2016-12-01 00:00:00

This airfield is a legacy of ancient civilizations, which, according to some information, had aircraft - the so-called vimanas.

In 1875, in one of the temples of India, the treatise Vimanika Shastra, written by Bharadvaji the Wise in the 4th century BC, was discovered. e. based on even earlier texts. Before the eyes of the surprised scientists, detailed descriptions of strange aircraft of antiquity appeared, reminiscent of modern UFOs in their technical characteristics. The devices were called vimanas and possessed a number of amazing qualities, among which 32 main secrets are listed that make vimanas also a formidable weapon.

In any case, no one knows for sure by whom and when Yundum was built.

This former British colony is located on the Atlantic coast of tropical Africa and belongs to the group of the most economically backward countries not only in the world as a whole, but also on its by no means prosperous continent. The territory of the state is strongly elongated in the latitudinal direction. Inland, the Gambia juts out for 350 kilometers from west to east, it is located along the channel of the full-flowing river of the same name. The width of the country from north to south does not exceed 50 kilometers. A little over one and a half million people live in the Gambia, including 75% in rural areas. The industry is extremely underdeveloped there and consists of peanut butter, beer, soft drinks and clothing industries. The export of peanuts gives the country half of its foreign exchange earnings. The backwardness of the Gambia is eloquently evidenced by the fact that, until recently, the population could receive higher education only abroad: in Senegal, the USA or Western Europe. The situation changed only in 1999, when the University of the Gambia was established in the capital Banjul. There is only one library in the country, and not so long ago the first museum was opened, now, however, there are already five of them. Here, the transition at the end of the last century from manual processing of fields with hoes to plows harnessed by bulls, horses or donkeys is considered an achievement. Equipping fishing boats with outboard motors was also evidence of Gambia's involvement in technological progress. Of course, this small country has its own strengths. It belongs to those few on the Black Continent where a multi-party political system functions. In the vicinity of Banjul, there are several magnificent resorts with spacious and clean sea beaches, where tourists from the UK love to relax. Animal husbandry can be considered highly developed: the number of cattle exceeds 400 thousand heads.

Asphalted, marked and flew.

But in the Gambia there is a real international airport. Plus it's mysterious. This is Yundum - the one so beloved by ufologists and alternative historians. It is located 27 kilometers from Banjul. The length of its runway (runway), which meets the highest requirements, is 3600 meters, so that Yundum is able to receive aircraft of any weight. The Gambians themselves did not build this expensive runway. They only laid asphalt on the already existing roughly polished stone slabs cleared of the ground and made markings. NASA then helped the Gambia, since the US space agency was interested in creating an alternate airfield for reusable shuttles. Initially, the United States chose the airport of the Senegalese capital of Dakar, but its runway has too much angle relative to the main flight path of the shuttles. Therefore, in September 1987, the Americans reached an agreement with the Gambian side on the use of the Yundum airfield for these purposes. The runway has been upgraded. In particular, its width was increased from 29 to 45 meters. The Americans also installed the necessary electronic control and navigation systems. And in 1996, the building of the international airport, built according to a joint Anglo-Gambian project, was put into operation. If you look closely at satellite imagery, you can see that the central part of the Yundum runway is actively used, but there are unused sections on both sides of the runway. They are paved with light slabs of an unusual sandy-brown color. There are also extensions of the strip that have not yet been cleared of the earth. And the trees along it grow very interestingly - along the lines of some faults in the soil.

Versions, versions, versions.

