China has a lot of secrets that it sweeps under the national rug, but
here is one of the most unusual ones. According to World Mysteries, the
existence of these pyramids had been rumored for years with one of the most intriguing reports coming from an American pilot half a century ago:
[I]n 1947, another U.S. aviator, Maurice Sheahan—this time flying over Shaanxi Province, not far from Xian– caught sight of a giant pyramid in the misty landscape below and rapidly snapped pictures. This time, several U.S. newspapers, in-cluding the New York Times for March 28, 1947, published accounts of the airman’s sighting. But Chinese archaeologists con-tinued to deny the existence of such a structure, even though Sheahan’s photographs suggested it was higher than any pyramid in Egypt. (World Mysteries)
While that height might be a little exaggerated, it’s great to finally get a decent view of the area (just outside of Xi’an) thanks to Google maps. In total there are 38 of them, and unlike the Egyptian pyramids they are not made of giant blocks but rather they are just large mounds of earth. I wonder if the creators knew about the Egyptian pyramids when they built these? If so, these might just be the earliest examples of Chinese counterfeit (aka shanzhai).
Here’s an aerial shot on Google Maps. But for more pictures, be sure to click on over to the World Mysteries article.
