> I'm shocked by this, actually. I did wonder where
> he was getting the money -- had no idea this was
> government supported.

There is some private sponsorship (a toilet paper maker and some other local businesses), but mostly public money, yes, alas...

> He can afford to carve away
> mountains into sphynxes with that kind of budget.

They are busy around the "tunnels" right now... Hope nobody will loose their lives there, Schoch clearly said they are very unstable and dangerous.

The geologists here might want to have a look at some new photos that appeared on www.piramidasunca.ba

Every time I am admired (sic) at the PR skills... Sure, it's indispensible not to close shop during the winter, to keep mediatic pressure up, the people forget easily if you don't come up with something new all the time, and winter can keep you blocked for at least four months here. It's pure chance that we are having an exceptionally warm climate in this period, normally there could be snow right now, which means no work on the outside "probes". Digging underground is the alternative.

So, besides carving steps and sculpting the hills into pyramids, preparation of the new attractions for next spring (underground "tunnels") is under way.


> Is this a legitimate deduction where they're
> taking away money from roads and so forth to fund
> this

Yes it is.


> And how much income (tourist) do
> they get from this?

I guess that's classified info... (being ironic here).


> Is 50,000 euros per month an
> amount that might be generated by his nonsense?

I doubt it strongly.

When you know the situation in Bosnia a little bit, it's easy to read through the lines of the triumphal announcements of big numbers of tourists: Visoko is just 30 km. away from Sarajevo, so all those "foreign delegations" in most cases are just on their business in the capital, and if they have a couple of hours free, sure, why not to go have a look to the story which is the buzz of the season?

That's what I did too, a few months ago.

But these short trips (there are one-day trips from other parts of Bosnia too) do not really generate much income. One big income-generation factor in tourism is accomodation, and as I said most of traffic in movement is made of short trips: those visitors don't stay overnight. In tourism, nights spent in a place are one of the main indicators, and it's not by chance that you don't find these data in the "pyramid-propaganda". They talk about an xxx number (this too, as usual, without any supporting evidence) of visitors, not of overnight stays,

Taxes, for example, get collected on the basis of overnight stays, so the state is getting back nothing, for what the foundation is taking. And very probably most of whatever small "business" has been generated in these months (from cevap stands to souvenirs to unofficial guides) is unregistered, which is rather usual here: so, no books, no evidence, no VAT or income tax. Frankly, I think it's small money in any case, but again, no taxes flowing back to the state


> And what is their annual budget, anyway? That
> would be a drop in the bucket for the US>

I don't know about Visoko (can be easily checked), I can tell you that the municipality where I live (some 60.000 souls,to give you a proportion) has a budget less than 8 million euro yearly, which is ridiculous. No wonder, since most of the productive system has been disrupted, not only by war, but even worse, by inefficient and corrupt privatization in these last years. A sorrowfully high number of former big state factorie are inactive, thousands of workers out of jobs, so ----> no tax money... Add to this that Bosnia Hercegovina today, with some four million inhabitants, has to feed 14 governments.

Yes, you read right, 14. And it's NOT the people's fault... But I said months ago that I would not discuss politics here.

Just give you the idea that the "pyramid" is actually the tip of an iceberg.


> Not excusing it (I think he's a fraud) but
> wondering how long it can go on before it has a
> negative economic impact.

The negative impact is already there: on the minds of the people, what is the most sorrowful.

I was just having these discussions with friends of mine here recently, and the sad thing is you cannot really speak about it, especially if you are a foreigner. The first reaction is that we are all jalous that Bosnia has pyramids, and most times it ends at that. You cannot break through with any info. Particularly heavy for me, I live here and would like to help, but I know the phenomenon: it doesn't happen only for pyramids, it happens to me to get attacked on other matters since I'm not from here.

Now, the fact is that the people here have many a good reason to be mad at the outside world (again, this is no place to talk politics, but just to give you guys the hint). The sorrowful aspect is that mostly they do not have the instruments to fight the real problems, so this national pride aspect around the "pyramid" is a sort of emotional revenge.

Of all dirty aspects of this story, if I have to choose one to be mad at, this is the one. Playing with the wounds in the soul of this country, hit the people where they are vulnerable to manipulate them for gain.

It's more of a tragedy than can be seen from outside.

And the most terrible aspect - see above - is that we are all more or less at a loss on how to mend this. Giving information doesn't help, because so many people are simply in love with the story and will not let go of it.

Which obviously does not imply stopping to give information, but there should be something else to go with it, I don't really know what myself. What I know is that the polemical, wall-to-wall tone will not help, just reinforce removal and self-delusion.

Perhaps it's time to have the psychologists and healers in, rather than the geologists and archeologists :-(((