Damanhur - Once Secret Underground Temple

It was 1991 when police, acting on the tip from the suspicious villagers in Italian valley of Valchiusella, knocked on the door of Oberto Airaudi over an alleged tax evasion. They found nothing. It was just one more of those anonymous tips and routine visits. They had no idea how close they came to something monumental and completely unrelated to tax issues they were so concerned about.

A year later, after persistant rumors, they came once more knocking on the door of an unremarkable house (picture below), demanding to be shown that "secret temple" threatening that otherwise they would find it by dynamiting the hillside.

Oberto gave in and led the public prosecutor, winged by three policemen to the secret entrance. They expected to find some room perhaps the size of a two-car garage, and one can imagine how their jaws dropped when they found an entire underground complex on five levels with nine temple halls, 300,000 cubic feet (8,496 cubic meters) in size (3D model on the top picture).

The picture above shows the first hall they entered - the Hall of the Earth. The rectangular opening seen behind the center pillar leads to the second part of the hall (refer to 3D chart). Italian government realized the importance of this site and allowed the people to continue with the decoration of the temple, but further expansion and building was prohibited. The secret temple was no longer secret, but now it was under the protection of the government and world was richer for one more story about capabilities of human spirit.

Humble beginnings

It all started in August of 1978 when Oberto, who prefers to be called Falco and about 10 other people struck the first pick into the side of the Vidracco hill. From then on it is as simple as it is astounding. They just continually worked on it, at least few hours every day with various people contributing their work and skills until the temple became what it is today - a community called "Federation of Damanhur" on over 1,200 acres with eco-villages, meditation scool, craft workshops, its own magazines and much more involving over 1,000 people.

You can visit them at http://www.damanhur.info

The story doesn't end here. In the next post I will look into the plant music that Damanhur also became renowned for.