Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Otherworldly visitors who made contact

with early civilizations.

Teachers who came from light-years away.

And powerful entities

revered as sky gods and star beings.

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.

According to the ancient astronaut theory,

these visitors from the sky have been interacting

with our ancestors for thousands of years.

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.

♪ ♪

It's truly incredible to look back

at well over a decade's worth of Ancient Aliens episodes

and see everything that the show has covered.

Megalithic sites,

mysterious artifacts,

strange artwork

and, of course, the stories of our ancestors.

Yeah, and those stories are critically important

because, in culture after culture,

our ancestors tell us that visitors from the sky

descended to impart knowledge.

I mean, they essentially helped jump-start civilization.

Yeah, along with all those amazing stories

are also those depictions in ancient rock art

and ancient rock carvings

which clearly show what we would consider aliens today.

TSOUKALOS: Right, and so we'll be looking at

a lot of this ancient evidence.

We'll begin with the second episode of Ancient Aliens

called "The Visitors."

It begins with the Roswell incident.

But as we all know,

star beings were here long before that.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Roswell, New Mexico.

This sleepy town in America's Southwest

was once best known for its large military air base.

But that changed in 1947...

...when a local rancher reported that a spaceship

crashed on his property.

Several weeks later,

the U.S. Army issued a press release confirming

the existence of an alien craft.

The next day, the military changed its story

and announced that what they had found was a weather balloon.

These conflicting reports sent shock waves around the world,

and the name Roswell became a pop culture code word

that forever links extraterrestrial visitation

with enduring mystery.

POPE: Speculation about why the Roswell crash

would be covered up is difficult to pin down.

Some people talk about this in terms of, uh, information

that would be shattering to our worldview.

STEVEN GREER: Almost everyone's heard about the so-called Roswell event,

and one of the real implications of disclosure is that some

of our most cherished myths

about the origins of the human race

and our history and archaeology would fall apart.

JENNIFER HELDMANN: Each step that we take makes us a little bit less special.

We used to think that we were the center of the universe,

as humans, and then we realized,

"Oh, all right, well, that's not true."

And "But we're the center of the galaxy."

And like, "Well, all right, so we're, like,

two-thirds of the way out in a spiral arm."

And then, "Well, at least our sun, you know, this..."

"No. Uh, the Sun is actually in the middle,

"and the Earth goes around it. So Earth isn't even the center

of that system and..."

So the more that we learn, we sort of, you know...

It's a very humbling science.

NARRATOR: When man first landed on the Moon,

our perspective on the universe changed forever.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: Houston, uh,

the Eagle has landed.

BUZZ ALDRIN: We aliens...

...who happened to...

go down the ladder on July 20, 1969,

we aliens...

...were certainly part of a magnificent race.

I just don't think people have a grasp

for what energy it takes to go from one star to another.

NARRATOR: This historic event raised the question,

if humans can successfully navigate in space

and explore other worlds,

why couldn't beings from other parts of the universe

have done the same?

And might they have already come to Earth

hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago?

ERICH VON DÄNIKEN: I think human past

is more fantastic than we all believe.

I have come to the idea

that maybe extraterrestrials were on this planet.

NARRATOR: Cahuachi, Peru.

2,000 years ago,

this ancient settlement served as the religious

and cultural capital of the Nazca people.

But sometime around 500 AD,

the Nazca mysteriously disappeared,

leaving Cahuachi to fall into disarray.

1,400 years later, in 1910,

anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka came to Cahuachi

to study the ancient Nazca civilization.

During a dig, he unearthed some of the most surprising

and shocking artifacts he had ever seen.

♪ ♪

They were skulls

with enormous, elongated craniums.

Where did they come from?

How did they get there?

And were they human?

DAVID CHILDRESS: In Peru, we find these weird, elongated skulls.

And they're bizarre-looking.

I mean, and-and these people look like aliens.

ROBERT SCHOCH: One may say, "Okay, aliens."

But another aspect that we have to consider

is that skull and cranial deformation

forming elongated heads is a practice

that's known throughout much of the ancient world.

NARRATOR: In 1870, the process of skull deformation

was well chronicled by a German botanist and explorer

named Georg Schweinfurth.

While exploring the African Congo,

he came in contact with a tribe called the Mangbetu.

They routinely performed a ritual of cranial binding

that allowed them to physically alter the shape of human skulls.

CHILDRESS: They took infants' skulls

and compressed them and bound them.

And they forced the cranium out and elongate it.

And in many cases they doubled the size.

SCHOCH: And a big question is,

why was this being done?

It may have been a way to distinguish the elite, perhaps,

from the everyday people.

May have been a social stratification-type of issue.

Something that also appeals to me is that may have been

a way to express physically

and maybe try to achieve physically

greater levels of consciousness

or higher levels of mental ability.

TSOUKALOS: In my opinion,

they did this in order to mimic the gods.

And those gods were physical beings.

Because if they were just a figment

of our ancestors' imagination,

I don't think that's a compelling enough reason

to expose your children

to such a ritual to achieve that type of look.

And in my opinion,

these people were misinterpreted flesh-and-blood space travelers.

NARRATOR: Whatever the explanation may be for these rituals,

they are not just found in Peru and the African Congo.

Skull deformation is a global phenomenon.

CHILDRESS: What's really strange

is that this is found all over the world.

And this is something that archaeologists

cannot easily explain.

Because for people on remote islands,

for people in South America or Malta

or in Africa to suddenly independently do

this cranial deformation like this seems incredible.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that individual societies around the world

were influenced by similar events?

And were they imitating real beings

who visited from other planets?

Some of the most compelling images of an elongated cranium

can be traced to ancient Egypt

and the depictions of one of its most controversial pharaohs.

Could it be that he, too,

was mimicking the look of extraterrestrials?

Or is there an even more outrageous explanation?

Could he have been one of them?

NARRATOR: Egypt.

Long before the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids

or even settled along the Nile River,

they spoke of an era called Tep Zepi,

or the beginning of time.

According to legends,

Tep Zepi was when sky gods descended from the stars

to Earth on flying boats

and then turned mud and water into a new kingdom.

ROBERT BAUVAL: The word "god," according to the ancient Egyptian,

is "netyro."

It means "a being that came from the cosmos."

They're very adamant about the fact

that their gods had descended from the stars.

They tell us that the god Osiris,

who ruled with his consort and sister, the goddess Isis,

they were star gods, and in fact they identify them very clearly.

Osiris was identified the constellation of Orion.

And Isis was identified as the god to the star Sirius,

brightest star in the sky.

There's an interesting point about this--

is that within the constellation of Orion

is the so-called nursery of stars.

