All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens S01E01

[music playing]

[drilling]

NARRATOR: Mega-machines
cutting through solid rock,

the transportation of
multi-ton stone blocks,

modern aircraft carrying
millions of people each day

around the world,
and space shuttles

sending humans to the stars.

MAN 1: And liftoff of Endeavor.

NARRATOR: But are these
examples of modern technology?

Or is there evidence that
these incredible achievements

existed on Earth
thousands of years ago?

And you'd begin to have
to ask yourself, are we

missing part of the story?

NARRATOR: Could ancient man
have possessed knowledge far

beyond that of our own century?

And if so, where
did it come from?

ALGUND EENBOOM: I think
that people in ancient times

were visited by beings
coming not from this Earth,

and they gave us
scientific technologies.

It becomes ever more apparent
that the possible answer

of have aliens visited in the
past could be a potential yes.

NARRATOR: Millions of
people around the world

believe we have been
visited in the past

by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And if so, what if
there were clues

left behind, sometimes
hiding in plain sight?

What if we could
find the evidence?

[theme music]

[music playing]

Saqqara, Egypt.

Located roughly 20
miles south of Cairo,

it is home to the world-famous
Step Pyramid of King Djoser.

Dating back more
than 4,000 years,

it is the oldest of
Egypt's 97 pyramids.

Saqqara is also
famous for being one

of Egypt's oldest
burial grounds,

earning it the nickname
City of the Dead.

It was here, in 1891, that
French archaeologists unearthed

an ancient tomb
containing the burial

remains of Pa-di-Imen,
an official

from the third century BC.

Among the various
items discovered

was a small, wooden
model of what appeared

to be a bird flying
beside a papyrus,

bearing the inscription,
I want to fly.

The artifact was later
sent to the Cairo Museum,

where authorities placed it
alongside several other bird

figurines.

The model sat largely
unnoticed until 1969,

when Egyptologist Dr. Khalil
Messiha was examining the bird

collection and
noticed that there

was something very different
about the Saqqara bird.

It's interesting because,
on one hand, clearly,

it should look like a bird
because it has eyes and has

a typical nose of a bird.

On the other hand, the wings
are clearly not bird wings.

To the middle of the rim, you
see this wing a bit thicker.

In this region, the
lift-up is the highest.

The whole thing becomes thinner
to the end of the wings.

And those wings model down.

And this is a very modern
aerodynamic design.

UWE APEL: Then the other point
is birds have no rudders,

because a bird does not
need a rudder because of

its aerodynamic architecture.

And so there is the idea they
are not representing birds,

but flying machines or aircraft.

NARRATOR: Could the
ancient Egyptians have

possessed the power of flight?

In 2006, aviation and
aerodynamics expert Simon

Sanderson built a scale
model of the Saqqara bird

five times larger
than the original

to test that possibility.

We're running at
a constant speed,

slowly increasing
the angle of attack,

and then measuring the
forces which it's producing.

That way, we can learn about
its flight characteristics.

At 10 degrees, we're producing
four times weight in lift.

MAN 2: Yeah.

So it actually
would be flying there.

MAN 2: Yeah.

That's good.

Tests show the Saqqara bird
is a highly-developed glider.

And this is a
design we use today.

NARRATOR: During
the Sanderson tests,

it was discovered that the only
thing preventing the Saqqara

bird from achieving
flight was the lack

of a rear stabilizing
rudder or elevator

needed to maintain balance.

Is it possible that the
Saqqara bird ever possessed

this critical component?

What is missing is
something like an elevator.

But if you look at
this feature here,

then we may interpret that
something like an elevator

was connected here but was
lost during the history.

NARRATOR: Computer models seem
to confirm that the Saqqara

bird is certainly
airworthy, but there is

another problem to consider--

launching a glider.

Modern methods require the
use of a tow plane that pulls

the glider into the air,
then releases it when

a proper altitude is reached.

So how might the
ancient Egyptians

have launched the Saqqara bird?

The scientifics
of Egyptology told

us that such a bird could be
powered of by catapults to fly.

And we had a high acceptance
by Egyptian scientists.

NARRATOR: The idea of
using a catapult does

have a contemporary parallel.

Many of today's
glider enthusiasts

employ a bungee cord
system to launch

their sail craft into the air.

But if the Saqqara bird
is capable of flight,

where would ancient Egyptians
have acquired such technology?

I think that people
in ancient times

were visited by beings
coming not from this Earth.

And they gave us culture
and scientific technologies

to improve our life on Earth,
coming from the primitive

to a higher-developed culture.

UWE APEL: If ancient
cultures would

be able to produce any
really flyable machine,

they would be far more
advanced than we believe today.

It changes our viewpoint
of ancient societies.

It's a fact that our
ancestors were more intelligent

and had more
technological superiority

capabilities than our history
books give them credit for.

GRAHAM HANCOCK: You begin
to have to ask yourself,

are we missing
part of the story?

And, honestly, I think we are.

I think there has been
a forgotten episode

in human history, and we
are a species with amnesia.

We don't really remember
who or what we are.

I haven't been convinced
that there is evidence

that supports an
ancient visitation,

but there is no reason why not.

And I think to shut oneself to
that possibility is a mistake,

mainly because there
are so many anomalies

that we can't explain.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: 7,000 miles from
Egypt, the dense jungles

and rugged mountains of
Colombia contain a vast number

of archaeological sites.

Many treasure-hunters believe
the legendary city of gold, El

Dorado, lies hidden
here, somewhere

under a thick canopy of trees.

While the mythical metropolis
has never been found,

early in the 20th century,
tomb-robbers searching

along the Magdalena River
stumbled upon a grave site

dating back 1,500 years to
a pre-Colombian civilization

known as the Tolima.

Among the funerary objects found
there were hundreds of small 2

to 3-inch gold figurines.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
Many of those

looked like insects and fish.

However, out of those
hundreds that they found,

they also found
about a dozen that

are eerily reminiscent of
modern-day fighter jets.

They have a triangular shape.

They have an upright tail fin,
stabilizers, and a fuselage.

And they have nothing
in common with anything

similar in nature.

NARRATOR: Could
these gold objects

really be proof that Earth has
been visited by ancient aliens?

UWE APEL: One of the objects
shows typical swept wings

like with a modern aircraft.

And when you compare it to
something like a space shuttle,

you see that the basic wing
shape is very similar to wing

shapes for high-speed
aerodynamic bodies

like a space shuttle is.

PHILIP COPPENS: There
is not a single insect

in the world which has got
its wings at the bottom.

And when you exclude
the possibility

that it's an insect, one
of the things which remain

is the fact that
this is actually,

yes, what it looks like--

a plane.

NARRATOR: In 1997, German
aviation experts, including

Algund Eenboom and
Peter Belting set out

to prove the speculation
by building a scale model

replica of the gold flyer,
fully equipped with landing

gear and a working engine.

ALGUND EENBOOM: It
was rather simple

because we don't need to put
much parts to this shape,

because this shape is perfect.

