All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.Origins.S02E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR:
Global stories
of a great deluge.

Growing evidence of an ancient,
catastrophic event.

And enduring claims
of otherworldly involvement.

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.

You know, when we talk
about flood stories,

we're not talking
about just a few.

We're talking about
over a thousand.

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.

♪ ♪

For me, one of the most
interesting stories

that we have is the tale
of the Great Flood

because it's not just
in the Old Testament,

but we find this story
in cultures all over the world.

And the more you learn about it,
the more interesting it gets.

And it's not just
about a global cataclysm.

It involves otherworldly beings
who come out of the sky.

The whole thing sounds like
an extraterrestrial event.

Right, and as we gather
more evidence,

it turns out that
this might not just be

a mythological tale,
but it actually happened.

We've pretty much covered
every aspect of the flood story

on Ancient Aliens, including
some incredible revelations

in a season one episode called
"Closer Encounters."

NARRATOR:
September 2000.

The Black Sea, Turkey.

Marine archaeologist
Robert Ballard

and his team
of underwater scientists

discover what appears to be
a farmhouse

some 330 feet below the surface.

Estimates suggest
the submerged dwelling to be

approximately 7,500 years old.

Ballard and other scholars
speculated

that rising ocean levels
could have caused

the Mediterranean Sea
to burst through a natural dam,

creating a flood so great,

it drowned an estimated
58,000 square miles

under 500 feet of water.

But more than finding the ruins
of an ancient dwelling,

had Ballard
actually discovered proof

that the biblical story of Noah
and the Great Flood was true?

And those villages, of course,
weren't built underwater.

So, Ballard concluded
that the Black Sea,

as we know it, was only created
some 8,000, 9,000 years ago.

And that is exactly what we're
talking about with Noah's ark

and the flood, the same area
where all that happened.

And, in fact, mainstream
archaeologists know that,

in the Mediterranean, there are
over 200 known sunken cities.

Those cities, too,
were somehow flooded

the same time
that the Black Sea was flooded.

NARRATOR:
Also written
in the Book of Genesis,

the story of Noah
tells how God saw

that the wickedness of man
was great

and decided
to destroy all of creation.

Only Noah, his family
and the animals aboard the ark

were allowed to survive
and repopulate the planet.

But is this the whole story?

Was Noah selected
only for his virtue?

Or was there another reason

he was chosen
to save the planet?

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe

the Bible doesn't tell
the whole story.

In the late 1940s
and early 1950s,

a series of ancient texts,

known as "the Dead Sea Scrolls,"

were discovered in a cave

located in what is now
Israel's West Bank.

Among the ancient writings

are various stories not found
in the traditional Hebrew Bible.

One such story tells of Noah and
his strange, miraculous birth.

One of the Dead Sea scrolls
is called "the Lamech scroll."

What is Lamech?
Lamech was a shepherd.

And one day, Lamech,
his woman was pregnant.

And he said to her,
"This is impossible.

I was not here for months."

But his woman,
with the name Bathenosh,

swears, "No one touched me."

But Lamech doesn't believe
his wife, Bathenosh,

and he goes to his father,
which was Methuselah.

And Methuselah says to Lamech,

"I can't help you.
I don't understand this.

"I believe your woman,
Bathenosh,

"that nobody touched her,
and I believe you.

What shall I do?"

So, Methuselah goes
to his father,

the grandfather now of Lamech.

His name is Enoch.

Now, Enoch tells to Methuselah

that the guardians of the sky

have made
an artificial insemination

into the womb
of Bathenosh, the wife,

and he should accept this child
because this child

will be the father
of a new human generation.

And in the Bible, this is Noah.

NARRATOR:
What if, as ancient astronaut
theorists believe,

the story of Lamech is true,

and the guardians of the sky
described in the story

are, in fact, aliens?

Does this mean
that Noah was the product

of an artificial insemination,

a genetic experiment
performed by extraterrestrials?

If so, what was the reason
for the Great Flood?

L.A. MARZULLI:
Well, the reason for the flood,

and we-we need
to understand this,

what it tells us is
that Noah was pure

in all of his generations.

What does that mean?

You know, why-why
would the account,

you know, specify pure
in all his generations?

NARRATOR:
According to the Bible,
God sent the flood

because of man's wickedness
and corruption.

But ancient astronaut theorists
believe the flood was actually

a means of ridding the Earth
of biological imperfections.

By using Noah and his family,
they could repopulate

the planet with
a genetically superior species.

VON DÄNIKEN:
Part of this human society

is again, genetically backward,
closer to the animal.

What can we do?

These humans were spread out
over the planet.

So, they said,
"We have to kill them all

by a Great Flood, and then
we have to restart again."

(thunder rumbling)

NARRATOR:
Another familiar element
in the story of Noah...

...involves the collection of
animals brought aboard the ark.

In the Bible,
God commanded Noah to collect

two of every kind
of living creature--

animal, bird and insect.

But many biblical scholars
and theologians agree

that such a task would've been
both physically

and biologically impossible.

Could there be another
more scientific explanation?

TSOUKALOS:
The story of Noah's ark
is pretty implausible

if you think about it.

You have two animals
of each creature

on planet Earth on a boat.

Not only would the boat
have to be huge

but how are you gonna collect
every animal on the planet

and put it on that ship?

So, could it be possible

that Noah's ark was once again
misunderstood technology

and Noah's ark was a DNA bank?

JONATHAN YOUNG:
Could it be a story?

Could it be technology somehow

gathering up all living things
as in a DNA bank of some kind?

It fits together.

Hard to imagine, uh,

how that would happen
so far back,

but if it did happen, it would
need to be told as a story.

And the story of a boat works.

CHILDRESS:
Perhaps this is really

an extraterrestrial
DNA bank as well.

The extraterrestrials
need plants and animals

and minerals
on this planet, too.

Just like when we go
to Mars or something,

we'll be using what we can use
on that planet.

So extraterrestrials coming here
would want to do that as well,

and if they knew that
some cataclysm was coming,

they, too,
would want to preserve

certain kinds of animals
and plant life

and create, you know,
what we think of as Noah's ark.

TSOUKALOS:
Noah's ark wasn't necessarily

a boat made out of wood.

But what if Noah's ark
was some type of

a DNA storage facility
that was used

in order to preserve
all the species on planet Earth?

If each species can be held
in a tiny vial like this,

then it all becomes
very logical.

And once again, we have to look
at it from a perspective:

What did our ancestors
try to describe?

What did they witness?

NARRATOR:
Aliens artificially
inseminating humans.

Ancient DNA banks.

Could such ideas really help
our understanding of the Bible?

And is it possible
that extraterrestrials

have influenced
the development of mankind,

perhaps even orchestrating
a Great Flood

to cleanse the Earth
of their own creation?

There are many who claim

that the proof can be found
inscribed on clay tablets

left behind by the world's
earliest known civilization.