So where did this runway come from? The most sensational, of course, is the hypothesis that the runway was built back in the days of pra-civilization, and that from here, very possibly, ancient Indian or Atlantean aircraft - vimanas - took off. However, lovers of versions of the conspiracy plan expressed another assumption. Like, the airfield was secretly built by the Germans during the Second World War. Sometimes they give a more precise date - 1944. At first glance, this version is not without some plausibility. Indeed, during the war years, the Nazis showed great interest in African uranium and allegedly even took it out of the Congo by plane, making several intermediate landings. In this regard, one can even recall the secret German airfields built in the Arctic in the rear of the Soviet troops. As far as the Gambia is concerned, there are several big "buts" here. Firstly, such airfields were not paved with massive stone slabs, but with small metal ones, which also had several holes to reduce weight. Secondly, the Gambians claim that slabs partially covered with soil have always been there, and did not appear in the middle of the 20th century. Finally, thirdly, back in January 1943, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Banjul. This was due to the conference in Moroccan Casablanca. During the meeting, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, together with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Great Britain, discussed the prospects for opening a Second Front and a strategy to combat German submarines in the Atlantic. The port of Banjul at that time was used as a stopover for Allied naval convoys, and the mysterious airfield was chosen by the US Army Air Corps. So there simply could not be any secret Nazi bases in the immediate vicinity of such a strategic Anglo-Saxon hub.

Did the allies try?

On some sites, one can even find statements that the Yundum, in fact, was built by the allies themselves. So is there really no secret of the ancient airfield? No matter how! The length of the runway is clearly excessive for aircraft of that time. As we already know, the locals saw this cover long before the war. And the color of the slabs is very different from concrete. There is a photograph of the only combat aircraft of the Gambian army, a Su-25 attack aircraft purchased in 2008 from Georgia, standing on a concrete slab site attached to the Yundum runway. They obviously have a different - gray - color, which concrete should have. It can also be noted that, judging by the photographs, sandy-brown stone slabs vary in size, and this is absolutely not characteristic of airfield pavements of the 20th-21st centuries.

So the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.

Recently, a lot has been said about the mysterious Yundum airfield, discovered on the territory of the small African country of the Gambia. This airfield is almost a legacy of ancient civilizations, which, according to some information, had aircraft - the so-called vimanas. In any case, no one knows for sure by whom and when Yundum was built.

This former British colony is located on the Atlantic coast of tropical Africa and belongs to the group of the most economically backward countries not only in the world as a whole, but also on its by no means prosperous continent. The territory of the state is strongly elongated in the latitudinal direction. Inland, the Gambia juts out for 350 kilometers from west to east, it is located along the channel of the full-flowing river of the same name.

The width of the country from north to south does not exceed 50 kilometers. A little more than one and a half million people live in the Gambia, including 75% in rural areas. The industry is extremely underdeveloped there and consists of peanut butter, beer, soft drinks and clothing industries. The export of peanuts gives the country half of its foreign exchange earnings.

The backwardness of the Gambia is eloquently evidenced by the fact that, until recently, the population could receive higher education only abroad: in Senegal, the USA or Western Europe. The situation changed only in 1999, when the University of the Gambia was established in the capital Banjul. There is only one library in the country, and not so long ago the first museum was opened, now, however, there are already five of them.

Here, the transition at the end of the last century from manual processing of fields with hoes to plows harnessed by bulls, horses or donkeys is considered an achievement. The equipping of fishing boats with outboard motors was also evidence of Gambia's involvement in technological progress.

Of course, this small country has its own strengths. It belongs to those few on the Black Continent where a multi-party political system functions. In the vicinity of Banjul, there are several magnificent resorts with spacious and clean sea beaches, where tourists from the UK love to relax. Animal husbandry can be considered highly developed: the number of cattle exceeds 400 thousand heads.

But in the Gambia there is a real international airport, moreover, a mysterious one. This is Yundum - the one so beloved by ufologists and alternative historians. It is located 27 kilometers from Banjul. The length of its runway (runway), which meets the highest requirements, is 3,600 meters, so that Yundum is able to receive aircraft of any weight. The Gambians themselves did not build this expensive runway. They only laid asphalt on the already existing roughly polished stone slabs, cleared of the ground, and made markings.

The Gambia was then helped by NASA, as the US space agency was interested in creating an alternate airfield for reusable Shuttle-type spacecraft. Initially, the United States chose the airport of the Senegalese capital of Dakar, but its runway has too much angle relative to the main flight path of the shuttles. Therefore, in September 1987, the Americans reached an agreement with the Gambian side on the use of the Yundum airfield for these purposes.

Photo: Wolfgang REH

The runway has been upgraded. In particular, its width was increased from 29 to 45 meters. The Americans also installed the necessary electronic control and navigation systems. And in 1996, the building of the international airport, built according to a joint Anglo-Gambian project, was put into operation.