Everything was already
done by the native people

2,000 years ago.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
They did not add an inch

or remove an inch.

They just essentially
blew the little thing

into a larger size.

I mean, this is sensational
that pre-Colombian culture

knew about aerodynamics.

NARRATOR: Once completed,
the remote-controlled flyer

took off down a makeshift
runway and flew.

When you see this
thing taking off,

you really feel that
this is the real deal.

It was a very successful
test and showed us

how perfect ancient people were
working out aerodynamic design.

Well, it shows you that there
must be something happened.

We are not quite sure how
it did, but that it did.

This is applied science.

This isn't just
thinking somewhere.

This is people going out there
and making sure and proving

what I still see, anybody can
see this; that this is real,

this is genuine.

This little thing, which
sits in a museum, could fly.

So we have two examples from
opposite side of the planet

and both examples are
aerodynamically sound,

and they fly.

So to suggest that all
of this is coincidence--

I mean, after a while,
even coincidence

no longer makes sense.

BILL BIRNES: Could the ancients
have seen actual entities--

like ancient gods,
ancient astronauts--

actually flying around in what
amounted to modern aircraft?

NARRATOR: The answer
to these questions

may be found in ancient
documents that describe flight

patterns, aircraft specs,
and even aerial battles

in remarkable detail.

Over the past 50 years, NASA
has sent astronauts into space

inside large rockets.

This method has been
described by some

as simply putting a man
on a large firecracker

and lighting the fuse.

[boom]

Man's ability to travel
farther into space

will require more advanced
propulsion systems.

Several are being
researched by NASA.

There are a wide variety
of advanced propulsion

technologies that are being
actively developed and studied

by NASA and other researchers.

A really exotic version of
that is to use a launch assist

catapult. You use
technology derived

from the magnetic
levitation trains

to build a maglev sled
that carries your rocket,

gets it up to about
Mach 1, and then

launches the rocket from it.

NARRATOR: While these futuristic
propulsion systems seem

like something out
of science fiction,

ancient alien theorists
believe past civilizations

possessed these same
advanced technologies.

They point to a number
of cultural myths

that describe sky
people coming to Earth

in fire-breathing dragons
or metallic-looking machines

as proof of
extraterrestrial visitation.

In my mind, legends and myths
are based on something real.

And while they've been mythified
and exaggerated in many cases,

in my mind, some core of
truth here in that people

really were flying in
airships in ancient times,

just like we do today.

NARRATOR: But might
these airships

have reached Earth using the
same type of propulsion systems

we use today?

The answer may be found deep
in the Indian subcontinent.

India-- over 1.1 billion
people crowd its modern cities

and rural townships, speaking
hundreds of languages

and practicing a number
of different religions.

India is considered one of
the oldest civilizations,

with settlements dating
back over 11,000 years.

It is also home to several
of the oldest records

of ancient technologies.

Ancient Sanskrit texts
dating back as far

as 6000 BC describe in
varying but vivid detail

flying machines called vimanas.

ALGUND EENBOOM:
Vimanas are aeroplanes,

and they are powered
by some jet engines.

This seems to be true
because all the description

of the flight behavior.

Elephants ran away in panic.

[boom]

[elephant roaring]

Grass was thrown out because
there was a lot of pressure

from behind those vimanas,
so that we can say this is

a description of the spaceship.

[spaceship blasting]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Although mainstream
historians believe the vimana

texts are myths,
many of the documents

contain passages that seem
to describe modern machinery

and technology.

DAVID CHILDRESS: The
Vymaanika-Shaastra

goes into metals that
are used in these craft.

It talks about electricity
and power sources.

It talks about the pilots and
the clothing they have to wear.

It talks about the
food that they eat.

It talks even about
the weapons that

are kept on these airships.

ALGUND EENBOOM: The flight
manuals of the vimanas

are quite similar to
the flight manuals

you find in the modern
passenger flight business

or when you go to the
military jet engines.

Of course, they have, also,
flight manuals because it's

necessary for a pilot to get
knowledge about his plane he

wanted to fly with.

We also learned
that these vimanas

could be controlled mentally.

And this is a technology
that modern militaries

are beginning to develop.

Even today, with as
advanced as we think we are,

almost every manifestation
of an actual extraterrestrial

civilization today would
look almost like magic to us,

where it has to do with
technological electromagnetic

systems that interface with
coherent thought and organized

thought.

And this gets into
people go, well,

now you're losing me here.

But I tell people--

I said, yeah, well, you
got to push your boundaries

a little bit if you're talking
about a true interstellar

civilization.

NARRATOR: The Vymaanika-Shaastra
for Science of Aeronautics

indicates vimanas
used a propulsion

system based on a
combination of gyroscopes,

electricity, and mercury.

Is this possible?

DAVID CHILDRESS: Mercury
is an unusual element.

Mercury is metal.

It's also a liquid, and it's
a conductor of electricity.

Now there's unusual things
you can do with mercury.

You can put it into
a closed gyroscopic

device with mercury
spinning around,

and then you can electrify it.

And studies have been
done on this by NASA

and by other scientists.

And they find that you
have levitation effects,

antigravity kind of effects,
and a spinning bright light

is part of it, too.

NARRATOR: The Vymaanika-Shaastra
suggests vimanas were powered

by several gyroscopes
placed inside

a sealed liquid-mercury vortex.

Here's an example of a
little kid's gyroscope.

You spin it with a heavy
wheel around a central axis.

Well, a gyroscope seems to
do a lot of strange things,

even defy gravity.

And it does this because
it uses what's called

rotational or angular momentum.

And it wants to keep a
particular orientation on

its spin axis, the center rod.

If you push on that rod, it
will want to righten itself

up to its original orientation.

It wants to keep that
same angular momentum.

Gyroscopes are used all
over the place in airplanes,

in spacecraft, in submarines.

This allows them to
determine their position

based on where they started.

They can also use it for finding
their velocity or even just

the orientation of
the vehicle in space.

One of the texts talks
about mercury rotating

and driving some sort
of a powerful wind

or a windmill effect.

That might be some sort of
what we call a flywheel energy

storage, where you
have a spinning disk,

and then you extract
energy from it slowly.

That would be the mercury.

And then that could be used to
drive some sort of a propeller

or what we call a ducted
fan sort of system,

like you have in a hovercraft.

Mercury would be
quite good for that

because it's a high density,
so you can have a small package

for your power plant.

And that's always good when
you're building an aircraft.

NARRATOR: Flywheel
energy storage systems,

however, tend to
lose power quickly.

To navigate across space, its
size would have to be enormous.

ROBERT H. FRISBEE:
They're fine for use

by power companies
for load leveling.

You put energy in when
you don't need it.

You get energy out
when you need it.

But they're sitting
on the ground.

They have something light
enough to actually fly.

It's not at all clear that this
would be a practical device.

Now, maybe the
people were trying

to describe something that kind
of looked like this to them.

It might not have
actually been mercury.

It might have been some
other liquid metal.

ALGUND EENBOOM: The mercury
vortex engine is perhaps

a failure in the translation
because the vortex

is not a material quite
suitable to a jet engine.