Most people know
the story of the Great Flood

from the Bible's Old Testament,

but what's really fascinating is
that a virtually identical story

was told centuries earlier

was told centuries earlier

by the world's first known
civilization,

-the Sumerians.
-TSOUKALOS: Right,

and what makes the Sumerian
version so striking is that,

in it, it is told
that multiple gods

descended from the sky
with a lot of fire and smoke.

-The Anunnaki.
-Yeah, and the Anunnaki

were supposedly coming
from another planet.

We talked about this
in a 2013 episode called

"The Anunnaki Connection."

NARRATOR:
Nineveh, Iraq. 1849.

A treasure trove of ancient
cuneiform texts is uncovered...

...detailing accounts
of the creation of Earth,

man, and the lives of the gods.

ROBERT MULLINS:
In 1849, Austen Henry Layard

made an archaeological
expedition

to the city of Nineveh, a city
that's mentioned in the Bible.

And in his excavations,
he discovered the palace

of Sennacherib, who is
well-known from the Bible.

This really galvanized
the interest of the world.

Well, three years after this,
his assistant found the palace

of his grandson Ashurbanipal on
the opposite side of the mount.

Now, in both cases,
they found archives,

and together, the archives form
about 20,000 to 30,000 tablets.

NARRATOR:
Recorded on seven of the tablets

is the Babylonian creation myth
called "the Enuma Elish."

Enuma Elish
was probably composed

in the 11th century BC,

but almost certainly,
this story goes back

to much earlier periods.

NARRATOR:
The tablets tell of a god
named Marduk

who took blood from the god
Kingu and mixed it with clay

in order to create
the Earth's first humans.

POLTORAK:
When the Anunnaki create
the model man,

that person gets picked up
as a story in the Bible,

and he's called Adam.

What I find interesting
is that the Bible left out

some of the most
important details

and cut the story short.

So, the Sumerian tablets,
the Mesopotamian tablets,

have the more detailed versions.

NARRATOR:
According to ancient
astronaut theorists,

the Enuma Elish vividly
describes not mythic gods

but otherworldly beings,

alien visitors who possessed
a highly advanced knowledge

of genetics.

M.J. EVANS:
The Anunnaki began to figure out

how they could create
a docile worker.

So, they took genes
from a female hominid,

and after many, many trials,
they figured out

that they could
blend genes together

and create the perfect being.

In a sense, what these tablets
are really talking about

is a genetic engineering

and the changing of the DNA
within human beings.

TSOUKALOS:
Clearly, something happened

where we went from nothing
to all of a sudden

coming up with the most
incredible of thought models.

So the question then is:
How was it done?

And according
to the ancient alien theory,

our ancestors
were given intelligence

by a deliberate change
of our DNA

by space travelers who came here
thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the Anunnaki

created the human race
using their own DNA?

According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

startling evidence can be found
in the numerous similarities

between the Babylonian myths
and the Judeo-Christian Bible,

and most notably,

in writings from
another ancient cuneiform tablet

known as
"the Sumerian King List."

MULLINS:
The Sumerian King List
was found on a tablet

in ancient Mesopotamia and dates
to somewhere around 2100 BC.

The list contains names
of 140 kings.

What's most interesting
about this list

is that the deities
have enormously long lives.

One king, for example,
ruled for 36,000 years.

And you have to wonder:
How could people

have lived that long?

But yet, we have
the same thing in the Bible.

Methuselah and Noah lived to be
800 or 900 years old,

which seems so fantastic to us.

HENRY:
One explanation for why Noah and
Methuselah could live so long

is that it's possible
that they themselves

were star seeds
or seeded by, perhaps,

the Anunnaki and contained

their extraterrestrial genes
that prolonged their lives.

PHILIP COPPENS:
And so, clearly,
we can do one of two things:

pretend that this is all myth,
that this doesn't exist,

or take what our ancestors
gave us at face value.

And then we're confronted
with the possibility

that we are, indeed,
talking about

incredible
extraterrestrial beings

whose lifespan might have been
normal for their whereabouts

but definitely were
extraordinary for planet Earth.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that the Sumerian kings

lived and ruled for hundreds,
even thousands, of years?

And if so, could these
so-called ancient kings

have been
our extraterrestrial ancestors,

alien beings who created man
using their own DNA?

There are those who believe
that question was

already answered
more than 35 years ago.

New York City. 1976.

Author and researcher
Zecharia Sitchin

publishes his book
The 12th Planet,

introducing his revolutionary
interpretation

of the Anunnaki deities.

After studying
Sumerian cuneiform tablets

for 30 years, he asserts
that these so-called

Sumerian gods were,
in fact, extraterrestrials

that landed on Earth
in Mesopotamia

more than 450,000 years ago.

According to
Sitchin's translations,

the Anunnaki both
created human beings

and also had a part
in mankind's downfall

when a Great Flood nearly
destroyed all life on Earth.

But why?

What was the purpose
of the Anunnaki's

earthly visitations?

And why did they create
the creature known as man?

NICK REDFERN:
Zecharia Sitchin wrote a number

of well-received books
on the Anunnaki,

which he believed were basically
extraterrestrial entities

from a planet called Nibiru,

which he quite
controversially believed

actually exists
in our solar system.

His theory was
they upgraded the human race

and used them as sort of
a slave species.

Sitchin understood,
based on his interpretation

of the tablets,
that the mission had to do

with the failing atmosphere
around the planet Nibiru,

and that, when they came,
they came to mine gold.

MARTELL:
The Anunnaki had damaged
their atmosphere.

And by using gold,
they found that they could

patch these atmospheric holes,

becomes the story
of our humanity.

The Anunnaki literally came
to Earth to mine the gold.

And when realizing
it was such a toil to do so,

created us as a worker race
to do that for them.

NARRATOR:
Zecharia Sitchin's hypothesis
that the Anunnaki came to Earth

to mine gold
and then created humans

to perform the task
was both bold and controversial.

Needless to say, it was not
embraced by mainstream scholars.

But many
ancient astronaut theorists

believe that Sitchin's
interpretation of the tablets

is not only correct
but also provides

compelling evidence that
the Anunnaki created mankind.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
What if the whole Anunnaki story

is a global story
of a nonhuman intelligence

that was manipulating genes
all over the planet?

That it wasn't just gold.

It was a planetary base.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that
the Sumerian cuneiform tablets

detail a past vastly different

from that taught
in our history books?

One in which the human race
was created by entities

who traveled here
from the stars?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes, and they suggest

that some of the most compelling
evidence can be found

by examining the story
of their departure

and the onset
of a catastrophic flood.

NARRATOR:
Shuruppak, south central Iraq.

1931.

While digging at this
ancient Sumerian city,

archaeologists find
what they believe

to be sedimentary evidence
of flooding

from approximately 2900 BC.