If you look closely at satellite imagery, you can see that the central part of the Yundum runway is actively used, but there are unused sections on both sides of the runway. They are paved with light slabs of an unusual sandy-brown color. There are also extensions of the strip that have not yet been cleared of the earth. And the trees along it grow very interestingly - along the lines of some kind of faults in the soil.

Red circles mark unpaved sections of ancient runway slabs

So where did this runway come from? The most sensational, of course, is the hypothesis that the runway was built back in the days of pra-civilization and that from here, very possibly, ancient Indian or Atlantean aircraft - vimanas - took off. However, lovers of versions of the conspiracy plan expressed another assumption. Like, the airfield was secretly built by the Germans during the Second World War. Sometimes they give a more precise date - 1944.

At first glance, this version is not without some plausibility. Indeed, during the war years, the Nazis showed great interest in African uranium and allegedly even took it out of the Congo by plane, making several intermediate landings.

In this regard, one can even recall the secret German airfields built in the Arctic in the rear of the Soviet troops. That's just, with regard to the Gambia, there are several big "buts". Firstly, such airfields were not paved with massive stone slabs, but with small metal ones, which also had several holes to reduce weight.

Secondly, the Gambians claim that slabs partially covered with soil have always been there, and did not appear in the middle of the 20th century. Finally, thirdly, back in January 1943, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Banjul. This was due to the conference in Moroccan Casablanca.

During the meeting, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, together with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Great Britain, discussed the prospects for opening a Second Front and a strategy to combat German submarines in the Atlantic.

The port of Banjul at that time was used as a stopover for Allied naval convoys, and the mysterious airfield was chosen by the US Army Air Corps. So there simply could not be any secret Nazi bases in the immediate vicinity of such a strategic Anglo-Saxon hub.

On the Internet, one can even come across allegations that the Yundum, in fact, was built by the Allies themselves. So is there really no secret of the ancient airfield? No matter how! The length of the runway is clearly excessive for aircraft of that time. As you know, local residents saw this cover long before the war. And the color of the slabs is very different from concrete.

There is a photo of the only combat aircraft of the Gambian army, bought in 2008 in Georgia. This is a Su-25 attack aircraft standing on a platform of concrete slabs attached to the Yundum runway. They have a clearly different - gray color, which concrete should have. It can also be noted that, judging by the photographs, sandy-brown stone slabs vary in size, and this is absolutely not characteristic of airfield pavements of the 20th-21st centuries.

So the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.

Valdis Peipins

It is an interesting tourist attraction only for British fans of relaxing on its clean beaches - flying on vacation to the former colony is quite in the style of English subjects. The city where the only airport in the Gambia is located is the capital Banjul.

Gambia International Airport

Yundum-Banjul Airport and the business center of the city are separated by 24 km, which can be covered by taxi or public transport. It is best to book a transfer at the hotel where the room is booked for the holiday, or with a travel company, since the Gambia is not the safest country for foreign tourists.
The passenger terminal building was commissioned in 1966. It was built according to a joint project of local architects and specialists from. The terminal has a cafe, currency exchange offices, duty-free shops.
Among the airlines whose boards land at the Gambia airport, there are both small and world famous:

• Arik Air fly in and out.
• Binter Canarias operate flights to the island of Gran Canaria, part of the Canary archipelago.
• Brussels Airlines deliver passengers from the capital.
• Royal Air Maroc operate regular flights to.
• Senegal Airlines connect Gambia airport with.
• Thomas Cook Airlines bring tourists from and.
• Small Planet Airlines operate seasonal charters from Gatwick Airport to .
• Vueling transports those wishing to get to the Gambia from.