STEVEN M. GREER: The issue of
how are these civilizations

traveling faster than
the speed of light

is a fundamental question.

It's a scientific application
of things that have been studied

for thousands of
years, and they are

within the Vedas, the
ancient Vedic teachings,

or other ancient teachings.

And it is there.

NARRATOR: But if vimanas
existed, could this prove there

was a worldwide transportation
network thousands

of years before Columbus?

The answer might be
found on a mountaintop

outside Mexico City.

In the 21st century,
modern transportation

and communication
methods have connected

the world like never before.

Products or ideas, no
matter where in the world

they may have originated,
can spread to even

the most remote countries.

A hip-hop hit in Brooklyn
might make it big in Tokyo

before it's even
heard in Manhattan.

This cultural interconnection
has transformed the globe,

but is it new?

Mainstream archaeologists
believe ancient civilizations--

such as those found in the
remote Pacific Islands,

Asia, and South America--

developed independently
from each other.

But ancient astronaut theorists
contend that similarities

in building styles and beliefs
found in these cultures

suggest that a worldwide
trade route may have

connected them to each other.

DAVID CHILDRESS: But just
like we have airports today

around the world, in ancient
times, with the vimanas,

there would have been
hangars for the craft,

airports for them to land.

And those airports
would have been

situated in strategic
places around the world.

And that's exactly what
we see in remote places.

Could the complex set of lines
covering Peru's Nazca plane

or the mysterious plateau
above Mexico's Oaxaca Valley

be evidence of runways
for a worldwide air

transportation system?

One of the unusual
archaeological sites in Mexico

is a place called Monte Albán.

That is also a mountain
where the top of the mountain

was completely cut off
and leveled to make

a very flat tabletop mount.

And there's a
megalithic city there,

too, that's extremely old.

This was probably some
kind of vimana airport.

ALGUND EENBOOM: The vimanas
could be kind of missing link

between the single
cultures in the world,

because they had just a very
short time to flow from one

part of the world to the other.

NARRATOR: Legends of
air travel are also

found in ancient Africa
and the Middle East.

According to the Kebra Nagast,
a holy book of the Ethiopians

written sometime before the
second century AD, the Queen

of Sheba was once given
a gift of a flying carpet

by King Solomon of Israel.

The Kebra Nagast is
one of the most important

texts you've never heard of.

The Kebra Nagast means
the Book of Kings.

And it is the most sacred
book of the Ethiopians.

In it, King Solomon,
it's described,

he had access to some
type of a flying machine.

And in that part of the
world, the term flying carpet

was always used very liberally.

My question is did they really
mean actual flying carpets?

Or was it another
term with which

to describe some type
of a flying machine?

DAVID CHILDRESS: This was the
original "Chariots of the Gods"

that Erich von
Daniken talked about--

the flying magic carpets of
the "Arabian Nights" stories.

There are traditions in the
Middle East of King Solomon

having this airship and
flying to different places

in the Middle East, certain
mountains which are known

as the Mountains of Solomon.

These may have been
certain airports or landing

areas for these vimanas.

Nicholas Roerich,
famous Russian-American

explorer who traveled
all through Central

Asia and Tibet in the 1920s--

he, too, claimed
that Tibetans had

traditions of King
Solomon flying

to Tibet in this aircraft.

NARRATOR: The Kebra
Nagast also describes

how King Solomon used
his flying airship

to make maps of the world.

But could these have any
relation to other ancient maps

some believe may have been
made by extraterrestrials?

Some of these maps show the
world not as it looks today,

but as it looked during
the last Ice Age.

And this is really
hard to explain.

Everybody's heard of
the Piri Reis map,

but they've perhaps not
heard of the Oronteus Finaeus

map or the Mercator maps
that show Antarctica

in great detail
hundreds of years

before Antarctica
was even discovered.

NARRATOR: One of the
most referenced stories

of ancient aircraft is found in
a surprising place, the Bible.

In the book of
Ezekiel, the prophet

describes a flying chariot
containing wheels within wheels

and powered by angels.

Although Bible historians
suggest Ezekiel was speaking

symbolically about the
terrifying enemies facing

Israel, could this
be another example

of an alien visitation and
proof that prehistoric aircraft

existed?

In the story of Ezekiel's
throne chariot, this flying

vehicle that doesn't seem to
have any means of propulsion,

if we thought of the word
angel as representing something

like celestial energy, it sounds
much more like a spacecraft

then because some of the angels
are going back and forth.

Well, that sounds like flames.

That sounds like propulsion.

Some of them are wheel-like.

Well, those sound
like flying saucers.

Our ancestors weren't idiots.

Ezekiel saw something that
was so frightening to him

that he fell to his knees.

Then out of the glory
of God came this

being in these bright clothes
that looked like metal

and told Ezekiel, all right,
man, we brought you here.

We want you to measure this
monument, this building.

And Ezekiel asks, well,
why should I do this?

And the being says, that's
why we brought you here.

And then you have 40 pages in
the second part of the Book

of Ezekiel with measurement
after measurement

after measurement of
this gigantic building

in which, by the way, the
glory of the Lord landed.

NARRATOR: In the early 1970s,
NASA scientist Josef Blumrich

set out to disprove the
theory that what Ezekiel

witnessed was a spaceship.

Josef Blumrich is your
proverbial rocket scientist.

He worked on the
moon project for NASA

and, from the mind
of a rocket engineer,

started to look at what was
written in the first part

of the Book of Ezekiel.

And after many
months of research,

Joseph Blumrich came
to the conclusion

that what Ezekiel described
in his eyewitness report,

it was, indeed, a
type of spacecraft.

NARRATOR: Joseph Blumrich
would go on to write

"The Spaceships of Ezekiel."

Several years later, a
German structural engineer

named Hans Herbert Beier
sketched out a blueprint

of the second section
of the Book of Ezekiel,

where Ezekiel is told to
construct an open-top building

to house the flying chariot.

Ezekiel's spaceship fit
exactly into the temple

that Hans Herbert
Beier recreated.

So what we have here is
a proof by indication.

Here, we have a NASA engineer
and a structural engineer.

They didn't know of
each other's work,

and both pieces fit
together like a puzzle.

In any court of law, that's
evidence that would hold up.

GRAHAM HANCOCK: I think
that scientists feel

uncomfortable with the notion
of the lost civilization,

precisely because the evidence
for it is so ambiguous.

It's not so in-your-face that
it's immediately obvious.

And, you know, the
result is that science

has not welcomed this idea.

It'll take much more evidence
before it's widely accepted.

The God that I believe in
doesn't need a vehicle in which

to move around from
point A to point

B. Whatever was described in
the Old Testament wasn't God.

It was a misunderstood,
flesh-and-blood

extraterrestrial
whom our ancestors

misinterpreted as being
divine and supernatural.

And why?

Because of misunderstood
technology.

And that is the
underlying thread

that applies to all of the
ancient astronaut theory.

NARRATOR: But
while ancient texts

provide tantalizing clues to
our past, physical evidence

paints an even clearer picture.

