All language subtitles for HISTORY CHANNEL - Ancient Aliens (2014) - (S08E01 - Alien Transports) BD 1080p

NARRATOR: Flying saucers.

MAN: It's going
20,000 miles per hour

and makes a right-hand turn
without decelerating.

That isn't possible.

NARRATOR: Magic carpets.

SECOND MAN: There are traditions

of King Solomon
having an airship.

NARRATOR: And fiery wheels
descending from the heavens.

THIRD MAN:
What Ezekiel described

in his eyewitness report...

It was misunderstood technology.

NARRATOR: In ancient cultures
throughout the world,

there are stories of
strange sightings in the sky.

Are they simply fiction,

or might they be accounts
of alien vehicles?

FOURTH MAN: You begin to
have to ask yourself,

is something going on here?

Are we missing part
of the story?

And honestly, I think we are.

NARRATOR: Millions of people
around the world believe

we have been visited in the past
by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really
help to shape our history?

And if so, might we find
evidence in ancient stories

of alien transports?

Saqqara, Egypt.

Located roughly 20 miles
south of Cairo,

it is home to the world-famous
step pyramid of King Djoser.

Dating back more
than 4,000 years,

it is the oldest
of Egypt's 97 pyramids.

Saqqara is also famous for being

one of Egypt's oldest
burial grounds,

earning it the nickname
"city of the dead."

It was here, in 1891,

that French archaeologists
unearthed an ancient tomb

containing the burial
remains of Pa-Di-lmen,

an official from
the third century B.C.

Among the various
items discovered

was a small wooden model of
what appeared to be a bird

lying beside a papyrus

bearing the inscription,
"I want to fly."

The artifact was later
sent to the Cairo museum,

where authorities placed it

alongside several other
bird figurines.

The model sat largely
unnoticed until 1969,

when Egyptologist
Dr. Khalil Messiha

was examining
the bird collection

and noticed that there was
something very different

about the Saqqara Bird.

It's interesting because
on one hand, clearly,

it should look like a bird
because it has eyes

and has a typical
nose of a bird.

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

To the middle of the rump,

you see this wing a bit thicker.

In this region, the lift up
is the highest.

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

and those wings
are modeled down,

and this is a very modern
aerodynamic design.

APEL: Then the other point
is birds have no rudders

because a bird does
not need a rudder

because of its
aerodynamic architecture,

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

but flying machines or aircraft.

NARRATOR: Could the ancient
Egyptians have possessed

the power of flight?

In 2006,

aviation and aerodynamics
expert Simon Sanderson built

a scale model
of the Saqqara Bird

5 times larger than the original

to test that possibility.

We're running at
a constant speed,

slowly increasing
the angle of attack

and then measuring the
forces which it's producing.

That way, we can learn about
its flight characteristics.

At 10 degrees, we're producing
4 times weight and lift,

so it actually would
be flying now.

- Yeah.
- That's good.

EENBOOM: Tests showed
the Saqqara Bird is

a highly developed glider.

And this is a design
we use today.

NARRATOR: During the Sanderson
tests, it was discovered

that the only thing
preventing the Saqqara Bird

from achieving flight

was the lack of a rear
stabilizing rudder or elevator

needed to maintain balance.

Is it possible that
the Saqqara Bird

ever possessed this
critical component?

What is missing is something
like an elevator,

but if you look at
this feature here,

then we may interpret that

something like an elevator
was connected here

but was lost during history.

NARRATOR: Computer models
seem to confirm

that the Saqqara Bird
is certainly airworthy.

But there is another
problem to consider...

Launching a glider.

Modern methods require
the use of a tow plane

that pulls the glider
into the air,

then releases it when a
proper altitude is reached.

So how might the ancient
Egyptians have launched

the Saqqara Bird?

The Scientifics
of Egyptology told us that

such a bird could be powered off
by catapults to fly,

and we had high acceptance
by Egyptian scientists.

