



A Crimean Pyramid?

by Philip Coppens from PhilipCoppens Website One of the most remarkable stories I came across in my hunt for pyramids for “The New Pyramid Age”, was the alleged discovery of pyramids in the Crimea. Crimea is an autonomous republic of Ukraine, situated on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name.

Vitaly Gokh at the site of his discovery

To provide a quick historical overview of the location: the earliest inhabitants of the area that archaeology has found traces of were the Cimmerians, who were expelled by the Scythians (Iranians) during the 7th century BC. The remaining Cimmerians that took refuge in the mountains later became known as the Tauri. According to other historians, the Tauri were known for their savage rituals and piracy, and were also the earliest, indigenous inhabitants of the peninsula. In the 5th century BC, Greek colonists began to settle along the Black Sea coast, among them the Dorians from Heraclea, who founded a sea port of Chersonesos outside Sevastopol. It is near that city that one Vitalij Gokh claimed to have discovered a pyramid in 1999.



Gokh had worked for the Soviet military for more than thirty years, before retiring to his dacha in Sevastopol. With time on hand, he decided to engage in lines of research that his career had never allowed him to do. One of these was the exploration of his new surroundings. This led him to discover… a pyramid… but not as anyone would know one.

The public were told of the “pyramids of the Crimea” in the summer of 2002, when Gokh made his claim: there were pyramids buried underneath the earth, as well as under some of the coastal waters of the Crimea – an area known to contain some submerged towns.

How had he made this discovery? As a former engineer, he was well-acquainted with instruments using magnetic resonance, and had built a device of his own making. As the area of Sevastopol was known for its poor water supplies, he developed an instrument to search for subterranean naps of waters; the instrument performed extremely well during testing, and Gokh was ready to begin a survey of the Sevastopol area, in search of potable water.

Their fame spread; in 2002, Gokh’s group was invited by the government of Mauritania to find water in the Western Sahara. In the area of the town of Atar, the team claimed that a large supply of fresh underground water was located. This preliminary conclusion was confirmed by drilling. Under the layer of solid eruptive rock, at a depth of 240 meters, an underwater stream was indeed discovered. The value of these resources was enough to provide all necessaries in water of the region.



Before, he had refined the system so that specific type of photography could occur from the air, thus able to cover larger areas; he also adapted the system for the search of oil, gas and precious metals, finding a willing partner in the oil company Chernomornefte-gaz. The entrance shaft to the underground pyramid

As early as the summer of 1999, his instrument had uncovered an underground anomaly on the periphery of Sevastopol: it was, as Gokh would later claim, the first pyramid. On site inspection revealed at first a rather ordinary, rocky landscape, but they then found an opening, leading down. At a depth of 9.20 meters, there was one solid slab of chalk. Trying to penetrate through the slab – with little success at first – Gokh and his partners in exploration succeeded to shine a lamp into the cavity: it was empty, even though from the ceiling, some quartz stalactites hung down – matched by similar ones that grew from the ground up. The team believed they had stumbled upon an old crucible, but could not find any traces of metal. They continued digging, but it was equally clear that Gokh’s group of three (both of his colleagues, Dr. Mukhudin and Dr. Taran, being engineers as well) needed more manpower; five other people were invited to join.

Soon, several limestone blocks were found. As these had regular dimensions, ca. 2.5 by 1.5 meters, it was assumed these had been man-made. Having worked over a distance of thirty meters and analyzing what they had discovered so far, one member of the team, Taran, suggested they had definitely discovered a pyramid. The problem was: it was underground.



By the spring of 2000, Gokh had once again improved his instrument, which now also allowed for vertical surveys. This could potentially corroborate the shape of the structure they had found. The result was that they were indeed inside a structure that had a square base, each side measuring 72 meters long: it was a pyramid. Its height was ca. 45-52 meters, its top almost at ground level.

