AMRI site visit to Gunung Padang

Gunung Padang Megalithic Ziggurat or Pyramid? Site Visit

Reconstruction of Gunung Padang when in use as a temple

 By Albert and Mavis, A & M Research Institute, Sukabumi, West Java, 8th March 2021

Gunung Padang Site Visit, Is this the oldest megalithic site in the world?

Gunung Padang is an interesting and nothing less than amazing megalithic archaeological site in West Java. The Albert and Mavis Research Institute (AMRI) conducted a site visit on Sunday 7th March 2021. The site is located near the village of Karyamukti, 30 km from the town of Cianjur and 120 km south east of the capital Jakarta (coordinates: 107° 3'22.40"E 6°59'37.62"S). It is definitely Southeast Asia’s largest and most enigmatic megalithic complex. It was first mentioned by Dutch archaeologists in 1914, and was thought to be a megalithic ruin on top of a natural hill (Jakarta Post). Recently it has been discovered that the stones are actually the top levels of a gigantic pyramid that continued far beneath the surface. It may have looked more like the Babylonian ziggurats than the pyramids of Giza.

Controversy over age

           The Gunung Padang site is causing ripples amongst historians and archaeologists because investigations at the site reveal hidden chambers as deep as 90 feet in the structure, with shafts and evidence of fragments of columnar basalt, which have been radiocarbon-dated to be as far back as 20,000 BCE. This will make the structure not only the largest in South-East Asia, but the oldest megalithic structure in the entire world.

Evidence of civilisation 20,000 years ago.

           Gunung Padang is now considered to be a man-made pyramid, thanks to research conducted by Dr Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, Chief Geologist of the National Team for Gunung Padang Research and Senior Scientist at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

The first scientific radiocarbon dating was done by Dr. Natawidjaja himself on soils underlying the megaliths at or near the surface. The dates produced - around 500 to 1,500 BCE - were very close to the archaeological guesswork and caused no controversy. However a surprise was in store as Natawidjaja and his team extended their investigation using tubular drills that brought up cores of earth and stone from much deeper levels.

First the drill cores contained evidence - fragments of columnar basalt - that man-made megalithic structures lay far beneath the surface. Secondly the organic materials brought up in the drill cores began to yield older and older dates - 3,000 BCE to 5,000 BCE, then 9,600 BCE as the drills bit deeper, then around 11,000 BCE, then, 15,000 BCE and finally at depths of 90 feet and more an astonishing sequence of dates of 20,000 BCE to 22,000 BCE and earlier.

Dr Natawidjaja stated that "This was not at all what my colleagues in the world of archaeology expected or wanted to hear." The problem is that those dates from 9,600 BCE and earlier belong to the period that archaeologists call the "Upper Palaeolithic" and take us back deep into the last Ice Age when Indonesia was not a series of islands as it is today but was part of a vast southeast Asian continent dubbed "Sundaland" by geologists.

Was Sundaland the lost continent of Atlantis?

Before 9,600 BCE the sea level was 123 metres (400 feet) lower then because huge ice caps two miles deep covered most of Europe and North America. But as the ice caps began to melt all the water stored in them returned to the oceans and sea-level rose, submerging many parts of the world where humans had previously lived.

Was Gunung Padang a ziggurat pyramid constructed by a forgotten but advanced civilisation as their temple for worshiping their gods? Was the temple in the centre of the lost continent of Atlantis? (Asian Geographic Magazine).

Our site visit (with photographs)

           Mavis and I met our group at the MATES GCHQ offices in Sukabumi, comprising Nurhayati and her daughter Ruby, plus Nur’s sister and cousins. We drove the 30 km to Gunung Padang, but the road is so narrow and winding it took us an hour and a half, seldom managing to drive at more the 25 kph! The site is well organised, and an entrance ticket is required, at a cost of Indonesian Rupiah 10,000 per person, (less than a US dollar).

When we arrived at the foot of the pyramid, we were faced with a massive climb up to the top level of the temple, but there are well made steps all the way. After much huffing and puffing we reached the top, and the terraces and different areas are very clear to see. This was, without doubt, some sort of gathering area, and very reminiscent of the Ziggurats of Babylon. We didn’t need to be an archaeologist to see this was an ancient site which must have been used as some sort of temple or area of worship.

The terraced areas at the top, as I pointed out to the team, you can clearly see delineated areas, which must have had different functions, and the different levels corresponded to the Head Guide telling us the top area was where the ancient civilisation’s King would meditate and communicate with the gods.

The local village chief told me the legend that Gunung Padang was built by the king of a lost empire, when Sundaland was a huge land mass, when Singapore, Malaysia and the Indonesian Islands were all joined together. West Java is still called Sunda, and 33 million people still speak the ancient Sunda Language as their mother-tongue.

The Sundaland empire was lost in a huge flood, and “sank beneath the ocean” leaving the mountain tops as Indonesian islands of today (Perry).

 Photos of the group site visit

I point out the Kings meditation area.

The girls take a rest.

Conclusion

I concluded that Gunung Padang appears in every way to be a man-made artifact of huge proportions, and if so, it predates everything we have uncovered so far by at least 10,000 years. No wonder the general archaeological community and academics are dismissing Dr. Natawidjaja’s evidence. The pyramid at Gunung Padang could be evidence of an advanced civilization that predates any currently known to the world. The deepest layer appears to have been constructed over millennia, with the oldest sections from as far back as 25,000 BCE. If the carbon dating on this deepest section is correct, then Gunung Padang didn’t just beat the pyramids — it clocks in ahead of the first recognized civilization in Mesopotamia, showing evidence of a settled society 12,000 years before the agricultural revolution. The local people told me how proud they were, Sundaland may be home to the earliest advanced civilization the world has ever uncovered.

Another find causing concern with the establishment is the evidence of an ancient cement mixture used as mortar for the Gunung Padang. Its composition has been shown to be a combination of clay, iron, and silica, suggests that iron-melting technology was in use well before the beginning of the currently dated Iron Age, drawing a picture of a society far more advanced than any other known to have existed at the time.

In conclusion, Gunung Padang is a compelling challenge to those who believe the prehistoric peoples of 20,000 years ago were simple hunter-gatherers, but many conservative archaeologists many remain unconvinced. The Albert and Mavis Research Institute (AMRI) is planning to sponsor and encourage more investigations both to the original civilisation who built the structure, and to the location of ancient Atlantis.

Written by Albert Richards, with my personal thanks to the team who joined us on this amazing site visit. Mavis wishes to thank Nur for the delicious “Saté Marrangé” which we had in the roadside restaurant on the way back. She has promised to give Mavis the recipe.

References

Jakarta Post Newspaper, 24th September 2014, Gungung Padang Site, https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/24/archaeologists-slam-excavation-gunung-padang-site.html

Asian Geographic Magazine, Asian Geographic No.115 Issue 6/2015 The Pyramid of Gunung Padang, https://www.asiangeo.com/heritage/the-pyramid-of-gunung-padang/?amp

  Perry, William James, 1918, The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia, Manchester University Press, 1918, https://archive.org/details/megalithiccultur00perruoft