All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens Origins s02e03 Gateways to the Stars.eng

NARRATOR:
Sacred places tied to otherworldly visitation.

Mysterious doorways
said to access other realms.

And infamous locations marked
by strange disappearances.

For nearly two decades,
Ancient Aliens has traveled

the globe exploring
towering megalithic structures,

mysterious artifacts,

and stories of otherworldly
beings in a quest

for evidence that might
reveal the truth

of our extraterrestrial origins.

There are some people
who believe that there are

portals or stargates hidden away
somewhere in remote places.

NARRATOR:
Now, we take a look back

through the
Ancient Aliens archives,

to the show's very origins,

to examine the evidence
that we are not alone.

We have never been alone.

? ?

All over the world
there are places that people

consider sacred,
and it's fascinating to think

that the reason
these places are sacred

is because of some
otherworldly encounter.

Oh, absolutely.

I've always said that the reason
why these sacred places exist

is because something
significant happened there.

In my opinion, it was
an extraterrestrial visitation

and then the place became sacred
after the visitation.

Yeah, and many
of these sacred places

have an energetic quality
to them.

They're considered
to be gateways

to places not of this Earth.

You have to wonder
if there's really

something bigger going on here.

We covered this
in a 2011 episode called

"Aliens and Sacred Places."

NARRATOR: It is perhaps
the most sacred site

in all of humanity.

The place where three
of the world's

most prominent religions-

Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam-

all converge.

It is the heart and soul
of what is called the Holy Land.

Temple Mount,
Old City, Jerusalem.

And this 35-acre plateau,
surrounded by ancient walls,

has been considered sacred
for thousands of years.

The Temple Mount is sacred
to Jews and Christians

because it's at this spot

that Abraham bound Isaac

and prepared to sacrifice him
in Genesis 22.

For Muslims, this site is sacred
because it's from the rock-

where the Dome of the Rock
today stands-

that Mohammed ascended
into Heaven.

PHILIP COPPENS:
What we have on the Temple Mount

really is a mixture
of three religions,

and each one of them
has got an aspect to it

which makes the place
even more important.

But in origin,
really what we have

is a place where God
touched down on planet Earth.

And ever after, this is
the place where communications

with the afterlife or
the divine realm is to be made.

NARRATOR: Each year, millions
of pilgrims come to Temple Mount

to worship God
and celebrate holy occasions.

But why?

In the 10th century BC,
King David and the Israelites

chose this rocky high ground
to build a great temple.

MICHAEL COOGAN:
According to the Bible, King David,

who had just made Jerusalem
his capital,

wanted to build in it
a house for the Lord.

But for reasons
that aren't entirely clear,

he didn't do so,
and it was his son Solomon

who built
the first Jewish temple.

NARRATOR:
Completed in 957 BC by David's son, King Solomon,

the temple was said to house
the Ark of the Covenant.

It was very highly advanced
architecturally,

catching certain kinds of light,

being very precise
in its astronomical alignment.

And the question for modern
scholars and architects is

what was the level of technology

available to King Solomon
that allowed him to design

and lay out the temple
according to these principles?

MARVIN MEYER:
There's a text, as a matter of fact,

called the Testament of Solomon,

that suggests
that Solomon didn't only use

mortal builders and architects,
but he brought in demons.

He forced them to do
some of the labor

because demons
are especially strong.

NARRATOR:
After King Solomon's Temple was destroyed

in the 6th century BC
by the Babylonians,

a second temple was built
on the same site

in the 1st century BC
by King Herod the Great.

According to the New Testament,

it was this second temple
that played

a significant role in the life
of Jesus of Nazareth.

Because it was here that Jesus
chased out the moneylenders,

an event which led
to his crucifixion and death

at the hands of both
the Jews and the Romans.

And it was also nearby,
on the Mount of Olives,

that Jesus reportedly
rose from the dead

and ascended bodily into heaven.

REV. BARRY H. DOWNING:
When we get to the story of Jesus,

we find that his disciples
believe that he ascended

into Heaven and then
some day he would return.

So this idea of
the extraterrestrial reality

of which Jesus is part,
is something that

the biblical tradition says,

"Yes, you can,
you can buy that."

NARRATOR:
But might Jesus, like King Solomon before him,

really have been connected
to an otherworldly reality,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

REV. MICHAEL J.S. CARTER:
The topic of ascension

when dealing with, um,
extraterrestrial contacts

is a common one because
we have Jesus ascending

in the New Testament.

These stories give credence
to the fact that

there is some type of technology
that is lifting up human beings

into a craft,
into a-a waiting ship.

NARRATOR: Nearly six centuries
after the second Hebrew temple

was destroyed
by the Romans in 70 AD,

Persian invaders built yet
another holy shrine on the site:

the Dome of the Rock,

known to Muslims as
"the Noble Sanctuary."

COOGAN:
This magnificent 7th-century

architectural monument of Islam

was built over
a huge outcrop of bedrock,

which, according
to Muslim tradition,

was the site from which Mohammed

had been taken up
into Heaven by God.

In fact, there is a hole
in the rock

showing the exact route
that Mohammed took

when he ascended
into Heaven, uh,

to Allah,
to have a vision of the divine,

and to return back
once again to this very site.

So, for Muslims,
the Dome of the Rock

is a very significant
and a very sacred place.

NARRATOR:
According to the Islamic Quran,

the rock from which
Muhammad ascended

is called
the Foundation Stone.

This rock is believed
by religious scholars

to have also been the very stone
beneath the Ark of the Covenant

and the Holy of Holies
in Solomon's Temple.

COPPENS:
This is where God came down to Earth

and where certain people
actually are said

to have made contact with God.

So, this is a piece of rock
which is of such importance

because of the fact
that something of the divine

manifested itself there.

That stone signifies
the coming together

of the kingdoms
of Heaven and Earth.

The problem is we've forgotten
that whoever visited us

in the past wasn't God,
but it was extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Some ancient astronaut
theorists believe that Temple Mount

was one of the earliest
intergalactic gateways.

But could space travelers
really have landed here

tens of thousands of years ago?

It seems that the reverence for
the site of Jerusalem may stem

from it early on being, uh,
some kind of a spaceport

for extraterrestrials.

And that's why King Solomon
built his temple there,

and then later, uh, the Muslims
built the Dome of the Rock.

NARRATOR: Might Temple Mount really
be the place where ancient aliens

first made contact
with early humans?

And if so,
could certain sites on Earth

function as gateways
to other worlds?

Perhaps further evidence
can be found 500 miles away

from Jerusalem at a place long
known as the portal to hell.

Everyone knows Temple Mount,

but there are so many other
sacred sites around the world

where people reported
strange encounters

with celestial beings.

Yeah, one of them's in Turkey,
they call it Pluto's Gate.

It's this cave entrance
that the ancients called

the gateway to hell
because they said they watched

people walk into it and
disappear into another realm.

Yeah, like
an extraterrestrial doorway.