But will modern
science finally prove

the ancient astronaut theory?

Did the ancient
civilizations of Earth

have access to
advanced technology?

Well, it seems like they
had something going on.

[music playing]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In today's
largest construction sites

and quarries, huge
mega-machines are used

to dig, cut, and lift stone.

These man-made creatures
dwarf their creators

and perform the work of
thousands of men using

modern hydraulic technologies.

Without such equipment,
builders could never

construct modern skyscrapers.

Yet thousands of years
ago, ancient civilizations

were accomplishing the same
work while constructing

their monuments and temples
using massive stones.

These enormous blocks, many
weighing in excess of 100 tons,

would be a challenge even
for today's engineers.

Yet thousands of
years ago, people

cut them out of solid rock,
transported them for miles,

and then lifted them
precisely into place.

But how?

Did they cut these
massive stone blocks

with hammers, chisels,
and copper wire,

as mainstream
archaeologists suggest?

Could they have lifted
and transported them

without a pulley
system or the wheel?

Or did ancient
civilizations possess

advanced technologies that have
since been lost to science?

ROBERT BAUVAL: At Giza, you
just don't have the pyramids.

Linked to the pyramids
are what Egyptologists

call Valley Temples.

It doesn't take
a rocket engineer

that when you go there, there's
something not quite right here.

Whereas the pyramids are built
with blocks of 2 to 3 tons,

these temples, which are minute
compared to the pyramids,

are built with blocks of 100
tons and some of them 200 tons.

Let me tell you what
a 100-ton block is.

If you take a
hundred family cars

and you squeeze them together,
you get one of these blocks.

First of all, let
alone how they move

these blocks is why would they
want to use 100-ton blocks?

It simply doesn't make sense.

There's no reason
for them to want

to build out of granite blocks
the size of a semi truck.

It's like, OK,
let's do something,

but let's do it as difficult
as we could possibly do it.

The reason why I am convinced
that sophisticated technology

was utilized in
these ancient rocks

is because if we go
to a stone quarry

today and look at the
scope of machinery

required to accomplish
similar things,

those machines are huge.

[boom]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Subscribers
to ancient alien theory

do not believe extraterrestrials
built these amazing monuments,

but instead provided some
type of technological know-how

or tools to our ancestors.

Engineering expert Chris Dunn
has spent several decades

researching the
construction tools

used by the ancient Egyptians.

We're normally
taught by Egyptologists

that the ancient Egyptians
had simple tools.

They went to work every day
using stone balls, copper

chisels, or copper tube
and sand to grind holes

and diorite and granite--

extremely hard rock.

From what I have actually
gathered over the years,

there's information
that seems to actually

argue against that notion
that they had simple tools.

NARRATOR: In Egypt,
Dunn was able to examine

ancient sites firsthand.

What he found has proved
to be both revolutionary

and controversial.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN: If you look
at the Giza Plateau and all

the stones that they've actually
placed in the Great Pyramid

and Khafre's Pyramid
and Menkaure's Pyramid,

2 and 1/2 million blocks
of stone in the Great

Pyramid alone.

They had to have had
some efficient means

of cutting them to size and
putting them into place.

They had to have had somebody
on site who's saying, OK, I need

a block this size, and then
getting a block to them

that size stat--

like, immediately.

NARRATOR: While searching
several miles north of Giza

at Abu Rawash, Dunn
stumbled upon a clue

when he spotted a granite
block containing a deep cut.

When I first saw it, I just
didn't know what to make of it.

And it was only after
puzzling over it for days

and sometimes waking up at
3 o'clock in the morning,

scratching my head
and thinking, well,

how do they make this cut--

and finally to realize that the
only way that they could have

actually cut that
thing was with a sword

that was 35 feet in diameter.

NARRATOR: The idea
that ancient Egyptians

used giant saws
provoked much resistance

from mainstream archaeologists.

Dunn, however, was convinced.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN:
As an ex-machinist,

I look for tool marks.

I look for them everywhere I go.

And I could be accused
of, well, you know,

if you're going to look for
something, you're probably

going to find it,
because you're looking

at it through a certain filter.

Accepted; I agree.

But the question
is why is it there?

Clearly, to me, that
is a machine mark.

But there were no
machines back then.

So what do I do?

I just go looking for
more machine marks,

and they're all over the place.

You find them on statues.

You'll find them particularly
in the Luxor Museum.

There seems to be an impression
on the side of Amun's buttock,

where it meets the bench,
where there is an undercut.

It was a slip of a tool.

And therefore, it
must have been a tool

that was quite efficient.

NARRATOR: Dunn also believes
that the large depressions

in the ground at Giza
are not boat pits,

as is claimed by
mainstream archaeologists,

but were actually used
to hold the 35-foot saws.

I speculate that they
were actually saw pits.

The saws were mounted
in these pits,

and they ran the
blocks through the saws

before they put them
in the Great Pyramid.

NARRATOR: Another
mystery involves

how mega-stones were
lifted up and placed

into a precise position.

What you find in modern
construction is that to build

big buildings, you need to
build big instruments which

help build these big buildings.

And that is something
which archaeology

has never addressed.

NARRATOR: The three largest
man-made stones in the world

are found at the Temple of
Jupiter at Baalbek, in Lebanon.

Each weighs an estimated 1,000
tons or 2 million pounds.

A nearby quarry contains an even
bigger stone known as the Stone

of the Pregnant Woman.

This giant, rectangular
block weighs

an incredible 1,200 tons.

To move it today would
take the strength

of 21 heavy-lift cranes.

PETER PALUTIKOF: Being in
the construction industry,

if a certain project is
being constructed somewhere,

particularly in
mountainous areas,

how would we carry
these machinery,

these cranes and all that?

They are so heavy that
it's virtually impossible

to take them to the site.

This stone came off of
a project in Palm Springs,

where they were-- had
one of the largest

excavators they could rent.

They had trouble loading
it into the truck.

It's well in excess of
5 tons, 10,000 pounds--

small in megalithic
terms, but basically

what we can handle
with modern machinery.

We're supposed to accept
that the people who built

the pyramids did not have the
wheel, did not have the pulley,

did not have iron.

In fact, they had nothing
but brutal manpower

and pieces of strings.

The context does not
fit the evidence.

I've done pulling
operations in upper Egypt,

thousands of people involved
in the various stages

of the project,
moving very fragile

pieces of stone
that weigh hundreds,

if not thousands, of tons.

Yes, you can use ropes, but
you're going to have to use

other mechanical advantages.

NARRATOR: But if ancient
civilizations did not possess

modern mechanical
equipment, how did they

move and lift megaton stones?

Some believe they were
given a technical advantage

from extraterrestrial visitors.

You've got to
ask yourself, why

would they try and
do something that

seems so incredibly difficult?

The answer to why
they would do that

has to be that it somehow
wasn't so difficult for them.

It was easy.

There exists one very
concise description

of how these massive stones
were transported from the quarry

to the building site.

The master builders
had the capability

of putting some type of a white
substance, paper-like substance

onto the stones.

