A particular region in China, located "more than 100km outside the ancient city of Xi’an, among the overgrown forests", houses a number of enigmatic pyramid-like "mounds" that remain shrouded in mystery till this very day, the Daily Express reports.
First reported in the West in 1912 by an American trader named Fred Meyer Schroder, who wrote about encountering a "giant pyramid approximately 1,000 feet tall and nearly twice that size in length, surrounded by a number of smaller pyramids" while traveling through the Shaanxi Province with a guide, the newspaper notes, adding that the pyramid was spotted three decades later by US Airforce pilot James Gaussman who got "mesmerized" by the "pure white" structure he witnessed.
"The remarkable thing was the capstone, a huge piece of jewel-like material that could have been crystal", Gaussman said as quoted by the media outlet. "There was no way we could have landed, although we wanted to. We were struck by the immensity of the thing."
But when in the early 1990s, German investigator Hartwig Hausdorf attempted to locate the enigmatic structure, he ended up stumbling instead upon "the Chinese military meticulously patrolling the area".
As of today, "around 40 known pyramids", some of which "date back 8,000 years", can be spotted via Google Maps, the newspaper claims, describing that region of China as the country's version of "both Egypt's Giza and the Valley of the Kings" due to rumors of a "huge amount of royalty" being interred there.
However, while these sites could hold the "key to understanding more about the country's ancient history", excavating them is apparently forbidden, as Chinese authorities argue that a technology capable of disturbing the pyramids without damaging their contents is yet to be developed.
And, due to all the secrecy associated with the area in question, some doubt that the "White Pyramid" actually exists, as "experts have squabbled over both the location and the feasibility of such a monumental structure", the newspaper adds.