According to accounts
in the Sumerian King List,

King Ziusudra
was the last Sumerian ruler

before a Great Flood on Earth.

(thunder cracks)

DAVID WILCOCK:
Excavations of

the great city of Shuruppak
began in 1931.

And it was from these
excavations that they began

putting together
the story of King Ziusudra.

At the city of Shuruppak,
we find

sediment deposits that appear

to show a flood that occurred
in around 2900 BC.

This is one link that shows
that the biblical flood

may, in fact, be genuine
and a way in which we can

ultimately prove
that to be true.

FATHER WILLIAM FULCO:
Many ancient cultures
have a story of the flood,

which is intriguing.

The fact that the Mesopotamians
had a story of a flood

is not surprising because,
uh, Mesopotamian history

is fraught with stories

of trying to contain
the Tigris and Euphrates

and make them usable
for agriculture.

Until they built
the canal system,

there were regular floods
that wiped out cities.

It appears that
the story of Noah's ark

may not be
an original Hebrew story.

In the Sumerian texts,
we find a much older story

of Ziusudra,
who also survived the flood,

who constructed an ark
and was able to save

part of his family as well.

Is this merely coincidence or
does it suggest that, in fact,

the biblical tale is based upon
the Sumerian original?

MULLINS:
The similarities have caused
many to suggest that perhaps

the biblical account
is drawn in some sense from

the Mesopotamian account.

My feeling is that,
most certainly,

the biblical writers
adapted it for their own

theological reasons.

In the biblical account,
the rationale

for the flood
is human sinfulness.

And so, what
the biblical writer has done

is used the flood account
in order to provide

a theological rationale
for why the flood took place.

NARRATOR:
According to
ancient Sumerian legend,

the Great Flood
was not a natural event

but was directed
by the god Enlil,

who had grown tired
of the noise of humans.

The Anunnaki who came to Earth
essentially had two leaders.

Enlil, who was the legal,
legitimate son of Anu,

the king on the planet Nibiru,

and his half brother Enki,
who was actually the firstborn.

They were in charge
of the Earth contingent.

Procreation was out of control,
and Enlil gets enraged.

He decides he's going to
eliminate all the humans

and created what we know
as Noah's flood.

HOWE:
Enlil thought that humans
should be erased.

They were too troublesome.

And Enki, like Prometheus
and the Greeks,

took the side
of the humans and said,

"No, they should be preserved."

NARRATOR:
According to legend, Enki warned
King Ziusudra to build a boat

so that he might be saved
from the Great Flood,

just as Noah was directed
to build an ark

in the stories
of the Hebrew Bible.

Could both stories
have their origins

in historical fact?

At Ur and other cities,
we have evidence

of floods, major floods.

People have associated this
with the story of Noah's flood,

and there are flood stories
in other cultures.

So, I think we have a trend here
where, over and over,

people have doubted the myths,
have doubted the legends,

but, in fact,
with more research,

we find that they have
a genuine basis.

NARRATOR:
Could the similarities
of these two tales

be attributed
to mere coincidence?

Or might the story of Noah

be directly based on the story
of a displeased Anunnaki god,

a god who was bent on
destroying the hybrid creatures

that inhabited the Earth?

CHILDRESS:
Enki, the Anunnaki god,
told the Sumerian King Ziusudra

that there was
going to be, uh, this flood,

the same flood of the Bible,

and that he needed
to build a craft--

we would say today a boat--
to escape it.

However, it's quite possible
that the craft that he made

to escape this flood
was actually a spaceship,

and that he went into space
in order to escape the flood

and into orbit
around our planet.

REDFERN:
If there's one thing
that unites ancient cultures

all across the world is that
pretty much each and every

one of them have flood
mythologies attached to them--

deluges, Great Floods, you
know, just swamping and covering

the entire planet, wiping out
whole races of people.

In most cultures,
this is put down to the work

of the gods or a god
displeased with the human race.

Now, of course, today,
you know, many people

place that in a UFO context.

Other people place it
in a religious context.

But many researchers
sort of view

biblical accounts
and stories as having

a basis in fact but of
extraterrestrial origins.

Both the Bible
and, specifically,

the ancient Sumerian accounts
make it clear

that the flood was something
which the gods created.

The gods made this flood happen.

And so, what we're seeing
in the ancient accounts

is basically an interaction
between the Anunnaki

on the one hand and
our ancestors on the other hand.

And the Anunnaki
basically make sure

that we, as a species,
will survive,

because sections of the Anunnaki

were intent on destroying
everything on this planet.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the Anunnaki
were responsible

for causing what has been called
"the Great Flood"?

And if so, might it have
affected not just the region...

...but the entire planet?

Perhaps evidence of
such a worldwide catastrophe

can be found preserved
in the geological record.

You know, when we talk
about flood stories

in other traditions, we're
not talking about just a few.

We're talking about
over a thousand

from other ancient cultures.

from other ancient cultures.

Now, that, to me,
does not sound like coincidence.

No, absolutely not.

And most of these ancient
cultures around the world

supposedly had no contact
with each other.

And we have evidence
of a terrible cataclysm

in the distant past.

Like the Usselo horizon,
this thin ash layer that's found

in the Earth all over the world.

You know, Andrew Collins
examined this

for an episode
of Ancient Aliens in 2014.

NARRATOR: It is one of the
best-known stories of the Bible,

and variations
of this ancient tale

can be found in cultures
throughout the world.

From ancient Hindu teachings
and Mesopotamian legends

to Mesoamerican myths,
it is written that the gods

sent a powerful flood
to wipe out all of humanity.

In stories much older
than the story of Noah,

in the, uh, story of Gilgamesh,

the council of gods
brought the flood.

And in Plato's writing,
Zeus brought the flood.

DEEPAK SHIMKHADA:
In Hinduism,
God had instructed that,

"One day, the whole Earth
will be flooded,

"and when that happens,
you build a boat,

"and you gather the people,
uh, some animals,

and then I will save you."

NARRATOR:
The story of the Great Flood

is often considered
to be mythological.

But similar stories
of a cataclysmic flood

can be found in approximately
1,200 different cultures

around the world.

And many anthropologists say

that because these stories
are so numerous

and date back
thousands of years,

it is unlikely that they
originated from a single source.

MAGLIOCCO:
When we find similar myths
all over the world,

like the myth of the flood,

then we have to ask ourselves:

Are these things
that human beings

came up with independently?

Because let's say
there was a Great Flood

in ancient history
that has been memorialized

in people's mythologies because
it was such a cataclysmic event

that people looked for
a religious explanation for it.

TSOUKALOS:
The fact that there are
ancient stories that speak of

the same flood, it almost
leads into that direction

that, at some point, some
cataclysm happened that not just

affected one geographic area
of the world

but the entire planet.

NARRATOR:
If a cataclysmic flood
really did occur,

killing most life on the planet,
what could have caused it?