And there are places
like this, too, in Peru,

- and in Mexico, even in
the American Southwest. - Right.

NARRATOR:
Pamukkale, Turkey.

Here, 200 miles south
of Istanbul,

lie the ruins of Hierapolis,

an ancient city that served
as a sacred site

to the Phrygians
in the 3rd century BC.

In March 2013, Italian
archaeologists announced

that they had unearthed

something the ancient Greeks
described as a gateway to hell.

The ancients in Greece and Roman
civilizations had a fascination

with the underworld,
the realm of Hades and Pluto.

There were many stories
of travelers who were able

to transit
into these unseen realms.

To go to the land
of the dead and survive

was a great miracle
showing great heroism.

NARRATOR: According to the accounts
of Greek geographer Strabo,

this cave,
now partially bricked up,

was known as
a ploutonion or Pluto's Gate,

for the god of the underworld.

It was considered so sacred

that only cult priests
were allowed near it.

These priests worshipped

a powerful goddess
known as Cybele.

Cybele started out as a goddess
that was important

in Asia Minor and then spread
west into Greece and Rome.

She is known as
the guardian of the gateways.

You would have to get
Cybele's permission

to move through time and space.

SABINA MAGLIOCCO:
Iconographically, she is often portrayed

as standing next to the gate
to the other world.

I think the realm
of the gods has always

fascinated humans
because it is imagined

as being very different
from our own realm.

And so, humans have always
sought a way to enter the realm

of the gods, to have
those ecstatic experiences

that happen when you are
in communication with a deity.

NARRATOR: Legends from around
the world describe sacred entryways

similar to Pluto's Gate that led
to the land of the gods.

In many cases, these gates not
only provided instant passage

outside the confines of Earth,
but even beyond space and time.

And according to some myths,

they were traversed
by otherworldly beings.

Throughout the ancient world,
we're presented with stories

of advanced beings who came
from the stars, star beings.

In many of these instances,

they are described as passing
through portals or star doors.

The term we use today
is stargate.

A stargate is a place
that allows transportation

to another planet
or somewhere out in the stars.

There have been
a number of locations

across the planet
where it's been felt

that the ancients
built stargates.

NARRATOR:
Are such passages, or stargates,

just the product
of our ancestors' imaginations?

Or might this kind
of interstellar travel

have actually existed
in the ancient world?

If so, who or what created
such advanced technology

thousands of years ago?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
believe more clues can be found

in the descriptions
of the elaborate rituals

that took place at
the Turkish ploutonion.

YOUNG: It was a great spectacle,
when the priests of Cybele

would do their
ceremonial sacrifice.

They'd lead a bull
into the cave,

and the bull would die
of the gases in this cave,

and the people were gathered,
watching this whole thing.

And everyone would notice
the priests were alive,

showing they had
some great power

or direct connection
to the divine source

to be able to survive
the rituals themselves.

NARRATOR:
Excavations have revealed that, in fact,

there are vapors rising
from the ground at the site

that contain poisonous levels of
carbon dioxide and other gases

capable of killing anyone or
anything that breathes them in.

ANDREW COLLINS:
The ancient story said that animals

that came anywhere near
this would drop down dead.

The same still occurs today.

Any birds going near it
fall down dead.

NARRATOR:
If the toxins within the cave

were potent enough
to kill a bull,

how did the priests
survive this ritual?

Is it possible, as some ancient
astronaut theorists believe,

that the priests had received
secret knowledge,

and perhaps even access
to a stargate,

from an otherworldly being
known as Cybele?

In Pamukkale, Turkey,
this does appear to be

a preserved record of a possible

stargate technology
that is being used.

As these special priests
were able to go into this area,

they may have been traveling
through some sort of

energetic portal
that gave them the ability

to reach some other location
that was completely different

from where people
normally were going

if they walked into this area.

CHILDRESS:
You have to wonder if there was something secret

in this cave
that they were hiding,

perhaps some kind of

interdimensional
stargate technology.

And that they would put on this
show to basically frighten them,

make sure that they realize
this cave was a forbidden place

to go into, and, in fact,
was some kind of repository

for alien technology
and possibly stargates.

NARRATOR: Could the ploutonion
really be an extraterrestrial stargate,

one that was protected
by priests

in order to dissuade others
from approaching it?

And if so, why?

Perhaps the answer can be found
at another ancient site

more than 7,000 miles away.

Machu Picchu, Peru.

Approximately 50 miles
northwest of Cusco,

nestled high up
in the Andes Mountains,

these ancient Inca ruins-

believed to have been
a palace complex-

date back to the 15th century.

Located in
the southwestern corner

of what archaeologists contend
was the site's main plaza

is the Temple of Three Windows,

a stone hall
35 feet long and 14 feet wide

containing three trapezoidal
windows along one wall.

Textbooks say that

the windows of
the Temple of the Three Windows

are aligned perfectly to let
June solstice sunrise

come right in
at a perfect angle,

that the entire building
is oriented to receive

the first light as it
comes over the mountains

through those three windows
at summer solstice.

NARRATOR: Some scholars believe,
the three windows symbolize

the Incan creation myth.

According to legend,

the children
of the Sun god Viracocha

stepped into the world

through three mysterious
openings in a mountain...

...and gave rise
to the Incan civilization.

In the creation story
of the Incan people,

the children of the Sun,
the Ayar brothers, came down

through three portals,
three windows

to begin the Incan people.

The temple at Machu Picchu
with three windows

is said to represent
this miraculous event.

COLLINS: These brothers were
the offspring of the god Viracocha

that seemed to have brought
the first wisdom and knowledge,

um, and rudiments
of civilization

to the peoples of South America.

And by simply looking
through these three windows,

the mind could reach out
and connect once more

with these gods
and communicate with them.

NARRATOR: Some ancient astronaut theorists
believe the Incan creation story

may be more
than simply mythology.

They believe it could be
a description of stargate travel

taking place
thousands of years ago.

When you read this story,
you're instantly thinking

that this is some kind of
a stargate they're describing,

and that these children
of the Sun,

these advanced solar beings,

possessed some kind of
stargate technology

that enabled them
to open these gateways.

And maybe the Inca story
is a recollection

of their utilization
of this stargate technology.

WILCOCK: The Ayar brothers could
be very real beings who came in,

visited the Incans, gave them
the basis of their science,

their technology,
their spoken language,

all of the aspects
of civilization,

and used a stargate
portal technology

on the side of a mountain
to get there.

NARRATOR:
Was the great Inca Empire actually created

by extraterrestrials
that traveled to Earth

through a so-called stargate?

And might that explain
why ancient sites,

like the ploutonion,
were so highly guarded?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by investigating
yet another sacred gateway,

one reported to still connect
to other realms, even today.

NARRATOR:
Princeton, New Jersey.

July 1935.

While collaborating at the
Institute for Advanced Study,

physicists Albert Einstein
and Nathan Rosen

publish a groundbreaking idea.

