Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Massive standing stones

that track celestial events.

Prehistoric structures aligned to the same constellations.

And entire ancient cities that seem to mirror the stars.

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.

Why would the ancestors, all around the world

align their temples with particular star systems?

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.

♪ ♪

Our ancestors clearly had

a deep relationship with the stars.

They used them to harvest.

They used them to navigate.

But they also talked about

encounters of visitors

from the stars, who helped them jump-start civilization.

Yeah, and it's fascinating to think

that even today we're using

the stars to try to date these civilizations

based on these ancient alignments.

-Right. -HENRY: Right. I mean

it was only in the 1990s

that Robert Bauval first observed that

the three pyramids of Giza in Egypt are

in perfect alignment

with the three belt stars of Orion

at a very specific date in ancient times.

We covered this in just the third episode

of Ancient Aliens, "The Mission."

NARRATOR: The stars.

Since the beginning of time,

man has gazed in wonder at the night sky.

Stars became the stuff of legends,

home of the gods,

and sometimes man's final resting place.

It is no surprise then,

that ancient man built monuments

dedicated to these celestial wonders.

When we look at ancient monuments around the world,

these megalithic structures,

we find that many of them are

aligned astronomically...

...to the sun, to planets, to stars.

Numerous examples can be listed.

Stonehenge is essentially

an ancient astronomical observatory.

Yes, it may have been used for ritualistic purposes.

It may have been used for religious purposes.

But it's very clear that it was also used

for astronomical purposes, for observations.

We're not surprised whether it's Stonehenge,

pyramids, or perhaps the Nazca lines,

that ancient people understood

events that were going to happen

in the sky and when they would repeat.

NARRATOR: But why was ancient man so fixated on the sky?

And why did they construct elaborate stone monuments

and temples in order to track the movements of the stars?

Was it simply to help farmers know when to plant their crops?

Or might there have been another,

perhaps more profound purpose?

Could they, as some believe, have been constructed

as a type of extraterrestrial GPS system?

Nabta Playa, Egypt.

500 miles south of Cairo,

in Egypt's Nubian Desert,

sits one of the oldest astronomical sites

ever discovered.

In 1974,

archaeologist Fred Wendorf almost passed it by

before noticing its small tone artifacts

and toppled rocks.

ROBERT BAUVAL: It's a very intriguing site. It's just...

strange stone formations.

Circles.

Uh, stone alignments.

Bizarre tribalized with, with strange rocks around it.

NARRATOR: Later excavations put the date

of the astronomical device at approximately 5000 BC,

making it close to 1,000 years older

than the remarkably similar formation at Stonehenge.

BAUVAL: When they brought an astronomer there,

they realized that it was a ceremonial site,

very intensely astronomical.

The intriguing thing about this site is that it shows

that they were tracking stars over thousands of years.

And to track stars over that period,

they must've have been aware of what we call precession,

which means they weren't-- they weren't simply

astronomers or ancient astronomers.

They were very sophisticated astronomers.

NARRATOR: Could the people who built Nabta Playa 7,000 years ago

have possessed an advanced understanding

of physics and astronomy,

one that rivals or perhaps, surpasses our own?

And why were they tracking Orion and Sirius?

In 1994, the mystery of Nabta Playa

took on even greater significance

when Robert Bauval announced a surprising discovery

along Egypt's Giza Plateau.

The Great Pyramid contained four long interior shafts.

Bauval determined that they were each precisely aligned

with specific stars in the sky.

BAUVAL: The southern ones aligned to the belt of Orion,

and Sirius,

and the northern ones aligned to the second polestars.

Again, this is very intriguing.

In terms of construction engineering,

that's-that's bull's-eye.

As an engineer, I know

that it's one thing building a pyramid.

But it's another thing building a pyramid

with that kind of precision.

NARRATOR: Bauval also proved

that the three pyramids of Giza

were laid out in the precise order and position

of the three stars of the Orion's Belt constellation.

But what exactly is the significance

of the shaft alignment and the layout

of the pyramids themselves?

BAUVAL: I mean, we're deciphering a message.

The question is whether it is religious

or whether it is a stellar message.

The fact is that what we have on the ground

is an image of a constellation

that we know now is the birthplace of stars.

Literally stars are being born in there.

And the Egyptians themselves believed that their gods

had descended from the stars.

GEORGE NOORY: That could be either a knowledge of ancient astronomy

or it could also be a roadmap

to where these ETs may have come from.

NARRATOR: But why were the ancients so fixated

on the Orion and Sirius constellations?

Some believe the answer can be found

on the other side of the world,

in North America.

Cholula, Mexico is home

to the largest pyramid in the world.

More than 3,000 years old,

it is estimated that it took approximately

1,400 years to complete.

TSOUKALOS: Even though the Cholula Pyramid doesn't look like much

because of the overgrown vegetation,

it is in fact the world's largest monument

ever constructed by human hands.

In fact, the volume of the Cholula Pyramid,

the whole pyramid complex,

is 4.45 million cubic meters.

The Great Pyramid in Egypt only has

2.5 million cubic meters in volume.

So, the Great Pyramid at Giza

is way taller than the Cholula Pyramid,

but volume-wise, the Cholula Pyramid

is by far the largest man-made structure

ever created on planet Earth.

NARRATOR: Originally built by the Olmecs in the third century BC,

the pyramid was later added onto and used

by the Toltecs and the Aztecs

as a place of religious ritual and human sacrifice.

But along with its history of bloodshed,

an examination of the pyramid

reveals that the ancient cultures of the region

had a remarkable understanding of astronomy.

MICHAEL CREMO: It's interesting to consider

what the Aztec people thought about its origins.

They did not think it was built by humans,

like us, which is our theory today.

According to the ancient Aztec tradition,

the Cholula Pyramid was built

by a being they called a giant.

If you look at the Aztec cosmology,

you'll see that these giant beings

were identified with different celestial objects.

The one in particular

that is said to have built the Cholula Pyramid

is identified with the planet Venus.

NARRATOR: Both the Aztecs and the ancient Egyptians

charted most of the planets in the solar system

thousands of years before European astronomers.