And is there
any physical evidence

to suggest that
it actually happened?

Scientists say answers
to both questions

may be buried deep
beneath the sea.

The Indian Ocean.

According to the five scientists

who make up the
Holocene Impact Working Group,

this area, 900 miles
southeast of Madagascar,

is where an enormous asteroid
struck the Earth

thousands of years ago.

This impact may have been
so large that it triggered

enormous tsunamis that flooded
inland areas across the region,

an event the local inhabitants

would've perceived
as a Great Flood.

Since so many ancient cultures
have a flood story

or a flood mythology,

this is probably based
in some sort of real event.

And an asteroid
landing in the ocean

in the right place,
triggering a tsunami,

would then lead to
one of these major floods.

NARRATOR:
The Holocene Group says evidence

for a catastrophic
asteroid strike

lies in what they believe

is an 18-mile-wide crater on
the floor of the Indian Ocean,

just west of the island
of Madagascar.

Holocene Group scientists

believe further evidence
supporting their theory

also lies in
what are called "chevrons,"

ancient deposits
of sediment and fossils

in both Madagascar
and Australia.

What was so out of place
and unusual about the chevrons

was that they weren't
land-based debris,

but rather, it was
the kind of debris you get

from an ocean sea bottom,

things like marine animals,
marine fossils.

They've also found
what's really the smoking gun

of any asteroid or comet impact,
and that's microbeads.

The only way they're formed is
by the extreme heat of an impact

melting the rock, the rock being
thrown into the air or water

and cooling into
these nice little spheres.

NARRATOR:
Similar marine fossils
have also been found

on the other side of the world,

at the ancient temple complex
of Puma Punku

in modern-day Bolivia.

If the Holocene Group's
initial findings prove true,

they could be definitive
evidence that a cosmic strike

caused large-scale flooding
thousands of years ago.

But if an asteroid
really was responsible

for a worldwide flood,

scientists say it would have
to have been as large as the one

that led to the extinction
of the dinosaurs,

which measured eight miles wide
and struck the Earth

with a force five billion times
more powerful

than the bomb
dropped on Hiroshima.

COLLINS:
There are many ancient texts

that tell us that
there wasn't just a flood

but there was also
a conflagration,

a period of fire,
when the Earth was bombarded

with firestorms,
the gods bringing them down,

and that this period
was then followed by a flood.

And it would seem
that fragments of this comet

vaporized the ice sheets
that had been covering

large parts
of the northern hemisphere,

uh, for tens
of thousands of years,

sending all of the water up

into the atmosphere,
which then rained down,

perhaps even for 40 days, 40
nights, like the Bible tells us.

NARRATOR:
According to those scientists
who subscribe to this theory,

the fires that might have
occurred just before the flood

would have left behind
an ash layer in the Earth

all over the world.

This distinctive ash layer,
which scientists call

the Usselo horizon,
could be the ultimate proof

that the Great Flood
really occurred,

and researchers believe
they may have discovered it.

Just outside the small
Belgian town of Lommel,

author and researcher
Andrew Collins

follows local archaeologist
Ferdi Geerts to the site

of a mysterious
black layer of soil

excavated by a mining company.

COLLINS:
I can already see a black layer,

um, in the soil here.

It's about
just under a-a meter down,

um, three to four feet.

Um, and, um, are we looking here
at the Usselo horizon?

-Is this, is this it?
-GEERTS: Yes.

At the end of the ditch,
we see a-a peat layer.

-Huh?
-COLLINS: Yeah.

GEERTS:
At the top of the peat layer,

-there is, uh, some charcoal.
-COLLINS: Yeah. Right.

-So, c-can we go down
and-and look at this?
-Yes.

NARRATOR:
Collins and Geerts
get a closer look,

which allows them to determine

that this dark layer of soil
seems to date to the end

of the last ice age,

about the same time
the Usselo horizon

is supposed to have formed.

COLLINS:
If we come down from the,
from the-the surface here,

which is obviously
the modern day,

there is this accumulation
of sand over a period

of around 13,000 years
that takes us back

to this point here.

-The black is a layer. Huh?
-Yeah.

And the-the white is sand.

-We call that a soil horizon.
-Yeah. Okay.

NARRATOR:
According to Geerts,
this black layer

dates back to the time period
when a global flood may have

devastated Earth,
but what is it made of?

Collins and Geerts
dig into the soil

and discover that it is,
indeed, charcoal.

This is the Usselo horizon,

and to Collins,
it's confirmation

that the catastrophe
described in the Bible was real.

This is physical evidence

of that flood,
of that conflagration.

This is your absolute evidence
that this event took place.

This is the evidence
of the cataclysm.

NARRATOR:
Could the Usselo horizon,

a possible impact crater
in the Indian Ocean,

and sea fossils
at Puma Punku all be proof

that the ancient story
of a Great Flood is not a myth

but that it is based
on actual events?

And if so,
could the rest of the story,

in which God sent a flood
to annihilate the human race,

be true as well?

This suggests that a Great Flood

did, in fact, happen,
that it was real.

But then it also presents us
with an intriguing possibility.

It is entirely possible that

there is
an extraterrestrial origin

to this terrible flood.

NARRATOR:
Could it be that the Great Flood

described in
so many ancient texts

really did occur
at the end of the last ice age?

And if so,
could it have been brought on

by extraterrestrial beings?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and claim that
evidence of this can be found

at the top of one of the world's
most sacred mountains.

NARRATOR:
Laurel, Maryland. October 2014.

At Johns Hopkins University,

At Johns Hopkins University,

top scientists
from all over the world

gather for the first

international Asteroid Impact
Deflection Assessment workshop.

The focus of this event
is to demonstrate

the latest technology designed
for diverting the course

of asteroids headed
for a collision with Earth.

The proposed method
involves launching a spacecraft

to collide with the asteroid
at a velocity

nine times faster than the speed
of a bullet fired from an AK-47.

If we look at the dinosaurs, for
example, 65 million years ago...

...they were wiped out
due to the impact

of a giant rock
that wiped out everything

on planet Earth at the time.

And so, right now,
scientists around the globe

are working tirelessly

to redirect asteroids from
possible collisions with Earth.

NARRATOR:
In addition to using
direct impact

to knock an asteroid off course,

scientists have also looked
into the possibility

of creating a gravity tractor
that could actually manipulate

the trajectory of the object.

But if we are close
to developing

this kind of technology today...

...is it possible
that extraterrestrials

who visited Earth
in the distant past

already possessed the ability
to redirect asteroids?

And if so, might they have
used this technology

not to deflect an asteroid
away from Earth but towards it?

We are talking about technology
that equals ours today,

or as some have said,
that it actually surpasses

whatever it is
that we've achieved so far

in our modern age.

And so, if we can control
the trajectories of asteroids

to direct them away from Earth,
then it's certainly possible

that highly advanced
extraterrestrials

could have had the technology

to direct an asteroid
towards Earth.