They come to the conclusion
that the theory of relativity

actually allows for shortcuts
across the space-time continuum.

These paths,
called Einstein-Rosen bridges,

more commonly known
as wormholes,

connect two distant locations,

making travel to the most
remote stars in the universe

a possibility.

What you're talking about
is a structure in space

that involves very, very strong
bending of space

and the connecting
of two different parts of space.

So, if you think of a piece
of paper curved around and then

punched out and connected
from one place to the other,

that's your basic wormhole.

NICK REDFERN:
If we look at the distance from our planet

to the nearest star system,
it's 4.2 light-years away.

That means you would
have to travel for 4.2 years

at the speed of light,
which is 186,000 miles

a second, just to get there.

The only way, really,
to do that would be

by something like a wormhole.

NARRATOR:
While the idea of wormhole travel

offers incredible possibilities,

realizing this technology
poses immense challenges.

Scientists estimate
that creating

a traversable wormhole
would require

a far greater amount of energy

than anything
we can produce today.

But there is a theory
that so-called "exotic matter"

may provide the key
to unlocking wormhole travel.

DENNIN:
What you need is matter with negative mass.

And we're only aware
of matter with positive mass,

so we call this exotic matter.

Not that it couldn't exist,
we're just not aware of it yet.

But the bottom line is
it takes huge amounts

of energy to create these.

Imagine taking
all of Jupiter now,

its entire mass
and converting that to energy.

You know, you're talking
millions and millions

of times more energy
than you have in a nuclear bomb.

NARRATOR: Although most scientists
say that we're a long way

from developing the technology
to create wormholes-

if such a thing
is even possible at all-

there are those who believe

these celestial shortcuts
already exist.

In 1991, scientists at
Vanderbilt University proposed

that the chaos of the big bang
not only created the universe,

but also may have caused
the formation

of mini wormholes
billions of years ago.

During the big bang,
space-time itself

was being mashed together,
expanded, contracted.

And one theory says that,
if you had something

like the size
of the Himalayan mountains,

the space-time around it
could've been so badly stressed

that it would mash this matter
inside its own event horizon.

In the same way,
you can imagine space-time

being mashed together
and forming a mini wormhole.

NARRATOR:
The possible result, according to researchers,

would be a wormhole
about the size of an atom.

Once located,
these mini wormholes

could possibly be stretched to
create a traversable wormhole.

DENNIN: One of the things we
know is that, since the big bang,

the universe has been expanding,

which means space-time overall
has been stretching.

So, if when the universe
is quite small

you make
a teeny little wormhole,

as that whole
structure stretches,

that whole wormhole stretches
and grows big as well.

So, you could end up
with a very large wormhole now.

NARRATOR:
If wormholes were created in the earliest stages

of the universe, is it possible,

as some ancient astronaut
theorists suggest,

that celestial beings
have already used them

to travel to Earth
in the distant past?

It's very possible that
wormholes are stargates opening,

and beings coming through them

are a way to explain how man was
interacting with ancient gods.

NARRATOR:
Chihuahua, Mexico.

Just 125 miles
from the Texas border.

This vast archaeological site,
situated near the base

of the Sierra Madre Occidental
mountain range,

dates back to 1200 AD.

Known as both
Paquim� and Casas Grandes,

only part of the
extensive remains-

estimated to contain
more than 2,000 clay rooms-

have been excavated,

revealing a well-planned city
containing plazas, stores,

workshops, and multi-story
residential buildings

with an advanced
water and sewage system.

BARNHART:
Paquim� or Casas Grandes

is larger than any other site

for hundreds of miles
in any direction.

And there's an interesting
melding of different cultures.

In some aspects, it's a very
Mesoamerican or Aztec city.

In other regards,
it's a very Pueblo

or Southwest culture city.

NARRATOR:
At its height, Paquim� is believed to have had

a population
of more than 10,000.

But this thriving
pre-Columbian civilization

declined and mysteriously
disappeared by the 16th century.

While no one knows exactly

who the inhabitants
of Paquim� were,

it is believed
that their descendants

may be the indigenous people
of the region,

known as the Tarahumara.

The Tarahumara now live
high up in the canyons

of the Sierra Madre,

and much of what is known

about the ancient city
of Paquim� comes from

the stories passed down to them
from their ancestors.

According to their legends,
Paquim� is a sacred place

where star people
have appeared for centuries.

Described as light,
tall and blond,

the Tarahumara say
these mysterious beings

emerged from doorways
in the ruins.

HAWKES:
The Tarahumara truly believe that the star people

exist still today
in the Chihuahua Desert.

They believe that these
tall, blond people

represent maybe
the heirs of the star people

that first brought them
to this world.

They believe
that there is a portal

and that these star people
use this portal today

to transport to various places
on the Earth

and off-world as well.

NARRATOR:
Throughout the architecture of Paquim�

are hundreds of uniquely
T-shaped openings,

openings that closely resemble
an ancient doorway

more than 4,000 miles away
in southern Peru.

Here, perched high
in the Andes Mountains,

this shallow T-shaped opening

called the doorway
of Amaru Muru,

is surrounded by
many legends describing it

as an active portal

that transports beings
both into and out of this world.

This could be a coincidence
if it weren't for the fact

that at Paquim�,
there are strange stories

of the appearance
of these Caucasian-like beings.

And there are very similar
stories to do with

this gate of the gods in Peru.

It's possible that this does
represent a stargate location

in which extraterrestrial humans
are seen as coming and going

during certain opportune points
in the year

when the stargate
becomes active.

NARRATOR:
Considering the similar doorways and legends

of otherworldly beings
at Paquim� and Amaru Muru,

is it possible
that extraterrestrials

once accessed these
ancient sites through stargates?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
say that not only

were stargates present at places
like Paquim�, and Amaru Muru,

but traces of similar portals
can also be found

at mysteriously abandoned ruins
in the American Southwest.

You know, what's remarkable
about these T-shaped doorways

is, you not only find them
in Mexico and Peru, but also

at a ancient
Native American site

called Chaco Canyon
in New Mexico.

Right. And I always wonder

why did our ancestors
create these T-shaped doors?

And so, the question is,
could it be because

they wanted to mimic
something they saw?

Maybe they saw a portal,

or they saw the door
to a spaceship.

Yeah, and when you're talking
about Chaco Canyon,

it gets even more mysterious

because people say that
the occupants there

suddenly disappeared.

(bird screeching)

NARRATOR:
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. 2014.

In the desolate high desert
of the American Southwest,

mysterious ruins
stand as a testament

to a great civilization
that once flourished here.

The ancient Pueblo peoples,
or Anasazi.

With a population estimated
at well over 100,000,

the Anasazi settled
nearly 50,000 square miles

of the Four Corners region
of Arizona,

Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

The highly sophisticated culture

built hundreds of miles
of ancient roads,

many converging from
all directions to Chaco Canyon,

a ceremonial site believed to be
one of their most important.

