After the first excavations began in the summer of 1978, the Temples of Humankind remained a secret for sixteen years. Only the Damanhurian artists, craftspeople and masons directly involved in the construction knew about it. Even though the Temples were on Damanhurian property, they were unauthorized because in the Piedmont region of Italy, there were neither laws that regulated underground construction nor authorities for the asking of permission.
In 1992, a former member of Damanhur sent an anonymous letter to the local police station affirming the existence of the hidden Temples. Armed and accompanied by explosive experts, the police came to the house where the entrance to the Temples were located on July 3, 1992 at seven o’clock in the morning. Oberto Airaudi, the founder of Damanhur, and Cormorano Sicomoro, one of Damanhur’s lawyers, led the District Attorney of Ivrea and three police officers into the Temples. A fourth person followed them inside with a camera to film the visit. An hour later, the men came out of the mountains, and they were deeply moved and touched by the beauty of what they saw as the first witnesses from outside of Damanhur to see the Temples. On October 9, 1992, Damanhur held the first press conference to announce the existence of the Temples of Humankind, and the next evening, images of the Temples were transmitted in an exclusive broadcast on national TV. In June 1996, the existence of the Temples was legalized.
Excerpt from: The Temples of Humankind, by Esperide Ananas, CoSM Press, 2006.