Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the mysterious Yundum airfield, discovered in the small African country of Gambia. This airfield is almost a legacy of ancient civilizations, which, according to some information, had aircrafts- the so-called vimanas. In any case, no one knows for sure who and when Yundum was built.
In this photo, the red circles mark the unpaved areas of the ancient runway slabs.
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 in its far from prosperous continent. The territory of the state is strongly elongated in the latitudinal direction. The Gambia extends 350 kilometers deep into the mainland from west to east; it is located along the bed of the deep river of the same name. The width of the country from north to south does not exceed 50 kilometers. Just over one and a half million people live in The Gambia, including 75% in rural areas. Industry there is extremely poorly developed and consists of enterprises producing peanut butter, beer, soft drinks and clothing. Peanut exports provide the country with 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, 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 the first museum opened not so long ago; now, however, there are already five of them. Here, the transition at the end of the last century from manual cultivation of fields with hoes to plows drawn by oxen, horses or donkeys is considered an achievement. Equipping fishing boats with outboard motors also became evidence of the Gambia's involvement in technological progress.
Of course, this small country has its own strengths. It is one of the few on the Dark Continent where a multi-party system operates. politic system. There are some great resorts around Banjul with spacious and clean sea beaches, where tourists from the UK love to relax. Livestock farming can be considered very developed: the number of cattle exceeds 400 thousand heads.
They paved, marked and flew.
But Gambia has a real international airport. Also mysterious. This is Yundum - the same 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 Yundum is able to accommodate aircraft of any weight. The Gambians themselves did not build this expensive runway. They just laid the asphalt on the existing rough-polished stone slabs that had been cleared of soil and made markings.
The Gambia was then helped by NASA, since the American space agency was interested in creating an alternate airfield for reusable spacecraft such as the shuttle. Initially, the United States chose the airport of the Senegalese capital Dakar, but its runway has too large an 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 improved. 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 was put into operation international airport, built according to a joint Anglo-Gambian project.
If you look closely at satellite images, you can see that the central part of the Yundum runway is actively used, but there are unused areas 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 land. And the trees along it grow in a very interesting way - 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 pre-civilization, and that, very possibly, ancient Indian or Atlantean aircraft - vimanas - took off from here. However, fans of conspiracy theories made another assumption. They say the airfield was secretly built by the Germans during World War II. Sometimes a more precise date is given - 1944. At first glance, this version is not without some plausibility. Indeed, during the war, 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, behind the lines of Soviet troops. But as far as Gambia is concerned, 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 the partially covered slabs have always been there and did not appear in the mid-20th century. Finally, thirdly, back in January 1943, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was passing through Banjul. This was due to the holding of a conference in Casablanca, Morocco. 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 the strategy for combating German submarines in the Atlantic. The port of Banjul was at that time used as a stopover for Allied naval convoys, and mysterious airfield was chosen by the US Army Air Corps. So no secret bases there simply could not be Nazis in the immediate vicinity of such a strategic Anglo-Saxon hub. 
Did the allies try?
On some sites you can even find statements that Yundum, in fact, was built by the Allies themselves. So is there really no secret to the ancient airfield? No matter how it is! The length of the runway is clearly excessive for aircraft of that time. As we already know, local residents We saw this covering long before the war. And the color of the slabs is sharply different from concrete. There is a photograph of the only combat aircraft of the Gambian army, a Su-25 attack aircraft purchased in Georgia in 2008, standing on a platform made of concrete slabs attached to the Yunduma runway. They clearly have a different color - gray - which is what concrete should have. It can also be noted that, judging by the photographs, the sandy-brown stone slabs vary in size, and this is absolutely not typical for airfield surfaces of the 20th-21st centuries.
So the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.
Valdis PEIPINSH
Secrets of the twentieth century
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, the treatise “Vimanika Shastra”, written by Bharadwaja the Wise in the 4th century BC, was discovered in one of the temples in India. e. based on even earlier texts. Before the eyes of surprised scientists appeared detailed descriptions strange aircraft of antiquity, reminiscent in their technical specifications modern UFOs. The devices were called vimanas and had a number of amazing qualities, among which are listed 32 main secrets that make vimanas also a formidable weapon.
In any case, no one knows for sure who 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 in its far from prosperous continent. The territory of the state is strongly elongated in the latitudinal direction. The Gambia extends 350 kilometers deep into the mainland from west to east; it is located along the bed of the deep river of the same name. The width of the country from north to south does not exceed 50 kilometers. Just over one and a half million people live in The Gambia, including 75% in rural areas. Industry there is extremely poorly developed and consists of enterprises producing peanut butter, beer, soft drinks and clothing. Peanut exports provide the country with half of its foreign exchange earnings. The Gambia's backwardness is eloquently evidenced by the fact that until recently the population could only receive higher education 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 the first museum opened not so long ago; now, however, there are already five of them. Here, the transition at the end of the last century from manual cultivation of fields with hoes to plows drawn by oxen, horses or donkeys is considered an achievement. Equipping fishing boats with outboard motors also became evidence of Gambia's involvement in technological progress. Of course, this small country also has its own strengths. It is one of the few on the Dark Continent where a multi-party political system operates. In the vicinity of Banjul there are several magnificent resorts with spacious and clean sea beaches, where tourists from the UK love to relax. Livestock farming can be considered very developed: the number of cattle exceeds 400 thousand heads.