ROGER MOORE:
People that built this site

somehow came onto
the engineering principles

to be able to build
multi-story buildings,

such as Pueblo Bonito
behind me here.

They developed a culture here
that integrated

the alignments of the buildings

with celestial objects
and events

such as the rising
of the Pleiades.

The Anasazi were a very
successful civilization

up until about the 12th century,

and something
very strange happened.

And there's
a great deal of argument

as to what that event
may have been.

NARRATOR:
According to archaeologists,

sometime around 1130 AD, all
construction ceased at Chaco.

The buildings were sealed,

and roofs of the ceremonial
structures- called kivas-

were burned.

It's fair to say that
there were groups that did move,

migrate to other areas.

Those then became
the Pueblos and the Hopis.

What is confusing
is what happened

to the central part
of the civilization?

The ones that were
the astronomers

that built the observatories,
where did they go?

It appears as though
they simply disappeared.

NARRATOR:
Some ancient astronaut theorists,

like author David Childress,
propose that there is, in fact,

more to the disappearance
of the Anasazi elders

than a simple migration.

And they claim clues
can be found

throughout the ancient site.

On this cliff behind me
here at Chaco Canyon,

we have about a dozen unusual
spirals carved into the cliff.

Archeologists believe
that they represent the sun.

But some of these spirals
are very unusual.

One even has little spirals
coming off of it.

So, you have to ask yourself,
are these spirals

in fact representations
of some kind of portal,

some door to another dimension?

Both the Hopi
and the Zuni Indians say

they came from the stars.

That their knowledge
came from the star people,

the star ancestors.

And the Hopi say portals
are marked

with the spiral petroglyph,

portals to
a different dimension,

portals to another world.

There are some that believe that
that may represent the portals

by which the Anasazi
and other southwestern cultures

crossed from this world
into their point of origin.

I think there's a possibility
at least

that there is
a connection between

the alignments
of certain celestial events

and the opening
and closings of these portals.

Is it possible
that the Anasazi themselves

vanished en masse
from this site,

and did they go
into another dimension?

NARRATOR:
Could it be that the spiral-shaped petroglyphs

left behind by the Anasazi
actually represent portals?

If so, did the Anasazi
have knowledge of when and how

to access these other worlds?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and believe further evidence
of an otherworldly connection

can be found in the oral stories
about this lost civilization

that have survived
through other tribes.

The Anasazi
is actually not a name

that they gave themselves,
it was a name

that was given to them
by the Navajo.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
The Anasazi- the name meant

"stranger from afar"
or "strange enemy"-

something that was separate,

apart.

It is possible that the Anasazi

are in a another dimension,
in another timeline,

another planet.

All of these
various disappearances

of people over time,

whether it is the Mayans,
whether it is the Anasazi.

You can look through history,

and you can begin to see
these rhythms.

Advanced intelligences
that are behind all of this

are using the planet
like a laboratory.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the Anasazi elders

were an alien hybrid race, as
their Navajo name would imply?

And could extraterrestrials
have used ancient portals

to remove entire groups
of people off the planet?

Some ancient astronaut
theorists suggest

that such portals
still exist on Earth today,

and that the evidence
can be found by examining

recent disappearances.

In some places,
we have features that people

- have identified as gateways
to other worlds. - Mm-hmm.

But there could be some
stargates that we can't see,

and that's because
they're underwater.

- TSOUKALOS: Right.
- Absolutely.

We have so many accounts
of ships that just

vanish at sea in certain areas.

It's as if they disappeared

through a portal
into another realm.

Right, like
in the Bermuda Triangle.

In fact, we covered this
in a 2014 episode called

"Aliens and Stargates."

NARRATOR:
The Sargasso Sea.

Stretching 700 miles wide
and 2,000 miles long,

this strange body of water
is completely isolated

in the middle of
the North Atlantic Ocean.

It is a sea without shores,

surrounded by some of the
strongest currents in the world,

and due to a number
of unexplained incidents

that have occurred here,

it has earned the nicknames
Sea of Lost Ships,

The Calms of Death,

and The Sea of Fear.

And curiously, although the
waters around it are violent,

the Sargasso Sea itself is calm.

The water is unusually blue,
mysterious as if the currents

don't affect this one area.

As if the winds stopped,
or as if time stands still.

Back in the time
of sailing ships,

if sailing ships went
into this area,

they could not
necessarily get out.

And they were seen as
sort of being trapped

by the Sargasso Sea.

TSOUKALOS:
Boats will be found perfectly intact there,

but the crew will have
disappeared without a trace.

Now why would that be?

Because it's strange,
since the Sargasso Sea

is known for its calm waters.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the oldest
known and most famous disappearance

reported from the Sargasso Sea
occurred in August 1840,

when a merchant ship
called the Rosalie

was traveling
from Germany to Cuba.

According to The London Times,

when it was discovered
drifting aimlessly,

the vessel was
completely abandoned,

although perfectly intact,
with the sails still set.

What happened to the Rosalie
remains a mystery,

but similar occurrences
have continued

to plague the Sargasso Sea
for centuries.

MIKE BARA:
In 1881, a ship by the name of the Ellen Austin

found a derelict schooner
in the Sargasso Sea.

They put a crew aboard it
and sailed in tandem

back towards London
for several days.

About two days later,

the schooner was found
to be sailing erratically,

and when it was boarded again,

that crew had also disappeared,

absolutely into thin air.

It was as if the people were
simply beamed out of it.

It is also interesting
to note that the Sargasso Sea

is directly
in contact with the area

we call the Bermuda Triangle.

There may be
some type of stargate

or portal activation
in this area.

NARRATOR: Could the reports
of strange disappearances occurring

in the Sargasso Sea
and also in the Bermuda Triangle

that overlaps this body of water

be explained
by the presence of a stargate?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe further evidence

can be found deep within one of
North America's largest lakes.

Lake Michigan.

Stretching across this 22,300
square mile body of water,

from Manitowoc, Wisconsin

to Ludington and Benton Harbor,
Michigan

is another mysterious area

known as the Michigan Triangle.

Like the Sargasso Sea,

this portion
of the massive freshwater lake

has been associated with bizarre
and puzzling disappearances.

BARA: In 1937, there was
a freighter, named the McFarland,

which passed through
the Michigan Triangle.

The captain of the ship went
to his cabin to get some sleep,

told his second mate to come and
awaken him at a specific time.

When the second mate knocked on
the door, there was no answer.

The door was locked
from the inside.

They broke in, and the captain
had simply disappeared.

None of the portholes were open.
None of the windows were open.

There was no way for the captain
to have gotten out of the ship.

NOORY:
They never could find the guy.

Did he jump off the ship?
Who knows?

But the ship was exactly in
this triangle in Lake Michigan.

NARRATOR:
But ships aren't the only crafts affected

by this area of Lake Michigan.

There are accounts
of as many as 40 planes

that have disappeared
in the Michigan Triangle.

