Secret underground temple outed

A secret underground temple, occupying nearly 300,000 cubic feet, has been outed and taken over by Italian police, who were investigating the owner for tax evasion. Built underneath a normal-looking house near Turin, Italy, the underground building is made up of nine ornately decorated temples sprawled over nine levels.

[T]he 'Temples of Damanhur' are not the great legacy of some long-lost civilisation, they are the work of a 57-year-old former insurance broker from northern Italy who, inspired by a childhood vision, began digging into the rock.

(via bb)


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That sort of reminds me of the catacombs of Syracuse, crossed with the Watts Towers. What is it with Italians and their eccentric outsider art projects?

Jon May | Fri, 11/23/2007 - 1:17pm

wow. and this isn't a cult? with its own university and shops?

liam | Tue, 11/27/2007 - 4:39am

I mean, I was thinking that it most distinctly IS a cult. With cultishly tacky aesthetics ta boot, as far as I can tell.

Jesse | Tue, 11/27/2007 - 8:25am

Everything's a cult.

Ingen Angiven | Tue, 11/27/2007 - 8:53am