But why?

And even more compelling is the fact

that the two cultures were thousands of miles

and half a world apart.

CHILDRESS: Mainstream archaeologists are telling us

that all of these civilizations around the world,

in the Americas, on remote Pacific islands,

in Asia and Africa and Europe,

that they're all disconnected with each other

and that there wasn't some contact

with South America and Egypt,

or any of these ancient civilizations.

But really, it has to be the other way around.

All of these ancient civilizations

were connected in some way.

NARRATOR: But were these holy sites,

as ancient astronaut proponents suggest,

really connected to each other?

And if so, why?

Are they evidence of aliens...

coming to Earth?

If you want to talk about celestial alignments,

-you have to talk about Stonehenge. -Right.

It's one of the oldest structures on the planet,

and the more we learn about it,

the more evident it becomes

it has this connection to the stars.

Yeah, and if you're looking at Stonehenge from above,

it even looks like it's a replica of our solar system.

Right. And the only way

people from thousands of years ago

could've known what our solar system looks like

is if extraterrestrials told them so.

NARRATOR: Stonehenge, England.

Here, on the Salisbury Plain in the county of Wiltshire

stands the most sophisticated

prehistoric stone circle in the world.

According to radiocarbon dating,

this striking arrangement of monoliths

was placed on this wide plain in Southern England

more than 4,000 years ago.

Consisting of more than 100 stone blocks,

the monoliths create a larger structure

known as a megalith.

There is a period in time, several thousand years ago,

which is known as the megalithic time.

And it is defined by the fact that our ancestors,

pretty much in every part of civilization,

began to build with gigantic stones.

ALAN BUTLER: These cultures, which were known as megalithic cultures,

are something of a mystery to us.

We have to ask ourselves, why all of a sudden, virtually,

human beings across a broad stretch of Europe and Asia

suddenly started to prize large pieces of rock free,

drag them around the landscape,

and then piling them up

in very exotic and unusual ways?

NARRATOR: Stonehenge, the world's most famous megalithic structure,

derives its name from the material used to construct it,

and also from the term "henge,"

which refers to a circular or oval-shaped bank

that surrounds a central flat area.

Stonehenge, it's just 25%

of the original monument.

75% has been destroyed forever.

Originally, they had 60 huge blocks

that formed a perfect circle.

The question is, who was able to move them

and what was the purpose?

NARRATOR: Although the specific origin of the site

has eluded researchers for centuries,

the physical construction of Stonehenge

is believed to have taken place in different stages

over a period of several thousands of years.

It's now believed the very first part of Stonehenge

is three great wooden postholes,

which are now in the car park

and there's blobs of paint on them.

These are dated to at least 10,000 years old.

The next phase of construction at Stonehenge

was around 3200 to 3400 BC,

where they built the great earthen henge

and there was just a couple of stones there.

Then a few hundred years later, they brought in the blue stones.

And these are the ones that were brought over 100 miles away

from the Preseli Mountains in Wales.

The major monoliths there, the great Sarsen stones,

they were brought from much closer,

about 20 miles away.

But then, some of them weigh up to 50 tons.

NARRATOR: Multi-ton stones being carved from the landscape

and transported distances of up to 100 miles.

Is it really possible that a prehistoric people

could accomplish such an enormous

and seemingly impossible task?

The theories really range from

they either used rollers and tree trunks...

...which is kind of unlikely when you look

at some of the terrain they would've had to go through.

There have been teams of Brits

who have tried to recapitulate these things.

How did they get them across the rivers

between Wales and Stonehenge?

How did they go up and down through valleys and over hills?

BUTLER: One explanation associated with Stonehenge

dates back to the Arthurian legend.

And the legend says that, um, the stones at Stonehenge

were brought from Ireland by Merlin,

who was King Arthur's magician.

NEWMAN: Merlin was said to transport the stones

by levitating them and pushing them along...

...just with his bare hands, all the way across the landscape

from Wales to Stonehenge.

The great 20th-century French philosopher and historian,

Jean Marcel, wrote over 40 books

on the life of Merlin and Arthur and the Celtic traditions.

And Marcel was adamant that Merlin was a real person.

He was also adamant that Merlin was an incredibly powerful

otherworldly being who was here to teach us to move beyond

the human restrictions and boundaries.

(thunder crashes)

NARRATOR: Could the legend of Merlin

really be proof of contact with extraterrestrial entities

in the ancient past?

And that they provided advanced technology

to help transport and place the monoliths?

If so, why would stone be the ideal material

needed to construct the site?

BUTLER: Probably it was worth using as a medium

if you wanted to impress the gods.

Because it was quite likely that people saw stone

as being synonymous with gods,

because it seemed to them to last forever.

TOK THOMPSON: If they're gonna build a monument

to provide a testament to how long-lived their culture is,

stones are the best way to go.

Stones were recognized to have very spectacular properties

of toughness, of hardness...

...and some of them, other properties

such as quartz crystals, which we see

with a particular use in a lot of these cultures.

EVANS: The blue stones that create

the outer and inner circle of Stonehenge

contain quartz crystal.

The properties of those stones have been found

to have effects on the human body,

to impart vibration

and beneficial effects to the holder of those stones,

to have healing properties.

CHILDRESS: And in fact, it's often been said

Stonehenge was some healing place

where people came and, uh,

with their ailments to be cured.

NARRATOR: For some researchers,

further clues to Stonehenge's extraterrestrial connection

can be found in one of the site's

most striking features:

the precise position and alignment

of each stone that makes up the megalith.

TSOUKALOS: Seen from the air,

Stonehenge is actually a replica of our solar system.

All those concentric circles,

they all represent one planet in our solar system.

How did they know this?

And according to the ancient texts

and the ancient traditions,

this knowledge was given to our ancestors

by none other than extraterrestrials, by the gods.

MIKE BARA: Some people think Stonehenge was some sort of calendar marker

so that ancient cultures could know

when was the right time to plant.

Other people think that it actually was

a-a celestial calendar that was designed

to show when we would pass through

certain very, very intense meteor streams.