NARRATOR: The idea
of using a catapult

does have a contemporary
parallel.

Many of today's
glider enthusiasts

employ a bungee cord system

to launch their sailcraft
into the air.

But if the Saqqara Bird
is capable of flight,

where would ancient Egyptians
have acquired such technology?

EENBOOM: I think that
people in ancient times

were visited by beings
coming not from this Earth,

and they gave us culture
and scientific technologies

to improve our life on Earth,

coming from the primitive
to a higher developed culture.

It's a fact that our ancestors
were more intelligent

and had more technological
superiority capabilities

than our history books
give them credit for.

You begin to have
to ask yourself,

are we missing part
of the story?

And honestly, I think we are.

I think there has been
a forgotten episode

in human history, and we're
a species with amnesia.

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

MAN: I haven't been convinced
that there is evidence

that supports an
ancient visitation,

but there is no reason why not,

and I think to shut oneself
to that possibility

is a mistake, mainly because
there are so many anomalies

that we can't explain.

NARRATOR: Could the Saqqara Bird

really be a model of
an ancient flying machine?

And if so, might this
be evidence

that our ancestors witnessed
alien technology?

Perhaps further
proof can be found

by examining a
century-old Mexican ritual

called the Dance of the Flyers.

Veracruz, Mexico.

5 men in ceremonial dress
ascend a 100-foot pole.

Once at the top, one of the men
performs a sacred dance

while playing a flute
and drum atop a platform.

The other 4 men
launch themselves off.

It is a ritual known as
la Danza de los Voladores,

or the Dance of the Flyers.

The ritual has the leader stand
on the top of the pole,

a tiny little platform,
and the 4 flyers wrap a cable

around that pole and then
branch out and fly around

in a pyramid shape
in perfect synchronous order.

It's a stunning
and daring thing to do.

And they are
representing the birds,

they are representing
the 4 cardinal directions,

they are representing
the elements,

heavily symbolic and mythic,
and it is a powerful ritual.

NARRATOR: The Totanac people
who practice this ceremony today

claim it is a dance that
was invented 500 years ago

as a plea to the gods
to end a severe drought,

but could this
ancient ritual have

different, perhaps
otherworldly, origins?

What we have here
with the Voladores

is 100% living mythology,

something that describes
and illustrates

in front of our living eye

the descent of the gods
from a long time ago.

NARRATOR: According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

the Voladores ritual is a
reenactment of a close encounter

with alien visitors
in the distant past.

They believe extraterrestrials
descended upon

the flat mountaintops of
the Palpa region in Peru

around 500 A.D.,
dropping from their aircraft

and gliding down to earth
in spiraling circles.

TSOUKALOS: The Voladores ritual
was very technological,

as in, you know, these beings
descending from the sky

in the circle, signifying
arrival of the gods.

Where does that flying

or descending gods motif
originate?

Our ancestors saw something,

because why would you
hurl yourself

from a 100-foot pole
out of nothing?

To imitate a bird?

Birds are not that important.

Something very
significant happened.

NARRATOR: Could an alien
encounter really be

the inspiration for
the Voladores ritual?

And could the Totanac people
who created the ceremony

really have been trying to mimic

the ancient gods'
power of flight?

As further evidence
that early humans

may have encountered
alien visitors

equipped with
the power of flight,

ancient astronaut theorists
point to various artifacts

and statues depicting
ancient gods.

One such example is the
Mayan god Ah-Muzen-Cab,

also known as
the Flying Bee God.

Another is the most
prominent god

of early Mesoamerican culture,

the winged deity Quetzalcoatl.

The Mesoamericans believed
in the plumed serpent,

or Quetzalcoatl,
which came from the sky,

bringing wisdom,
powered the wind,

and also influenced
everything that happened

in the daily life of the Mayans.

In fact, they looked to the
sky for all their answers,

from everything as simple
as when to plant corn

to when to go to war.