It's interesting how the legends
described how the flood came.

It is stated that

a great meteor
or comet or something

was to swing around
from behind the sun,

and as such, rip the oceans
out of their bodies.

The flood was clearly contrived.

It was sent by higher powers

to correct things here on Earth.

They had an intent and a purpose
for experiment Earth,

which they believed
had become corrupted,

and therefore,
the flood was sent

as an attack,
an assault upon humanity.

NARRATOR:
If the Great Flood
was a real historical event,

could it have been deliberately
caused by otherworldly beings,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

But if so, why?

What might they have been
trying to destroy?

Mount Hermon, Lebanon. 1869.

Exploring the top of
this historic mountain range,

British archaeologist
General Sir Charles Warren

discovers the sacred temple
of Qasr Antar,

believed to be
the highest place of worship

in the biblical world.

CHILDRESS:
Sir Charles Warren hiked up
to the top of Mount Hermon.

The ruins of this temple
are there.

And there he found
an ancient stele,

and he broke this stele
into two pieces

and brought it back
to the British Museum.

NARRATOR:
When scholars translated
the Greek text, it read:

The inscription's significance
was lost on archaeologists

for more than a century,

until biblical scholar
George Nickelsburg

connected it to an oath

mentioned in
the ancient Book of Enoch.

According to Enoch,

Mount Hermon is where
a band of renegade angels,

known as "the Watchers,"

descended from the heavens
in the distant past

and took an oath
before meeting with humans.

In the time before time,

the sons of God
came down to Earth.

They were the shining ones,
the Enohim,

or fallen angels.

And they found the women
very attractive,

and they married the women
or bonded with the women.

NARRATOR:
The offspring of
these unnatural unions

between angels and humans

were said to produce
giant hybrid beings,

called "the Nephilim,"

and God was so disgusted
by their existence

that he decided to send
a Great Flood

to cleanse the Earth of them.

But how is it that human women

were able to be
impregnated by angels?

Could it be, as ancient
astronaut theorists suggest,

that the Book of Enoch is not
actually describing angels

but rather a different kind
of otherworldly being?

CHILDRESS:
You've got to wonder:
What was really going on here?

Are extraterrestrials coming
and now breeding with humans,

which was somehow forbidden

and wrong,
but they did it anyway?

So the other
extraterrestrials decided,

"This is a big mistake.

Now we've got to destroy
all these people."

NARRATOR:
Could the story
of the Great Flood

actually be describing

extraterrestrials coming
to Earth long ago

and interbreeding
with human women

to create
a mutant race of giants?

If so, might there be evidence

of their time on Earth
that was capable

of surviving
a catastrophic flood?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and claim proof may be found
by examining ruins

that are believed to date back
thousands of years

before our earliest known
civilizations.

Some of the most fascinating
evidence we have

for the Great Flood
comes from the geologist

Dr. Robert Schoch.

Because he found
that the Sphinx in Egypt

Because he found
that the Sphinx in Egypt

showed signs of water erosion.

Yes, major water erosion.

And remember, this is
in the Sahara Desert.

So, that means, potentially,
the Sphinx was built during

an earlier climatic period,

and that was
more than 12,000 years ago.

Exactly. And that is
right around the time

when many researchers
now believe

the Great Flood
actually happened.

NARRATOR:
The Giza Plateau.

Egypt.

1925.

Rising out of the desert sand

is a giant stone statue
of a human head.

For centuries, most visitors
to the area believed

this was all that existed.

But French engineer
Émile Baraize is convinced

that much more
lies beneath the surface

than even archaeologists
are aware of.

He begins an excavation
to uncover it,

and after 11 years
of extensive digging,

Baraize unearths a massive body
resembling a lion

and reintroduces the world
to the full splendor

of the Great Sphinx.

It is the largest
monolithic sculpture on Earth.

RAMY ROMANY:
It must have been quite eerie

to be there back then,

not knowing a lot about
the ancient Egyptian history...

...and having this huge
structure staring down at you.

NARRATOR:
Facing east,
toward the rising sun,

the Great Sphinx is located

nearly half a mile from
Egypt's three largest pyramids.

It is carved from a single
piece of limestone bedrock,

and stands over 60 feet tall

and 240 feet long.

People have asked themselves,
for centuries:

What was the Sphinx for?

Why was it built?

There is a story behind it,
but what is the story?

NARRATOR:
The Sphinx is arguably

one of the most studied
monuments in the world,

yet it remains
one of the most mysterious.

There are no inscriptions
on the Sphinx

to indicate who built it or why,

but most Egyptologists
date it to 2500 BC...

...the time
of the Pharaoh Khafre,

or Chephren, as he is known
by Greek scholars.

The dating is based
on a mention of Khafre

on a tablet found
between the paws of the Sphinx.

BAUVAL:
There's something else
written on the Sphinx

that was ignored
by Egyptologists.

The Sphinx actually says,

"I have been here
since the first time."

Now, the word
in ancient Egyptian

for "first time" is "zep tepi."

And what they meant by this

is the time when Osiris had come

at the beginning
of the civilization.

The Egyptians talk
about a golden age,

a golden age that existed

12,500 or so years ago.

This is something that
goes back at least 8,000 years

before the current accepted
chronology of Egypt.

At that time, the gods mingled

or walked with men.

NARRATOR:
Could this
extraordinary monument

be a remnant from a golden age

when extraterrestrials
coexisted with humans,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest?

If so, does the Sphinx date back

thousands of years before

conventional scholars
believe possible?

Perhaps further clues
of its true age

can be found in the geological
record of the Giza Plateau.

Boston, Massachusetts.

Geologist Dr. Robert Schoch
has studied

the geological features
of the Sphinx

for over 20 years.

I looked specifically at
the weathering and erosion

on the body of the Sphinx,

on the walls
of the Sphinx enclosure.

I saw weathering patterns
that were not compatible

with the Sahara conditions
of the last 5,000 years.

Here we have a photograph of
the Sphinx on the left side.

This is the rump of the Sphinx.

This is the wall
of the Sphinx enclosure.

When you look at this,
these are the lines of rock--

or the strata,
as we say geologically.

You can see how
they've been weathered out,

sort of a rounded,
rolling profile.

This is caused
by rain beating down

and running over the rock.

And this was very evident
to me as a geologist.

NARRATOR:
According to archaeologists,

significant rainfall
in the Giza Plateau

would date back
to before 3000 BC,

at least 500 years before

the time attributed to
the building of the Sphinx.

SCHOCH:
The degree and level of erosion

that we see on the Great Sphinx

has to go back to
that earlier climatic period,

and not just
a few hundred years--

thousands of years
before Sahara times.

This put us back
to at least 5000,

maybe 7000, 8000,

I now suspect even 10,000 BC.