Despite the small size of the state and not too high popularity among travelers, the Gambia airport serves at least a million passengers annually.
The runway length of Yundum Banjul Airport is 3.6 km and meets the highest international standards. The third longest "take-off" on the black continent allows you to receive and send aircraft of any weight.
The US agency NASA, which was interested in creating an alternate airfield for landing reusable spacecraft, took part in the construction and reconstruction of the Gambian airport. Thanks to American participation in the project, the runway was expanded to 45 meters, and the controllers received modern radio-electronic control and navigation systems.
Ufologists and researchers of ancient civilizations believe that the first airport in the territory of modern Gambia was built long before 1977, as is commonly believed. The opposite ends of the runway are made of sandy-brown stone slabs, which were not used in the construction practice of the last century, and the length of the paved runway, taking into account these extensions, looks completely beyond the realities of the last century. Local residents saw these plates even before the Second World War, which means that the version of the secret Nazi airfield also does not hold water.

This airfield represents the legacy of ancient civilizations, which, according to some information, had aircraft - the so-called vimanas. In any case, no one knows for sure by whom and when Yundum was built. I offer you all the information available on this issue, since the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.

This airfield is a legacy of ancient civilizations, which, according to some information, had aircraft - the so-called vimanas. In any case, no one knows for sure by whom and when Yundum was built. This former British colony is located on the Atlantic coast of tropical Africa and belongs to the group of the most economically backward countries not only in the world as a whole, but also on its by no means prosperous continent. The territory of the state is strongly elongated in the latitudinal direction. Inland, the Gambia juts out for 350 kilometers from west to east, it is located along the channel of the full-flowing river of the same name. The width of the country from north to south does not exceed 50 kilometers. A little over one and a half million people live in the Gambia, including 75% in rural areas. The industry is extremely underdeveloped there and consists of peanut butter, beer, soft drinks and clothing industries. The export of peanuts gives the country half of its foreign exchange earnings. The backwardness of the Gambia is eloquently evidenced by the fact that, until recently, the population could receive higher education only abroad: in Senegal, the USA or Western Europe. The situation changed only in 1999, when the University of the Gambia was established in the capital Banjul. There is only one library in the country, and not so long ago the first museum was opened, now, however, there are already five of them. Here, the transition at the end of the last century from manual processing of fields with hoes to plows harnessed by bulls, horses or donkeys is considered an achievement. Equipping fishing boats with outboard motors was also evidence of Gambia's involvement in technological progress. Of course, this small country has its own strengths. It belongs to those few on the Black Continent where a multi-party political system functions. In the vicinity of Banjul, there are several magnificent resorts with spacious and clean sea beaches, where tourists from the UK love to relax. Animal husbandry can be considered highly developed: the number of cattle exceeds 400 thousand heads.
Asphalted, marked and flew.

But in the Gambia there is a real international airport. Plus it's mysterious. This is Yundum - the one so beloved by ufologists and alternative historians. It is located 27 kilometers from Banjul. The length of its runway (runway), which meets the highest requirements, is 3600 meters, so that Yundum is able to receive aircraft of any weight. The Gambians themselves did not build this expensive runway. They only laid asphalt on the already existing roughly polished stone slabs cleared of the ground and made markings. NASA then helped the Gambia, since the US space agency was interested in creating an alternate airfield for reusable shuttles. Initially, the United States chose the airport of the Senegalese capital of Dakar, but its runway has too much angle relative to the main flight path of the shuttles. Therefore, in September 1987, the Americans reached an agreement with the Gambian side on the use of the Yundum airfield for these purposes. The runway has been upgraded. In particular, its width was increased from 29 to 45 meters. The Americans also installed the necessary electronic control and navigation systems. And in 1996, the building of the international airport, built according to a joint Anglo-Gambian project, was put into operation. If you look closely at satellite imagery, you can see that the central part of the Yundum runway is actively used, but there are unused sections on both sides of the runway. They are paved with light slabs of an unusual sandy-brown color. There are also extensions of the strip that have not yet been cleared of the earth. And the trees along it grow very interestingly - along the lines of some faults in the soil.

