Rain drizzled around, alleviating us of the heat and our own sweat. We had been trekking up and down Bosnia’s irregular skyline for almost an hour. In the distance a mass cemetery sprawled out at the foot of our destination; a mysteriously geometric hill.
Malik had invited me to his homeland; the site of a recent, bloody conflict. Where his father’s military horse leapt from a cliff cowed by something dark enough for animals to understand. “There is something wrong with my country... on average we have a war every 500 years.” Malik’s friend had insisted, as we feasted on barbecued beef.
Bullet holes dot the pastel streets of Sarajevo, and in Visoko or Mostar roofs crumble to the ground or have been wholly amputated by gunfire. While among the rubble Mosques, Churches and Synagogues gleam almost side by side. Bridges crossing numerous streams and rivers seem symbolic of communities living in peace, at least until this 500 year cycle runs out.
Yet besides ethnic tension, it seems Bosnia has another reason to attract international attention. As we began our trek a handful of excavating volunteers pulled up in a stuttering car. They were soon followed by a minivan, emitting a crowd of Americans. We formed a mismatched semi-circle around a little wooden hut, plastered with posters and tourist gifts. Dr Semir Osmanagich appeared as the crowd hummed into silence, for the discoverer of the Bosnian Pyramids.
We spent the next forty minutes underground. Led by a Bosnian archaeologist through strangely cool tunnels. Mushrooms sprouted on the muddy walls and torchlight lit faint hieroglyphics. our heads bobbed up and down dodging a ceiling that funnels oxygen deep into this labyrinth, to a pool of fresh water. A volunteer had joined our tour, and stopped every now and again to recharge his energy crystals on the floor. In generous English our guide explained that these tunnels possess a sort of rejuvenating capacity, sheltered as they are from ‘cosmic energy’.
Soon we caught up with an American archaeologist, engaged in discovering the magnetic ‘energy beam’ supposedly projecting from a large granite tile he searched with metal prongs. Sitting in a circle we closed eyes and flattened our palms against the tile, attempting to feel the energy.
We emerged into daylight and the muggy atmosphere, suddenly exposed to the sunlight and ‘positive ions’. Continuing on our way we trekked ever uphill to the geographical centre of Bosnia, and to the summit of the largest pyramid on earth; “Pyramid of the Sun”.