TSOUKALOS:
If we are to subscribe
to the idea

that the Sphinx displays
markings of water erosion,

then that means

that what's staring us
in the face

is much, much older

than what
mainstream science proposes.

NARRATOR:
Is the Sphinx really older

than our history books
have led us to believe?

If so, who or what

was responsible
for its construction?

Could it be a colossal creation
from a pre-flood civilization?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining the ruins
of ancient cities in India

that lie beneath the sea.

When Dr. Schoch proposed

that the Sphinx was built
around 12,000 years ago,

all the archaeologists said
he was nuts.

all the archaeologists said
he was nuts.

And only a few years later,

they discovered the amazing
megalithic site of Göbekli Tepe.

And guess what.

It has been scientifically dated
to around 12,000 years ago.

And that blew people's minds.

And now we've found
another site,

Gunung Padang in Indonesia,

that's dated to approximately
the same time.

-Mm-hmm.
-CHILDRESS: And we even

have, uh, entire cities
underwater that might be

part of a pre-flood
civilization.

And we covered all this
in a 2014 episode

called "the Great Flood."

NARRATOR:
The Gulf of Khambhat, India.

2001.

Scientists working
some 25 miles from shore

and 125 feet below the surface

stumble across
something extraordinary:

what appears to be the signs
of an ancient civilization.

SHIMKHADA:
Recently, the marine
archaeologists of India

have discovered two cities
in the Bay of Khambhat.

They are still working
on it, uh, you know,

going down there
and archiving it

and taking photographs
and videos.

CHILDRESS:
They think that these cities
were destroyed

in a geological change

that happened
many thousands of years ago.

But you have to wonder yourself

if there are not more sunken
cities all around India.

Their own legends and myths
say exactly that.

NARRATOR:
Ruins found beneath the ocean
in the Gulf of Khambhat

are thought to date back
at least 9,000 years,

to the time
when some researchers believe

a comet struck the Earth...

...and caused a global deluge.

Could these submerged cities

not only be evidence that
the Great Flood really did occur

but also that it wiped out
an advanced society

that existed long before

the earliest known
human civilization?

Scientists say
further evidence can be found

in archaeological sites
around the world

that date back
to end of the last ice age.

In southeastern Turkey
lies Göbekli Tepe,

an extraordinary series
of circular stone structures

with intricately carved pillars
weighing as much as 50 tons.

Radiocarbon dating indicates

parts of the complex were
built about 10,000 BC,

and at least one archaeologist

believes there are signs it may
have been destroyed by a flood.

SCHOCH:
We have evidence there
of catastrophic destruction,

of pillars being knocked over
at the end of the last ice age,

that things were very severe,

people were trying
to rebuild it at the time.

Eventually,
they effectively gave up

and covered over
the entire site,

maybe to come back later
to uncover it,

maybe to simply bury it
for posterity.

NARRATOR:
In the rainforests of Indonesia

is a series of terraces,
walls and steps on a hill

that the locals call
Gunung Padang.

When scientists drilled into
the earth to determine its age,

they discovered
the site dates back

to at least 9700 BC.

Very interestingly, one of
the layers of Gunung Padang

that's been exposed seismically

shows that there was
an entrance to a cave

at about 9700 or so BC

that was subsequently
covered over.

Again, I think this
ties in with the events

at the end of the last ice age.

People were going into caves,
they had to escape,

and then things were
covered over after that.

NARRATOR:
Are these ruins that are
found across the world

evidence of
an advanced civilization

that existed
before a global deluge?

And if so, might we find
mention of it

in ancient myths?

MAGLIOCCO:
If we go back to ancient Greece,

one of the myths,

one of the sacred narratives
that Plato preserves,

is the narrative that there
used to be a great continent,

which he calls Atlantis,

and Atlantis had
a great advanced civilization.

Atlantis was one of the
continents that was destroyed

by the Great Flood.

SCHOCH:
When does he date Atlantis?

To 9600 BC,

which is very close
to the modern date

of the end of the last ice age.

So all this, I believe,
ties together

that we had an earlier cycle
of civilization.

It was devastated
at the end of the last ice age

by natural catastrophes.

Humanity was driven
into a dark age

that lasted thousands
and thousands of years

until civilization reemerged

about 5,000 years ago.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that the story of Atlantis

is really describing
a civilization

that existed before 10,000 BC,

when the Great Flood
and the end of the ice age

are said to have happened?

Did Atlantis suffer
the same fate as Göbekli Tepe,

Gunung Padang,

and many other
ancient structures

that appear to have been hit
by some catastrophic event?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest that the most
compelling evidence can be found

and suggest that the most
compelling evidence can be found

not with what was destroyed
but with what survived.

Just as fascinating
as these sites like Göbekli Tepe

and Gunung Padang

are these vast underground
complexes that have been found,

are these vast underground
complexes that have been found,

like the Huashan Grottoes
in China,

these incredible stone rooms
with pillars and bridges.

And, of course,
we have Derinkuyu

-in Turkey...
-Right.

...where over five million
square feet of rock

were removed to create
this underground dwelling space.

Yeah, and it goes without saying
that an underground structure

might not be the best place
to escape a flood.

But some people have suggested
that solar flares

and meteor strikes
happened as well,

and so perhaps
some of these were shelters

for some kind
of an aerial threat.

NARRATOR:
Central Anatolia, Turkey.

300 miles from the ancient site
of Göbekli Tepe.

December 28, 2014.

A local crew excavating
for an urban renovation project

stumbles across a strange series
of carved rooms and tunnels

deep underground.

Upon further exploration,

they find
the subterranean network

spans several miles
and extends hundreds of feet

below the surface of the Earth,

much like the nearby caves
of Derinkuyu.

COLLINS:
What they discovered
was that these caves extended

for a distance of 370 feet

down into the rock.

NARRATOR:
Archaeologists estimate

that more than five million
square feet of rock,

the volume of over 370
Olympic-sized swimming pools,

was removed to carve out
this subterranean city.

Yet there is no evidence of the
extracted material in the area.

This mysterious cave system
is still under excavation

and closed to the public.

But in June 2017,

author and researcher
Andrew Collins

was granted access to the site.

The sheer size of some of these
rooms is absolutely amazing.

I mean, this one that we're in
now is 120 feet in length.

And yet it's just one
of hundreds of similar rooms

that we find
inside this great hill.

These tunnels that you see
seem to go on and on.

And yet what's incredible

is that not only were
they full of people

but there was also livestock
down here.

And we're told
that as many as 20,000 people,

perhaps even as much as 60,000,

could've lived here
at any one time.

NARRATOR:
Not only is there evidence

that these caves once housed
thousands of people

but archaeologists have found
air vents and water wells

that would have made it possible
to live underground

for years at a time.

These were cut deeply
into the rock,

sometimes for hundreds
of yards in depth.

And at the base of them
were wells

that provided water to
these underground populations.

This is what is known
as a self-sealing door.