In 1950, 13 years
after the captain

of the McFarland went missing,

Northwest Airlines Flight 2501-

carrying 55 passengers
and three crew-

disappeared as it passed over
the Michigan Triangle.

The wreckage has
never been discovered,

and investigations
continue to this day.

BARA:
No wreckage was ever found.

The families have been
despondent over it.

They continue to look
for the wreckage.

There's a monument to them
on the shores of Lake Michigan,

but not a trace,
not a belt buckle,

not a wallet, not a chair,

nothing from the aircraft
has ever been found.

And the area was searched
for six days afterwards.

It's been searched extensively
by salvagers

in the decades since,

and no one has ever
found a thing.

Ships have been there,
they've disappeared.

Airplanes have flown into
the region, they've disappeared.

REDFERN:
These aircraft and ships are just gone.

Now, for me, the very fact
that they are totally vanished,

that makes me think
that possibly

they've been sucked
into some form of wormhole

and unfortunately get trapped
on the other side.

NARRATOR: Could the murky waters
of Lake Michigan actually be hiding

the entrance to a wormhole,
as some researchers suggest?

Might that explain
why there has been such

peculiar phenomenon here,

including countless sightings

of strange unidentified
flying objects,

both overhead and coming
from below the surface?

BARA:
There have been witnesses that have actually seen

green glowing disks
fly up out of the lake.

They have seen blue spherical
objects fly into the lake.

WILCOCK: Gateways through space
and time will have a luminous quality.

They will appear as
spherical formations of plasma.

It seems that
certain areas of water

are often where these portals
are naturally forming.

It's possible
that extraterrestrials

may have been accessing
that area and, in fact,

it may still be active today.

Thus accounting
for these UFO sightings

and all the bizarre
disappearances.

CHILDRESS:
These areas are very inaccessible.

The whole concept of some of
these stargates and portals

being actually underwater
makes a lot of sense.

HENRY: It's possible that there's
a network of underwater portals

spread throughout the world.

These portals could be accessed
by extraterrestrial beings

who use them to come and go
from the stars.

NARRATOR: Could there be stargates
hidden deep within our lakes and oceans

that extraterrestrials might
still be using even to this day?

And if so, might humans
one day be able to access

these stargates as well?

According to some
ancient astronaut theorists,

not only do such gateways exist,

we could be on the brink
of discovering them.

You know, we have these
sinkholes that are really common

in the Yucat�n Peninsula
called cenotes,

and what's interesting
is that local stories

connect these sinkholes
to gateways to other realms.

Yeah, like, for example,

Cenote Angelita
in ancient Tulum.

David, I think
you went diving there, right?

Yeah, that's right,
and it was absolutely stunning,

because at the bottom
of this cenote,

fresh water meets
with salt water,

and it seems like
an underwater river.

And the locals there claim
that the cenote is

a gateway to the spirit world.

NARRATOR:
Tulum, Mexico.

Here, on the eastern edge
of the Yucat�n Peninsula,

lie the ruins of one of the last
cities built by the Maya...

...an advanced ancient
civilization that thrived

throughout Mesoamerica
from the 8th century BC

to the 15th century AD.

Situated on a cliff
overlooking the Caribbean Sea,

this site honors
the mysterious diving god

that can be found depicted
on several buildings.

Behind me is
the Temple of the Diving God.

On the western doorway
is a stucco relief

of a winged being who is either
diving down from the sky

or he's diving down
into the water.

His real identity is not known.

NARRATOR: In addition to the
Diving God, it has been documented

that the interior of the temple
once contained a mural

portraying the Aztec
water goddess Chalchiuhtlicue.

While the Aztecs did not occupy
the Yucat�n Peninsula,

their ancestors the Olmecs did,

and some believe there may be
a profound connection

between this area of Mexico
and the Aztec water gods,

who ruled over a paradise-like
world called Tlalocan.

Descriptions of Tlalocan
come from the Aztec shamans,

spiritual guides who could
access this otherworldly realm

through whirlpools
while in a dream state.

And according to
ancient astronaut theorists,

deep in the jungle
just south of Tulum

is a location
that is a perfect match

for the descriptions
of the east region of Tlalocan.

There's an intriguing site

right here off the coast
of the Caribbean Sea,

and it may have a connection
to the Aztec Tlalocan.

And its name is Cenote Angelita,
and it's right here.

NARRATOR: A cenote is a sinkhole
where limestone bedrock has collapsed,

exposing the fresh water
underneath it.

Many of the cenotes
in this part of the Yucat�n

are believed to have been formed
by the meteor strike

that wiped out the dinosaurs
more than 65 million years ago.

As a result
of this extreme impact,

they contain high amounts
of shocked quartz.

Shocked quartz is
a particular type of quartz

that really needs very,
very high pressure to form.

Quartz is a crystal,
but every crystal

is not completely uniform.

It's comprised
of smaller little pieces

that have to align
along defects.

And high pressure changes

the internal structure
of the quartz.

NARRATOR:
Scientists have long known that quartz is able

to convert the Earth's
natural electrical vibrations

into a form of energy.

And some have even suggested

that it could be used
in the formation of wormholes,

through an
electromagnetic reaction

called the Casimir effect.

DENNIN:
The idea is, if I take two metal plates

and stick them
in the vacuum of space,

it turns out,
because of quantum fluctuations,

this creates an effective,

attractive force
between the plates.

One can think of this
as a negative energy.

Now, an intriguing idea
that we get

is that this is exactly
the principle we need

to understand perhaps
how to stabilize a wormhole.

NARRATOR: Although there are
a number of cenotes in the Yucat�n,

Cenote Angelita is very unique.

About 100 feet
below its surface,

the fresh water meets up
with the salt water

coming from
the ocean beneath it,

creating a mysterious
underwater river.

Where we are right now
in the Yucat�n is just about

as far east
as you can go in Mexico.

And the description of Tlalocan

was that the very eastern side

was where the waters
of the underworld

met with the waters
of the surface world.

And that is exactly
what we have here.

It was said that souls
passed through here,

and the Aztecs
believed very strongly

that this was a portal
to another dimension.

WILCOCK:
The Aztecs had the legend of the Tlalocan

they entered into

through whirlpools in the water.

So, you can start
to connect the dots here

and see that those areas
could, in fact,

be traversable wormholes that
will take us somewhere else.

NARRATOR: Could the highly pressurized
quartz found in Cenote Angelita

have made it
the perfect location

for advanced alien beings
to create a wormhole?

And might this explain
the stories

from the Aztec shamans
who claimed

they were shown
an entrance to paradise?

David Childress has enlisted
diver Spencer Stander

to help him explore the cenote.

We'll see the-the river,
um, around an island.

And, uh, you'll see
these bizarre trees.

It's like a decrepit forest.
It's so cool.

It looks like a moving river.
You're gonna be blown away.

This is gonna be unique.

