Science: World's oldest pyramid Indonesia

Chris Samuel, US Daily Express, 11/6/23; Dhr. Seven, Maya (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Many Buddhist monastics, from the West as well as the East, visit Borobudur Temple.

The stupa bells atop the pyramid Borobudur

Could it possibly be a coincidence that the world's largest (excavated) Buddhist temple, Borobudur Candhi or "Big Buddha Temple," is a pyramid in Indonesia AND the world's oldest pyramid is in Indonesia? They are not the same. One is a massive mountain known as the  Gunung Padang Megalithic Site, and the other is the Borobudur pyramid temple mount capped with bells (stupas) with buddhas inside them, a unique feature not found in any of the other tens of thousands Buddhist temples across the planet.

US Scientists find 'world's oldest pyramid' built 10,000 years before Egyptian megaliths

Scientists [after ignoring what locals have been saying for decades] have found that a 30-meter (100 foot) deep "megalith" hidden within a hill of lava rock in Indonesia is likely to be the world's oldest pyramid.

Gunung Padang, or "Mountain of Enlightenment" in the local language, could also prove to be the oldest man-made construction of its size, at 16,000 years old, according to radiocarbon dating on the site.

The tests suggest that early construction of the vast structure began during the last Ice Age, making it 10,000 years older than its far more celebrated counterparts, the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The ancient site may also be thousands of years older than Turkey's Göbekli Tepe, which was previously thought to be the world's oldest megalith [and temple].

Researchers found that the hunter-gatherers who built Gunung Padang worked with, rather than against the challenging conditions for construction.

• Metal fragments found at bottom of Pacific are space 'alien' artifacts, claims Harvard professor

It was determined that the site's first and deepest layer was shaped by cooled lava flows that occurred naturally at the site.

Archeologists said the structure challenges our understanding of "primitive" hunter-gather societies and lays bare the "engineering capabilities of ancient civilizations."

[It, of course, was built with the aid of celestial devas from space and their advanced technological capabilities, not by hunter-gatherers who just happened to take time away from their hunting and gathering to do the math, engineering, construction, and sacred art bas reliefs all over the site. But as scientists cannot yet publicly accept that devas intervene in human affairs and served as rulers in the past, they must speak of hunter-gatherers as stable farmers staying at a location long enough to carry out this spectacular project that could not be built today with our level of available technology.] More:

• Scientists find 'world's oldest pyramid' built 10,000 years before Egyptian megaliths (msn.com)

Gunnng Padang, "Mountain of Enlightenment," Indonesian monolithic site (Getty Images)