And they wrote on it.

And then they basically
gave the stone block a push.

And it moved by 6
feet, as if by magic.

Now, did that thing
really move by magic?

No.

Some technology was used.

That is part of the solution.

In order to really move massive
amounts of stone like that,

they would have had to
have been levitated,

somehow made weightless, and
then just moved through the air

by some kind of
device, perhaps even

a hand-held kind of device,
like some beam weapon.

NARRATOR: Ancient man's
method of moving large blocks

is only one mystery.

Another surrounds the
techniques of their stonemasons.

How did prehistoric
civilizations

cut such intricately-designed
patterns in solid granite?

[music playing]

[music playing]

Palm Springs, California.

Master stonemason and
sculptor Roger Hopkins

uses a variety of advanced tools
to cut and shape hard stones.

Powered implements, such
as diamond-tipped wires

and polishers, enable
him to fashion works

of art out of huge
granite blocks

obtained from nearby quarries.

Yet even with these
high-tech tools,

Hopkins cannot
replicate what ancient

civilizations accomplished
thousands of years ago.

Could these advanced
engineering methods

be the smoking gun
that proves humans

had help from alien beings?

ROGER HOPKINS: The precision on
some of the work that I've seen

is just incredible.

It's possible to do
by hand, but it'd take

an incredible amount of time.

Plus, you have to have
years of experience

to be able to pull it off.

In my opinion, the most
tangible pieces of evidence

that we have regarding
possible extraterrestrial

technology is when we
look at the ancient

stone-cutting techniques.

Because in some instances,
we ourselves today

could not replicate what
our ancestors allegedly

accomplished with stonemasonry.

NARRATOR: Pumapunku is a
large temple complex located

on a high plateau in Bolivia.

[goats bleating]

Mainstream archaeologists date
the site from approximately 200

BC.

The people who lived here had
neither a written language,

nor the wheel.

Yet somehow, they built
one of the world's

most complex structures.

Ancient alien theorists view
Pumapunku as clear proof

of extraterrestrial influence.

The ruins we find at Pumapunku
are simply extraordinary.

Pumapunku defies logic.

PHILIP COPPENS: The
interest of Pumapunku

is not so much that the
individual stones sorted

together perfectly, but the
fact that the stones, as such,

are of such tremendous design
that it requires concepts

of mathematics which are
far beyond anything we

are actually using right now.

Yet somehow, in
the past, somebody

has made that for
a specific purpose

and in a way which even computer
programs today would kind

of go, how is this possible?

[beeping]

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
In the highlands

of Bolivia, Pumapunku--

some of these blocks are
over 40 to 50 tons each.

What can you tell us about this?

ROGER HOPKINS: Boy, they had
their stone-cutting abilities,

you know, pretty well
fine-tuned for 5,000 years old.

I mean, it's almost
unbelievable.

But these cutting planes
that they have on here

are very impressive.

And some of the incise cuts--

see, like in here, all
these interior cuts--

very hard to do.

I mean, it would be difficult
for us, with our equipment,

to get that kind of precision.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
Let's talk a little bit

about inside boxes.

[groans] I was afraid
you were going to pull

something like this on me.

That is a hell of
a piece of work.

I mean, if we were to do
something like that today,

we use what-- they have these
computer-driven, CNC machines

which have diamond chips.

And you have a template that,
you know, the computer follows.

And even then, it may
not come out as perfect.

Because even though you
can tell that, obviously,

this piece broke
off, nowhere in here

can you see any imperfection.

It's like-- and by the
way, when you're there,

if you go with your
finger over these edges,

and you put a little
pressure on your fingertip,

you can cut yourself.

This is how sharp the edges are.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: But where
could the ancient peoples

have developed such technology?

Is it really possible that
extraterrestrial visitors

provided different
construction methods and tools?

When I saw these
blocks, I didn't really

think that they were cut.

The first thing, really,
that I thought of

was this appears very similar
to Frank Lloyd Wright's

textile block system
of construction

which he used in his California
houses in the early 1920s.

Now what he did was he took
concrete, poured it into molds.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
There actually

are ancient Incan
legends that suggest

that they had the capability
of softening the stone.

At Saqsaywaman, for example,
we find these gigantic stone

blocks, gigantic
stone walls, where

it looks as if those stones
were molten, put into place,

and then the stone
hardened again.

NARRATOR: Several
hundred miles north

of Pumapunku, Machu Picchu sits
high atop the Peruvian Andes.

Built by the Incas
in the 15th century,

this stone citadel
was suddenly abandoned

about 100 years later.

Like Pumapunku,
Machu Picchu also

has signs of
advanced engineering

and possibly molded stones.

I can't help but
think that whoever

was behind this
thought the process

through from beginning to end.

They didn't quarry the rock
and then decide, how the heck

are we going to transport this?

They knew, from beginning to
end, what needed to be done

with whatever techniques
and technology

they were going to use, so
that this was no big deal.

In industry today, there's
a kind of an adage--

keep it simple, stupid.

NARRATOR: Based
on his experience,

Mike Dunn believes
the simplest way

to build the great
walls of Machu Picchu

would have been to transport
small rocks to the site,

then melt them and use molds
to fashion the exact size

and shape needed.

That would solve a
lot of difficulties

of constructing this wall.

First, you have your shapes--

all the same size, each shape.

So you're guaranteed
that they would

fit together, as
opposed to being

cut by different artisans.

Melting the rocks and
then pouring them into place

would take an incredible
amount of heat just

to spall off pieces of stone.

I have a stone torch which I use
for sometimes shaping granite.

And I mean, it
generates a temperature

of in excess of 3,000 degrees.

3,000 degrees-- that's a lot.

MICHAEL DUNN: When we
look back at the ancients,

and we see a technology that
they couldn't possibly know,

there's only two
possibilities then.

Either God did it, which we
really don't think happened,

or some high-tech civilization
from another planet

came and showed
them how to do it,

then took their materials
and tools and went back home.

The idea behind that is that
none of these ancient monuments

were constructed or manufactured
by extraterrestrials.

It was us humans
who built it with

extraterrestrial technology.

ROGER HOPKINS: It's
entirely possible

that there were visitations,
that they pointed out ways

to do things, and
that they wanted

to leave some kind of a record.

And I mean, if you're going
to leave a permanent record,

the only way you can
do that is in stone.

NARRATOR: But if advanced
beings from another planet

really did bring their
technology to earth,

might the ancient astronauts
have left one of their tools

behind?

[music playing]

The methods used to build
huge megalithic structures,

such as Pumapunku and
the pyramids of Egypt,

remain a mystery.

But what about the tools
used to build them?

Where are they?

And might they provide a clue
as to how these enormous stone

structures were created?

A lot of the real
ancient, mysterious work

was done at a time when
there was no steel.

And the copper they had was--

yeah, they could harden
it by cold hammering it,

but it still wouldn't
make a dent in rocks

like basalt and granite.

So they would have
had to use, you know,

much more laborious
techniques, or they

had some sort of advanced
technology which escapes me.

