The Aidu Pyramids

In ancient times, people of power realized huge constructions purely by exploiting their unthinkable divine power: they simply told their underlings to organize their wishes, by forcing ordinary people and slaves to erect huge monuments, like say, a pyramid. And they did not overemphasize the fact that sometimes thousands of people died because of an almost inhuman effort. They knew that a pyramid or any other kind of monument, a temple for example, had to be made for it was the word of God. These kinds of edifices remain to this day, not only admirable, but also somewhat dark and morbid objects of culture and history. There is really nothing much to actually do in these places anymore, but they still tell us so much about the ancient past of humanity. Today we have another problem: no-one will think of forcing people to die by constructing some kind of monumental complex and neither does any decent person want people to die because of a polluted environment. In Aidu in North-Eastern Estonia we witness a complex and simple situation where the in-built human drive to create something huge, almost divine, comes together with natural, almost inevitable resources from the Earth's surface. In this ground lies a vast area of oil shale mines, set to produce just enough natural waste-material to create an architectural environment instead of just piling the mass of earth up on a high stack.
Text: Urmas Oja