They paved, marked and flew.
But Gambia has a real international airport. Also mysterious. This is Yundum - the same 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 Yundum is able to accommodate aircraft of any weight. The Gambians themselves did not build this expensive runway. They just laid the asphalt on the existing rough-polished stone slabs that had been cleared of soil and made markings. NASA then helped Gambia, since the American space agency was interested in creating an alternate airfield for reusable spacecraft such as the shuttle. Initially, the United States chose the airport of the Senegalese capital Dakar, but its runway has too large an 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 improved. 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 international airport building, built according to a joint Anglo-Gambian project, was put into operation. If you look closely at satellite images, you can see that the central part of the Yundum runway is actively used, but there are unused areas 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 land. And the trees along it grow in a very interesting way - 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 pre-civilization, and that, very possibly, ancient Indian or Atlantean aircraft - vimanas - took off from here. However, fans of conspiracy theories made another assumption. They say the airfield was secretly built by the Germans during World War II. Sometimes a more precise date is given - 1944. At first glance, this version is not without some plausibility. Indeed, during the war, 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, behind the lines of Soviet troops. But as far as Gambia is concerned, 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 the partially covered slabs have always been there and did not appear in the mid-20th century. Finally, thirdly, back in January 1943, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was passing through Banjul. This was due to the holding of a conference in Casablanca, Morocco. 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 the strategy for combating German submarines in the Atlantic. The port of Banjul was at that time used as a stopover for Allied naval convoys, and the mysterious airfield was favored 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 you can even find statements that Yundum, in fact, was built by the Allies themselves. So is there really no secret to the ancient airfield? No matter how it is! The length of the runway is clearly excessive for aircraft of that time. As we already know, local residents saw this covering long before the war. And the color of the slabs is sharply different from concrete. There is a photograph of the only combat aircraft of the Gambian army, a Su-25 attack aircraft purchased in Georgia in 2008, standing on a platform made of concrete slabs attached to the Yunduma runway. They clearly have a different color - gray - which is what concrete should have. It can also be noted that, judging by the photographs, the sandy-brown stone slabs vary in size, and this is absolutely not typical for airfield surfaces of the 20th-21st centuries.
So the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.
It is an interesting tourist attraction only for British fans of holidays on its clean beaches– flying on vacation to a former colony is quite in the style of English subjects. The city where Gambia's only airport is located is the capital Banjul.
Gambia International Airport
Yundum-Banjul Airport and the city's business center are separated by 24 km, which can be covered by taxi or public transport. It is optimal to order a transfer at the hotel where you have booked a room for your holiday, or at travel company, since Gambia is not the most safe country for foreign tourists.
Building passenger terminal put into operation in 1966. It was built according to a joint project of local architects and specialists from. The terminal has a cafe, currency exchange offices, and duty-free shops.
Among the airlines whose flights land at the Gambia airport are both small and world famous:
- Arik Air flies to and to .
- Binter Canarias operate flights to the island of Gran Canaria as part of the Canary Archipelago.
- Brussels Airlines carries passengers from the capital.
- Royal Air Maroc operates regular flights to.
- Senegal Airlines connects Gambia Airport to .
- Thomas Cook Airlines brings tourists from and.
- Small Planet Airlines operate seasonal charters from Gatwick Airport to.
- Vueling transports those wishing to travel to The Gambia from.
Despite the small size of the state and not very popular among travelers, the Gambia airport serves at least a million passengers annually.
The runway at Yundum Banjul Airport is 3.6 km long and meets the highest international standards. The third longest take-off on the dark continent allows you to receive and dispatch aircraft of any weight.
The American agency NASA, interested in creating an alternate airfield for landing reusable spacecraft, took part in the construction and reconstruction of the Gambia airport. Thanks to American participation in the project, the runway was expanded to 45 meters, and air traffic controllers received modern radio-electronic control and navigation systems.
Ufologists and researchers of ancient civilizations believe that the first airport on 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 asphalt runway, taking into account these extensions, looks completely prohibitive for the realities of the last century. Local residents saw these slabs even before the Second World War, which means that the version of a secret Nazi airfield also does not stand up to criticism.
