Bosnia - 3 Weeks (2 Weeks Excavating the Bosnian Pyramids)

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Bosnia - 3 Weeks

I went to Bosnia at this time, as I had signed up for the volunteer program with the 'Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation'

http://www.bosnianpyramid.com/index_files/volunteers.html

The program lasted 2 weeks and I had a few days cycling either side. It took me a couple of days to get from the Montenegrin border to Visoko, where I stayed for the 2 weeks, then 3 days cycling from Bosnia in to Croatia and Split.

I crossed in to the country and followed rivers both up and down, all the way until I arrived in Visoko, the cycling was nice as roads that follow rivers tend to have gentle gradients and they went through canyons and lush green forests.

I arrived a day early and went to the hotel where the volunteers were offered cheap beds and food but decided not to stay as it was 15 Euros, a bit of a dump and I didn’t like the miserable hotel owner. Instead I dried off my stuff, fixed my tent and camped up a really steep hill overlooking the Pyramid of the Sun and Visoko.

The next day, Sunday 29th July 2012, I had my corn flakes in the morning then went for a cycle to try and work out which pyramid was which, before checking in, cleaning myself and my stuff and then having some beers with my fellow volunteers.

On the Monday we met Dr. Sam Semir Osmanagich and he took us on a tour of the tunnels and the P.of the Sun, explaining how he found the pyramids and what they have discovered since, he said exactly the same as the videos on youtube, in fact almost word for word.(*)

I worked 3 days in the tunnels removing the rubble in tatty old wheel barrows then 4 days working on a couple of different excavation sites on the P.of the Sun.

I thought the volunteering experience was fantastic, meeting like minded people and investigating what's going on in this little town just North of Sarajevo.

The Program

From my experiences at the tunnels I find myself amazed by how amateur the 4 professional workers were and what little urgency to dig they had, me and other volunteers felt that it was a bit of a 'cowboy' job. There were many things wrong with what they were doing, in fact better to say that there weren't many things right.(*)

Things were similar on the P.of the Sun with knackered old tools and a complete lack of organization. The treatment from the hotel was hilarious, again disorganized but also rude and unfriendly, an example of this is that we were told that the rooms were only cleaned every 2 weeks and that if we wanted to clean them ourselves we had to buy all the mops and cleaners from our own pockets.(*)

So the staff were rubbish, minus Ricardo and Alfredo the lead archeologist and his assistant, who I actually felt sorry for, as they just seemed like puppets with all important decisions above their heads. Some very strange decisions have been made which leads me to believe that 'the powers that be' are in force here.(*) So, like I said, most of the personnel were “lousy” but it was only people involved with the 'Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun Foundation', the locals were really friendly – one guy bought me an ice cream and another showed us around town.

The Amazing Valley’s and their Contents

The working day was from 9am – 3pm, and we didn’t work Sundays so me and many of the other volunteers went on excursions during our time off. We went on several hour long climbs to the top of the P.of the Sun, and we also went to the other 4 pyramids – Moon, Dragon, Mother Earth and Love.

From the top of the P.of the Sun you have a fantastic 360 degree view of all the pyramids and the neighboring valley’s and on one of the evening excursions to the top we saw what looked like another 20 or 30 pyramids and as the sun was setting the shadows formed by the hills were triangular and made the “hills” look even more suspicious. (*)

I decided not to finish the second week as I didn’t like the hotel and I felt that the work we were doing was just preparing the site for tourists, so my last day was on the Wednesday. Next day I took the bike for a cycle in the neighboring valley and was amazed by what I found, needless to say it wasn’t an optical illusion from the top of the P.of the Sun. (*)

So I did quite a lot of exploring and have come away with more questions than answers but certain things I am sure of. There are many pyramid shaped hills in the Visoko area and some of them have interesting things under the topsoil – the P.of the Sun has massive blocks of concrete which is harder than conventional modern day concretes and the P.of the Moon has tilled terraces. There also appears to be a tunnel system under the pyramids and spending time in these tunnels seems to help people heal quicker – I have first hand experience of this with certain problems I had acquired from cycling 50+ miles a day and had had for weeks which disappeared after only a few hours in the tunnels.

So I think there are pyramids, in fact I think there are more than have been disclosed, but there are also fishy things going on in Visoko (*) and I'm not talking about the contents of Baldric’s apple crumble (for Blackadder fans)

I must say again that the other volunteers were great people and we all had a great time in a truly magical location. We had a BBQ on top of the P.of the Moon, fires on top of the P.of the Sun and one night I camped up there and we also had a farewell party at the Dragons Nest, a house near the Dragon pyramid, where we built a fire in spiralled rocks and I photographed massive numbers of orbs.(*)

A fantastic experience, a fantastic place just shame about the smelly rats.

(*) - I intend to write a report on my experiences in Visoko with much more detail about some of the things I have mentioned in this blog entry, contact me via email if you have any interest in it.

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Photos

Arriving In Bosnia
From the start it was lush and green

Weaving Through Canyons
The roads followed rivers which twisted through canyons

Fixing The Tent
A tent pole snapped and I had to fix it with duct tape and sticks

Lovely Scenery
Bosnia was very pretty

Ethnically Diverse
There were mosques....

Ethnically Diverse
....and churches

First Sight Of Pyramids
I couldn't stop grinning as I saw pyramids...

First Sight Of Pyramids
....the pyramids were obvious...

First Sight Of Pyramids
...but it was hard to tell which one was which....

First Sight Of Pyramids
... I thought this was the "Dragon"....

First Sight Of Pyramids
...and this was the "Moon"

Arriving in Visoko
The moment I had been dreaming of for months

Arriving in Visoko
I was early so had time to dry things

Arriving in Visoko
A local man bought me an ice cream

Campsite Night 74
Overlooking the valley

Night 74
Visoko with the 'Pyramid of the Sun' in the background

Night 74
There was a lovely sunset