The stars in our galaxy

literally were born in that zone.

And it's very peculiar that the ancient Egyptians insist

that the birth of star gods are in this constellation.

They truly believed-- they-they were very adamant about this--

that their origins is in the sky.

SCHOCH: Something that we see around the world with ancient civilizations

is that they had incredible knowledge of the stars,

of the planets, of the heavenly motions.

The average person in the ancient world

had way more knowledge of what's going on in the skies

than a lot of well-educated people today.

NARRATOR: As ancient Egypt grew into a great civilization,

its citizens believed their pharaohs were sons of Osiris

and, thus, living gods.

Artwork and wall carvings depicted them as perfect humans.

And while the people worshipped many different gods,

the pharaoh stood above them all.

This basic Egyptian religious belief

remained in force for nearly a thousand years

until one pharaoh changed everything.

Who was this heretic?

His name was Akhenaton.

And in every surviving depiction,

he is shown with an elongated skull.

Who was he?

According to Egyptian mythology,

he, too, was descended from the gods

who arrived on Earth at the time of Tep Zepi.

But why do so many still believe he actually came from the stars?

In 1352 BC,

Akhenaton ascended to the throne

as the tenth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty.

Almost immediately,

he instituted a series of radical religious changes,

including a ban on references to multiple gods.

BAUVAL: It's a rather strange thing

that he would want to do that in-in one sweep.

But he ordered all the-the iconography of previous gods

to be removed.

He only allowed one emblem,

which was a sun emblem.

Literally a sun disk with curious arms

or rays pouring down.

Why did he do this?

Because, according to his writings

and his poems that were written about him later on,

he was visited

by one of those beings that descended from the sky,

who told Akhenaton,

"This is the way.

I am your god."

NARRATOR: This sun god was known as Aten.

Akhenaton claimed to be a direct descendent of Aten.

BAUVAL: Akhenaton, like any other pharaoh,

uh, regarded himself to be divine.

He was a god.

Not only himself believed himself to be a god

but the whole nation saw him as a god.

Now, uh, the definition of "god"

is that he was a descendant from these celestial beings.

NARRATOR: During his fourth year as pharaoh,

Akhenaton ordered the construction

of a new capital city.

He called it Amarna

and dedicated it to the Sun.

Akhenaton would spend the next ten years here,

during which time he instituted changes in both art and culture,

including how he himself would be publicly depicted.

ROBERT CARGILL: In Egyptian iconography, Egyptian pharaohs are depicted

as these triangular-shaped beings--

these broad strong shoulders and these very skinny waists.

Now, we look at leaders today and we know that most leaders

don't have broad shoulders and skinny waists.

Um, but it was important to depict the Egyptian kings

as having broad shoulders and skinny waists.

Very, you know-- The-the epitome

of what a king ought to look like.

That's exactly the opposite with Akhenaton.

He shows himself perhaps as he really is.

Uh...

a rather strange look.

He has a very mystical look.

♪ ♪

SCHOCH: If we take Akhenaton's statues, for instance, literally,

he was a very strange-looking character.

Sort of combined, some people would say,

feminine aspects with masculine aspects.

May have had an elongated skull.

CARGILL: The change in royal iconography of Akhenaton

showed him as he probably really was--

with a-- with a misshapen head,

with a potbelly,

with a sunken chest,

as opposed to the idealized iconography

of traditional Egyptian, um, artists

that showed this big, strong pharaoh.

NARRATOR: Akhenaton's wife, Queen Nefertiti,

and their children were also depicted

as having elongated skulls.

So why were Akhenaton's and Nefertiti's heads deformed?

Did they suffer from a genetic abnormality?

Or did they deliberately alter their shape?

Some believe there could be yet another explanation

behind their strange, otherworldly appearance.

They look like they're different than other human beings.

Is it possible that Akhenaton might have been

an extraterrestrial hybrid?

I mean, he's got a very narrow, pointy face,

high cheekbones

and a very elongated cranium.

CHILDRESS: The idea that they were either looking like extraterrestrials

or perhaps had extraterrestrial DNA in them

is a credible idea.

NARRATOR: Akhenaton ruled for 17 years.

After his reign, Amarna was abandoned

and temples to the Sun were destroyed.

Images of Akhenaton were deliberately defaced.

Ancient Egypt swiftly returned to its old ways,

worshipping many gods.

Was this a rejection

of Akhenaton's radical religious belief system

or a cover-up of his alien identity?

There's been a lot of theories about why.

Um...

If-- I mean, the most extreme

is that he somehow had some sort of extraterrestrial connection.

If one accepts that conclusion,

then it would explain why he was literally put off the reign

and, some say, put to death.

NARRATOR: Today, much of Akhenaton's life

still remains a mystery.

Did he really change Egypt's entire belief system because,

as some suggest, he was a celestial being?

If that's true, might there be evidence

of similar entities coming to Earth?

Perhaps more clues can be found thousands of miles away,

on the other side of the African continent.

(singing)

♪ ♪

When we talk about ancient Egypt,

evidence for extraterrestrial visitation is

everywhere you look.

But what I find so fascinating is that every ancient culture

essentially documented a physical interaction

with so-called "star deities."

Yeah, and especially if you look at, like, the Dogon of Africa.

They still exist today.

And they mention visitors from outer space,

but they also give the specific star from which they came from.

-Yes. -And, of course, the most amazing part of that

is they identified a star

that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

-Right. -And the Dogon had known about this star

for hundreds of years.

Mali, in Northwest Africa.

Deep in a remote valley live the Dogon people,

who are the descendants of a nomadic tribe

that settled here around 1000 AD.

Just like Akhenaton's followers,

the Dogon had been forced to leave Egypt

because of religious persecution.

SCHOCH: The Dogon's claim a very long and ancient tradition

and in my opinion, maintain

some of the ancient Egyptian traditions and myths

that have been carried on right into the present age.

Parts of ancient Egypt may not have died.

They were carried on, to this day, among the Dogon.

NARRATOR: But what exactly are their beliefs?

Dogon mythology holds

that the sky god Amma created the first living creature

known as Nommo.

The legend also says that shortly after his creation,

Nommo multiplied into several parts,

one of which rebelled against Amma.

Amma responded by destroying him

and scattering his ashes throughout the world.

(translated): According to the Dogon myths,

a god gave them this knowledge.

He descended from the sky

in an ark surfing on fire

and landed in a storm.

TSOUKALOS: Still today, Dogon celebrates a festival

in the honor of Nommo,

and that visitation that occurred in the remote past.

How do we know this?

For this festival, they have

wooden masks that date back

to a very long time ago,

when this festival began.