And I've been in the
business 40 years.

The tools and
machines must have

been equal to the
task of actually

building the pyramids--

crafting those statues to such
a high order of precision,

crafting those boxes to
a modern day precision

that we find in
our inspection lab.

And it's a big question--
where are the tools?

NARRATOR: In the
late 19th century,

British archaeologist
Sir Flinders Petrie

scoured Egypt, looking
not for the biggest items,

but the smallest.

Petrie was
absolutely fascinated

by the technical achievements
of the Egyptians,

particularly the
early Egyptians.

He constantly was looking for
how they made things, how they

developed things, how they
continued to sort of basically

perfect their tools.

We're normally taught
that the ancient Egyptians

had simple tools.

And what Petrie brought
out is information

that seems to actually
argue against that notion.

This is an example
of a drill hole.

And you can see the
very fine lines on it.

You can see the technology
that was made to use it.

You can see how
it's a perfect hole.

And it's all the way through,
but it tapers at one end.

This is a fragment
of a diorite bowl.

It's one of the
hardest substances.

And you can see on this fragment
that there's a lathe mark,

which is really interesting
that they managed to make such

a mark in such a hard material.

NARRATOR: Among all the tools
discovered by Petrie, however,

one stood out from all the rest.

While working inside
the Great Pyramid,

Petrie stumbled across a
tubular drill made of granite.

DEBBIE CHALLIS: Tubular drills
amongst the ancient Egyptians

were actually fairly common.

I mean, Petrie found
quite a few of them.

The interesting thing about
the one that he found in Giza

is that it's such hard stone
that was so carefully carved,

precisely grooved.

As you can see, it's got very,
very fine markings on it--

basically, lines literally a
couple of millimeters apart.

You can see it goes all the way
around very, very accurately--

hardly any waves at all.

He was absolutely
amazed by this.

He kept returning to
it throughout his life.

His theory was that the
Egyptians must have had

access to diamonds
or some kind of jewel

that would have cut it.

The interesting thing about
Petrie's theory about how

these draw lines were made
was that he never discovered

any diamonds in ancient Egypt.

So where were they?

Where did they go?

We don't know.

NARRATOR: If the ancient
Egyptians didn't possess

diamonds, how were
the precision grooves

cut onto the granite drill?

Did Petrie accidentally
discover a tool

made by extraterrestrials?

Machinist expert
Chris Dunn attempted

to answer this question by
creating his own granite

drill using the known
tools and techniques

of the ancient Egyptians.

In order to test the
Egyptologist theory about how

the ancient Egyptians drilled
into granite, I took a tube,

and I fixed day crank
on it and actually

used sand and silicon carbide.

And after many hours
of turning and drilling

into this piece of granite, it
finally got deep enough that I

could actually pop a core out.

And the reason for that was to
actually look at the surface--

not just of the whole,
but of the core.

NARRATOR: The next
step was to use

a high-tech
industrial microscope

to compare his drill core
to a latex copy of the one

at the Petrie Museum.

We have under the microscope
the core that we drilled

with the copper tube and sand.

And as you can see, the surface
of the core, the striations

are not very clear.

There's nothing really
distinctive in terms

of the feed of the tool
marks using sand and copper.

Now bringing the latex
that they took of the core

in the Petrie Museum, and we
see something totally different.

The striations are very
clear, and they're quite deep.

The devil is actually
in the details,

and the details of this
particular artifact

are what I consider to
be a smoking gun in terms

of what level of technology
we give the ancient Egyptians

credit for.

NARRATOR: Intrigued
by his discovery,

Chris Dunn performed
other experiments using

his precision instruments.

As you can see,
this is an inspection

service plate probably ground
to within 2/10,000 of an inch.

That is 1/10 the
thickness of a human hair.

Now, I was really amazed when
I went inside the Serapeum,

and put these gauges
up against the surface,

and found them to be within what
I consider to be the tolerance

of these particular gauges.

If you put a piece of paper
under one edge of that blade,

just a piece of paper, you
begin to see that there

would be light leaking through.

And so the precision on the
inside of the granite box is

in the Serapeum, I would say,
within 2/1,000 of an inch,

which is incredible,
because those tolerances

can't just appear by accident.

It was very shocking.

And it was astounding
to me to go to Egypt,

and go into a facility that
was supposedly 3,000 years old,

and find the same
kind of precision.

I was amazed.

I've seen evidence
of the carvings

on granite done in Egypt.

And they did it with
little shards of quartz.

I believe they would
have just scratched

away the stone with that.

That's one possibility.

But I mean, that's a heck
of a lot of work to do that.

I mean, we're talking--

somebody would devote years
to doing something like that.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
But here is my point.

Here we have a real-life
stonecutter-- you.

Yeah.

You see this, and there's, like,
smoke coming out of your head.

Well, let's put it this way.

I had a client come in
and ask me to do that.

I wouldn't do it for
any amount of money,

because I'm not going
to waste my life

trying to replicate that.

NARRATOR: But
precision-cut stone

monuments are not
the only enduring

Middle Eastern mysteries.

Engineering experts
have also examined

the Bible story of the
Israelites' exodus from Egypt.

Just how did they survive
for 40 years in the desert?

Could they have possessed
intricate machines

with extraordinary abilities
used not for building,

but for man's own survival?

[music playing]

In the Hebrew Bible,
the Book of Exodus

describes how the
Jewish people suffered

as slaves living in Egypt.

Then sometime in
the 14th century BC,

the ruling pharaoh feared
their growing numbers

and ordered the killing of
all first-born Jews living

in Egypt.

In an effort to save
her son, one mother

put her child in a
small basket and set

him adrift on the Nile River.

That child was found
by the pharaoh's

family, who named him Moses
and raised him as their own.

As an adult, Moses
discovered his true identity

and demanded that the
pharaoh free the Jews.

When the pharaoh rejected
him, Moses helped

the Jews escape from Egypt.

[thunder cracking]

Historians believe that
Moses and his people

crossed the Red Sea
and made their way

into the Sinai Desert.

According to the ancient texts,
God grew angry at the Jews

for idol worshipping
and forced them

to wander the desert
aimlessly for 40 years,

before allowing them
to enter Israel.

During this time, the
Bible says the Israelites

survived by eating a
single food source--

manna.

But what is manna?

A naturally-abundant
food provided by God

or, as some believe,
something very different?

In the Bible, it
explains how the Israelites

got from Egypt,
where they'd been

slaves, to the Promised Land.

They had to cross
the Sinai Desert.

And inevitably, given that
there was a lot of Israelites

and very little growing,
as it was a desert,

they ran short on supplies.

God stepped in at this point
and sent manna from heaven.

This took the form of some
kind of seeds that rained

down upon the
desert, and then they

were collected the next day.

And they provided food
for the Israelites,

except Friday, when there
was a double portion,

because on Saturday, being
the Sabbath, it didn't fall.

NARRATOR: While the
Hebrew Bible fails

to give a clear
description of manna,

another ancient Jewish text
provides an alternative clue.

