The Gympie Pyramid: Evidence of an Ancient Civilisation in Australia?
June 19, 2012
By GORDON DE L. MARSHALL
The Gympie Pyramid near the town of Gympie in Queensland, Australia has long been a source of fascination for people from around the world as well as Australia, and the subject of a great many claims about its origin and true purpose.
Archaeologist Greg Jefferys, who has worked on the pyramid, refers to it as “a serious, famous and unexplained archaeological anomaly.”1 Unfortunately, academia and the government dismiss the pyramid on the grounds that it is a nineteenth century or even more recent construction for the purpose of growing grapes, ignore evidence to the contrary and refuse to conduct an excavation which would settle the matter.
What is known as the Gympie Pyramid is the rounded eastern end of a sandstone ridge north of the town of Gympie that had stone terraces cut into the sides, giving it a pyramidal shape. It is not a pyramid in the Egyptian or South American sense. The pyramid is approximately 5 km from the centre of Gympie, and is located north of the town on the Tin Can Bay road.
Its interior remains unknown and has been a source of speculation, and there are believed to be three or four entrances, some blocked, leading into it. The pyramid is 30.4 metres (100ft) high and has six stone terraces varying from 10 metres wide at the bottom to two metres wide towards the top, and incorporate some natural rock features. Stone for many of the terraces has been shaped, and squared and some of the larger stones used would be extremely heavy.
On the summit is a sort of ‘turret’, an upstanding section made of drystone walls with a depressed centre, and nearby there are two very heavy stone grinders, which may have been used to prepare ritual offerings. There is also a pile of stones that look like a collapsed building. Three large flat stones roughly shaped as diamonds have been found on the site. These have slots in the centre, which may have been for offerings and iron bars have been found on the site that fit the slots.2
The terraces were believed to have been up to three metres high, but have become lower due to cattle and weathering. The pyramid is originally thought to have been terraced on three sides, but much of these were destroyed by bulldozing or early (or later) settlers carting away the stone for building purposes. An interesting little stone lined cell has recently been found at the base of the pyramid.
The pyramid currently has large trees growing on it, which make it difficult to recognise at any distance, or to photograph.
The would-be researcher of the Gympie Pyramid has to wade through a great deal of oral history and myth associated with it, and also try to sort out the different variations on the stories.
When the pyramid was first discovered the summit is believed to have had thirteen pillars surrounding a round stone table with a hollow centre standing on the summit, and a stone gateway standing on the lower slopes of the pyramid, and other standing stones inscribed with symbols. Most of these are believed to have been removed by early settlers. Fortunately they were recorded in a diary by John Green, a great grandfather of Brett Green, a local historian who has spent much of his life researching the pyramid, and is the author of a book entitled The Gympie Pyramid Story.3
Gold was found at Gympie in 1867, and settlement began from that year. Early settlers naturally regarded the pyramid as an easy source of stone and it was quarried to supply new buildings, doing much damage and removing all the inscribed stones. Inscribed stones from the gateway were apparently found quite recently under the floor of one of the Gympie churches – from where they vanished.4
The pyramid became a source of much speculation and interest as unusual phenomena were reportedly seen or experienced on it, and unusual artefacts found nearby suggesting contact with earlier civilisations, and was given publicity by writer Rex Gilroy.
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