OSMANAGICH: We know that through the position of different monoliths

they were able to watch the summer solstice,

the winter solstice,

even the movement of some star systems.

CHILDRESS: So, who was it then who needed

these astronomical calculations?

Would it be the extraterrestrials?

Or rather the priestly groups

that the extraterrestrials were cultivating here on Earth,

and training them to monitor

the stars and the heavens,

and the Moon and the eclipses?

NARRATOR: Is it really possible that otherworldly beings

designed Stonehenge so ancient man

could gather data about the stars?

If so, why?

And what was the ultimate purpose

behind obtaining this celestial knowledge?

NARRATOR: The Boyne River Valley...

...30 miles north of Dublin, Ireland.

Here, within this archaeological site,

lie the ruins of the Newgrange Passage Tomb,

built around 3150 BC.

This is Newgrange, which is Ireland's foremost monument

in terms of its mythical and historic significance.

It was constructed here by a community of farmers

and astronomers who inhabited this valley.

And together, they enshrined their spiritual

and scientific beliefs monumentally in stone.

NARRATOR: Constructed with over 200,000 tons of stone

quarried 75 miles away,

Newgrange is known as a passage tomb

because the enormous mound has one passageway

that leads to a centralized chamber

in which bone fragments have been found.

This is the central chamber

of Newgrange with its massive

corbelled ceiling, which has kept the chamber dry,

completely bone dry, for 5,000 years.

At the end of the chamber here, it opens up into this opening

with the three recesses and there are three

very large basin stones in each of the recesses.

And it was in these basins that the remains

of the dead would have been placed.

The amazing thing about Newgrange is

what they've managed to do with these giant stones is

create an opening in the chamber

which accepts sunlight on the dawn of the winter solstice.

NARRATOR: In fact, the structure's main chamber

remains in darkness except for one day

at winter solstice,

when the sunrise illuminates

the 60-foot-long passageway

and central chamber for a mere 17 minutes.

They saw the other world as lying amongst the stars,

and they believed that in placing the bones

of their deceased relatives in the chamber, that the souls

of the dead would be brought into the other world on the dawn

of the winter solstice when the light of the sun came in

and perhaps drew the spirit out into the other world.

NARRATOR: The remarkable layout of the tomb's ground plan

is an achievement many researchers believe could

only have been accomplished with advanced knowledge

of constellations.

The passage and chamber are cruciform in shape.

They're shaped like a cross,

which we think is very significant

because it seems to be based

on the shape of the constellation Cygnus,

which is the swan constellation of the sky.

Cygnus is one of the most important

constellations to the ancients.

We know it probably better as the Northern Cross.

And these set of stars seem to mark

where the Milky Way actually breaks into two.

And universally, for prehistoric societies

around the world, this point in the sky,

known as the Cygnus rift, has been seen as an entrance

and exit into some kind of sky world.

We call it heaven today,

and it was seen as the point in the sky

of cosmic creation.

NARRATOR: Is it possible the ancient people at Newgrange

received knowledge of our solar system

and distant galaxies from another,

more otherworldly source,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

And might the ancient builders have intentionally

left a code for future civilizations to decipher?

If so, what were they trying to tell us?

They were experts in astronomy.

Uh, they were also experts in building.

How they possessed both,

I find to be very uncanny.

Because they are supposedly doing this

without high-tech equipment and instruments.

But they did look toward the heavens,

and they tried to copy the heavens.

When we look at the ancient people themselves,

and ask why they did it,

they are quite straightforward in answering this question.

And that answer is simply because this has

to do with the gods and figuring out

when the gods would come in the future.

NARRATOR: Throughout the world, there are numerous ancient sites

that were built in precise alignment with constellations,

primarily Cygnus

and Orion.

Perhaps the most famous example can be found

at the Giza Plateau, in the layout

of the three great pyramids of Egypt.

You have two large pyramids, aligned with each other,

and a third smaller one offset from that alignment.

Well, that's the same way you have the stars.

NARRATOR: Other ancient sites built in close alignment

with the constellation of Orion include:

the ancient city of Teotihuacán

in Central Mexico,

established in 100 BC...

...the layout of the ancient Hopi villages

in the American Southwest...

...and the Thornborough Henges,

a Neolithic landscape complex

in Yorkshire, Northern England,

dating to between 3500

and 2500 BC.

The Thornborough Henges are believed to be a copy

of the stars of Orion's Belt.

Their accuracy is just stunning.

Now is that coincidence?

I mean, you know, it really is exact.

NARRATOR: But why were so many civilizations

around the world focused on Orion?

ADRIAN GILBERT: Constellation of Orion

has a special magnetism for us,

partly it's because it does look like a man.

And certainly the Egyptians claimed that their gods

came from there, and there is a sense

that this is where we come from,

that somehow the human race has been implanted on this planet.

And that that's where our father lives.

NARRATOR: Some researchers believe in addition

to mirroring the three stars in Orion's Belt,

the pyramids at Giza also encode, in their placement,

a significant message about the origin of their culture.

BAUVAL: The position of Orion's Belt

relative to the Milky Way is the same

as the pyramids relative to the Nile.

When you look at the two images, they look the same,

except one is stellar and one is earthly.

What adds to this, is that the alignment,

the-the pattern of Orion's Belt,

matches what is on the ground,

not at the time that Egyptologists tell us...

...but in 10,500 BC.

When you look at the sky in 10,500 BC,

the lock is almost perfect.

JASON MARTELL: At that same date, the constellation Leo

is aligned perfectly with the gaze of the sphinx.

So at 10,500 BC, even though the pyramids

were built in 2500 BC, we see a terrestrial alignment

of the monuments on the Earth mimicking the stars in the sky.

BAUVAL: So you have two constellations locking

themselves with two sets of monuments,

the Sphinx and the three pyramids in 10,500 BC.

It cannot be a coincidence.

BARA: Was it something they intuitively channeled?

Or, did somebody else, someone from higher up,

teach them all this stuff and help them to build

these monuments, and help them to create these

messages from ancient times,

to try to get us to appreciate

who we really are, where we really came from,

and why we're really here?