(translated): Their knowledge is centuries old,

and their priests have been sharing it

with chosen individuals only.

In the 1920s,

French anthropologist Griaule

and ethnologist Dieterlen visited the tribe

and were invited to share their secrets.

NARRATOR: But one secret stood out:

the Dogon claimed that their god Amma came

from a specific star in the Sirius constellation,

the same place where the ancient Egyptians believed

their god Osiris was born.

This star, which modern astronomers

refer to as Sirius B, the Dogon called Po Tolo.

But what baffles experts is

that the star is so far from Earth,

it's impossible to see with the naked eye.

BAUVAL: I was very intrigued by this, by the way.

I mean, the-the Dogons should not have known

about the existence of this star.

Sirius is the second nearest star from our solar system.

It's eight light-years away.

In fact, it's not even visible with standard telescopes.

It was first seen-- literally, seen--

and photographed in the 1970s.

TSOUKALOS: Modern science has corroborated

that Sirius B does indeed exist.

Problem is, the Dogon knew about this

before modern science corroborated it.

I mean, that's spooky.

NARRATOR: Measurements taken with the Hubble Telescope in 2003

have confirmed that Sirius B is what's known as a white dwarf

or a partially burnt-out star with extremely dense mass.

Although it is smaller in size than Earth,

it's estimated to weigh eight times as much as our Sun.

But how did the Dogon acquire

this ancient knowledge of astronomy that seems to be

centuries more advanced than that of modern science?

The mystery is,

how did this story get passed on down generations

if the story came from a time before astronomers knew

there was a companion star to Sirius,

which can't be seen with the human eye?

(translated): This is the Dogon symbol for Sirius.

When you move it around, you can see an orbit

around the center marked by Sirius A.

Sirius B circles around it, so it is a circular system.

This sign is practically an astronomical model

that the Dogon could not have invented

because only Sirius A is visible.

Sirius B and C are invisible.

However, their description of the orbit is correct.

One assumption is that this god, Nommo,

who brought them this knowledge, could have been

an extraterrestrial intelligence.

BAUVAL: Either they inherited that knowledge,

and the question is from where?

From a previous civilization

or from some sort of extraterrestrial civilization.

Or it's a coincidence.

In my view, it is not a coincidence.

NARRATOR: If the Dogon people really possessed

this advanced astronomical knowledge,

were their legends based on real events?

The ancient Egyptians and Dogon were far from alone

in their belief in gods or mystical beings

that came from the sky.

Is there an explanation

for similar myths shared by ancient cultures

all around the world?

And what does that reveal as to who these visitors may be?

Perhaps the answer can be found,

not in Northern Africa, but here

in the rocks and canyons of the American Southwest.

♪ ♪

(wind whistling)

NARRATOR: 30 miles south of Gallup, New Mexico,

lies the Pueblo of Zuni.

♪ ♪

Sheltered from the desolate high plains,

this adobe city is home to the Zuni Indians,

one of the oldest Indigenous tribes in North America.

They have inhabited this land for almost 2,000 years

and have protected their secrets even longer.

The Zuni are a very interesting culture

in that they're one of the few cultures

that really have not opened up, uh,

to the rest of the world

about their star knowledge traditions.

Most of this type of information is-is

very closely held, uh, by the-the natives.

And, um, I-I really find it, uh,

very intriguing that this is the time period in history

where now we're starting to learn more and more

about their star knowledge.

NARRATOR: Much of the Zuni people's history is

etched in the rocks in the New Mexico desert.

Tribal Elder Clifford Mahooty

and archaeologist Dan Simplicio

have studied the Zuni's secret history firsthand.

They've collected stories passed down through generations

that are rooted in the belief that the tribe's creators

and protectors are supernatural beings from the sky.

SIMPLICIO: This one is kind of interesting here.

I would imagine it was created in last century,

but from this design you can see the star figure.

Celestial images oftentimes are depicted

in a lot of our cultural petroglyphs.

And this is one of them where it depicts the star.

It could be the supernova of the Crab Nebula.

MAHOOTY: Our Zuni mythology

in the prayer system, in the ritualistic protocols,

talk about these people that came over here,

and told us how to actually live our lives,

as beings, sky people.

If you listen to a lot of religious chants and songs

and prayers, that's all they talk about.

They're talking about space,

they're talking about out there in the universe

where they came from.

So they depict it on a rock wall here.

But the actual meaning of it is somewhere more profound

and more complex than that.

These drawings are thought

to have been created around 1200 BC,

yet they appear to depict modern space travelers

and their vehicles.

If you move back a little bit, you can see another figure here.

It has a dome.

It has eyes.

-Uh, something coming down... -And a nose.

Like a nose, through the nose, but it kind of flares out.

I think it has something to do with the ancient ones,

when they saw something.

They took as much description of it to put in on there.

Of course, it's not gonna be exactly what they saw,

but that's as best as they could do

for something that they saw.

CHILDRESS: With all petroglyphs and-and things like that,

I mean, they're up to interpretation.

Sometimes they're just doodlings of people.

But other times they may well be

actual descriptions and-and depictions

of some kind of god from outer space,

some ancient astronaut.

And when you go around, say like the Zuni Pueblo,

that's what they'll tell you those petroglyphs are.

Even the Zunis themselves call them the space men.

SIMPLICIO: This one seems to have two legs coming out like that,

it has a broad diamond-shaped body.

Um, there probably was a better head

that chipped off here.

It's very different looking than humans are.

MAHOOTY: Now usually they're called UFOs.

But in the Zuni way,

we've always been taught that they're the keepers

of the upper world, which means space.

You know, they're sky people.

Beings that are of the extraterrestrial origin.

And this is still within our mythology

and our religious practices today.

NARRATOR: Like most Indian tribes,

the Zunis call these sky people "kachinas."

According to the Zunis' creation story,

the kachina gods came down from the heavens

to lead the Zunis to Earth through a special portal.

MAHOOTY: The "sipapu," that's the entrance to the fourth world.

Or the underworld.

And that's the representation

of where the kachinas come and go.

And so according to the mythologies,

the Zunis were brought forth into the world of light,

which is where we are at today,

by what I would interpret as extraterrestrial beings

from the universe.

(chanting in Zuni)

NARRATOR: Every year, the Zunis participate

in a ceremony known as the Shalako Festival.

Dressed in traditional costumes

to represent the kachinas, the Indians celebrate

the arrival of the gods on Earth.

This is a, a figurine of kachina gods.

And these guys are some gods from the sky who came down.

Uh, they wear weird helmets.

TSOUKALOS: This one has a helmet as a head

and if you look at the whole body of it,

it's as if it wears some type of a-- of a suit.

This one here also

has the helmet and the visor.