The Zohar is a collection
of spiritual commentaries

and interpretations
of the Torah and is

central to the mystical
Kabbalah belief

written in the 13th century.

The Zohar describes what is
called the ancient of days

as providing the manna.

But what was this
ancient of days?

A man, a God, or something else?

The text speaks of
different-sized brains,

different-sized faces.

They were connected
with different tubes

and different light sources.

Theologians have suggested that
this is a description of God.

However, when looked at from
a modern perspective, what

is described in the Zohar
isn't necessarily a God figure,

but rather a type of machine.

NARRATOR: Intrigued
by this information,

two electrical engineers,
George Sassoon and Rodney Dale,

used the anatomical descriptions
of the ancient of days

to design what they
called a manna machine.

This really is the key
diagram of the manna machine

as we built it up
from the texts.

For instance, one
here is the mouth,

but it's actually
the air intake,

which carries what is described
as the breath of life.

The air goes up
to this tube here,

which is described as the
brain of the ancient one,

but is actually a dew still.

So that although we were
talking about the great sea

and the hairs of the beard
and so on, at the same time,

we were able to work out
their relative positions,

and build up the
specification of the machine,

and find that we had something
that was biochemically viable.

[speaking german]

INTERPRETER: The machine
took in moist morning air

and condensed it in the
part of the machine that

looked like a Plexiglas dome.

From there, it mixed
with an algae culture.

The culture was
treated with energy,

such as a strong laser light,
in order to speed the growth.

RODNEY DALE: Of course,
it needed energy

for cultivating the algae.

And this was produced,
we postulate,

in a small nuclear reactor,
which would produce both heat

and light as required.

PETER FIEBAG: [speaking german]

INTERPRETER: The manna machine
was a very dangerous device.

We suspect that the reactor
that powered the machine

was transported in the
Ark of the Covenant.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: We
have multiple references

in the Bible that
whoever came close

to the Ark of the Covenant
and didn't know how to operate

it was smitten to death.

[thunder cracking]

And sometimes, people, after
they encountered the Ark,

started to lose their nails
and started to lose their hair.

So we have evidence of some
type of radiation poisoning

which was in direct correlation
with the Ark of the Covenant.

And so the Ark of
the Covenant housed

an extraterrestrial device which
was given to the Israelites

during their 40-year
wandering through the desert.

NARRATOR: The manna machine
is believed to have supplied

a highly-nutritious form
of green algae or Chlorella

as its food source.

It's yet another theory
supported by modern science.

We found that work in
the field of space travel

had already been done, where
the green algae, Chlorella, was

bred in tanks, and
fed to people living

in the closed environment,
and kept them alive.

NARRATOR: Research studies done
by NASA in the 1960s and 1970s

established that human
life could be sustained

for extended periods of
time by consuming Chlorella

algae and nothing else.

If it's possible for
astronauts to survive on algae,

could the Israelites
have done the same?

[speaking german]

INTERPRETER: The manna machine
was a sensitive device.

In order to function
properly, it

had to be cleaned once a week.

On that day, the machine
was taken apart and cleaned.

So it's possible
that the Sabbath

we have today
actually originated

from cleaning this machine.

RODNEY DALE: One theory that one
could put forward, of course,

is that the machine, although
they knew how to maintain

it and make it
produce the manna,

that it did, after a time,
back up, not work anymore.

And that was why they
came out of the desert.

NARRATOR: But if the
Israelites' survival

depended upon the manna
machine, where did they get it?

Some believe they had
stolen it from the Egyptians

prior to their exodus.

Others suspect extraterrestrials
gave it to them

as a humanitarian
gesture to prevent

their starvation in the desert.

Either way, the answer, like
the Ark of the Covenant,

seems lost to history.

Today, scientists have
successfully pioneered

a process that produces a
substance high in protein

by means of solar energy, water
vapor, and Chlorella algae.

Could this be a duplication
of alien technology

from thousands of years ago?

They actually built
a machine, a machine

based on algae culture producing
some type of superfood.

And we can find a similar
type of technology

described in the Zohar.

Is history repeating itself?

RODNEY DALE: One of
the big questions

is where did the
machine come from?

And I suppose there are
two answers to that.

Either it was built on
Earth, which is a theory

I can't really subscribe to.

The other question, of course,
is that it might have come

from outer space somewhere.

Now, that's quite a big
leap of imagination.

But, of course, the
interesting part

is that it actually
produces food

as is used by a spacecraft.

NARRATOR: If the ancient world
contained manna machines,

giant mega-saws, and
sophisticated aircraft,

what was the energy source
for all of this technology?

The answer may be
hiding in plain sight.

[music playing]

Of all the ancient structures
located around the world,

perhaps none is more
mysterious or as enduring

as the Great Pyramid at Giza.

At a height of 471
feet, the Great Pyramids

stood as the tallest
structure in the world

until the completion of
the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

But while other pyramids and
temples contain walls filled

with hieroglyphics
describing their purpose,

the Great Pyramid lacks
even a single marking.

What was its function?

Why was it built?

And what secrets
remain hidden inside?

Nobody has been able to
explain the interior design

of this pyramid.

It simply doesn't make sense,
according to our logic.

You have narrow tunnels
that you have to crouch.

You emerge in grand galleries
that are 9 meters high.

You have chambers that
are made of granite,

where granite doesn't
come from in the area.

You have to ship the granite
by barges 600 miles away.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
It's an anonymous site--

not a single inscription,
not a single hieroglyph,

not a single anything.

It's just there.

Some people speculated that it
was a temple and an initiation

chamber, where people would
go to the king's chamber

and become enlightened.

There are anecdotal
reports about people

who have been inside the pyramid
and have come out absolutely

shaken because it was haunted.

Egyptologists believe
that the pyramids were

built to bury the dead pharaoh.

The problem with
the accepted view

is the fact that not a single
dead pharaoh's body has been

found inside a pyramid,
even when the pyramid was

completely sealed--

IE, not a single grave
robber could have entered it.

The Egyptologists say
it's to conceal the body.

Well, why advertise it?

I mean, there's nothing more
visible than the pyramids

for miles.

And to this day, you would have
thought, in this modern age,

with all the knowledge
we have, we should

be able to expand this pyramid.

We cannot explain this pyramid.

NARRATOR: Engineering
expert Christopher Dunn

has been on a personal
quest to unlock

the secrets of the Great
Pyramid since the late 1970s.

According to him, there are
specific clues in the design

and construction of
this mega-monument

that can help answer
exactly why it was built.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN: When you
look at the Great Pyramid

and look at the culture that
built it, there are brilliant,

brilliant engineers-- in
fact, a lot of engineers

say we couldn't build
the Great Pyramids today.

And it was built,
supposedly, 4,500 years ago.

And it was built to the
precision of a machine.

When I started to do
the research-- and I

examined the Great Pyramid
with the eye of functionality.

It was built like a machine.

Perhaps, it functioned
like a machine.

NARRATOR: The interior
design of the Great Pyramid

features four
inclined air shafts

emanating from
the king's chamber

and the lower queen's chamber.