NARRATOR: Might the builders of Egypt's pyramids

and of the Newgrange Passage Tomb

really have embedded in their structures

a secret code

telling us about the otherworldly origins

of the elite rulers of their societies,

as ancient astronaut theorists believe?

If so, might there be hidden messages contained

in other ancient monuments found

around the world?

You know, there are several ancient sites

in Western Asia that have clear connections to the stars.

One that is particularly fascinating

is Carahunge in Armenia.

Right, they call it the Armenian Stonehenge.

And they've determined that the placement of the stones

corresponds with the constellation Cygnus.

Right, and what I find even more intriguing: at Carahunge

we find thousands of carvings of strange, humanoid figures.

We actually covered this in season 2 of Ancient Aliens.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: The Syunik province.

Southern Armenia.

Approximately 140 miles southeast

of the nation's capital, Yerevan,

lies the city of Sisian.

Nearby sits a high plateau

where hundreds of ancient stones,

some weighing more than 50 tons,

stretch over a third of a mile.

This is Carahunge,

also known as the Armenian Stonehenge.

Estimated to be approximately 7,500 years old,

Carahunge predates the British Stonehenge

by more than 4,500 years.

The site is made of 203 slabs of basalt.

At the structure's center stands the stone circle...

or henge.

NICHOLAS HOWRATH: When most people hear of stone henges,

they think of the Stonehenge in England.

But there are hundreds of these henges,

or stone circles, scattered all across Europe.

What they were, and how they were used

is still a mystery.

TSOUKALOS: Mainstream archaeology still doesn't agree

on who lived there,

or who the builders were of that site.

What we do know though, is that the entire site is

definitely a part of some type

of an astronomical model.

NARRATOR: But how could this simple circular array of stones

have given early man information about the stars?

Is it possible that Carahunge

might be the world's oldest observatory?

In September of 2010,

England's Oxford University

sent an expedition to investigate.

HOWRATH: What makes this exceptional megalithic monument unique

are the small holes

which have been bored into the rock

at different angles.

There are 85 stones with holes.

They're like telescopes.

What we see with these holes

is that they're pointed at different alignments

to positions on the horizon

or into the night sky.

What they're pointing at is still a mystery to us.

But we can say with certainty,

from the archaeological evidence,

that they were some sort of way to connect

man and his life on Earth

to the heavens above.

And this would be the first time

that we can say that people

were systematically trying to understand

their place in the solar system.

WILCOCK: This site is also called the Zorats Karer

which means "the stones of the powerful."

And what has been determined is that the outline

of these stones actually does correspond

to the constellation known as Cygnus, or the Swan.

Which in certain cultures is also referred to as the Vulture.

COLLINS: Cygnus has always been seen

among cultures around the world,

for many, many thousands of years,

as a point of entry and exit

into the sky world.

This belief in a power in the stars,

the idea that we come from the stars

and actually return there in death.

NARRATOR: The early Greeks, Chinese and others

also believed that Cygnus had a special power

or unique significance.

But why?

Why would so many ancient cultures around the world

have similar myths about the same constellation?

The only reason why I would do this

if I were on a foreign planet,

is to give a message to future generations,

to say, "Hey, nudge, nudge.

This is where we came from."

NARRATOR: Although today, it is no longer possible

to see Cygnus through the notches of Carahunge,

many theories exist as to why the position

of the constellation has changed so drastically.

WILCOCK: This site dates back to antiquity,

where the Earth's axis was in a different position.

And you had the constellation visible in the sky

at that time because of the fact that

the Earth was on a different tilt of its axis entirely.

NARRATOR: Mainstream scientists have calculated

that the Earth's axis slowly changes, or wobbles,

over a 26,000-year period.

But there are other researchers who believe

these shifts happen more suddenly and dramatically.

They claim that when these events occur,

they cause major climate changes...

...flooding of biblical proportion...

...and the widespread destruction of life.

But if these rapid shifts did occur,

might Carahunge have been designed

to provide something of a warning?

WILCOCK: It's possible that the Armenian Stonehenge

was one of the initial sites where ETs came to visit,

and if there had been some sort of shift

on the Earth's axis before,

if there were periodic cataclysms,

then maybe there is a time cycle

in which those cataclysms happen.

And maybe these ancients were very concerned

about watching the astronomical alignments

because they wanted to make sure

that this wasn't going to happen again.

NARRATOR: But could alien visitors from other worlds

have come to this spot

even before Carahunge was built?

Perhaps petroglyphs in the area,

much older than the standing stones,

offer even more clues.

HOWRATH: The petroglyphs go back to a much earlier time,

so I think my first point is not to confuse

the petroglyphs, which are from

10,000 years before Christ, with Carahunge itself.

When the stones went up, it was probably

3,000 to 2,000 years before Christ.

There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands

of images of humanoid figures on these sites.

Some of them are quite distorted and difficult

to understand and interpret.

MARTELL: The Armenian Stonehenge also has some interesting

carved wall reliefs

that show humanoid-looking beings.

Now, many people have speculated that

these could be possibly extraterrestrial.

We look at the very bulbous-shaped heads,

slanted eyes...

...very similar to what we see in a modern-day Grey alien.

TSOUKALOS: Look at the eyes,

look at the shape of the head.

What's interesting in this carving right here,

those extraterrestrials are holding some type of a disc.

You've got this sphere

that's sort of just floating there in midair.

Is it possible that these here

represent flying discs?

And the answer is yes,

because, again, this is a human rendering

of something that they witnessed a long time ago.

And it had to have been compelling enough

for them to carve this into stone.

NARRATOR: Could these ancient stone carvings

actually be primitive portraits of visitors from the sky?

Did extraterrestrials really use Carahunge

as some sort of landing site or earthly portal?

Perhaps further clues can be found

at another ancient observatory

that was dedicated to the gods.

Just west of Armenia, in Turkey,

is a mysterious ancient site on top of a mountaintop

that's associated with the Persian King Antiochus I.

And what's fascinating about him is that

he had himself portrayed

shaking hands with the gods.

TSOUKALOS: Yeah, and some people

even have suggested that he was able to predict

certain events based on the stars.

