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AKARTA: The head of the National Research and Development Center for Archeology, Bambang Sulistyanto, has shrugged off reports that a pyramid has been found in Sadahurip, Garut regency, West Java.

He dismissed the reports as “nonsense”, saying that Indonesia had no history of building pyramids.

“Indonesian culture does not recognize pyramids and knows only holy temples, known as punden berundak or candi. I have studied archeology for more than a quarter of a century and this is the first time I have heard about any pyramids in Indonesia,” Bambang said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Many have speculated that Indonesia could be “the oldest civilization in history” after Andi Arief, a presidential expert staff on natural disasters and social assistance, claimed that a pyramid-like historical site had been found in Garut.

Based on a carbon dating test, Andi said the so-called Garut pyramid was older than the Giza pyramid in Egypt. Andi alleged that the Garut pyramid could have been the country’s cultural center in the not-so-distant past.