, tourists and volunteers. Digging revealed flat slabs of stone and tunnels that supporters said were built by an ancient civilisation.
Explanations offered
Geologists and archaeologists who studied the site concluded the hill is a natural formation called a flatiron, shaped by erosion, and that the stone slabs are natural layers of rock that cracked into blocks. The European Association of Archaeologists described the project as a cruel hoax on the public. Visitors still come in large numbers.
- When
- Claimed since 2005
- Where
- Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Witnesses
- Visitors and researchers
- Status
- Natural hills
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.