NARRATOR: Just south
of Tulum, Mexico,

diver Spencer Stander

and ancient astronaut theorist
David Childress

are about to explore
the Cenote Angelita.

For ancient astronaut theorists,
Cenote Angelita

has an eerie similarity to both
the legends and illustrations

of the Aztec paradise Tlalocan,

where it was believed souls
could pass through a portal

to another realm.

So, um,
we're just gonna check...

All right,
I'm gonna jump in then.

Nice.

NARRATOR:
Although the waters of the cenote

are extremely murky
on the surface,

at 15 feet down, everything
becomes crystal clear.

But once they descend
to 100 feet,

it turns as black
as the darkest reaches of space.

CHILDRESS:
And even though we had lights with us,

it was still like we were
floating within the cosmos.

But then, as we got down,
at 100 feet,

suddenly, we could start to see
the sides of the cenote.

And then, this strange layer
began to emerge.

NARRATOR:
Here, the fresh water of the cenote

meets the salt water
of the ocean,

forming one of nature's
most mysterious anomalies...

...an underwater river.

CHILDRESS:
And these dead trees coming out of the sides,

and-and this artificial
sort of mound at the bottom.

And it was really like
the meeting of-of two worlds.

One of the fresh water
of the upper world,

and then that of this
lower world of the seawater,

and this murky layer
of hydrogen sulfide

that we had to then penetrate.

NARRATOR: The meeting of waters
from above with waters from below

is exactly how the Aztecs
described the east region

of Tlalocan, a place
where souls would pass

from one dimension to another,

as though passing
through a portal.

It is here that some
ancient astronaut theorists

believe there may
really exist a portal

to another world.

Could it be true?

Might extraterrestrials
have considered this

the perfect location
to create a stargate...

...hidden in the thick layer
of poisonous hydrogen sulfide

that obscures all
that lies beneath from view?

The whole thing
was-was very spooky.

And, uh, something I'll remember
for the rest of my life.

NARRATOR:
After 30 minutes underwater,

David and Spencer
return to the surface.

CHILDRESS:
Oh, man, that was so fantastic and strange.

Man, uh, wow. (laughs)

It strikes me just how much
this does fit the Aztec legend

of the-the underworld
of-of Tlalocan.

What is so mysterious, though,
is even if the Aztecs

had come here
and knew about this place

or-or learned about it
from the Olmecs,

how would they have known

what is 100 feet down
in this cenote?

That's right, 'cause you can't
see it from the surface.

I mean, I suppose the,
you know, the shamans could just

go down there in a,
in a trance state,

or if someone actually
dove down into this thing.

- Wow.
- It's incredible.

You have to ask yourself,
could the shocked quartz

here at the Cenote Angelita

create wormholes
that extraterrestrials

might have used
for inter-dimensional travel?

It can't be a coincidence
that both Mayan and Aztec

beliefs incorporated
a swirling pool of water,

where they were able to travel
to some other sacred paradise.

Maybe we're talking about
a form of technological travel

that isn't understood
in modern form,

but through
the ancient astronaut lens,

we have to understand
that ancient man

went to great lengths
to depict and explain

how this form of travel
was taking place.

And it might be that
this is something that was

extraterrestrial in nature.

NARRATOR:
Could there really be a gateway to another world

hidden at the bottom
of Cenote Angelita?

And if so, might it be part
of a much larger system

of interdimensional portals
spread across the planet?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest that tracking
Earth's electromagnetic energy

could guide us
to other anomalies.

The idea of gateways
to other realms

isn't something found
in ancient times.

There are some people
who believe that, to this day,

there are portals or stargates

hidden away somewhere
in remote places.

Yeah, like the Zone of Silence
in Mexico.

And there are so many strange
stories about events there.

There have been disappearances,
magnetic anomalies,

and people also report
that their electronics

stop working
when they enter the area.

Pilots report having problems
with their planes there, too.

So could there be a stargate
in this area that's

causing all these anomalies?

We covered this
all the way back in 2010

- in an episode called
"Mysterious Places." - Yeah.

NARRATOR: 400 miles south
of El Paso, Texas,

in northern Mexico,

stretches a remote and rugged
section of high desert.

This area,
near the town of Ceballos,

is referred to by the locals
as the Zona del Silencio,

or the Zone of Silence.

It's an epicenter for some
of the strangest phenomena

ever experienced on Earth.

TSOUKALOS:
Nothing works there.

If you go there with your cell
phone, the cell phone stops.

If you go with a radio,
it stops.

If you go there with a compass,
the needle just keeps spinning.

CHILDRESS:
It's completely bizarre.

There's strange rocks
everywhere.

You have strange mutated
animals,

uh, living in the desert
in this area.

You feel a strange tingling
when you're there.

NARRATOR:
The Zone of Silence was first identified

in the 1930s
by Francisco Sarabia,

a Mexican pilot
who claimed that his radio

had mysteriously
failed to function

while flying over the area.

They call it
Mexico's Bermuda Triangle.

It's located practically
on the same parallel,

of 28th and 26th parallel,

and as a result of that,
it goes and connects

with the Egyptian pyramids,

so all around that whole sector,

there seems to be
some connection between

the anomalies that are occurring

through these different
parts of the world.

SARA SEAGER:
As a scientist, you're trained to be skeptical,

or maybe you were born that way.

But we really
don't believe anything.

You know,
nothing is proven until

you actually have evidence.

But I can say that Earth's
magnetic field does vary

across the surface
by up to a few percent.

NARRATOR: One of the strangest
cases involving the Zone of Silence

took place on July 11, 1970,

when the U.S. Air Force
launched an Athena missile...

...from its military facility
in Green River, Utah.

The missile was programmed
to land 700 miles away

at the White Sands Missile Range
in New Mexico.

But for some unexplained reason,

the Athena missile
flew hundreds of miles past

the White Sands Range
towards the Zone of Silence.

BARA:
Not only did it go off course, it way overshot,

as if it had been
picked up or yanked

or dragged or pulled into it.

There was a NASA spokesman
who even said it was weird.

It was like the-the thing
just got pulled into this area.

And it ended up crashing there
and breaking up into bits.

NARRATOR:
But some claim this missile is not the only thing

that's been mysteriously pulled
into the Zone of Silence.

Ancient alien theorists believe
an unusually large number

of meteorites have crashed here.

The evidence
seems to be indicating

that the Zone of Silence
is some powerful

energy vortex area
that's literally

sucking meteorites
and other space debris

right into this small area
of northern Mexico.

HAWKES:
There's a high level of magnetism in the area,

that's been proven by science.

We know there's
a magnetic signature,

uh, to the entire area.

Is it strong enough
to attract, uh,

large objects like meteorites?

I think we need more research,

but I-I-I don't think
that research

is being done right now.

NARRATOR:
Starting 3,000 years ago,

the Anasazi culture inhabited

the region to the north,

in today's American Southwest.

And they paid great attention
to the stars.