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 who and when Yundum was built. I offer you all the available information 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 who 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 in its far from prosperous continent. The territory of the state is strongly elongated in the latitudinal direction. The Gambia extends 350 kilometers deep into the mainland from west to east; it is located along the bed of the deep river of the same name. The width of the country from north to south does not exceed 50 kilometers. Just over one and a half million people live in The Gambia, including 75% in rural areas. Industry there is extremely poorly developed and consists of enterprises producing peanut butter, beer, soft drinks and clothing. Peanut exports provide the country with half of its foreign exchange earnings. The Gambia's backwardness is eloquently evidenced by the fact that until recently the population could only receive higher education 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 the first museum opened not so long ago; now, however, there are already five of them. Here, the transition at the end of the last century from manual cultivation of fields with hoes to plows drawn by oxen, horses or donkeys is considered an achievement. Equipping fishing boats with outboard motors also became evidence of Gambia's involvement in technological progress. Of course, this small country also has its own strengths. It is one of the few on the Dark Continent where a multi-party political system operates. In the vicinity of Banjul there are several magnificent resorts with spacious and clean sea beaches, where tourists from the UK love to relax. Livestock farming can be considered very developed: the number of cattle exceeds 400 thousand heads.
They paved, marked and flew.
But Gambia has a real international airport. Also mysterious. This is Yundum - the same 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 Yundum is able to accommodate aircraft of any weight. The Gambians themselves did not build this expensive runway. They just laid the asphalt on the existing rough-polished stone slabs that had been cleared of soil and made markings. NASA then helped Gambia, since the American space agency was interested in creating an alternate airfield for reusable spacecraft such as the shuttle. Initially, the United States chose the airport of the Senegalese capital Dakar, but its runway has too large an 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 improved. 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 international airport building, built according to a joint Anglo-Gambian project, was put into operation. If you look closely at satellite images, you can see that the central part of the Yundum runway is actively used, but there are unused areas 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 land. And the trees along it grow in a very interesting way - 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 pre-civilization, and that, very possibly, ancient Indian or Atlantean aircraft - vimanas - took off from here. However, fans of conspiracy theories made another assumption. They say the airfield was secretly built by the Germans during World War II. Sometimes a more precise date is given - 1944. At first glance, this version is not without some plausibility. Indeed, during the war, 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, behind the lines of Soviet troops. But as far as Gambia is concerned, 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 the partially covered slabs have always been there and did not appear in the mid-20th century. Finally, thirdly, back in January 1943, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was passing through Banjul. This was due to the holding of a conference in Casablanca, Morocco. 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 the strategy for combating German submarines in the Atlantic. The port of Banjul was at that time used as a stopover for Allied naval convoys, and the mysterious airfield was favored 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 you can even find statements that Yundum, in fact, was built by the Allies themselves. So is there really no secret to the ancient airfield? No matter how it is! The length of the runway is clearly excessive for aircraft of that time. As we already know, local residents saw this covering long before the war. And the color of the slabs is sharply different from concrete. There is a photograph of the only combat aircraft of the Gambian army, a Su-25 attack aircraft purchased in Georgia in 2008, standing on a platform made of concrete slabs attached to the Yunduma runway. They clearly have a different color - gray - which is what concrete should have. It can also be noted that, judging by the photographs, the sandy-brown stone slabs vary in size, and this is absolutely not typical for the surfaces of airfields of the XX-XXI centuries. So the mystery of Yundum really exists, and it has yet to be solved.
There is a mysterious airfield on the territory of the small African country of Gambia. Yundum. What is the mystery of this airfield? The fact is that its main and most expensive component - the runway (runway) - was not built here, since it already existed. The runway consisted of monolithic stone slabs, carefully fitted to each other. As local residents assured, these slabs have been in this place from time immemorial...
During the construction of the airfield, all that remained was to roll asphalt onto these slabs, apply markings, and the result was a magnificent runway 3,600 meters long, capable of accommodating 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 American space agency chose it as an alternate airfield for landing its reusable space shuttles. With the help of the Americans, the necessary radio-electronic control and navigation systems were installed at Yundum, and in 1996, the international airport building, built according to a joint American-Gambian project, went 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 areas of the strip not covered with asphalt are represented by light sandy-brown slabs carefully fitted to each other. The age of the slabs has not yet been determined. According to some publications, their surface is roughly polished, while others claim that the grinding 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 slabs, 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 20th century by the German Nazis, who allegedly exported uranium from the Black Continent during the Second World War. However, it is completely unclear why the Nazis needed to build a runway as long as , 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 number 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 there - under their grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great-grandfathers, etc.
Thus, the presence of this runway can only be explained by the assumption of some ancient earthly Civilization that built it, or by connecting it with aliens. As for the last option, it seems less convincing, because extraterrestrial ships must have the ability to land on any unprepared, albeit fairly level, place.