The instrument also apparently revealed that from the top of the structure, three beams of energy emanated, at frequencies 900x109 Hz, 700x109 Hz and 500x109 Hz. Around the pyramid, a field of 10x109 Hz was noticed. The digging also revealed signs in the surrounding layers that the pyramid had originally been open to the air, but that flooding at some point had brought in clay and other substances that one would associate with an area that became flooded. If there is one pyramid, could there be more? The search area was extended. Eventually, the team concluded that on a straight line, that went from Sarych to Baia Kamyshovaia, and which runs northwest-southeast, a total of seven pyramids were present. One of these pyramids was located under water, near the city of Foros. Finally, Gokh extended his search for the entire Crimea peninsula and concluded that there was the possibility of a total of thirty-odd pyramidal structures for the whole country. At the same time, the scans had revealed another anomaly, of an object that was not pyramidal in shape; its curious profile, turned towards the west, suggested a structure that might be quite similar to that of a Sphinx.

Spirits were high and something seemed to be moving. But as all of these pyramids seemed to be located underground, excavation would be both costly and time-consuming. The next step was thus the most difficult of all: money. Only money would allow the team to continue the excavations in such a manner that would result in the confirmation that the Crimea had at least one – if not several – pyramids.



The next step was also the problematic one. The town of Sevastopol and the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine were not interested. Still, Gokh’s insistence resulted in some form of co-operation, which resulted in a ground survey of the area. It stated that the area had been inhabited, with signs from the 4th century BC until the first centuries AD. Such a survey did not contribute much, nor reveal anything that wasn’t already known.

But there were certain reasons why these institutions were unwilling to fund further research: as is so often the case, they boiled down to rather extra-ordinary claims made by the discoverer himself. If Gokh had merely argued that the Crimea had at least one, potentially up to thirty pyramids, it would have laid a solid foundation for further archaeological research. Instead, Gokh added further speculation that these pyramids were part of a global system, whereby various rather high-tech regulators – the pyramids – were used to receive cosmic energy, which was modified, and then distributed across the planet. According to Gokh, the pyramids were scientific instruments, there to control and stabilize the land masses of planet Earth. Add to this the date he proposed for their construction: the system would be approximately 16,000 years old – or date from 14,000 BC. Even Graham Hancock , Robert Bauval or John Anthony West only dared to posit 10,000 BC for the Sphinx – and leave any speculation about the age of the Great Pyramid up to the reader’s mental workings. One of the diagrams produced by the team, explaining the construction.

Rather than these rather extravagant claims, the Crimean pyramids did not make it into the book for a more mundane reason: all we know for sure is that there is one vertical shaft, descending near Sevastopol, in which Gokh’s team have been doing excavations. Though they have produced some rather nice graphs as to how the entire pyramid is supposed to look, I did not see any actual scans from the instrument Gokh had developed to back the graph up. Though I discovered two email addresses for Gokh, one was defunct; from the other I never received a reply. It was therefore possible that there was something to it, but it was still far too early to say what. Furthermore, my judgment was that even if they proved to be pyramids, they were unlikely to transform the overall pyramid debate.



Just after the completion of the manuscript, in July 2006, Gokh tried to use the interest in the Bosnian pyramid to gather interest in the Crimean pyramid, repeating that he needed money to finish his excavations. Despite needing more money, the statement said that tens of scientists from different countries were now performing an archaeological excavation of the pyramid, and that a result was expected later in the summer. Several months on, there was no information made public and Gokh’s contact details once again did not solicit a reply.

Unfortunately, Gokh not only stood by his previous rather extravagant claims, he now elaborated on them, stating that, “the majority of scientists [that had visited the site] consider that the underground pyramids of Sevastopol confirm the guess of American scientists [that] about 65 million years ago an ancient civilization died out because of the fall of giant meteorite.” This is something of a muddled statement: indeed, American scientists such as Luis Alvarez argued that the dinosaurs became extinct when a giant meteorite hit the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 65 million years ago. But the likes of Alvarez do not make any provisions for pyramids, or an advanced human civilization building these pyramids – let alone the Crimean pyramids being part of such a theoretical network. Furthermore, would “real scientists” claim that these pyramids were 65 million years old? It seemed very unlikely.

Gokh did not stop there: the line along which the seven pyramid sites on the peninsula were found, runs, as mentioned, from northwest to the southeast. Gokh had now extended this line to gigantic proportions, arguing that Stonehenge was located on this line, while on the other side, he located “the pyramid of Tibet” and “sunken pyramids of Easter Island” – both rather imaginary pyramids. Worse, he then linked both imaginary pyramids to the lost civilizations of Atlantis and Mu .



