At the age of ten, Oberto Airaudi (Falco) had visions of a past life, in which there were amazing temples. He also had an ability to travel in his mind's eye, and describe in detail the contents of any building.
"My goal was to recreate the temples from my visions," he says.
In 1977 he selected a remote hillside where he felt the hard rock would sustain the structures he had in mind.
A house was built on the hillside and Falco moved in with several friends who shared his vision. They created the temples of Damanhur - named after the ancient subterranean Egyptian temple meaning City of Light - in August 1978.
As no planning permission had been granted, they decided to share their scheme only with like-minded people. Volunteers, who flocked from around the world, worked in shifts for the next 16 years with no formal plans other than Falco's sketches and visions. They funded their scheme by setting up small businesses to serve the local community.
By 1991, several of the nine chambers were almost complete with stunning murals, mosaics, statues, secret doors and stained glass windows. But time was running out on the secret.
The police came to the site, over alleged tax evasion. "Show us these temples or we will dynamite the entire hillside," they said.
But the three policemen and the public prosecutor dropped their jaws as they entered the first temple, the Hall of the Earth.
Stunned by what they had found, the authorities decided to seize the temples on behalf of the government.
"By the time they had seen all of the chambers, we were told to continue with the artwork, but to cease further building, as we had not been granted planning permission," says Esperide Ananas, who has written a new book called Damanhur, Temples Of Humankind. Retrospective permission was eventually granted.
The 'Damanhurians' do not worship a spiritual leader, though their temples have become the focus for group meditation.
"They are to remind people that we are all capable of much more than we realise and that hidden treasures can be found within every one of us once you know how to access them," says Falco.
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