| We're all familiar with the concept of modern | | | | be believed. Strange, but easily written off as a bizarre |
| technology having ancient Chinese analogues. But a | | | | metallurgical operation by some nomads with too |
| 2002 discovery in remote Qinghai province is | | | | much time on their hands, assuming geological origins |
| anachronistic enough to constitute an OOPart. | | | | of the eerily symmetrical pyramid. |
| Out-of-place-artifacts are so unusual, or found in such | | | | However, dozens of pipe openings have been |
| improbable contexts, that mainstream science has no | | | | discovered in the mountains far above the caves. |
| plausible explanation for them. | | | | Now these nomads must be credited with some |
| The crystal skulls of Mexico referenced in the latest | | | | advanced system of drilling since forgotten, as there is |
| Indiana Jones movie, the iron pillar of Delhi, and the | | | | no modern industry in the area nor record of such. Not |
| ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism are examples | | | | far from the foot of Baigong sits Toson Lake, on |
| of OOPart yet to be explained. Like these, the pipes of | | | | whose beach run many more iron pipes in unlikely |
| Qinghai's Mount Baigong suggest a level of technology | | | | patterns and in a variety of diameters, toothpick-sized |
| simply inconceivable for the apparent era of their | | | | at the thinnest. More pipes are in the lake, some |
| manufacture. Those open-minded enough to think | | | | protruding above the water surface, others buried |
| "extraterrestrial" when searching for a theory, while | | | | beneath the lake's bed. |
| often dismissed out-of-hand, have like-minded souls in | | | | Although nine Chinese scientists were reportedly |
| some of the Chinese scientists investigating. | | | | dispatched to make a detailed analysis of the pipes in |
| Locals, residing forty kilometers southeast of Qinghai's | | | | 2002, there has been no further information. This hasn't |
| Delingha city, have known of the pipes for centuries. | | | | prevented local government from promoting the site |
| They credit aliens for their construction, and even have | | | | as a tourist attraction. A CCTV crew went to Mt. |
| legends of extraterrestrial visitors to Mt. Baigong. | | | | Baigong soon after, accompanied by researchers |
| Although the stories are met with predictable | | | | from the Beijing UFO Research Association, but no |
| skepticism, they become harder to laugh off when one | | | | record or footage of the expedition has come to our |
| takes in the sixty-meter pyramid near the mountain's | | | | attention. If this is because such documentation would |
| summit. Superficially, the pyramid could be shrugged | | | | be widely laughed off, then they would at the expense |
| off as having been shaped by natural forces. For | | | | of Yang Ji, a research fellow of the Chinese |
| some reason, however, the structure has not been | | | | Academy of Social Sciences who told Xinhua that the |
| conclusively studied, at least officially. | | | | extraterrestrial theory was "understandable and worth |
| Near the foot of Mt. Baigong lie three caves, the | | | | looking into". |
| largest and most accessible some eight meters high | | | | Then again, plain old terrestrial science has many |
| by six meters deep. Inside, spanning from the roof to | | | | mysteries left to be fully explained. Similar pipe-like |
| the back end of the cave, runs a pipe 40 cm in | | | | structures have been found in the Jurassic sandstone |
| diameter. Another one roughly the same size runs into | | | | of the Southwestern United States, as well as in |
| the earth from the floor, with just the top protruding. | | | | Citronelle formations in Louisiana. No pyramids have |
| The pipes, according to tests carried out at a local | | | | been found close on, and researchers have concluded |
| smeltery, are made chiefly of iron, but with an unusual | | | | that they were formed through natural processes. But |
| thirty percent silicon dioxide in their matrix. They are | | | | similar conclusions from scientists studying the Baigong |
| also centuries old, if Xinhua and its source, Liu Shaolin, | | | | pipes have yet to be announced, six years later. |
| the engineer who carried out preliminary tests, are to | | | | |