CHILDRESS: For the Pueblo Indians, like the Zunis,

these are their, their sky gods that every year,

they have special ceremonies.

People put on these special costumes

and masks to reenact the coming of the gods.

They really look like ancient astronauts.

BILL BIRNES: If you look at the poetry and the legends

and the stories from American Indian tribes

in the Southwest,

they have the legend of the star people.

The star people came to Earth

and seeded planet Earth.

And they came on flying ships.

If you speak to the elders, they will tell you

that a lot of us believe in the existence

of extraterrestrials.

THOMAS O. MILLS: The Zunis don't have a written language.

The storyteller comes

and he tells the young children how it all happened.

All of their songs that they do in their ceremonies

tell the story over and over and...

that's how they passed down

traditions, customs, beliefs.

They tell it in the Indian way.

They use things they understand

to explain things that they don't understand.

SIMPLICIO: I remember my grandparents talking

about a craft that flew

and had actually crash-landed on one

of the mesas east of here.

There's no interpretation of what an aircraft is,

so the closest thing that they could, uh,

interpret as anything capable of flight

is a bird or our masked kachina dancers.

MAHOOTY: We are very, very superstitious people.

It's always been in the history of Zuni

that they have always been here.

Even right here where we're sitting right now.

But you just don't see them.

They're in a different frequency.

And those are very, very sacred.

And those are very, very secret.

They're out there somewhere.

NARRATOR: For those who believe that ancient astronauts

came to Earth thousands of years ago,

prehistoric artwork provides more clues in what they claim

is a growing body of evidence.

From wall carvings and statues in ancient Egypt...

to tribal traditions and exotic masks in West Africa,

to petroglyphs in the American Southwest.

All thousands of years old.

They seem to recount similar stories

of visitors from the skies.

Could the legends of alien beings

visiting Earth thousands of years ago

have inspired more traditional beliefs?

♪ ♪

Ancient petroglyphs are some of the best evidence

that we have for the ancient astronaut theory.

I always found it intriguing to see that some

of these carvings very clearly depict extraterrestrials.

Well, for me, equally compelling are ancient objects

that have been found, revealing a knowledge of aerodynamics,

like the Saqqara Bird of Egypt, or Giorgio's pin.

Yeah, I wear this gold flyer pin all the time.

In fact, I should be known as "the guy with the pin."

Come on, Giorgio, you can't be the guy with the pin.

You're the guy with the hair.

All right. No, listen.

The reason why I wear this pin is because

it's a replica of 17 artifacts

that were found in pre-Columbian tomb sites.

And what's so interesting is

that they have aerodynamic features.

In fact, they fly.

We've covered this in season one of Ancient Aliens.

NARRATOR: When backing up their claims

of extraterrestrial visitation,

ancient alien theorists draw upon two kinds of examples:

There's the evidence you can read--

such as that found in ancient texts--

and then there's the evidence you can actually see.

Among the earliest types of physical specimens?

Numerous cave and rock drawings

and stone sculptures found all over the globe.

You know, pictures are worth a thousand words, absolutely.

When you see pictures depicted, for example,

on a cave in Italy, that show two astronauts

with helmets on, I mean, what the heck could it be?

What could it be?

NARRATOR: Each of these ancient illustrations

or statues depict figures dressed

in strange attire for the times,

and sporting unusual headgear.

But could they really be representations

of alien astronauts?

Visitors from other worlds who touched down upon the Earth

thousands of years ago?

All over the world, we have statues and sculptures

and paintings and depictions

of these extraterrestrial beings.

Even in the United States at Sego Canyon, Utah,

we have petroglyphs

of very weird looking creatures

that have antennae on their heads, helmets.

And halfway around the world, in Kimberley, Australia,

for example, we have the exact same depictions

of these helmeted beings with a halo around their heads.

And the question I have is, what did our ancestors see

that compelled them

to put this on their cave walls?

On yet another continent,

in Guatemala City, we have a sculpture

that looks eerily reminiscent of a modern-day astronaut.

I mean, that thing is wearing a helmet.

There is some type of a mouthpiece.

And on his chest are some type of, uh,

controls or a breathing apparatus.

How is this possible 1,500 years ago?

And in Colombia, there were thousands

of tomb artifacts that look like modern-day airplanes.

It has fixed wings.

It has a fuselage.

And it has an upright tailfin,

which is not intrinsic to nature.

But it is intrinsic to modern-day aerodynamics.

Did our ancestors see something similar flying in the air?

Absolutely.

Another compelling artifact that was found

was at the Istanbul Museum

where you have this headless spaceman

sitting inside some type of a space vehicle.

You can see his hands and you can see tubing

that go to some sort of devices.

He's wearing a suit.

His legs are crammed in there.

I mean, even to the untrained eye,

this looks very aerodynamic.

And it looks something that, you know,

came from outer space.

NOORY: These people witnessed something.

They were told something.

And they tried to depict it the best way they could

with the kind of technology they had at the time.

And that was simple tools and simple artwork.

Many of these ancient civilizations

were widely separated in space and time.

They weren't in communication with each other,

but still, they have the same kinds of accounts.

I think it's because they all experienced these things.

And they all have the idea

that we're part of a cosmic hierarchy of beings.

So, I think we can't explain things away so easily.

NARRATOR: But for Erich von Däniken

and other proponents of his ancient astronaut theories,

perhaps the most significant illustration

can be found in Mexico.

The Mayan archaeological site of Palenque

had been abandoned for centuries before it was stumbled upon

by Spanish explorers.

CHILDRESS: So we get to the top of this,

and suddenly, here are the great pyramids of Palenque.

NARRATOR: Here, deep within a secret tomb,

under one of the age-old temples,

lies the seven-ton sarcophagus

of Palenque's 7th-century ruler,

Pakal the Great.

CHILDRESS: Lord Pakal apparently died here at Palenque.

He was apparently this mysterious Mayan leader.

He was a giant.

Seven or eight feet tall actually.

And then they built this pyramid around his tomb.

The Mayans literally worshipped him

as-as some kind of a god.

NARRATOR: King Pakal's sarcophagus is adorned with a carving

that has become a famous example of classic Mayan art.

Most believe the illustration shows

Pakal descending into the Mayan underworld.

But ancient astronaut theorists interpret the carving

a vastly different way.

VON DÄNIKEN: On this slab,

an incredible chiseling.

You see a man

and he is sitting in a sort of capsule.

He has some sort of mask on his nose,

and you see his upper hand, he's manipulating some controls.

From the lower hand, he's turning something on.

The heel of his left foot is on a kind of pedal.

And outside of the capsule, you see a leaking flame.

This is incredible.