Versions, versions, versions.
So where did this runway come from? The most sensational, of course, is the hypothesis that the runway was built back in the days of pra-civilization, and that from here, very possibly, ancient Indian or Atlantean aircraft - vimanas - took off. However, lovers of versions of the conspiracy plan expressed another assumption. Like, the airfield was secretly built by the Germans during the Second World War. Sometimes they give a more precise date - 1944. At first glance, this version is not without some plausibility. Indeed, during the war years, the Nazis showed great interest in African uranium and allegedly even took it out of the Congo by plane, making several intermediate landings. In this regard, one can even recall the secret German airfields built in the Arctic in the rear of the Soviet troops. As far as the Gambia is concerned, there are several big "buts" here. Firstly, such airfields were not paved with massive stone slabs, but with small metal ones, which also had several holes to reduce weight. Secondly, the Gambians claim that slabs partially covered with soil have always been there, and did not appear in the middle of the 20th century. Finally, thirdly, back in January 1943, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Banjul. This was due to the conference in Moroccan Casablanca. During the meeting, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, together with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States and Great Britain, discussed the prospects for opening a Second Front and a strategy to combat German submarines in the Atlantic. The port of Banjul at that time was used as a stopover for Allied naval convoys, and the mysterious airfield was chosen by the US Army Air Corps. So there simply could not be any secret Nazi bases in the immediate vicinity of such a strategic Anglo-Saxon hub.

Did the allies try?
On some sites, one can even find statements that the Yundum, in fact, was built by the allies themselves. So is there really no secret of the ancient airfield? No matter how! The length of the runway is clearly excessive for aircraft of that time. As we already know, the locals saw this cover long before the war. And the color of the slabs is very different from concrete. There is a photograph of the only combat aircraft of the Gambian army, a Su-25 attack aircraft purchased in 2008 from Georgia, standing on a concrete slab site attached to the Yundum runway. They obviously have a different - gray - color, which concrete should have. It can also be noted that, judging by the photographs, sandy-brown stone slabs vary in size, and this is absolutely not characteristic of airfield pavements of the 20th-21st centuries. So the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.

On the territory of the small African country of the Gambia is a mysterious airfield Yundum. What is the mystery of this airfield? The fact is that no one built its main and most expensive component - the runway (runway) here, since it already existed. The runway consisted of monolithic stone slabs, carefully fitted to each other. As the locals assured, these plates were in this place from time immemorial...

During the construction of the airfield, it was only necessary to roll asphalt onto these slabs, apply markings, and the result was a magnificent runway 3,600 meters long, capable of receiving any modern aircraft, regardless of their weight and dimensions.
It is worth noting that NASA took an active part in the creation of the Yundum airfield.

The US space agency chose it as an alternate airfield for landing their reusable spacecraft - the Shuttle. With the help of the Americans, the necessary radio-electronic control and navigation systems were installed on Yundum, and in 1996 the building of the international airport, built according to a joint American-Gambian project, was put into operation.

It is curious that, despite the impressive length of the strip, not all ancient slabs are covered with asphalt, and some of them can be seen both at its beginning and at the end. And then it turns out that the ancient runway was much more impressive than the modern one. But who took off from it? It is still difficult to answer this question - from the available publications it becomes clear that no one has conducted any research on this topic.

The sections of the strip not covered with asphalt are represented by light sandy-brown slabs carefully fitted to each other. The age of the plates has not yet been determined. According to some publications, their surface is roughly polished, while others claim that the polishing is close to ideal. Judging by the published photographs, the first is closer to the truth, but this only speaks of the antiquity of the plates, the perfect polishing of which could be significantly damaged by long-term weathering processes.

Attempts to explain the presence of such an impressive runway in the African wilderness led to the hypothesis that it was built in the 40s of the XX century by the German Nazis, who allegedly exported uranium from the Black Continent during World War II. However, it is completely incomprehensible why the Nazis needed to build a runway long , which significantly exceeded all available at that time. Opponents of this version note that the Germans at their secret military airfields built runways using small metal plates with a series of holes to reduce weight.

To build this strip, the Germans would need to open a large-scale stone-cutting production, use powerful machines and cranes. But local old-timers assure that nothing like this has ever happened here, and the slabs have always been here - with their grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers, etc.

Thus, the existence of this runway can only be explained by the assumption of some ancient terrestrial Civilization that built it, or it can be associated with aliens. As for the last option, it seems less convincing, because extraterrestrial ships should have the ability to land on any unprepared, albeit fairly flat place.