Previously undiscovered pyramids have suddenly popped their pointy tops (metaphorically speaking) into view on three continents. Starting in the East, divers, underwater cameras and sonar equipment have revealed a large complex of structures at the bottom of Fuxian Lake in southwest China’s Yunnan province. The site includes a circular “Colosseum-like” building and two tall structures said to be curiously reminiscent of Mayan pyramids. One of these has a base 204ft (63m) wide supporting five floors reaching up to 68ft (21m) high. The other, slightly smaller, structure has three fl oors with linking steps. A rock road 23ft (7m) wide connects the two pyramid-like buildings. Preliminary carbon-dating indicates that the complex originated in the Qin and Han dynasties, c.2000 years ago. Archæologists think the buildings slid into the lake during an earthquake. diving-news.com; diving-industry.com

Across the Pacific, a pyramid has been discovered beneath the Hill of the Star at Iztapalapa on the east side of Mexico City. The approximately 59ft (18m) tall, 492ft (150m) square pyramid was constructed on a natural hillock around AD 500 by the Teotihuacan culture, a little-understood people who built the great ceremonial city of Teotihuacan further along the Valley of Mexico that is famed for its 200ft (61m) tall Pyramid of the Sun (built over a ritual cave complex) and the slightly smaller Pyramid of the Moon. Without anyone knowing a pyramid was buried there, the hill has been used at Easter time since 1833 by Catholics re-enacting the Passion of Christ in thanksgiving for perceived divine protection during a cholera outbreak in the area. [AP] Independent, 5 April 2006.

The most extraordinary of the new pyramid reports comes from Europe. The location is Visocica Hill, which overlooks the Bosnian town of Visoko, 20 miles (32km) northwest of Sarajevo, an area already known to have hosted human settlements from 7,000 years ago. US-based Bosnian contractor Semir (Sam) Osmanagic thinks the 2,100ft (640m) pyramidal hill is the earthen cover of a pyramid structure possibly taller than Egypt’s Great Pyramid. The hill’s remarkably regular shape with 45-degree angle slopes facing the cardinal directions has led to it being referred to as a “pyramid” by the local population for generations, but recent finds are now leading to strong claims. Huge stone blocks have been unearthed. “These are the fi rst uncovered walls of the pyramid,” Osmanagic has declared. His team has also unearthed what it says is an entrance plateau and tunnel openings, and there is preliminary evidence of a monumental causeway, steps and paving stones.

Geological examination seemingly indicates that some layers of Visocica Hill are artificial. Osmanagic thinks some ancient civilisation may have shaped a natural hill before facing it with stone slabs (as happened at Cahuachi, Nazca, Peru) and that it is only one of five pyramids in the region. Archæologists consider his claims to be “absurd”. They point out that he has published some bizarre notions (concerning “planetary frequencies” among other things) in a book about Mayan pyramids (The World of the Maya), that there is no evidence of an advanced civilisation ever being in the Visoko area, and that because Bosnian heritage management is in a sorry state it is easy for such wealthy adventurers to muscle in. There is also a public outcry in Bosnia at the goings-on at Visoko. [AP] Portsmouth Herald, 4 Dec 2005; www.megalithic co.uk [Megalithic Portal], 13 April; BBC News, 15 April; Scotsman, 20 April; Archaeology On-Line Magazine, 27 April 2006.

None of this criticism actually disproves Osmanagic’s claimed findings, though, so the jury has to remain out while his field investigations continue. Should this Bosnian site be confirmed, it would necessarily cause a major reappraisal of European prehistory and might put a red-alert sign on other European locations as being possible pyramid sites. For instance, Osmanagic has observed that Visocica Hill has an attendant smaller pyramidal hill reminiscent of paired pyramids he has studied in the Americas: the present writer notes that in Britain this arrangement is similar to that found at Cley Hill in Wiltshire, which sports prehistoric earthworks and has an attendant tump (Little Cley Hill) of remarkably pyramidal appearance. Dragon Hill beneath White Horse Hill, Uffington, Oxfordshire, also fi ts this pattern and is almost certainly artificially shaped to some extent. It is additionally worth noting that Silbury Hill (at Avebury), which is a monument incorporating a natural hillock, displays a stepped pyramid-like building technology not yet discovered anywhere else in prehistoric Europe. As for Glastonbury Tor, well, we had better not go there…