This is absolutely proof for extraterrestrials.

NASA CONTROL TOWER: Three, two, one, zero.

Liftoff!

MARTELL: If we look at the similarities

of what our astronauts look like when they are

in a rocket ship or in the space shuttle

and have gear attached to them,

there are similarities being shown.

So one just has to ask the question of, you know,

is this just an artifact symbolically showing something?

Or are they trying to depict

with their own limited understanding of the time

what was taking place?

CHILDRESS: Was Lord Pakal just some Mayan king that everyone liked?

Was he some important visitor from some far-off land?

Or was he even possibly

some extraterrestrial from another planet?

NARRATOR: Although most scientists and archaeologists discredit

Von Däniken's interpretation of the Palenque carvings,

visitors to the site are

often treated to stories

and offered souvenirs that support his claim.

This is Erich Von Däniken's theory,

the chariots of the gods, no?

You see Pakal is supposed to be driving the rocket,

holding the controls,

the pedals, the engine,

and the fire of the rocket.

This will be the cabin, no?

And this is the oxygen.

Mainstream archaeologists claim that it's really a depiction

of Lord Pakal and his journey to the underworld.

He's going under the ground, rather than out into space.

Both are interesting theories,

and, uh, either could be right in my mind.

NARRATOR: In recent years,

Pakal's tomb has been closed to tourists

and casual visitors.

Although the sarcophagus is off-limits,

ancient astronaut theorists can

still find a wealth of evidence

in the carvings along the walls of Palenque.

CHILDRESS: This is very similar to what's

on the lid of Lord Pakal, of his tomb.

Uh, the way he's got his left hand right here

in a-- like an odd position and his wrist.

Also, some kind

of rocket exhaust or something is coming out of him.

NARRATOR: But Lord Pakal may not have been the only alien

who once walked the Palenque ruins.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Chicago, Illinois.

Housed here, in the Newberry Library,

is the Mayan manuscript known as the Popol Vuh.

Literally translated as The Book of the People,

it is a collection of Maya oral histories

passed on through the ages.

Written in the mid-16th century,

this incredible book encompasses a range of subjects,

including those involving Mayan creation myths.

INGA CALVIN: The Popol Vuh talks about the creation of the universe.

It talks about the fact

that in the beginning, all was darkness,

there was a primordial sea.

And then these creators-- male and female--

spoke the word and with the word,

the Earth was created and animals were created.

♪ ♪

It's sort of like the combination

of the Book of Genesis

and the Book of Chronicles in the Bible.

It's the story of battles between the gods

and then it connects the creation of the world

with the present day through the kings of K'iche'.

It's really the only complete Maya creation myth that we have.

PHILIP COPPENS: What they were saying was that a framework was created.

That certain deities manifested themselves

physically and made decisions

as to what was going to happen.

In the case of the Mayans, this was the choice

as to where the Mayans were going to live,

as well as the selection of certain sacred sites.

NARRATOR: Throughout the ancient world,

there have been numerous similar myths of otherworldly beings

coming to Earth and interacting

with some of the earliest humans.

Most mainstream historians believe

these stories represent

only religious and spiritual beliefs.

But is it possible,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

that the Popol Vuh, as well as other ancient creation tales,

represents actual evidence of contact

with extraterrestrials in the distant past?

According to the translations of hieroglyphs

found at numerous ancient Mayan cities,

Kukulkan or the Great Feathered Serpent was the god

who brought knowledge to the Maya.

When we talk about the Mayan gods,

we know that their most important god to them was

the plumed serpent, or Kukulkan.

We see his image all across the Mayan world.

We see it on great carved images on stone.

Kukulkan is often depicted as a plumed serpent,

some would say a dragon, or a snake with wings.

That leads some to believe that Kukulkan may have

descended from the sky.

VON DÄNIKEN: Now the Maya were living in the jungle.

The Mayan knew that the snake could not fly.

But this snake, this serpent, could fly.

The oldest Maya histories tell that Kukulkan was

the teacher of young Maya.

He had chosen eight boys in the age between seven and 12.

And he teached these eight boys in mathematics,

in astronomy, in all kind of science.

And later, Kukulkan disappeared

with the promise that he will return in the faraway future.

These boys had become the first priests

and the first teachers again for the Maya.

♪ ♪

HUGH NEWMAN: Some of the legends state

that he appeared along the gulf coast on a raft of serpents,

and he spread his high knowledge

through that part of the country.

Even today,

in some of the Mayan cultures,

he's revered as this great god

that brought all these teachings

and civilization to their part of the world.

And yet no one knows who he was or where he came from.

NARRATOR: Strangely,

depictions of a winged serpent god can be found

all around the ancient world.

In India, the epic text, the Mahabharata details

the ancient account of sky beings known as Nagas.

Dating as far back as 2500 BC,

the half-human and half-serpent entities look

nearly identical to the Mayan Kukulkan.

And ancient Chinese mythology from the fifth millennium BC

describe flying dragons that are eerily similar

to the serpent god depicted in Mesoamerica.

ANDREW COLLINS: To the peoples that preceded the Inca in Peru,

similar ideas were put upon characters like Quetzalcóatl,

the feathered serpent, who was this wisdom bringer

sometimes said to have come down from the-the sky world,

and once again bringing the rudiments

of civilization to the peoples of Central America.

HAWKES: There is a common thread

among many ancient cultures of the Americas

when it comes to a plumed serpent god.

The Cherokee, for example, believe that time,

their calendar, is based upon a rattlesnake

that they can see in the night sky,

uh, perhaps a constellation.

So the idea of a serpent or a snake,

or a dragon is common among many ancient cultures,

and not just the Maya or the Mesoamericans.

COPPENS: The snake is the giver of wisdom

in so many cultures.

And it gives the tools of civilization,

working with metals, working with other instruments,

certain knowledge, certain aspects of life,

and that it really gives this knowledge to certain people,

and that he places these people in a position,

whereby from their social position,

they are able to give this to the rest of their culture.

All these cultures were

far apart from each other,

sometimes by thousands and thousands of miles.

So, how is it possible that all these societies came up

with not similar but identical stories?

Was it really flying snakes or gods that were snakes?

Of course not. It was misunderstood technology.

Some types of vehicles were witnessed

that descended from the sky

out of which people came, astronauts

that instructed people

of different cultures and different societies

in certain scientific disciplines.

This is not coincidence.

This is evidence for ancient alien encounters

in the remote past.

There is no other way.

NARRATOR: Can the ancient creation myths

and legends of flying serpent gods

really be interpreted

as factual accounts of extraterrestrial visitors,

as ancient astronaut theorists contend?