And they're, in fact,
huge great stone wheels

made of a volcanic rock
known as "basalt."

And their function was that they
would be wheeled into position

so that they would lock

so that nobody was able to get
inside the underground cities.

NARRATOR:
When it was discovered,

historians recovered artifacts

that suggest
the cave system was used

by the early Christians
to escape persecution.

So they dated the site to be
approximately 1,500 years old.

But based on new evidence,
the caves might be much older.

COLLINS:
A few years ago,

I interviewed an archaeologist
by the name of Ömer Demir.

And he found within it
Paleolithic tools,

tools that went back
at least 10,000 to 12,000 years

and, arguably,
even earlier still.

NARRATOR:
If these caves can be dated
to at least 12,000 years ago,

around the same time
archaeologists believe

the nearby site of Göbekli Tepe
was constructed,

just who built them?

And what drove
the builders underground?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest clues can be found

not embedded in stone

but in the pages of
ancient Persian religious texts.

Zoroastrianism is
one of the world's oldest

monotheistic religions,
founded by the prophet Zoroaster

in ancient Iran
approximately 3,500 years ago.

The central figure
of the religion

was a powerful god
named Ahura Mazda,

who is often depicted
seated inside a winged disc.

According to the story
recorded in a text

known as the Vendidad,

he sent a powerful warning
to a young priest named Yima

about a coming cataclysm.

Ahura Mazda told
the great early king Yima

that there would be
a terrible disaster.

A giant serpent would descend
from the heavens to the earth.

Well, that sounds like a comet
or a large meteorite

falling to Earth.

And a winter would come
such as has never been known.

NARRATOR:
Prior to the event,

Yima is given
very specific instructions

to build an underground shelter

in order to survive
the coming "giant freeze."

Ahura Mazda instructs Yima
to build a Vara.

This is a huge structure--

two miles long, two miles wide.

An underground hall of sorts

where things can be protected
from the terrible winter.

Yima was to hide
a remnant of the people

and an extensive seed bank.

Also, a pair of each
of the animal species.

Once Yima is finished
building the Vara,

he takes 2,000 people in,

a representation of mankind.

They are there for 150 years.

But when the winter is over
and they come out,

it is a barren world.

They will have to rebuild
civilization from scratch.

CHILDRESS:
The Vara is supposed to be
a-a huge enclosure

that not only houses
a large number of people

but also animals and seeds.

It's a storehouse,
just like Noah's ark.

So you've got the same story.

And it would seem
that this is a very real thing

that ancient people knew about
and wrote about.

NARRATOR:
Could it be
that the story of Noah's ark

and the Vara of Zoroastrianism
are one and the same...

...and the reference to an ark
was later misunderstood

to be a large ship?

But if these accounts
are, in fact, true,

how is it that mankind
had enough advanced warning

to build such sophisticated
places of refuge?

The ancient texts are very clear

that the gods,
they always warned people

that this catastrophe
would happen

so that they would save a
select group of that population.

So, how was that possible?

Well, either they had access
to sophisticated technologies

with which to predict
the weather,

or what's the other option?

And if you combine that
with the fact

that Ahura Mazda was known
to have descended from the sky

in a vehicle with fixed wings,

it looks like
some type of flying device.

That would suggest that he was,
in fact, an extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR:
According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

the Vara described
in the ancient Zoroastrian texts

is strikingly similar
to the recently discovered

subterranean town
in Central Anatolia.

HENRY:
The underground caves in Turkey
sound exactly like the Vara

that was made by Yima
in Zoroastrian mythology.

Is it possible
that this cave system

supplies the evidence
that tells us

that the Zoroastrian mythology
is, in fact, a real, true story?

NARRATOR:
If these caves provide evidence

that the account recorded
in the ancient Zoroastrian texts

is factual,

did the inhabitants of the Vara

emerge to find
a barren wasteland

where they were
to rebuild civilization?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and they suggest
a strikingly similar story

can be found half a world away,

can be found half a world away,

in the deserts of North America.

One of the places
where we have stories

of a Great Flood is right here
in North America.

-Mm-hmm.
-And we have many
Native American traditions

-Mm-hmm.
-And we have many
Native American traditions

that also talk
about a global cataclysm.

Right. The Zuni
and the Hopi, for example,

who say they're
all the survivors

of this massive
cataclysmic event.

And they actually take it

one step further
in their traditions by saying

the survivors received help

-from the so-called Ant People.
-HENRY: Yeah.

And these Ant People are
described as humanoid figures

who dwelled beneath the earth
and had high technology.

So what are
we talking about here?

Extraterrestrials
who helped humanity

survive the Great Flood?

NARRATOR:
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

In the desolate high desert
of the American Southwest

stand the ruins of the
most important ceremonial site

of the ancient Pueblo people.

Constructed around 900 AD,

the central feature of this vast
complex is the great kiva.

A kiva is basically, um,

a Native American version
of a church.

It is a circular structure.

Chaco Canyon has an absolutely
giant one that's located there.

When you enter one,

you're literally entering
another world

to commune
with the gods from before.

In ancient Pueblo culture,

every place you went had
a small kiva of some kind.

But they would get together

maybe eight or nine
different kivas, small ones,

into a larger great kiva.

And the great kivas were huge.

When the Spanish came in,
in the 1600s,

they took their church
and interposed it

on top of the kiva.

So everywhere
in these Hopi villages,

in the Pueblo villages
that you see a Catholic church,

it's usually on
the high point of land

where the kiva was destroyed

and the church was built
over the top of it.

NARRATOR:
Every kiva includes
a feature called a "sipapu."

In some kivas, the sipapu

is a small hole
in the subterranean wall.

In kivas that are enclosed,

it is often represented
by a hole in the roof.

In both cases, it is the most
important part of the structure,

symbolizing the entrance
to a subterranean world.

All of the Pueblos share a story

in which humankind began
under the earth.

And we slowly, over generations,

crawled up and out
of a hole called "sipapu."

And the kivas have this little
hole in it symbolizing that.

NARRATOR:
The descendants
of the Ancestral Pueblo

share the belief that Earth was
populated three separate times

before the era of modern humans,

with each previous age ending
in a devastating cataclysm.

HENRY:
The Pueblo Indians believe

that there, in fact, were three
worlds or epochs before ours.

And they were all destroyed.

First by fire,
the second by ice,

and the third by water.

In each instance,
they tell us that it was due

to mistreatment of the Earth.

And so that tells us

that there could have been
previous examples of humanity

that were destroyed
who knows how long ago.

CHILDRESS:
We're living now
in the Fourth World.

And the Zunis and Hopis believe

our Fourth World
will also end in a cataclysm.

HENRY:
Their prophecy says that there
would be a-a gourd of ashes

that would come from the sky.

That's interpreted
as nuclear warfare.

TSOUKALOS:
The Hopi suggest
that there were previous worlds

or civilizations before.