They believed all answers in
the universe came from the sky

and tried to relate that
to their daily lives.

The ancient record are loaded
with fantastic examples

of the gods flying around.

These are the ancient aliens,

and humans are being shown

the ultimate capability
of these gods.

In my eyes, because we
are the sons of the gods,

we are the offsprings
of the gods,

whatever humans can dream,
whatever humans think

was once reality in the past

or will be reality
in the future.

NARRATOR: July 31, 2003.

The English Channel.

Felix Baumgartner becomes
the first person

to cross this 22-mile-wide
body of water in freefall,

using a specially made
fiber wing.

But the Austrian daredevil
is just one of many

who have used wingsuits
to simulate flying

by means of a free fall.

A wingsuit is
basically a jumpsuit

that you put on under your rig,

and it's designed to
actually make you fly

when you exit the plane.

The material inflates underneath
your arms, in between your legs,

and creates,
basically, an airfoil

that you glide on
through the air.

It's an amazing feeling

because you're actually
the pilot and the plane.

It is total freedom.

You feel as though
you're flying.

Though you are falling,

you're using the air
to maneuver your body,

and the wingsuit helps you
cover a lot of ground

as you're descending.

Some people have been
exceeding 2-1 glide ratio.

For example, 3-1 would mean
for every foot you descend,

you're traveling 3 feet forward.

TSOUKALOS: We got
these flying guys

that have these wings
attached to their backs,

and they hurl themselves
out of planes,

and some even have rocket
engines attached to them,

and so, they essentially
themselves become airplanes.

Now, imagine showing that to
someone from 100 years ago.

That person would be
in complete awe

of what they're witnessing,

not understanding that
there is technology

involved with this.

Just using our own body,
we cannot fly.

We have no wings.

But of course,
we have the fantasy,

and we have the technology to
develop wings that we can fly.

TSOUKALOS: The pursuit of flight

has been one of the most
sought-after quests

in all of mankind's history.

Why? Because with flight,
you could reach, conceivably,

the realm of the gods.

NARRATOR: From the ancient
Greek myth of Icarus

fashioning wings
of feathers and wax

to modern daredevils
like Felix Baumgartner,

human beings have been
fascinated with,

and often frustrated by,
their desire to fly.

But have birds really served
as mankind's inspiration,

or were they inspired
by something else...

Perhaps something
extraterrestrial?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and claim further
proof can be found

by examining Ancient China's
mysterious stories of dragons.

Celestial beings
coming down to earth.

Gods descending from the sky.

Do similar accounts
exist in other cultures

and other religions
across the world?

And if so, what is
the explanation?

TSOUKALOS: We have
to remind ourselves

that our ancestors were
highly intelligent.

However, their technological
frame of reference was

different than our technological
frame of reference,

so they didn't have
the vocabulary

with which to describe
or with which to name

certain things that they saw.

So, what did they do?

They used words that they were
familiar with in their time,

and so, they tried to describe
whatever they witnessed

to the best of their abilities
with their vocabulary.

NARRATOR: Ancient China also
shared some of the same beliefs

that can be found in
Egyptian, Native American,

and Dogon legends

that deities arrived
from the stars.

According to Chinese mythology
dating back to 3000 B.C.,

when the god named
Huang Di was born,

there was "a radiance
from the great star Chi."

Huang Di would later emerge

from the belly of a
fire-breathing dragon

to become China's first emperor.

The origins of the
Han Chinese people start

with a story of a great god
looking down with empathy.

Here were people in poverty...

In a beautiful, rich country,
the landscape profound,

but the people were suffering.

He took pity, and decided
to come down.

Huang Di arrived on planet
Earth in a flying dragon.

He had the power of flight.

Huang Di could be
anywhere within minutes,

and he usually accomplished this

by hopping on his dragon
and flying somewhere.

Now this divine energy
becomes human

and is a great leader,

the yellow emperor who rules
and unites the people,

and there is a period
of great prosperity

until his work is done.