And if so,

might such celestial travelers have given the Maya

both the tools and the knowledge

to help advance their civilization?

Perhaps further evidence can be found halfway around the world

within the extraordinary accounts of the Greek gods.

♪ ♪

One of the things I love when watching

some of the earliest episodes of Ancient Aliens

is that they feature our good friend and colleague

and one of my closest friends, Philip Coppens,

who unfortunately passed away in 2012.

But he was an invaluable contributor to the series

because not only was he a prolific author,

but he was also an impeccable researcher

and the broad knowledge that he had of the topic.

I mean, we were really lucky to have him

with us on Ancient Aliens.

Absolutely, Giorgio, I mean, it's really great

-to see him in these early episodes. -Right.

POPE: It really is, yes. Now, you know,

as someone whose area of expertise

is the modern UFO phenomenon, it's been fascinating for me

to be involved with Ancient Aliens

and to hear these stories from hundreds

or even thousands of years ago,

describing encounters that sound very similar

to today's UFO sightings.

TSOUKALOS: You're right, Nick. In fact, as you know,

my dad is Greek, so I grew up reading

and hearing a lot about ancient Greek mythology.

And in those accounts, you have countless examples

of the Greeks interacting with the so-called gods.

And those gods not only imparted wisdom,

but also shared their incredible technology.

When I hear you say technology of the gods,

what I think I also really hear you saying

is technology from extraterrestrials.

Right.

NARRATOR: Greece, the Island of Crete.

On the Lassithi Plateau,

over half a mile above sea level,

lies the Dikteon Cave.

This sprawling complex of caverns

stretches nearly one and a half square miles.

And archaeological finds have shown a human presence

dating as far back as 6,000 years ago.

Historians believe the first inhabitants of the area

actually lived inside the cave,

and according to legend, its many chambers

were once home to an otherworldly being:

Zeus, the Greek god of thunder.

(thunder crashing)

In Greek mythology,

Zeus is the son of Cronus,

the king of the first generation of gods

known as the Titans.

Zeus's father Cronus is not particularly excited

about giving birth to a child because he's heard a prophecy

that one of his children is going to overthrow him.

So, just as soon as his children are born,

he just swallows them all down.

Now, his mother Rhea, who's Cronus's wife,

is distraught about this.

So what she does is substitute a rock

that she's wrapped up in swaddling clothes,

gives it to Cronus, which he swallows down.

And what she does is hide Zeus away in a cave.

So, he grows up there.

NARRATOR: In theogony, the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod

describes the cave Zeus was hidden in

as lying in these very mountains,

and specifically, near the city of Lyktos,

the location of the Dikteon Cave.

But the similarities between this cave

and the cave of Zeus described in Greek mythology

go much further.

COPPENS: The ancients say

that when they are talking about mythology,

it is about unrecorded events of their past.

According to the Greek myths, the child Zeus was nourished

on a mixture of honey and milk at the udder of the goat.

Now around 1900 AD,

a chamber in the Dikteon Cave was identified by locals

as the birthplace of Zeus.

And when archaeologists went in there,

they discovered an altar with the remains

of numerous religious offerings,

amongst them, honey and goat milk.

These remains date back 4,000 years, to the exact period

in which the ancient Greek stories took place.

The question is, is this once again a coincidence

that modern excavations found remains in this cave

that match up with what's written in Greek mythology?

NARRATOR: Also found in the Dikteon Cave

were numerous artifacts dating back

to what would have been the time of Zeus's childhood,

according to the Greek stories.

Among them was a fragmentary inscription bearing a hymn,

a hymn dedicated specifically to Zeus.

Could the Dikteon Cave really be the cave described in theogony?

And if actual locations

from Greek mythology really do exist,

could legendary characters and events

also be based on historical fact?

We think of mythology as something

which has been invented.

(thunder crashing)

But really, when we look at the ancient Greeks,

they believe that the war of the Titans

physically happened, that this was a war

which was fought in heaven, by the deities.

(screaming)

NARRATOR: In Greek mythology, the War of the Titans

is a celestial battle waged by Zeus and his siblings--

known as the Olympians--

against their father Cronus and the Titans.

The Olympians, who are the victors in this battle,

were the gods worshipped by the ancient Greeks.

But according to ancient astronaut theorists,

these humanlike beings

may have been something other than divine,

and this mythical war may have been

an actual historical event.

To support this claim, they point to the existence

of similar myths and stories

told by different cultures throughout the world.

When it comes to warring parties of gods,

Greece is not a stand-alone issue.

We have the same thing in Ragnarok.

In Norwegian mythology, we have this idea

that the gods fought amongst themselves as well.

We also have stories from Sumerian,

Babylonian, Hittite accounts

where it says that the wars were fought between gods.

We see the same story of Titans

being overthrown by a new set of gods

in the Sumerian epics of the Anunnaki coming here

as the original culture in ancient Iraq.

So, these similarities tell of a warring race of beings

that squabbled amongst themselves

about the rights of various areas on the Earth.

NARRATOR: What can explain the similarities

of these ancient war stories

that emerged from all over the world?

Could they all be describing the same historical events?

And if there is an historical basis

for the legends and stories,

what does that suggest about the incredible powers

and weaponry supposedly possessed by the gods?

It's very possible that the clash of the Titans

known from the Greek times

is actually speaking of a much earlier epoch

of extraterrestrials having a type of battle.

HENRY: The ancient Greek gods had helmets

that made them invisible.

They had breastplates that made them impervious

to their enemies' weapons.

They had tridents that shot thunderbolts.

(thunder crashes)

They had winged sandals

that gave them the power of flight.

These are all profound examples of an ancient alien technology

that the Greek gods possessed.

NARRATOR: If mythical gods and monsters really did exist, were they,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

extraterrestrial beings?

♪ ♪

Now, you know, in addition to the stories

of the Greeks that we've covered,

you find stories of humans living alongside

technologically advanced extraterrestrials

all around the world.

You see it, for example, in ancient Hindu texts.

I mean, most definitely, there's roughly still a billion Hindus

in the world today that study and read

these ancient Sanskrit texts.

And to them, they're not just stories,

-it's their actual history. -Right.

NARRATOR: India.

Covering over 1.2 million square miles,

it is the world's seventh largest country,

and with 1.3 billion people,

it is the second most populated.

(bells ringing)

Roughly 80% of the Indian population practices Hinduism,

the world's oldest surviving religion

that dates back to at least 2000 BC.

And for the Hindu faithful,

their gods are not mythological,

but are real beings, that have at times

been present here on Earth.

YOUNG: These many gods and goddesses have different stories

and different energies and different principles

that they represent.

For many of the Hindu faithful, the gods are absolutely real.