CHILDRESS: Yeah, and some people say

that the entire site is designed

to connect with star travelers.

NARRATOR: Southeastern Turkey.

7,000 feet high, atop a barren mountain called

Nemrud Dagi lie the ruins

of the lost kingdom of Commagene.

Here, in 62 BC, a mysterious royal sanctuary

was built by King Antiochus I.

Colossal statues were created of lions and eagles,

and Persian and Greek gods,

as well as two massive sculptures

of the king himself.

GILBERT: Now, what Antiochus was trying to do

was to produce a synthesis,

a new version of the old religions.

And what he basically did was to take the Persian gods

and put them into Greek dress.

So, you've got a synthesis happening

of the Persian gods with their Greek equivalents.

DONALD SANDERS: The reason he built a colossal statue of himself

among the gods was, I guess,

a presumption on his part that he would indeed

ascend to heaven and eventually be among them.

NARRATOR: The conical peak was the highest point

in the kingdom of King Antiochus.

Measuring 150 feet high and 500 feet wide,

it is man-made with countless small limestone rocks,

and was said to be the location of the king's royal tomb.

Researchers believe the memorial was

originally built as two large plazas.

The one on the east side was used

to celebrate the birthday of King Antiochus.

The one on the west side was used

to commemorate the day in 62 BC

when Antiochus became the leader of a secret society.

GILBERT: I think it's meant to symbolize Mount Olympus,

the home of the gods.

Because you've got the gods seated round it

and then you've got a peak above them.

I think this is all very symbolic.

It's a stage for carrying out

certain rituals and performances.

SANDERS: And he also shows himself in the relief stelae

shaking hands to all the gods as if the gods

recognize him as one of their own

and are welcoming him into heaven.

Mysteriously, both the site and the kingdom

were abandoned in the first century AD,

and so far, the king's legendary burial chamber

has never been found.

But another question still remains,

just why did King Antiochus

build this mysterious and massive monumental sanctuary?

According to researchers, evidence found

at Nemrut Dag suggests the king had a profound interest in

and understanding of star sciences.

One example of the advanced knowledge

of astronomy that they had is actually the lion horoscope,

which gives us a very precise date.

We know that the position of the stars on the lion's body,

um, fits with the positions of stars of Leo

given in a book of Eratosthenes, who was a Greek astronomer

from Alexandria who wrote a book about the stars.

NARRATOR: The arrangement of stars on the lion horoscope

represented the constellation of Leo

as seen in the sky in July 62 BC,

a configuration that wouldn't be visible again

for 25,000 years.

Further evidence of the exceptional knowledge

of the stars was found in a nearby shaft

that Antiochus built into the mountain.

GILBERT: The shaft runs into the mountainside there,

uh, at an angle of 35 degrees to the horizontal,

and it's about 150 meters long,

and there's nothing at the bottom.

NARRATOR: Computer analysis reveals that on two days of the year,

the sun's rays would illuminate the bottom of the shaft--

once when in line with the constellation of Leo

and once when in line with Orion.

GILBERT: Now, that is a very interesting point in the sky

because it's the path where the sun

crosses over the Milky Way, our galaxy,

and that, to the ancient world, was known as a gate of heaven.

And there were two of these, one where they cross in the north

and the other where they cross in the south.

There were two gates to heaven.

So, we can understand that,

that gateway would be where the soul of the king

is going back to heaven through heaven's gate.

NARRATOR: Given the fact that neither Antiochus's tomb

or remains have been found, is it possible that the king

actually journeyed to the stars through a heavenly gate,

as ancient astronaut theorists contend?

During his life, researchers believe Antiochus studied

with a priestly sect of eastern astrologers called the Magi,

who were thought to be able to predict

and even manipulate events

based on their knowledge of the stars.

The Magi were renowned priests from the far Near East

who had advanced astronomical knowledge,

and it's well-known that most of the astronomers

from the Near East, specifically ancient Iraq, Sumer,

recorded series of events happening in the heavens

over hundreds of thousands of years.

This information was kept on stone tablets,

held very sacredly and only passed down to the high priests.

NARRATOR: According to the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament,

it was three of these Magi who followed celestial signs

and stars to the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem.

A coincidence?

What's interesting about this story is that

the Star of Bethlehem wasn't used as a navigation point.

It is clearly stated as it guided the wise men

to the place of Christ.

A star cannot guide someone.

It can only be used as a navigation point.

So, this brings up the idea

that the star was possibly a UFO.

Today, we think that the Magi were magicians,

and that is actually why we have the word "magic" today.

But when I hear about magical powers,

that raises a flag

because magic as such does not exist.

So were these Magi in fact in possession

of some type of an extraterrestrial technology?

Because, according to the ancient texts,

it was the initiates of each culture

who were in touch with extraterrestrials.

And it was the initiates

who later became priests or Magi.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Antiochus was in fact a Magi?

One who learned celestial knowledge

from extraterrestrial sources?

If so, might the monumental sanctuary

at Nemrut Dag have been built as a place

to contact star travelers?

The answer may have been found among the ruins of Nemrut Dag.

The head of Antiochus is placed on the statue,

which is appropriate for Mercury,

and that's because Mercury

is the planet of initiation for priests,

and he's one himself, so he models it on himself.

And people think this is him being boastful,

sitting among the gods. It's not.

It's actually a code to say that he's one with the priests.

NARRATOR: Eventually annexed by the Romans in the first century AD,

King Antiochus and his court became scattered

throughout the region. Or were they?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

they may have instead used a heavenly gate

to depart through to a distant realm.

An audacious idea? Perhaps.

And there are those who believe further evidence can be found

on the North American continent.

One of the most fascinating places on Earth

is Teotihuacán in Mexico because what you have there

is essentially an entire city that's lining up with the stars.

Yeah, you've got alignments with the Pleiades

and the three major pyramids there

are mirror images of the three belt stars of Orion,

just like the pyramids of Giza.

Nobody knows who built it or how old it is.

There's all kinds of celestial information

encoded at Teotihuacán,

and we covered this in a 2017 episode "City of the Gods."

