Gunung Padang: a buried pyramid 25,000 years old?
An Indonesian team led by geologist Danny Hilman Natawidjaja scanned the Gunung Padang megalithic site with radar, seismic and resistivity tools and drilled cores, and argued in 2023 that the hill hides a man-made pyramid begun about 25,000 years ago. The journal retracted the paper in 2024 because the dated soil was not shown to be man-made. The underground layering itself was not the reason, and the authors stand by their work.
How plausible · Low
Real geophysics showing layered structure under the hill, but the 25,000-year dating was retracted and nobody else has confirmed it.
- ●●Access The team scanned and cored the site.
- ●●Consistent over time The same finding since 2011.
- ●○No gain sought Academic work.
- ●○Character record A national research agency geologist.
- ●○Checkable details check out Data published before the retraction.
- −Contradicted by an insider Retracted over the dating, not the geophysics (half weight; the authors dispute it).
- −Lone source, no corroboration One team; no independent survey yet.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.