They exist physically,

although they may not always be visible.

In general, compared to Western belief systems,

the tangible reality of the gods is much stronger in India.

I've grown up as a Hindu, in a strict Hindu family,

so I know all the Vedas and epics.

You know, I've read them hundreds of times.

Hindus believe that the gods came down from the sky.

DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: Hindus believe that

these stories are not simply myth.

They are historical records,

because they are actually called Itihasa.

Itihasa meaning history.

NARRATOR: Thousands of depictions of the Hindu gods

can be found throughout India,

carved into temples,

painted on ancient rock walls,

and in the form of giant statues

that dominate the landscape.

And even greater is the sheer number

of these sky gods that make up the Hindu pantheon.

SHIMKHADA: There are

333 million gods in Hinduism.

They are divided into two realms:

A higher realm

and then the lower realm.

And the devas are not immortal beings.

You obviously have a lot of power,

more power than ordinary human beings.

NARRATOR: While in the Judeo-Christian tradition,

God is depicted as an all-powerful being,

in the Vedic texts,

Hindu gods often rely on the use of technology.

This has led ancient astronaut theorists

to pose the question:

Is it possible that these religious texts

describe not only encounters with the divine,

but also with extraterrestrial beings?

The Western mindset is different from that of India,

where they accept the idea of extraterrestrial beings.

The Hindu story of the Mahabharata

is loaded with references to

what seems to be extraterrestrial technology.

You've got flying vehicles,

you've got weapons that are voice activated,

and you have destructions of civilizations

by what seems like nuclear detonation.

VON DÄNIKEN: In the Mahabharata,

there, they write that one day,

gigantic cities surrounded the Earth.

They did not have a word for "spaceship" at that time.

They say, "cities."

And they make clear difference

that these cities were in the firmament,

not in heaven.

And small vehicles came down

from these cities on the firmament.

The old Indians called these vehicles "vimanas."

And out of the vimanas, the teachers came out.

No doubt, we were visited

by extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Is the Hindu tradition a story

of extraterrestrial visitation?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest that this was orchestrated

by an otherworldly being known in Hinduism as Lord Shiva.

Shiva is a member

of the Hindu trinity of major gods:

Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara.

Maheshwara is another name for Shiva.

SHIMKHADA: Shiva is also called Mahadeva.

Mahadeva means "great god."

So, he is god of gods.

He's the head of all gods,

and he's also the most powerful god.

Shiva has a dual function.

One of his functions is destruction.

The other one is creation.

Without destruction, there is no creation.

NARRATOR: Depictions of Shiva embody this idea

of destruction and creation.

Shiva is most often shown

holding a drum called a damaru,

which he used to create the universe.

Around his neck is a cobra poised to strike.

In one hand, Shiva holds a powerful

trident-like weapon of destruction

called the trishula,

and in the center of his forehead,

he has a third eye.

Shiva is the only god that has, uh,

depicted with third eye.

If his third eye opens, a very powerful light, uh,

fire emits from his third eye,

and anything that it sees, it destroys totally.

Usually, when you talk about the third eye,

it's about enlightenment.

And then there's this other third eye,

this third eye that was able to annihilate things.

I don't think they're the same thing.

So, the question is, what was it?

And what was Shiva?

Shiva appeared at a very crucial time

when two gods, Brahma is a creator,

and Vishnu, the preserver,

were debating who is greater.

All of a sudden, this blinding light,

a shaft of light appeared

that has no end or beginning.

And then this voice came out of this light,

said that, "I am the greatest.

I am the greatest god there is."

TSOUKALOS: Shiva is almost always surrounded by some type of

a circular structure with flames.

Now, what did our human ancestor artists

try to depict here?

Was he, perhaps, inside some type of a fiery craft?

It is possible that Shiva

is the same extraterrestrial

that other cultures call by different names.

Enki, Odin, Zeus, Viracocha,

Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan.

NARRATOR: The earliest Vedic texts

were first written roughly 4,000 years ago,

but Hindus claim that the stories originated

hundreds, and perhaps even thousands, of years earlier,

existing as part of an oral tradition

passed down from one generation to the next.

Might the gods found in these accounts

be the same beings described by other cultures?

Perhaps further evidence can be found by examining

the ancient cuneiform tablets

of the world's first known civilization.

♪ ♪

We've been talking about gods and extraterrestrials,

but some of the very earliest accounts

of celestial visitors come from

the first civilization on Earth, the Sumerians.

I mean, to me, it's mind-blowing that 5,000 years ago,

they referenced these Anunnaki coming down

-from the sky. -Right, and "Anunnaki" means,

"those who from the heavens came."

So, the Sumerians actually told us

that somebody descended from the sky

to impart knowledge.

And in our opinion, those were physical beings.

And if you really think about it, they had human flaws.

In fact, they fought with each other

just like humans.

And they had a technology.

NARRATOR: Northern Iraq.

Along the east bank of the Tigris river,

opposite the city of Mosul,

lie the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh,

a place originally inhabited by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia.

Here, in 1842,

British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard

unearthed the ruins of the great library of Ashurbanipal,

a royal archive containing thousands of clay tablets

with cuneiform inscriptions.

Dating to 3000 BC,

the messages carved into stone

are considered to be the world's first written accounts.

Sumerian tablets are probably one of the oldest form

of written record that we have.

They've been translated, and they tell exciting stories

about how gods intermingled with human beings,

and actually had a hand in the creation of human beings.

Whether or not it's just mythology

or if it's fact, no one really knows.

NARRATOR: According to interpretations of the Sumerian tablets,

the gods were called the Anunnaki.

What we're looking at here is a Sumerian tablet

that actually shows the tree of life

flanked by divine beings.

You can see here the Anunnaki on each side.

We also see the winged disc,

a symbolic reference that the Anunnaki

had the power of flight.

They actually had necklaces with

astronomical references, a moon, a star,

various symbols, which even could be symbolized

as a wristwatch.

Technology being used 6,000 years ago.

NARRATOR: The written accounts etched into stone

suggest the Anunnaki were giant beings,

standing eight feet tall,

who came to Earth in search of gold

for their home planet.

MARTELL: When the Sumerian gods,

the Anunnaki, realized the toll it was taking

to mine the gold themselves,

they decided to fashion a worker being,

a slave to mine the gold for them.

And they explain in the Sumerian creation tales

that this was an arduous process.

So, it's very possible that our genetic evolution

was a process done by the Anunnaki

to create us in their image and after their likeness.

They created man,

according to the Sumerian texts.

They created Adam and Eve.

How interesting that the Bible will echo the story

but talk about it in terms of "God."

NICK REDFERN: It's almost like these highly advanced creatures

were acting as teachers.