NARRATOR: Huang Di brought
order to the chaos,

creating China's first empire.

He is seen as a cultural hero

and is credited with

the invention of the
compass, acupuncture,

and the standardization
of Chinese writing.

One of his greatest legacies
is the Great Wall of China.

YOUNG: When the land
is prosperous,

he decides it's time to go,

and the great yellow
dragon comes back,

and he gets back into
the belly of the dragon

and flies off forever.

Now, were these dragons truly
dragons in a biological nature?

Or were they misinterpreted
types of machines?

Because, as we all know,

dragons are always correlated

with spewing fire
and a lot of smoke.

Whenever we see a
modern rocket take off,

there's all this smoke,

and sometimes the smoke is
yellow, and sometimes it's red.

So, it's very bizarre how
we have these correlations

between the ancient times
and modern times today.

Mythology is the effort to
grasp what we can't grasp,

to understand what is beyond us.

In the Eastern teachings,

the dragons very
often carry people,

sometimes on their back,
sometimes inside their bellies.

So if we think of them
as a poet's effort

to explain a vehicle that
was strange to them,

well, those sound like
flying saucers.

So it might just be
a problem of translation,

because after all,
it's just a word.

It's trying to
describe something

that's very difficult to grasp.

NARRATOR: Could Chinese
tales of dragons

be based on ancient
interpretations

of rocket ships
descending to Earth?

And, if so, could the
legends of Huang Di,

like those of Quetzalcoatl

and the Egyptian Saqqara Bird,

be evidence of be evidence
of alien visitations

in the distant past?

Perhaps the answer can be found

high on a mountaintop known
as the "Throne of Solomon."

In the 21st century,

modern transportation
and communication methods

have connected the world
like never before.

Products or ideas,

no matter where in the world
they may have originated,

can spread to even the
most remote countries.

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

before it's even
heard in Manhattan.

This cultural interconnection
has transformed the globe,

but is it new?

Mainstream archaeologists
believe

ancient civilizations
such as those found

in the remote Pacific Islands,
Asia, and South America

developed independently
from each other.

But ancient astronaut theorists

contend that similarities
in building styles

and beliefs found in
these cultures suggest

that a worldwide trade route

may have connected
them to each other.

But just like we have airports
today around the world,

in ancient times,
with the Vimanas,

there would have been
hangars for the craft,

airports for them to land,

and those airports
would have been situated

in strategic places
around the world,

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

NARRATOR: Legends of
air travel are also found

in ancient Africa
and the Middle East.

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

written sometime before
the second century A.D.,

the Queen of Sheba was once
given a gift of a flying carpet

by King Solomon of Israel.

The Kebra Nagast is one
of the most important texts

you've never heard of.

The Kebra Nagast means
the "Book of Kings,"

and it is the most sacred
book of the Ethiopians.

In it, King Solomon,
it's described,

he had access to some type
of flying machine,

and in that part of the world,

the term "flying carpet" was
always used very liberally.

My question is,

did they really mean
actual flying carpets,

or was it another term

with which to describe some
type of a flying machine?

CHILDRESS: This was the
original chariots of the gods

that Erich Von Däniken
talked about...

The flying magic carpets of
the Arabian Nights stories.

There are traditions
in the Middle East

of King Solomon
having this airship

and flying to different
places in the Middle East,

certain mountains,

which are known as the
Mountains of Solomon.

These may have been
certain airports,

or landing areas,
for these Vimanas.

Nicolas Roerich, famous
Russian-American explorer

who traveled all
through Central Asia

and Tibet in the 1920s...

He, too, claimed that
Tibetans had traditions

of King Solomon flying
to Tibet in this aircraft.

NARRATOR: The Kebra Nagast
also describes

how King Solomon used
his flying airship

to make maps of the world.

But could these have any
relation to other ancient maps

some believe may have been
made by extraterrestrials?