Like the Great Pyramid itself,
their presence and purpose

cannot be easily explained.

The difficulty of building
those shafts is incredible.

It's a bit like
building a chimney

at an incline across a house.

I mean, as a construction--
yeah, it's a nightmare.

NARRATOR: In 2002, a team of
engineers and Egyptologists

sent a small robot into one
of the air shafts connected

to the queen's chamber.

After 65 meters, a stone
door blocked its path.

A hole was then
drilled through it.

On the other side was a small
room with yet another door

leading further up the shaft.

ROBERT BAUVAL: Since the
discovery of the door,

we've had every
university, archaeologists,

anthropologists, every engineer
you can think of-- nobody

has been able to explain
the purpose of the shafts.

NARRATOR: But were
these shafts ever open?

And if they were, what might
they have been used for?

The early explorers that
went into the queen's chamber

found that the walls were
coated with a layer of salt.

That kind of gelled with a
theory that I had developed.

You had a dilute
hydrochloric acid solution

coming down one shaft
and hydrated zinc

coming down the other shaft.

And when they combined
in the queen's chamber,

they created hydrogen.

NARRATOR: Hydrogen-- it is
one of the most powerful

energy sources in the universe.

In the mid 19th century,
it was hydrogen gas

that helped lift some of
mankind's first airships,

called Zeppelins, into the sky.

Today, it is used as a fuel
to launch rockets into space.

And if, thousands of years ago,
the Great Pyramid was actually

producing hydrogen, that would
make it one of the earliest

power plants known to man.

The Giza Power Plant Theory
is essentially the drawing

of energy from the Earth
through the Great Pyramid

and converting that energy
into microwave energy.

So the chemicals actually
come in through the shafts

into the queen's chamber.

And then they combine and
mix, and hydrogen boils off.

The hydrogen is then
lighter than air,

and it will flow into
all the upper chambers.

The energy from
the Earth is then

vibrating the whole pyramid.

The vibrations are picked
up in the grand gallery.

So I propose the grand
gallery was a resonator hall.

And there are 27 pair of
slots that actually go

up the length of the gallery.

And then the resonators were
mounted in there vertically.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
Christopher Dunn

is theorizing that with
resonating galleries,

the pyramid shot a microwave
out of one of the shafts.

And once you started
up this power plant,

it would have gone on for years,
decades, even hundreds of years

without stopping and
creating the microwave.

And that was a usable energy
that could be captured.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN:
Now we can speculate

where it goes from there.

It could be collected in
the immediate vicinity,

or it could keep
traveling off into space.

We don't know.

That's the mystery.

NARRATOR: But if
the Great Pyramid

was actually a power
plant producing energy,

was it doing it alone?

Or was it part of
a larger network?

And are there any
clues that could

tell us what all of that
energy was being used for?

[zapping]

Perhaps the 20th century's
most influential inventor

was a Serbian-American
named Nikola Tesla.

[thunder cracking]

His patents on alternating
electrical currents

and distribution
helped establish

the commercial
electricity industry.

He also made
contributions to robotics,

radar, and computer science.

But while Tesla can be credited
for many scientific advances,

one idea that fell short
was his attempt to create

a wireless electrical grid.

Tesla's project was to have
these towers around the United

States and around the world.

And they would
broadcast electricity

like a television station.

[zapping]

Instead of having to string
power lines all over the place,

you just transmit the
energy through the air

or through the ground.

There were a number of
demonstrations of this device

for wireless power transmission
during Tesla's lifetime,

so we know the device worked.

It appears that he was
using the conductivity

of the ground or the air to
carry the electric current.

Basically, in the air, if
you put enough voltage on it,

you'll get an arc across it.

I mean, you see
that all the time

in a fluorescent light bulb.

In the ground, you have water,
minerals, salts that can also

carry the ions along
and, therefore,

carry the electric current.

NARRATOR: But while
Tesla's power towers

proved popular in
theory, the project

ended in financial failure.

But could Tesla's idea
of wireless electricity

have been a rediscovery
of an ancient technology?

I believe that
what Tesla was doing

was trying to recreate what
was an ancient power system

that was used around the world.

And the way they did this
was the use of obelisks.

[music playing]

Obelisks as monolithic,
granite towers which are

one, solid piece of crystal.

And the obelisks themselves
were cut to special sizes

and tuned like a tuning fork.

NARRATOR: Could these
ancient broadcast

towers really have
sent electricity

up into the atmosphere?

And if so, how is the
electricity generated?

Each of these obelisks
would have required

some kind of generating
power station

similar to what we have today.

Electricity is created by
rotating magnetic fields.

So rotating magnetic
fields generate AC power.

The very first power
station was built by Nikola

Tesla at Niagara Falls.

You've got to have some
sort of power that's

spinning the rotating fields.

And in this case,
it would be water.

So every obelisk
would have had to have

had a power station similar to,
like, the one at Niagara Falls.

It's generating
power, but the obelisk

itself is putting the
power into the atmosphere,

making it usable.

And this is similar to
Christopher Dunn's theory

of the Giza Power Plant because
he believes that the Great

Pyramid was actually
sending a microwave

beam to a satellite that was
in orbit around the planet.

That satellite then could have
been taking microwave power,

and then it could transmit
it again, in theory,

to some other
location on the Earth,

such as, say, a remote
island like Easter Island

or something like that.

From some of the descriptions
of ancient flying machines,

it's possible that some
form of power beaming

might have been used.

And in fact, for a lot of
the schemes that you see,

it actually would
make a lot of sense,

because you could put
the power-beaming station

on a mother ship in orbit.

You're just beaming
energy to the vehicle,

where it's absorbed and
turned into propulsion thrust.

It actually makes a lot
of sense because you're

taking the energy
system, the power

system, off of the vehicle
and locating remotely.

NARRATOR: Electricity,
power tools,

mega-machinery, and the ability
to explore the heavens--

have these technologies
been available for just

the past few centuries?

Or are they of ancient origin,
only recently rediscovered?

Were our ancestors capable of
these incredible achievements?

Or might they have come
from another source, one

much more out of this world?

Civilizations were
much more advanced

than we give them
credit and literally as

advanced as we are today.

ROBERT BAUVAL: In
my view, we need

to take this seriously,
simply because of the scale

of the work.

We're looking at
monuments that took

perhaps a century to build.

Even today, we have difficulty
in considering such a project.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN: It
just boggles the mind.

And really, to look
at those artifacts

and to go back in time and
say, how did they do it,

we are kind of cracking
the lid open a little bit

and looking inside
to try and see just

what happened in our history.

It's a question which
is a scientific question,

and you constantly
have to ask it.

And the possible answer of
have aliens visited in the past

could be a potential yes.

[music playing]

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
There's a very

specific reason why all of
this stuff was built in stone--

for posterity, so
it would last, so

that a future generation
would have to stumble

across these monuments.

We are that society who can
look at these ancient monuments

and finally recognize
that all of this stuff

was built as a
message for us to see

that our past is way
different than what

we're being taught in school.

[music playing]