Gokh obviously had hung the theory before the pyramid, and not the other way around. In good 19th century tradition to link the dimensions of the Great Pyramid with the Bible and a biblical timeline, Gokh had used an unexcavated pyramid – which might not be a pyramid at all – as “proof” of a lost, global civilization. The worst was his speculation that this pyramid, together with other, non-discovered and hence most likely non-existing pyramids, were there to “balance out” the Earth – potentially in 14000 BC – or 65 million years BC.



Not to cut any pyramid theory short without giving it a proper airing, Gokh claims that, “astronomers already noticed that some planets radiate more energy, than receive from the Sun. The similar situation is observed also with some stars.” According to Gokh, this was due to “torsion energy”, developed inside the centre of the Earth. “The source of fuel for such a reactor is a physical vacuum – the torsion field of the Universe. It consists of two opposite kinds of particles: torsions and antitorsions. In a torsion reactor […] an effect of torsion and antitorsion ‘frequency acceleration’ is taking place up to such degree that they begin to merge and initiate a chain reaction.” He continues: “the source of a subtle feed of celestial objects is provided by a Galactic Beam, emanating from the centre of the Galaxy. Consistently passing seven cosmic belts, it synchronizes its vibration. The energy liberated as a result of such frequency reduction (braking frequency), is directed on power maintenance of celestial objects’ live ability.” In case you wonder what this has to do with the pyramids: “These energies come, in particular, to a nucleus of the Earth, from stars through pyramids, mixing up in a power cocktail by means of a Shamballa Crystal – a kind of a carburetor – and then are delivered to the Earth Nucleus.” The tunnel inside the pyramid

Worse is yet to come: the claim was made that there were 144,000 pyramids on Earth, varying in size and location. The basic pyramids were grouped in twelve places on all populated continents. All pyramids were connected by power channels, to other “pyramid fields” and to the crystal nucleus of the Earth, which controlled the operation of the system. Twelve basic groups of pyramids, control, in turn, another twelve smaller groups, or, to throw in some mathematics: 12 times 12 equals, 144 times 1000, equals 144,000. In case you are wondering, each of the 144 basic pyramids controls the operation of another 1000 pyramids. And just like the Great Pyramid before was linked with the Bible, guess what: the 144,000 pyramids of the Earth correspond to the 144,000 Biblical Chosen Ones. “Each of the 144,000 chosen has a pyramid of ‘his own’.” I have not written this expose of the Crimean pyramids to make fun of Gokh’s theories or thinking. I have used it to show that Gokh is a modern-day example of “the pyramidiot”, a term used by archaeologists and Egyptologist largely to denote a profile of people who read much – too much – into a pyramid (specifically the Great Pyramid), a practice that was common in the late 19th century, and which saw, in the eyes of the Egyptologists, a resurgence in the late 20th century, specifically with the likes of Robert Bauval and co.

The “pyramidiot” is typically “an amateur”, in the best sense of the word, who believe, often rightfully so, to have made a discovery. They try to interest archaeologists, but this seldom works. Consequently, they often begin to formulate stronger claims, or theories, in the hope that some people will hear, and in a rather vain hope that archaeologists will now definitely have to take note. Then, often, archaeologists still do not engage, and a dangerous chasm is breached, in which the mind does indeed seem to spin out of control, and “the pyramidiot” is born.



Most discoverers, in whatever field, take it to “step two”: going slightly too far in their claims, thus exposing themselves as someone who is easily shot down. It is unfortunate, and unfortunately, few interested parties seem able to show forgiveness for unguarded, often one-off remarks, said in the best of interest. The best example of this is Sam Osmanagich, who may have once said that possibly the Bosnian “Pyramid of the Sun” might have been 12,000 years old. Archaeologists entered an endless debate whether he said it, where, and used the very fact that they were debating the issue as proof that they should not direct any attention to the pyramid itself. It is typical of how the field of archaeology often spins incredible tales themselves, creates character assassinations that are as idiotic as the pyramidiots are supposed to be in their theories.

Unfortunately, in the case of Gokh, his claims were so outlandish, that the Crimean pyramids have gone largely unreported. But it seems that there is at least something there. It may even be a pyramid. It seems, however, that no-one is willing to do even the most basic validation of that possibility. And that is idiotic too…

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