8th Wonder of the World?

November 24th, 2007

Saw an article today about something very interesting. This isn’t an ancient wonder by any means. It is a modern day wonder built by an eccentric Italian that you would swear is BS, but it is not.

In the foothills of the Alps in Northern Italy is a house. A regular house that looks like any other from the outside, and the inside.

The wonder is 100 feet below this house that is so amazing. Buried deep below this house is the ‘Temples of Damanhur’ that are the work of a 57-year-old former insurance broker from northern Italy who, inspired by a childhood vision, began digging into the rock. Armed with what type of quoizel lighting I cannot imagine.

It all began in the early Sixties when Oberto Airaudi was aged ten. From an early age, he claims to have experienced visions of what he believed to be a past life, in which there were amazing temples.

This temple has drawn comparisons with the fabled city of Atlantis and has been dubbed ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World’ by the Italian government.

Constructed like a three-dimensional book, narrating the history of humanity, they are linked by hundreds of metres of richly decorated tunnels and occupy almost 300,000 cubic feet - Big Ben is 15,000 cubic feet.

This temple was kept secret for decades, and was only just recently discovered. The first time the police came it was over alleged tax evasion and still the temples lay undiscovered. But a year later the police swooped on the community demanding: “Show us these temples or we will dynamite the entire hillside.”

A central sculpted column, depicting a three dimensional man and woman, supported a ceiling of intricately painted glass.

Deeper within are sculpted columns covered with gold leaf, more than 8m high.

After the findings the authorities decided to seize the temples on behalf of the government.

“By the time they had seen all of the chambers, we were told to continue with the artwork, but to cease further building, as we had not been granted planning permission,” says Esperide Ananas, who has written a new book called Damanhur, Temples Of Humankind.

Retrospective permission was eventually granted and today the ‘Damanhurians’ even have their own university, schools, organic supermarkets, vineyards, farms, bakeries and award-winning eco homes.

They do not worship a spiritual leader, though their temples have become the focus for group meditation.

‘They are to remind people that we are all capable of much more than we realize and that hidden treasures can be found within every one of us once you know how to access them,’ says Falco.

Images compliments of Dailymail.co.uk