NARRATOR: March 2017.

Archaeologists continue to dig under the pyramid complex

in an attempt to answer the many mysteries of Teotihuacán.

The discoveries of liquid mercury, walls lined with mica,

and strange artifacts like golden spheres

point to the possibility that an advanced society

once occupied this city.

But some researchers suggest even greater clues can be found

by examining the layout of the entire complex.

Three of the major structures contained within Teotihuacán

have been found to line up with the three belt stars of Orion,

a connection that is also mirrored in the layout

of the pyramids at the Giza Plateau in Egypt.

And the positioning of the main thoroughfare,

known as the Avenue of the Dead,

is directed toward the Pleiades star cluster.

But perhaps the most intriguing connection

was proposed in the 1970s

by American engineer Hugh Harleston Jr.

WILL HART: In 1972, Hugh Harleston

undertook a study of the site.

And he was trying to determine mathematically

if he could break down or discover

a standard unit of measure at Teotihuacán.

The conclusion that Harleston came up with

in all his measurements, he found consistent numbers.

And he discovered that

they reflected mathematical principles that involved

units, intervals, and the spacing of the planets.

WILCOCK: He found the actual derivation of the solar system

with the planets, their correct distances from one another,

actually laid out in the spacings of the monuments

at this complex.

NARRATOR: Harleston noted that the intervals

between the major structures corresponded exactly

to the distances between the various planets.

WILCOCK: There is a very clear rationale

for the positioning of these artifacts,

and it's only once you get into their measurements

that you start to see compelling proof that this is

intended to be an accurate map of our solar system.

NARRATOR: Even the distance of the asteroid belt

between Mars and Jupiter was correctly plotted

by the diversion of the San Juan River through the site.

CHILDRESS: Harleston believed that a man-made canal

that was cut through Teotihuacán represented the asteroid belt,

which was not something known to ancient peoples.

Whoever built Teotihuacán,

they had full knowledge of our solar system

and knowledge that ancient people could not have had.

NARRATOR: Three and a half miles away,

on top of the Cerro Gordo mountain range,

Harleston also located the ruins

of the Temple of Xochitl,

which fell directly in sightline

of the Avenue of the Dead.

CHILDRESS: Harleston believed that this temple

was mathematically showing

that there was a planet beyond Pluto, twice as far as Pluto,

that was somehow orbiting around our solar system.

NARRATOR: Curiously, in 2016,

planetary scientists

from the California Institute of Technology

announced that they had found preliminary evidence

of the existence of an unknown planet beyond Pluto.

Would such a revelation give further credence to the idea

that the inhabitants of Teotihuacán

had intimate knowledge of our solar system

and that the site served as an ancient spaceport?

One that might still be active today?

(birds chirping)

May 4, 2015.

A tourist visiting the ancient pyramid complex of Teotihuacán

takes a photograph featuring the Pyramid of the Sun.

He thinks nothing of it until he later reviews the photo

and notices two strange objects hovering over the pyramid.

Upon closer examination,

they appear to be silver disc-shaped craft.

What's strange about the two UFOs

photographed above the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán

is that, only ten seconds later,

a second photograph was taken

and those two objects were gone.

So, clearly, we are not talking about Mylar balloons here.

There is nothing floating in the sky anymore.

And if they would have been Mylar balloons,

well, they don't move that fast to just...

(mimics whooshing) disappear.

There has been a long history of UFO sightings

and unusual events in Teotihuacán,

particularly around the pyramids,

which perhaps are somehow attracting UFOs

and extraterrestrials.

There's many things in our past that we just don't understand.

But it's possible that the answers--

or some of them-- are at Teotihuacán.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the ancient complex of Teotihuacán

has a profound connection to the cosmos?

Did it serve not only as a celestial observatory on Earth

but also as a gateway to other worlds?

Perhaps further evidence can be found

at other ancient ceremonial sites

that point to the stars.

When we're talking about ancient civilizations

and their connections to the stars,

certain star groups come up again and again.

-Like the Pleiades star cluster. -TSOUKALOS: Right.

Australia, Japan, Hawaii--

pretty much all around the world,

you have ancient stories

of physical beings coming from the Pleiades.

Yeah, the Maya of Central America talk about this.

And you really have to wonder if our ancestors

actually had contact with beings from this star cluster.

NARRATOR: Tikal National Park, Guatemala.

Here, deep in the northern jungles of South America,

lie the ruins

of one of the largest cities of the Classic Maya.

Starting around 800 AD,

their sacred sites were abandoned

one after the other.

Palenque.

Copán.

Naranjo.

And then, finally, Tikal.

Tikal was perhaps the largest city

of the entire Classic Maya period.

It really was the signature city of the Maya.

It was also one of the last cities to be walked away from.

So you get the impression that whatever happened

that compelled people to walk away from the cities,

Tikal was the last one to do it.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Scholars believe that, at its height,

the Classic Maya population

may have been as large as 20 million.

But after the collapse,

up to 95% of the Maya were unaccounted for.

We still do not know why they left their cities.

Because, all of a sudden, they disappeared.

And it was not a war,

because you find no traces of a war,

no traces of destruction.

They left.

We don't know why and where they have gone.

HAWKES: The question remains,

why? Where did they go?

And why did they leave their cities?

Of course, there's a lot of practical reasons

that have been brought forth--

possibly overpopulation,

quite possibly drought,

deforestation,

a lack of water and so forth and so forth.

But, nonetheless, it remains quite interesting to think

that so many people disappeared all at about the same time.

(birds chirping)

NARRATOR: Historians have noted

that the disappearance of the Classic Maya

seems to correspond with the end of one of their calendar cycles.

But the priestly class seemed to have made a new calendar

called the Long Count.

We're still not really sure why they created this calendar.

But I do note that its timing

seems to time with major events.

The Maya are leading their lives

based on this Long Count calendar.

NARRATOR: The Maya constructed the Long Count calendar

to count down 5,125 years,

or one "Great Cycle."

The calendar was further divided

into 13 units of approximately 400 years each called baktuns.

At the end of each baktun,

the Maya held a major celebration.