Some of these maps
show the world

not as it looks today,

but as it looked during
the last Ice Age,

and this is really
hard to explain.

Everybody's heard of
the Piri Reis map,

but they've, perhaps, not heard
of the Orontius Finnaeus map

or the Mercator maps that show
Antarctica in great detail

hundreds of years before
Antarctica was even discovered.

NARRATOR: One of the
most referenced stories

of ancient aircraft

is found in a surprising
place... the Bible.

In the Book of Ezekiel,
the prophet describes

a flying chariot containing
wheels within wheels

and powered by angels.

Although Bible historians

suggest Ezekiel was
speaking symbolically

about the terrifying
enemies facing Israel,

could this be another example
of an alien visitation

and proof that prehistoric
aircraft existed?

In the story of Ezekiel's
throne chariot,

this flying vehicle
that doesn't seem to have

any means of propulsion,

if we thought of the word
"angel" as representing

something like celestial energy,

it sounds much more
like a spacecraft then

because some of the angels
are going back and forth.

Well, that sounds like flames.

That sounds like propulsion.

Some of them are wheel-like.

Well, those sound
like flying saucers.

Our ancestors weren't idiots.

Ezekiel saw something that
was so frightening to him

that he fell to his knees.

Then, out of the glory
of God, came this being

in these bright clothes
that looked like metal,

and told Ezekiel,

"All right, man,
we brought you here.

We want you to measure this
monument, this building."

And Ezekiel asks,
"Well, why should I do this?"

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

And then you have 40 pages,

in the second part
of the Book of Ezekiel,

with measurement after
measurement after measurement

of this gigantic building

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

NARRATOR: In the early 1970s,

NASA scientist Josef Blumrich
set out to disprove the theory

that what Ezekiel witnessed
was a spaceship.

Josef Blumrich is your
proverbial rocket scientist.

He worked on the
Moon project for NASA

and, from the mind
of a rocket engineer,

started to look at
what was written

in the first part of
the Book of Ezekiel,

and after many
months of research,

Josef Blumrich came
to the conclusion

that what Ezekiel described
in his eyewitness report,

it was indeed a type
of spacecraft.

NARRATOR: Josef Blumrich
would go on to write.

"The Spaceships of Ezekiel."

Several years later,

a German structural engineer
named Hans Herbert Beier

sketched out a blueprint

of the second section
of the Book of Ezekiel,

where Ezekiel is
told to construct

an open-topped building to
house the flying chariot.

Ezekiel's spaceship fit exactly

into the temple that
Hans Herbert Beier re-created.

So what we have here is
a proof by indication.

Here we have a NASA engineer
and a structural engineer.

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

and both pieces fit
together like a puzzle.

In any court of law,

that's evidence
that would hold up.

HANCOCK: I think that
scientists feel uncomfortable

with the notion of
the lost civilization

precisely because the evidence
for it is so ambiguous.

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

and, you know, the result is

that science has not
welcomed this idea.

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

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

in which to move around from
point "A" to point.

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

It was a misunderstood
flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial

whom our ancestors
misinterpreted

as being divine
and supernatural.

And why?

Because of
misunderstood technology.

And that is the
underlying thread

that applies to all of the
ancient astronaut theory.

NARRATOR: But while
ancient texts provide

tantalizing clues to our past,

physical evidence paints
an even clearer picture.

But will modern science
finally prove

the ancient astronaut theory?

Did the ancient
civilizations of Earth

have access to
advanced technology?

Well, it seems like they
had something going on.

NARRATOR: Could ancient stories
depicting flying carpets,

fiery chariots, and even
dragons really be evidence

of an otherworldly
presence here on Earth

in the distant past?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes

and claim that further proof

of alien craft
traversing our skies

can be found with
the countless reports

of flying saucers.

Guatemala, Central America.

According to most mainstream
scholars and archaeologists,

the earliest human
settlements in this region

date back over 14,000 years.

