The Damanhur

My roommate has a few back issues of a fascinating quarterly that goes by the name "Cabinet." In the "Underground" themed issue, (as in physically under ground... not exclusively hip) I learned of this contemporary spiritual group called the Damanhur that constructed this incredible temple shown above, deep in the Italian Alps. The cause for the Temple is fairly archetypal... In 1978 a falling star fell from the sky apparently striking the point of the entry to the temple, but the subsequent construction effort is like something out of ancient Egypt. Over the next 14 years a small but expanding group of followers dug 45 meters into the side of mountain in complete secrecy, until a dissident member informed the Catholic church and the group was found out. Here is an excerpt from the article describing the first non-Damanhurian reactions to the temple:

"In 1992, the government prosecutor Bruno Tinto arrived at Damanhur. He had procured more complete documentation of the sect’s activities from an unidentified source and demanded to be taken to the underground temple. He threatened to drill the mountain out of existence if the Damanhurians did not cooperate. Realizing he had no other option, Falco acceded and led the prosecutor and four policemen into the mountain. An hour later, they reemerged. The prosecutor led the group, his head bowed down. The local chief of police was sobbing: he’d never seen anything so beautiful in all his life."

Here is a link to the whole article... read it and check out many of the other fascinating shit on the site.

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/30/bartas.php