Jungfrau Park is an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

located near

Interlaken Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern. It is an important and well-known tourist destination in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It opened as the Mystery Park in 2003, and closed in November 2006 due to financial difficulties and low turnout. The park was designed by

Erich von Däniken Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (; ; born 14 April 1935) is a Swiss author of several pseudoscientific books which make claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling '' Chariots of the Gods?'', publis ...

, and consisted of seven pavilions, each of which featured one of several great "mysteries" of the world. Von Däniken opened the theme park to present his interpretations of archaeological sites around the world, claiming that they involve visits from

extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...

. Since 2009 it has regularly re-opened for the summer seasons as the Jungfrau Park.

The Pavilions

*Nazca featured the Nazca Lines near

Nazca Nazca (; sometimes spelled Nasca; possibly from ) is a city and system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru. The city of Nazca is the largest in the Nazca Province. The name is derived from the Nazca culture, which flourished in the area be ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. *Contact featured

cargo cult Cargo cults were diverse spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. Typically (but not universally) cargo cults included: charismatic prophet ...

s. *MegaStones featured

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

. *Maya featured the

Maya calendar The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon ...

. *Orient featured

Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...

. *Vimana featured the

Vimana Vimāna are mythological flying palaces or chariots described in Hindu texts and Sanskrit epics. The "Pushpaka Vimana" of Ravana (who took it from Kubera; Rama returned it to Kubera) is the most quoted example of a vimana. Vimanas are also menti ...

(flying palaces and chariots) described in the ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

'' and the ''

Rig Veda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

''. *Challenge covered

space flight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such a ...

and

Mars exploration The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habi ...

. The Panorama Kugel was the central pavilion, topped by a 41-metre high sphere, from which the park's grounds could be seen. The "Kugel" contained exhibits of von Däniken's works. Erich von Däniken used the different pavilions to show the works that he believed extraterrestrials have had on ancient artifacts. His book ''

Chariots of the Gods? ''Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past'' () is a book written in 1968 by Erich von Däniken and translated from the original German by Michael Heron. It involves the hypothesis that the technologies and religions of many ancien ...

'' explains his ideas on each of these pavilions and how they are all linked to visits from outer space.

Controversy

Von Däniken is an ancient astronaut theorist. All attractions heavily advocated the idea that aliens visited Earth in the ancient past. The Mystery Park was labeled a "cultural

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

" by Académie suisse des sciences techniques member Antoine Wasserfallen who was cited by the Swiss newspaper ''

Le Temps ' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...

'' and other media. The Swiss federal railroad company (

SBB SBB may refer to: Arts and entertainment * SBB (band), a Polish progressive rock band, or their self-titled albums: ** ''SBB'' (1974 album) ** ''SBB'' (1978 album, Amiga) * Seán Bán Breathnach, also known as SBB, Irish TV personality * ''Saa ...

) advertised for the park and sold a combined ticket. Controversy struck again in August 2005 when Erich von Däniken decided to have a special exhibition on

crop circles A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the sort of thing ...

and also a "crop circle making competition." When the competition garnered no entrants, the park commissioned land surveyor and artist Vitali Kuljasov to create a complex crop circle in a field near the park entrance. A webcam (capable of still images but not video) was set up and pointed at the field, allegedly to document Kuljasov's technique. The night before Kuljasov was to create his circle, another circle appeared in the field. Several paranormal investigators came to Mystery Park, examined the crop circle, and concluded that it was obviously man-made due to "obvious mistakes and a crooked performance." (Jay Goldner, a crop circle investigator from Vienna, was the lone dissenter.) Still photographs from the webcam showed little about what went on that night due to the darkness and the angle of the camera. Investigators noted the appearance of car headlights coming and leaving around the time the crop circle was estimated to have been made. The consensus was that the circle was created by unknown human hoaxers.

Failure of Mystery Park

In the winter of 2004, the park and its governmental support came under heavy criticism by the news channel

SRG SSR idée suisse The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (; ; ; ; SRG SSR) is the Swiss public broadcasting association, founded in 1931, the holding company of 24 radio and television channels. Headquartered in Bern, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation is a non-pro ...

. Owing to failed expectations that projected 500,000 guests per year when in 2005 only 200,000 visited the park, Mystery Park found itself in dire financial straits. Operation of the park was suspended on 19 November 2006. Critics also attributed the park's failure to other reasons: some cited von Däniken's biases regarding alien interactions with ancient civilizations. Although these ideas worked well for his book and documentaries, they had less appeal for theme park visitors.

Reopening

On 16 May 2009, the park was renamed Jungfrau Park and reopened by its new owner, New Inspiration Inc., for the summer season hoping to attract at least 500 visitors a day until 1 November. In June, a children's paradise (German: ''Kinderparadies'') was planned. It opened again for the 2010 season.Fun & Shows- JungfrauPark Interlaken
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References

External links

* {{coord, 46, 40, 56, N, 7, 53, 17, E, region:CH-BE_type:landmark, display=title Amusement parks in Switzerland Defunct amusement parks Ancient astronaut speculation Pseudoarchaeology Interlaken 2003 establishments in Switzerland 2006 disestablishments in Switzerland Buildings and structures in the canton of Bern Amusement parks opened in 2003 Amusement parks closed in 2006 21st-century architecture in Switzerland