But, curiously, on the tenth baktun,

they did not.

Their Maya calendar

has this very important juncture called a baktun.

It's a 400-year period that comes up in 830 AD.

And they should have celebrated it.

But it's odd. We know at Tikal, for example,

that there was no celebration of that tenth baktun.

HAWKES: The Maya were the best timekeepers possibly

of any civilization, uh, of all time.

So if they know so much about time

and they knew when to do things,

was their disappearance from their cities really planned

according to their calendar?

Now the Maya of today that have survived

talk about how their ancestors went home.

Where is home?

NARRATOR: Is it possible the Long Count calendar

was actually counting down to a preordained date

when the Maya knew they would disappear?

And if so, could further evidence of this be found

by examining the clues left behind in Tikal?

Archaeoastronomers have noted

that the seven most important pyramids in the Grand Plaza

form the same geometric patterns

as the seven stars comprising the Pleiades constellation,

a star cluster revered by many ancient cultures

across the globe.

WILCOCK: Many of the Mayan monuments

have undeniable celestial alignments

with the Pleiades star cluster.

-(wind blowing) -(fire crackling)

Is it possible that these people originally came

from the Pleiades?

And that's why they encoded the Pleiades in their monuments

so many times.

And then eventually they returned home.

NICK REDFERN: Today, in abduction lore, many people report

that their abductors come from the Pleiades.

That's what they tell the people who have been taken away.

So we seem to have a situation potentially

where entities from the Pleiades have visited the Earth,

have interacted with humans for literally thousands of years.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE: Those Mayans didn't leave because of drought.

They left because it was some kind of harvest.

It was an experiment.

The Mayans reached some place,

and somebody took them from here.

It was the end of a calendar cycle

and the beginning of another calendar cycle.

It means a lot to some intelligence out there.

NARRATOR: Could it be that the collapse of the Classic Maya society

was due to a mass abduction,

as some ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

Was this an event that the elite priests and rulers

were counting down to?

Perhaps answers can be found 2,300 miles north

with the disappearance of another tribe

intricately connected to the Pleiades.

NARRATOR: Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 2014.

In the desolate high desert of the American Southwest,

mysterious ruins stand as a testament

to a great civilization that once flourished here.

The ancient Pueblo peoples, or Anasazi.

With a population estimated at well over 100,000,

the Anasazi settled nearly 50,000 square miles

of the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado,

Utah, and New Mexico.

The highly sophisticated culture built

hundreds of miles of ancient roads,

many converging from all directions to Chaco Canyon,

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

ROGER MOORE: People that built this site

somehow came onto the engineering principles

to be able to build multistory buildings,

such as Pueblo Bonito behind me here.

They developed a culture here that integrated

the alignments of the buildings

with celestial objects and events,

such as the rising of the Pleiades.

The Anasazi were a very successful civilization

up until about the 12th century,

and something very strange happened.

And there's a great deal of argument

as to what that event may have been.

NARRATOR: According to archaeologists,

sometime around 1130 AD,

all construction ceased at Chaco.

The buildings were sealed,

and the roofs of the ceremonial structures,

called kivas, were burned.

It's fair to say that there were groups

that did move, migrate to other areas.

Those then became the Pueblos and the Hopis.

What is confusing is what happened

to the central part of the civilization.

The ones that were the astronomers

that built the observatories--

where did they go?

It appears as though they simply disappeared.

NARRATOR: Some ancient astronaut theorists,

like author David Childress, propose that there is,

in fact, more to the disappearance

of the Anasazi elders than a simple migration.

And they claim clues can be found

throughout the ancient site.

On this cliff behind me here at Chaco Canyon,

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

Archaeologists believe that they represent the sun.

But some of these spirals are very unusual.

One even has little spirals coming off of it.

So you have to ask yourself, are these spirals, in fact,

representations of some kind of portal,

some door to another dimension?

Both the Hopi and the Zuni Indians

say they came from the stars...

...that their knowledge came from the star people,

the star ancestors.

And the Hopi say portals are marked

with the spiral petroglyph,

portals to a different dimension,

portals to another world.

There are some that believe that that may represent

the portals by which the Anasazi and other Southwestern cultures

crossed from this world into their point of origin.

I think there's a possibility at least

that there is a connection between

the alignments of certain celestial events

and the opening and closings of these portals.

Is it possible that the Anasazi themselves

vanished en masse from this site,

and did they go into another dimension?

NARRATOR: Could it be that the spiral-shaped petroglyphs

left behind by the Anasazi actually represent portals?

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

to access these other worlds?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes

and believe further evidence of an otherworldly connection

can be found in the oral stories about this lost civilization

that have survived through other tribes.

The Anasazi is actually not a name

that they gave themselves.

It was a name that was given to them by the Navajo.

HOWE: The Anasazi--

the name meant "stranger from afar"

or "strange enemy,"

something that was separate, apart.

It is possible that the Anasazi

are in a another dimension, in another timeline,

another planet.

All of these various disappearances

of people over time.

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

You can look through history,

and you can begin to see these rhythms.

Advanced intelligences that are behind all of this

are using the planet like a laboratory.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Anasazi elders

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

And like the Maya in Central America,

might they have had a direct connection

to the Pleiades star cluster?

Could this explain why they both aligned

their ceremonial complexes to those specific stars...

...and potentially utilized these sites to return home,

as their ancestors alleged?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

it's a distinct possibility,

but they also suggest the American Southwest

may have hosted other star visitors from Orion.

You know, there's another group of stars

our ancestors associated with the gods just as much

as the Pleiades, that's the constellation of Orion.

Yeah, and we have that with the ancient Egyptians,

with the ancient Babylonians, with the ancient Greeks,

and even right here in North America,

where we have Native American tribes

that associate Orion with the star people.

Right. There is a Hopi site

where legend says that a star being

from Orion came down from the sky and landed.

I mean, what more do you want? That is a concise description

of an extraterrestrial visitation.

NARRATOR: Black Mesa, Northeastern Arizona.

The Native American Hopi tribe has called these peaks

of the Colorado Plateau home for more than 1,000 years.