Here can be found numerous
ancient artifacts,

and among them is this one,
the figure of a man

lying inside what appears
to be the shell of a turtle.

And when I asked the local
archaeologists there,

"What is this,"

they said, without the
flinching of an eye,

"Well, this is,
according to legend,

the giant flying turtles which
flew around in Guatemala."

The entire body is
aerodynamically fashioned.

The extremities are pressed
in an aerodynamic fashion

against the body of this turtle.

And if you look closely,
it's as if there are

some modern-day fighter pilot
glasses or goggles.

This right here is from
the same culture,

from the same region

where they created
the turtle in clay,

so they knew exactly what
a turtle looked like.

It looks like a snapping turtle.

And what we have here,

that is everything but a turtle.

It's something else.

In their frame of reference,
they were able to use the turtle

as the best example of
what they might've seen

that the gods used
to fly around in.

NARRATOR: Halfway around
the world, in 329 B.C.,

the Greek ruler
Alexander the Great

planned the invasion of India.

But according to ancient texts,

his army was supposedly thwarted

by a strange attack
from the skies.

CHILDRESS: As Alexander's
army was getting ready

to cross the Indus
and invade India,

suddenly, in the sky,
appeared these flying discs,

and they began dive-bombing
at the war elephants

that were part of
Alexander's army.

And what these flying discs did

was cause stampedes within
Alexander's own war elephants,

who then ran amok
throughout his army,

tearing up the camps
and everything,

and after that, Alexander's
generals met with him,

and they said, "No.
We're not going into India."

This is it. We're going
to turn back."

And that was the end
of that war campaign.

NARRATOR: But whether
in ancient times

or much more recently,

so-called flying saucers
are often described

as being unaffected by gravity
or the basic laws of physics.

You know, I know that people
who have who have seen

extraterrestrial vehicles
in modern times

have said, "How in the world
could it be doing that?"

For example, it's moving
through the sky,

and it's going
20,000 miles per hour

and makes a right-hand turn
without decelerating.

That isn't possible using
normal aerodynamics.

CHILDRESS: When jets have been
scrambled after flying saucers,

the saucers are described
as suddenly turning

at right angles at super speeds
and just zipping off

in what seems like impossible
aerobatic maneuvers.

And this can be explained

as the kind of technology
they're using,

which is a gravity control.

It's artificial gravity.

So when you're inside
of a gravitational field

that you're creating
yourself around your craft,

the gravity of the Earth
doesn't have a force on you.

NARRATOR: But although
aircraft propulsion

by means of gravity manipulation

is beyond the limits
of current technology,

many scientists claim it
is theoretically possible.

In Davis, California,
inventor Dr. Paul Moller

tests the boundaries
of real-life science

with a recreational flying
vehicle called the Neuera.

MOLLER: The Neuera is a
very simple device to fly.

It has 8 lifting ducted
fans, as we call them,

each one driven
by its own engine.

One of the big advantages
of this kind of round shape

is that you end up
with the strength

in the skin of
the vehicle itself,

much like the shell of a beetle,

and that gets you a very,
very strong design.

These airframes you see
over here next to this vehicle,

which are similar to this,

weigh only 75 pounds apiece,
which is incredible.

You get a complete
airframe that's capable

of lifting 1,500 pounds
with a 75-pound shell.

NARRATOR: But could the
inherent design strength

of a disc-shaped object

be the key to overcoming
the forces of gravity?

And does the prevalence
of flying saucer sightings

suggest a connection between
antigravity technology

and extraterrestrial
visitations?

MOLLER: Gravity is one
of the most unknown forces

in physics today, and when
we do understand it,

we'll be able to find out a way
to shield ourselves from it

or to provide a device,
a method, electromagnetically

but with some much greater
knowledge than we have today,

where we eliminate it within
the vehicle's operations.

NARRATOR:
Are flying saucers more

than just the product of
overactive imaginations?