And certainly, Sumerian culture and mythology

is full of stories of, you know,

receiving visitations from these mysterious higher entities

that, you know, bestowed wisdom,

and fantastic ideas and concepts.

And, you know, you have to wonder,

is this just down to myth or was somebody coming down

and really trying to give us a-a push, if you like?

NARRATOR: Ancient chronicles of sky beings creating human life

are common in early cultures found all over the world.

But while mainstream scholars often dismiss this evidence,

might such tangible historical accounts

provide proof of alien intervention in man's evolution,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

The Sumerians are not the only culture that talks about this.

Also, in the Koran, it says that language

was given to us by Allah, or God.

The Maya Popol Vuh says that language

was given to us by the gods.

The ancient Egyptian texts are saying the exact same thing.

It doesn't matter what ancient culture we look at,

they all say the same,

that language was a gift from the gods.

We should finally come to grips with the idea

that extraterrestrials had something to do

with our development.

NARRATOR: Prior to the use of early systems of writing,

ancient people carved symbolic communication

into stone called petroglyphs,

the oldest date to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

petroglyphs located in the American Southwest

link the prehistoric ancestors

of the Zuni and Hopi tribes with star beings.

(speaking foreign language)

(translated): The first graphic expressions

by humans were petroglyphs.

That means symbols or figures scratched into stone.

The Hopi Indians, for example, scratched petroglyphs

into their rock faces that show people

with radiating wreaths, gods that descend from the sky.

The Hopi Indians say that these beings are kachinas,

beings from space, who came to earth in aircraft,

who were not gods, but who brought them knowledge

from another planet.

We have the same phenomenon in Europe in Val Camonica.

We have it in Asia. We have it in Brazil.

When we look at the fact that, all around the world,

we hear similar legends of people from the stars

coming down and having a profound impact on the people

of this country or that particular culture,

all embroiled in similar time frames,

you know, we're seeing a pattern developing,

and it's difficult to dismiss that that pattern is suggestive.

In our ancient past, creatures came down, interacted with us,

and maybe manipulated us to become the people we are today.

NOORY: Why are so many past civilizations

all saying similar things?

I think the simple answer is,

is that the same thing happened, and they know the story.

And the story is that extraterrestrials

came to this planet,

genetically made and manipulated

whatever creatures were here at the time

and helped jump-start society.

The bottom line is

every civilization talks about the existence of man

through the eyes of a god,

and if you think of the eyes of the god as ETs,

it all makes sense.

Back then, this was the way they communicated

events that were significant to them.

And so, when we have this imagery

of the so-called star people on petroglyphs

and things like that,

they're clearly chronicling something real--

to my mind at least-- that occurred in their history.

The big question is: what?

♪ ♪

After nearly 300 episodes of the series Ancient Aliens

and all the evidence that's been presented,

I feel like people are finally becoming convinced

that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth

for thousands of years.

But then, the question I'm often asked is, why?

Well, that's the big question, isn't it?

Now, we can only speculate,

but it seems to me that

if extraterrestrials meant us any harm,

they could've wiped us out long ago.

Oh, absolutely.

And, you know, according to the ancient astronaut theory,

these star gods or visitors from the sky,

have been interacting with our ancestors

for thousands of years, and deliberately.

Which means, they want us to succeed.

In fact, we've covered this ages ago

in episode three of Ancient Aliens, called "The Mission."

NARRATOR: According to the ancient astronaut theory,

aliens may have come to Earth for many reasons: to excavate,

to breed, to conquer, or simply to explore.

MATTHEW DOWD: Certainly, we want to go out

and find out about things we don't know about.

We see the Moon, we want to go up to the Moon

and find out more things about it.

We see Mars, we want to go there. We want to go to Jupiter,

we send out our probes.

So, if aliens are something like us,

then perhaps, they have that same kind of motivation.

They just want to go learn.

Just like we exhibit curiosity, there are other species

out there that have the same trait.

It would be very egotistical to think

that we're the only explorers in this galaxy.

I mean, that would be a very sad statement

to suggest we're the only ones with a brain

and want to go out there and explore.

NARRATOR: But while our own journeys into space have been brief

and largely exploratory,

could other beings, traveling millions of miles to Earth,

have stayed?

And, if so, might they still be among us?

CHILDRESS: Many, uh, ancient astronaut theorists think

this all happened in the past,

and the-the extraterrestrials

came here, did this, and did that,

and then they took off back to their own planet.

But there's a lot of evidence to show

that, uh, extraterrestrials

who might've come here in the past,

they've never left.

They have bases somewhere on the planet

underneath the oceans, inside mountains.

In South America there is very strong beliefs

that many UFOs come out of lakes and underwater.

And the-- Lake Titicaca

and other lakes in Peru and Bolivia

and other areas of South America

have some kind of underground,

underwater alien base associated with them.

HOWE: Today, we are living still,

as if we are alone in the universe,

while hundreds and thousands of people

are seeing unusual craft in the skies,

as they did 5,000 years ago.

And so, in a way, the idea

that the ancient aliens

would finally be coming around full circle,

all the way into the 21st century...

It's trying to push open a truth

that governments have suppressed

in the 20th century, is really very ironic.

NARRATOR: There are many diverse and conflicting theories

concerning the idea that alien astronauts

have been visiting the Earth for centuries.

But perhaps the proof lies in the most obvious place of all:

right within ourselves.

VON DÄNIKEN: Somewhere in our genes, it is coded

that extraterrestrials were here thousands of years ago.

And it takes a certain time

before this message is open to us, maybe in the brain.

NOORY: I don't believe extraterrestrials,

ETs, ancient astronauts are the missing link.

I think what they very well could be,

they may be the beginning of the link.

The link that helped genetically alter human beings.

The link that jump-started our civilization,

the way we are today.

It's very possible they came down here and saw some creature,

and they said, "You know what? We're gonna jump-start this."

It may take another ten million years

for this thing to become smart and intelligent.

So, they created us.

And we're smart and intelligent now, aren't we?

If they've been coming here in the past

for thousands of years, where are they now?

It makes me wonder what types of interactions

-we're gonna be having in the future. -Right, and you know,

what's so fascinating is the fact

that, in the great majority of ancient accounts of these gods,

they all promised that they would return.

I think there are two ways to look at it, you--

either a literal return,

that they came, they left, they're coming back.

Or the idea that they never really left,

so the return then means something else.

It probably means a sort of open display. "Here we are."

Right, let's face it, they could be so advanced that

they could be sitting right here,

and they're invisible to us,

whether it's a different vibration,

different dimension, or something like that

and that is exactly why some people might even argue

that they've never left.

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