My interest was piqued when, one late night, while channel surfing, I stumbled upon a program on the Discovery Channel about the pyramids. I wasn't particularly interested in watching another show about the pyramids of Giza, but the presenter made me pause when he mentioned that the next segment would be about pyramids in China. Pyramids? In China? He had to be pulling my leg.

While the segment itself was not long, it was enough to make me want to know more. A quick check over the internet showed quite a number of sites dedicated to the subject; and yes, there were a few sites which offered the explanation that the pyramids were built by extraterrestrial lifeforms.

First sighting

Early stories about the pyramids in China began right around the Second World War. A US Air Force pilot named James Gaussman reportedly saw a white-topped pyramid during a flight between China and India in 1945.

Walter Hain, an author and science writer, reports in his homepages how Gaussman described his first sighting of the pyramid. "I banked to avoid a mountain and we came out over a level valley. Directly below was a gigantic white pyramid. It looked like something out of a fairy tale. It was encased in shimmering white. This could have been metal, or some sort of stone. It was pure white on all sides. The remarkable thing was the capstone, a huge piece of jewel-like material that could have been crystal. There was no way we could have landed, although we wanted to. We were struck by the immensity of the thing."

Walter Hain, showing the pyramid on Google Earth. (Image: W. Hain)The story was subsequently picked up by the New York Times, who ran a story about the pyramid on March 28, 1947. Colonel Maurice Sheahan, Far Eastern director of Trans World Airlines gave an interview saying he had seen a gigantic pyramid 40 miles southwest of Xian. Two days after the report, the same newspaper published a photo, which was later attributed to Gaussman.

The White Pyramid

Over the years, there have been subsequent reports of other pyramids, about 100 in all, located on the Qin Chuan Plains in the Shaanxi Province. Most of the pyramids are located within 100 kilometers of Xi'an, China's ancient capital.

Information about these pyramids were at first hard to come by, as most were located at "forbidden zones." With the opening up of China, these areas became accessible to tourists and foreign travellers. In 1994, Hartwig Hausdorf, a German travel agent and author, wrote a book called "Die Weisse Pyramide" (The White Pyramid). The book contained photographs of pyramid-like mounds that proved once and for all that China indeed had pyramids.

Hain says that from the ground, these pyramidal mounds look more like hills, making it hard for people to associate them with pyramids. Hain, whose interests include the study of ancient structures, used modern technology to pinpoint the exact location of the pyramids. "In September, I used Google Earth to search over China. I looked at the coordinates that were mentioned in a book by Bruce Cathie. The view from the satellite showed these pyramids quite clearly."

The Maoling Mausoleum

"The White Pyramid that was mentioned is actually the Maoling Mausoleum," Hain verifies, adding that this same conclusion was reached by Chris Maier on his webpages and also published in Wikipedia. "According to the measurements on Google Earth, the Mausoleum is 222 x 217 meters big. There is no other pyramid in this area that is quite as big."

Location of the pyramids in Shaanxi. (Image: W. Hain)

The mythic White Pyramid then is a famous tourist destination in China. No need to look for extraterrestrial explanations as the Maoling Mausoleum and most of the Chinese pyramids, were built for the same reason as the Great Pyramids of Egypt, as a final resting place for rulers.

The Maoling Mausoleum is the burial mound of Emperor Wu Di, the fifth ruler of the Western Han Dynasty. The mausoleum is the biggest of five burial mounds in the city of Xianyang. The city used to be known as Wulingyuan, meaning the garden complex of five tombs.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the construction of a mausoleum for the emperor could begin already in the second year of his reign. One-third of the annual revenue was allocated for the building of this tomb. These grave sites, according to China.org, were "marked by earth mounds packed into square shapes with level tops." Because of their square shape, they were called fangshang.

The Maoling Mausoleum has been measured in modern times. China.org puts the size of the tomb, according to current actual measurement at "46.5 meters high, 39.5 meters from east to west, 35.5 meters from north to south on the top and 240 meters long at the base."

See for yourself

Because a quick trip to China might not be possible for all of us, Hain lists the coordinates of the pyramids on his website:

Maoling Mausoleum 1: size 222 x 217 m, 34°20'17"N 108°34'11"E
Pyramid 6: size 153 x 158 m, 34°21'47.16"N 108°37'49.80"E
Pyramid 7: size 149 x 155 m, 34°21'42.48"N 108°38'24.36"E
Pyramid 11: size 155 x 154 m, 34°22'29.64"N 108°41'51.36"E
Pyramid 15: size 219 x 230 m, 34°23'52"N 108°42'43"E
Pyramid 31: size 126 x 149 m, 34°14'09.00"N 109°07'05.00"E
Pyramids 33,34,35: bigest 160 x 167 m, 34°10'45.00"N 109°01'41.00"E
Huang-ti Mausoleum 37: size 354 x 357 m, 34°22'52"N 109°15'12"E