And this is interesting because

there are other cultures,

ancient cultures
around the world,

who speak of similar stories.

HENRY:
The kabbalah teaches
that there were

previous advanced
human civilizations.

A number of them.

The Hindus teach
about the Yugas,

where civilization advances
to a very high place

and then descends
and then reascends.

It, too, is divided
into four different ages.

So, all of these traditions
corresponds directly

with what the Native American
tradition is teaching.

NARRATOR:
Could the Native American
tradition

describing previous ages
of humankind be true?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest that these stories

also contain evidence of
extraterrestrial intervention.

The Hopis of Northern Arizona
have a very curious myth

of surviving
the third of the cataclysms

by going underground and living
with what they call the Ant Men.

HENRY:
The stories the Hopi tell is
that the Ant People rescued them

from cataclysm by taking them
underground, literally,

and helping the Hopi
to survive underground.

And then,
once it was safe to return

to the surface of the Earth,

the Hopi were taken up through
the sipapu by the Ant People

and repopulated the Earth.

But in all instances,
the Ant People are described

as having a special relationship
with the Hopi

and also of having a connection
with the star realms.

NARRATOR:
Despite their name,

Ant Men are described
not as insects

but rather
as small humanoid figures.

The reason they call
these creatures Ant Men

is that they lived
under the earth

and they would emerge much like
ants crawling out of a hive.

So they called them "Ant Men."

But what they were
were extraterrestrials

that were entering our world
through the portal.

CHILDRESS:
The Ant Men were
underground dwellers

who had a high technology

and looked very similar,
apparently,

to what we would call
Grey aliens.

So this is something
of a mystery,

of who these Ant Men were.

Many Hopis and-and the Zunis
have similar belief that,

yes, the Ant Men
were extraterrestrials.

CLIFFORD MAHOOTY:
There were beings that are
of the extraterrestrial origin

that were...

were part of that whole
emergence mythology.

The entrance
to the Fourth World.

NARRATOR:
Could it be
that the story of the Ant Men

is a genuine account
of extraterrestrials

helping humanity survive
a global cataclysm?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest further clues
can be found

and suggest further clues
can be found

by comparing
the Native American traditions

to accounts of a legendary
lost continent called Atlantis.

NARRATOR:
Athens, Greece.

The fourth century BC.

In his famous dialogues
Timaeus and Critias,

the Greek philosopher Plato
writes about a lost continent

the Greek philosopher Plato
writes about a lost continent

that existed 9,000 years
before his time

and was home to
a highly advanced civilization.

Called Atlantis, it was founded
by the Greek god Poseidon,

and the inhabitants possessed
sophisticated technology.

But Atlantis was
ultimately destroyed

by a terrible cataclysm.

And according to
some researchers,

the story of its destruction
is strikingly similar

to Native American traditions
detailing the end

of the Third World.

HENRY:
The Hopi and other
Pueblo Indians tell us

that third devastating cataclysm

was due to human greed

and wandering away from the-the
spiritual truths of our creator.

What's interesting about this
is that this idea is echoed

in Plato's story
of the destruction of Atlantis.

The Atlanteans
were also created by gods.

As soon as humanity
wandered off into materialism...

...that's when Atlantis
was destroyed by water.

A perfect correspondence
with what the Hopi said happened

at the end of the Third World.

NARRATOR:
Could there be a connection

between the ancient Greek tale
of Atlantis

and Native American
origin stories?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

another story told
by early Native Americans

bears striking similarities
to Atlantis--

the legend of
the lost city of Aztlán,

which appears
in the traditions of the Aztecs

and numerous Native American
groups throughout the Southwest.

Of the Hopis.

So we have
all these oral histories also...

There's debate among scholars

as to exactly
what Aztlán looked like.

And we know that the Aztecs say

that their capital
of Tenochtitlan

was made in the image of Aztlán.

And from that capital,
we get a backwards projection

that their origin place is
a island surrounded by water.

They actually built Tenochtitlan
up into the lake

and put causeways out

so that it looks
very much like Atlantis.

NARRATOR:
According to the Aztecs,

the god Huitzilopochtli was
the founder of Tenochtitlan,

which, as far
as ancient astronaut theorists

are concerned, provides yet
another intriguing connection

to Plato's description
of Atlantis.

Tenochtitlan was a place
made artificially.

Compare it to Atlantis.

In both cases,
a god was the ruler of it.

In Atlantis, we have Poseidon.

Now, Poseidon was
an extraterrestrial.

Not everyone should have
access to Atlantis.

The same thing in Aztlán
or Tenochtitlan.

They wanted to be separated.

They had
a certain technology there

which was a hidden technology,

and it was
not for the general public.

So it's the same thing.

TSOUKALOS:
The fact that we have stories

that are not just similar
but identical

leads me to think that perhaps

these ancient cultures
were visited

by the same extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
While mainstream academics

consider the stories
of these lost civilizations

and their destruction
to be mythological,

the recent discovery
of vast sunken landmasses

such as Doggerland,

located just east
of the British Isles in 2012,

and Zealandia,
found near New Zealand in 2017,

may offer proof
that a catastrophic water event

did, in fact, change
the face of the Earth.

CHILDRESS:
So here we have
authentic legends

of lost lands that
were destroyed in cataclysms.

Mainstream historians, you know,
still pretty much reject this,

feel that it's all myths.

But it would seem,
really, that all kinds

of civilizations could have come
and gone on our planet.

We know that there are
over 200 known submerged cities

in the Mediterranean.

There's just so much
on our planet

that we have yet to find out.

YOUNG:
In the Native American
Indigenous teaching,

there are cycles
of destruction and rebirth.

The interesting part is that

this is parallel
to other great world teachings.

In the story of Noah,

the sons of God
came down to Earth,

and they were teaching
the humans evil ways.

And God decided to intervene
and brought this Great Flood.

In the story of Gilgamesh,
the Sumerian legend,

the council of gods
brought the flood.

The Inca god Viracocha
created the Great Flood.

HENRY:
So, all of these traditions
correspond directly

with the Hopi
four worlds tradition

about previous civilizations...

...destroyed by the gods.

The story is always the same.

Some believe
these cataclysms are cyclical.

I mean, can you imagine

if something happened to
our culture, our civilization,

everything's wiped off

the surface of the Earth,
all you have are

these stories,
oral traditions that say,

"There was
this advanced civilization,

and it was destroyed
by a cataclysm,"

how would future generations

ultimately be able to piece
the story back together?

Right. And some people
call this "mankind in amnesia."

-Mm.
-Where we've had

these cataclysms that have
destroyed civilization

and we're slowly trying
to put it all back together,

like what happened and
what was the past really like?

Right. And, I mean,
it only takes about two

or three generations for any
memory to be completely erased.

And so the idea is that,
after a while,

this true information of life
generations ago

will delve into the realm
of mythology and legends.

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