Scientists have determined
that, in 1054 AD,

a supernova explosion
was visible from Earth.

Many believe the first known
drawing of this event

was found inside
an Anasazi cave dwelling.

South of the Zone of Silence,

other cultures,
including the Maya,

also reportedly
possessed a surprisingly

detailed knowledge
of similar celestial events.

Is it possible
that both of these cultures

were somehow
exchanging information?

HAWKES:
They're separated by thousands of miles,

but both the Anasazi
of the north

and the Mesoamericans
of the south

found the Zone of Silence
and used it as a meeting place

between their two cultures.

You could imagine if
you studied the stars at night

and plotted the constellations,
obviously one of the things

you're going to see
are these meteorites

streaking across the sky.

If your answers
come from the sky,

you probably would follow
those streaking meteorites

and find out
where they ended up.

And the theory is that
they may have found

what they were looking for
in the Zone of Silence.

NARRATOR: But what other connections
exist between these cultures?

And are they
of a celestial origin?

HAWKES: If we look back into
the ancient beliefs of the Anasazi

and the Mesoamericans
to the south,

we know that there was
great belief in sky people,

visitors from the sky.

If these visitors came
from the sky, who were they?

And there's
a similarity to the beings

being reported as tall,
pale skin, white hair,

which is not indigenous

to the dark-skinned,
dark-haired people

found in that region,
but does match

many of the South American
descriptions of their gods.

NARRATOR: According to legend,
these so-called visitors from the sky

made themselves known
to an ancient people.

Is it possible
that they are still

making themselves known today?

There are a number
of reports of UFOs, um,

in the Zone of Silence.

Probably the most prominent
and most popular report

came out of the town
of Ceballos.

It was on
a late summer afternoon

when a number of townspeople
saw an object hovering

in the sky
on the outskirts of town.

They described it as being
about 100 meters wide.

It had multi-colored
lights flashing.

Wasn't doing anything. It was
just hovering in the desert.

After a while,
it simply took off

and headed out
into the Zone of Silence.

URIARTE:
I think, too, that, as what's going on today,

the high activity
of UFO sightings,

the anomalous reports
that are still going on today,

perhaps there is a connection.
Maybe it's a vortex.

Maybe it's a dimensional port.

We can't explain it,
but something unusual

is going on in that area.

NARRATOR:
Might extraterrestrials be able to detect

these magnetic differences?

And would they have been
of any use to ancient visitors?

TSOUKALOS:
If I was an alien coming here 10,000 years ago,

obviously there weren't
any roadmaps at the time.

However, I could use
the anomalous magnetic spots

on planet Earth
as signposts of sorts.

And so that, when I come back,

those signposts
would be my guides

to find my way
around planet Earth.

There are spots on planet Earth
that are highly magnetic.

NARRATOR:
But are the magnetic levels,

the sky god legends,

and recent sightings of UFOs

proof that a portal exists here?

And are there other places

that might offer the key
to gaining access?

NARRATOR:
800 miles southeast of Lima, Peru,

near the shores
of Lake Titicaca,

is a site that has mystified
visitors from around the world.

(bowls resonating)

Shamans still come
to perform rituals

and offer prayers at the
rock wall on this high plateau,

as they have done
for generation after generation.

It is known as
Puerta de Hayu Marca,

the Doorway of Amaru Muru,
or Gate of the Gods.

CHILDRESS:
When you see it, it's quite baffling.

Here is this giant doorway

carved into solid rock.

And it appears to be a gateway,

but it doesn't go anywhere.

TSOUKALOS: It's literally in
the middle of nowhere at 14,000 feet.

Yet, that rock,
as clear as you can see,

has a gigantic rectangle

carved out of it, cut out of it.

And in the center
of that rectangle,

at the bottom,

there is something
that looks like a door.

BARA:
The Peruvian natives actually refer to this as

the Gate of the Gods.

But why would you make a doorway

to basically rocks
that didn't let you go anywhere?

There has to be some way
to get through that doorway.

NARRATOR:
According to Inca legend, the first priest king,

Amaru Muru, is said to have
traveled through this portal

using a special object
to activate the doorway,

turning this solid rock
into what's known as a stargate.

TSOUKALOS:
According to legend,

this stargate was activated
by the help

of a golden disc.

And this golden disc
fell from the sky.

BARA: The story goes that
the first priest king of the Incas

took a golden disk
up to this Gate of the Gods,

stuck it in a special
recessed area,

and this inter-dimensional
doorway actually opened up,

and he passed through it,
never to be seen again.

The shaman that were there
that watched it,

that witnessed the whole thing
and reported on it,

basically told that that
was exactly what happened.

NARRATOR: Archeologists who
have examined the Gate of the Gods

have discovered
a small circular depression

in the center of the doorway.

Some people have speculated
that this depression

was perhaps where
the golden disc was placed.

COPPENS:
It really is out of the movies.

This device is said
to have been made of gold

and of various
sort of precious objects.

And whoever had it
could come near this site

and somehow be able
to operate it,

and then there would
either be contact with the gods,

or the gods would come to them.

TSOUKALOS: And we're all lead
to believe, oh, it's all coincidence,

it's all just fantasy. Rubbish.

Something happened,

and in the case of the stargate,

it is possible
that this sun disc

had some type of an
extraterrestrial connection,

and that this
was a technological device

with which to travel.

And that may mean,
physically taking a person

and taking them
into another hidden dimension

and taking them back.

Or it may mean
traveling between Earth,

going through that stargate
and going to another place

somewhere in the universe.

NARRATOR:
According to the local legend,

these priest kings,
known as space brothers,

reportedly came
from other worlds.

Might they have traveled here
through the Gate of the Gods?

JORGE LUIS DELGADO MAMANI:
They came from the other constellations,

from other planets.

In our language, we have a word
called, uh, "chakana,"

which is some of
the constellations,

like the Southern Cross,
Orion Belt, or Pleiades.

One of the elders said
this is the bridge to home.

So, in essence,
all these manifestations

has to do
with the space brothers.

NARRATOR: But could a device
to activate this door actually exist?

And if so,
where would the doorway lead?

According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

the Gate of the Gods
is one end of a wormhole...

...a type of portal
that connects

either to another part of the
universe or another dimension.

THOMAS VALONE:
A wormhole is a theoretical construct

through general relativity.

The concept
is really that there's

a possibility of space-time
being connected,

various parts of space-time
being connected

through a small channel.

And if such a construct
was made,

then you'd have a short cut

between very distant parts
of the universe.

NARRATOR: Wormholes are an accepted
element of theoretical physics.

But have they actually existed

in some of the world's
most mysterious places?

The idea that
there are stargates

or that they could've existed
in ancient times,

we do see many artifacts
and representations of

someone passing through
a doorway or going through

some type of energy source,

and ancient man did not
understand technology

just as we're trying
to understand

is a wormhole possible.

That it's some kind of doorway

between our dimension
and another.

And what I maintain is that

these aliens who are coming here

are coming here in
inter-dimensional type of craft.