Might ancient cultures that
wrote of fire-breathing dragons

and angels descending
from the heavens

have been witnessing
earlier versions

of these alien spacecraft?

Or could there be
another explanation?

Perhaps the ultimate
answer can be found

in the American Southwest

with a mythological beast
called the Thunderbird.

Elizabeth Lake,
Southern California.

This high desert body of water

sits at the junction
of the tectonic plates

that form the powerful
San Andreas Fault.

The Mexicans who colonized
California in the 1700s

called it Laguna Del Diablo,
Lake of the Devil.

And it was said that
the Devil's own pet

would come into this world

through a portal at
the bottom of the lake.

Local legend says
that at the bottom

is actually an entrance
to the underworld.

They call it the Lake
of the Devil.

And it is said that in the
middle of the 18th century,

from up until
about 1880 onwards,

something was happening there
which frightened locals.

MAN: Some of the rich landowners
built ranches there.

These ranchers claimed to have
been harassed and tormented

by some sort of monstrous beast

that would come out of the water

and steal cattle
and menace the locals.

NARRATOR:
The ranchers who claimed

to have witnessed this beast
called it the Thunderbird,

and their description of it
was nearly identical

to that of the giant bird
witnessed by cowboys

in Tombstone in 1890.

WHALEN: Eventually,
one of the landowners

got it in his head that he was
going to hunt this creature down

and sell it to the circus.

So, according to the story,
this rancher was able

to actually fire a few
shots at this creature,

which seemed to be
bulletproof and metallic.

The bullets bounced off,
and after that encounter,

the bird flew east, never to be
seen again in California.

NARRATOR: Could this so-called
Thunderbird really have been

the same creature that cowboys
shot at in Tombstone?

And why was it referred to
by locals as the Devil's pet?

They didn't have the
vocabulary we have today,

so when things happened
that they couldn't explain,

it was called the Devil's Tower,

it was called the Devil's Lake,

it was called the Devil's This
or the Devil's That.

COPPENS: Take it away from
legend, and you might find

that this was a portal
to another dimension

which the locals knew about

and might have something
to do with the fact

that this mysterious entity

was present at that
very specific location.

NARRATOR: If a portal
to another dimension

or another part of the universe

does lie at the bottom
of Elizabeth Lake,

might it also be possible
that the Thunderbird

was not really
a creature at all,

but something
even more incredible?

YOUNG: A Thunderbird
was enormous.

It made enormous noises,
so the thunder part of it

could sound like a jet engine.

Its eyes were able to literally
pierce and emanate fire.

We have this large flying
winged creature

which gives off
a thunderous sound,

and lights fly from its eyes.

That, to me, says yes,

that we could be dealing
with some sort of craft.

[Chanting in native language]

Native Indians in North America,

they know, of course, the bird.

But now something
different arrived,

an object which could fly,

which is bigger than the eagle

but, at the same time,
makes tremendous noise.

So you have the creation
of the Thunderbird.

Even when the airplanes first
started going up in the sky

here in the Southwest,

they referred them to
as metal birds.

As a matter of fact,

when the first fixed-wing
craft landed in Zuni,

the Indians over there
actually went out there

and worshipped the airplane.

It makes me think of a concept
called cultural tracking,

which is the idea that.

UFOs can mask themselves to
appear as almost anything.

You go back to Ancient China,

and they talk about
the flying dragons.

You go back to the
Ancient Egyptians,

they talk about flying boats.

You go to the Roman times,

and they're talking
about flying shields.

Perhaps that was just
their interpretation,

or perhaps that's what
they actually saw.

NARRATOR: Have alien
spacecraft really been

darting across our skies
for thousands of years?

And could stories of
thunderbirds, dragons,

and flying chariots be
not mere legends,

but the proof we have
been looking for?

Perhaps when our own
technology allows us

to venture further into space

we will be given
the final answer

that aliens and mankind
share a common origin

and perhaps a common destiny.