They're able to jump
through hyperspace,

come here to our planet
in no time at all,

but they have to enter
through certain doorways

and portals into our planet.

SEAGER:
Dimensions aren't really

considered something
to travel along.

But dimensions are directions,
and if you could somehow

travel along
these other dimensions,

it would take you
somewhere else entirely.

NARRATOR:
What if one end of a portal exists here

at Puerta de Hayu Marca?

Might that be part of
the reason many consider Peru

to be a focal point of UFO
and extraterrestrial activity?

CHILDRESS:
Lake Titicaca has all kinds of strange lights

associated with it,
and a number of witnesses

claim they see UFOs
coming out of the lake.

MARTELL:
The locals always describe seeing

large blue balls of light
or glowing discs

and sometimes even beings
reported around these sightings.

These beings are always
reported as tall, pale skin,

completely non-indigenous

to the people
that are dark-skinned,

dark-haired in these
South American regions.

NARRATOR:
Another theory to how extraterrestrials

may have traveled
across the universe

involves the scientific concept
of teleportation.

But is it really possible
to have something

disappear from one spot and
suddenly appear somewhere else?

SEREDA:
At the Max Planck Institute,

scientists have already

dematerialized
subatomic particles

and made them reappear
somewhere else.

So, science is just
on the precipice

of being able to do this.

To move it from one place
to another.

So, I believe that
that is a, is a secret

that the ancient
stone builders knew.

You can't have a discussion
about stargates

and portals without talking
about ancient Egypt.

- Right.
- And this is a place where there were many stories of

gateways to the underworld
or gateways to the stars.

Right, and we have stories
of the so-called solar barges,

which were known to travel
from this world to the other.

Now, to me, this describes
some sort of a spacecraft.

But you, William, you proposed
that some of these barges

depict portal technology?

Absolutely, I mean, there's
a depiction of a solar barge

at Abydos that to me looks

exactly like
an Einstein-Rosen Bridge,

which is the scientific name
for a wormhole.

- Right.
- HENRY: And you even see

what appears to be
the Pharaoh Seti

traveling through it.

NARRATOR:
Abydos, Egypt.

300 miles south of Cairo,

this 5,000-year-old
archaeological site

near the Nile River

was a burial place
for the first kings of Egypt.

The ancient city was a major
center of religious pilgrimage,

where Osiris, the god of
the underworld, was revered.

COLLINS: Osiris was the god
that was said to have brought wisdom

and knowledge to those who
preceded the dynastic Egyptians.

Abydos was a place that people
came to communicate with Osiris.

ROBERT BAUVAL:
It was considered the place where the god Osiris

had been buried.

Osiris had been the originator
of the pharaonic civilization.

He was the first pharaoh,
if you like.

The myth is that Osiris
was cut in several pieces

by his evil brother.

And the head was found
and kept at Abydos.

GRAHAM PHILLIPS: Abydos was said
to have been the burial place of Osiris.

That this is where
he was supposed to physically

stand guard between
this world and the next.

NARRATOR: Construction on the
largest of the temples at Abydos

was started
in the 13th century BC

by the Pharaoh Seti,

and is dedicated to Osiris.

Depicted on the wall
of the temple's Osiris chapel

is a mysterious hieroglyph
that some researchers believe

represents the vessel that held
the head of the powerful god.

BAUVAL:
The relic of Abydos,

it is, uh, this, uh, sort of
bell-shaped, uh, object.

And on top of it
is usually two plumes.

HENRY: When we look at the
hieroglyphs of the head of Osiris,

what we see is something
that appears

to be very technological
or mechanical.

It looks like
some kind of an ancient

antenna type of a device.

NARRATOR:
Might this depiction of Osiris

really represent
an ancient technological device?

One so important that the
Egyptians memorialized it here,

on the walls
of this sacred temple?

And if so, what was its purpose?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
believe more clues

can be found on
the opposite wall of the chapel,

where Pharaoh Seti is shown
transforming into this

Osiris device while
traveling on a solar barge.

COLLINS:
The solar barge was a vehicle

that was able
to make that journey

from this world to the next.

So, in other words,
in many ways, it was actually

a-a boat of the stars.

WILCOCK:
But the shape of the solar barge

bears a curious similarity
to the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.

So, the solar barge
could be a primitive depiction

of people watching
a luminous stargate appearing,

and then it being used
as a teleportation device.

VINCENZO MACRINO:
On the depiction of the solar barge,

the head of Pharaoh Seti

appears to be emerging
from that portal.

Perhaps Seti was a time traveler

utilizing just such technology

given to him
by the ancient gods.

HENRY: It suggests that Seti
utilized this ancient technology

to turn himself into
a star being so that

he could travel the stargates
and wormholes for eternity.

CHILDRESS: Maybe gods like Osiris
were actually extraterrestrials

using this stargate technology

to come to Earth
and teach mankind.

NARRATOR: Could these hieroglyphs
really be depicting a device

that allowed Pharaoh Seti
to travel across time and space?

Is it possible
that the Egyptians,

and other ancient cultures
around the world,

really encountered
extraterrestrials

who came to Earth
through stargates?

Just because
our scientists of today

haven't quite figured it out yet

doesn't mean that
some other civilization

thousands, maybe even
hundreds of thousands

of years older,
hasn't figured it out, either.

Remember,
the universe is infinite,

which means that there are
infinite possibilities.

CHILDRESS:
We may have known in the past what was going on

and about these portals
and wormholes.

And that is why stories
like astral travel

and stargates and
inter-dimensional voyages

are something that
we've been hearing about

for thousands of years.

And we're just now
rediscovering it for ourselves-

this knowledge given to us
by the extraterrestrials.

HENRY:
It's possible that this is the next step

in human evolution.

It will represent a new
beginning for humankind,

and perhaps this
was always the plan

from the ancient times.

We were created by
these ancient gods

who came here
in stargates and wormholes,

and they intended for us to
one day join them in the stars.

NARRATOR:
Could Earth really be home to stargates

that link us to distant points
throughout the universe?

Pathways that extraterrestrials

have used
for thousands of years,

and that we are only
beginning to rediscover?

And if we ever do unlock
the key to stargate travel,

will we discover
that we've been connected

to alien civilizations
all along?

We could be entering
a time where

traveling through stargates
and wormholes becomes the norm.

And even... It's possible
that the military itself

is already trying
to develop this technology.

I mean, if we're trying
to make these things today

and we succeed,
then we'll be able to

understand how portals
and stargates were operating

in ancient times.

Yeah, and wouldn't it be amazing
that the only places

that you can reach via a portal

is the Pleiades, Sirius,
and Orion?

Wouldn't that be amazing?

We're gonna have to go back
and reevaluate

every single portal
or gateway story

from the ancient world
up into the modern times.

And it may even be
that we'll be able to

re-open those portals and
follow those ancient travelers.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY
A+E NETWORKS

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0