High above the Arizona desert, their reservation,

encompassing more than 1.5 million acres,

consists of 12 villages.

Ancient astronaut theorists

have studied these mysterious sites for years,

discovering what they consider to be countless pieces

of evidence of extraterrestrial contact in the ancient past.

According to their research, both the Hopi landscape

and the tribe's mythology are centered on Orion.

DAVID: The Hopi migrated all over the Southwest.

After a series of building villages...

...and abandoning these villages,

they came to these three primary mesas in Northern Arizona.

They call them First, Second, and Third Mesas.

COPPENS: The Hopi mesas shape Orion's Belt's image.

And it is said that the Hopi specifically

came here because of the shape.

So we know that the Hopi are extremely interested

in Orion's Belt.

This is the center of their universe.

They say it is a place where they can

make contact with the gods.

NARRATOR: According to some researchers,

not only do the Three Mesas

represent the stars in Orion's Belt,

but when connected to other Hopi landmarks

throughout the Southwest,

the collective sites map the entire body

of the Orion constellation.

DAVID: Every major star of the constellation,

it corresponds to a ruin site

or a village that the Hopi are currently living in.

For instance, the left shoulder of Orion

is a place called Wupatki.

It's north of Flagstaff, Arizona.

And they built this ruin about 1120 AD.

They lived there for a-a century or so.

And then they abandoned this place.

There's another place called Homolovi Ruin.

It's by Winslow, Arizona.

And this corresponds to the right shoulder of Orion

and the star Betelgeuse.

The Hopi also settled up north of the mesas.

This corresponds to the star Rigel.

And there's a whole complex

of villages that corresponds

to the right foot of Orion.

Uh, the star is Saiph.

So you have the star mirror.

As above, so below.

That's what the Hopi were trying to achieve

when they built this pattern,

which took about three centuries to construct.

NARRATOR: But how did the Hopi ancestors know to align their homes

and sacred places so perfectly with the Orion constellation?

-(chanting) -Is it possible that they received help

from star travelers,

as some researchers believe?

According to Hopi myth,

the creator god Masauu

directed the tribe over hundreds of years

as they migrated to the Three Mesas,

the place Masauu instructed them to wait for his return.

DAVID: The god Masauu

was there at the beginning,

waiting for the Hopi.

This is a very spooky-looking god.

This god has large round eyes

and a round mouth and a big, bulbous head.

He taught the Hopi agricultural ways.

He's frequently seen with a staff in his right hand,

like the constellation Orion.

Masauu told the people where to build their villages.

There was also tales about a certain star

that the Hopi would follow.

Now, a star that moves across the sky and-and stops

when the Hopi are supposed to stop and build their village--

that-that sounds like some sort of extraterrestrial craft

that were guiding the Hopi across the desert.

This is Fajada Butte,

where, according to ancient Hopi legends,

their god Masauu descended from the sky.

At night, the Orion constellation

would basically hang in the sky

right above this butte.

And the story goes

that Masauu landed on top of this platform.

So my question is,

did some type of an extraterrestrial visitor

land on top of this butte right here in some type of a craft?

And the answer is yes.

Someone or something from the cosmos descended.

NARRATOR: Could the Hopi god of creation Masauu

actually have been an extraterrestrial traveler

from Orion, as ancient astronaut theorists contend?

And if so, why did this god instruct the Hopi

to migrate around the Southwest

in the pattern of this constellation?

HENRY: Is it merely coincidence

that the Hopi aligned their cities with Orion,

just as the ancient Egyptians did?

I don't think so.

I think this is clear evidence

that they were instructed to do so.

DAVID: The Hopi people were trying to pay homage

to their star ancestors,

the ancestors that came from the constellation Orion

and gave them this information about the constellation

and the place that they came from.

And that's why they-they built this pattern

on the Arizona desert.

It's more or less a way that the Hopi could memorialize

the origin of their celestial ancestors that came from Orion.

The Hopis are saying that, at each point of creation,

each cycle of time...

...Masauu makes contact with them and quite often tells them

that an end of a cycle is going to happen.

And then he safeguards them from destruction.

It is felt that this creator deity

is intricately linked with Orion

and somehow only allows communication

when somehow the geographical layout resembles Orion's Belt.

So what they're hoping for now is really the return of Masauu.

NARRATOR: Is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

that ancient Hopi legends of the creator god Masauu

-provide further proof of contact... -(chanting)

...with our extraterrestrial ancestors from Orion?

And if so, might the Hopi have been signaling

for the return of these otherworldly beings

through their epic alignment to the constellation?

Or could there be a more profound reason

their landscape points to the stars of Orion,

perhaps one that will ultimately guide mankind back

to our celestial birthplace?

NARRATOR: Giza.

Teotihuacán.

Nabta Playa.

Black Mesa.

Could these ancient monuments,

all aligned to the stars of Orion,

really be linked to each other,

providing clues to our celestial beginnings?

Or is there perhaps another, even more profound connection

between mankind and the constellation?

COPPENS: So why is it

that the most important archaeological sites

on our planet resemble the constellation Orion?

I think it's not a coincidence.

And so the question is, where did this come from?

Was there somehow some technology available to us,

to our ancestors?

Or did somebody map, at an ancient point in time,

it for them?

Were they given this science,

and did they just treasure it and maintain it

until a moment in time when it was clearly lost?

CHILDRESS: When you look at these Orion correlations--

pyramids at Giza,

the beliefs of the Mayans--

what it seems to show

is that Orion is where we came from.

It's where the extraterrestrials came from.

And if we were to go to Orion,

what we would probably find there

is a planet very, very similar to that of Earth.

NARRATOR: Is it really possible,

as some ancient astronaut theorists contend,

there is a planet similar to our own

in the constellation of Orion?

And if so, what--

or perhaps who-- would we find there?

BROPHY: If we did get to the Orion constellation,

or the stars that make up Orion,

especially around the Orion Nebula star-forming region,

we would find a region of the galaxy

that's kind of similar to our own but more active.

More stars with planets, likely.

There's still a lot of room for opinion

because there-there are still unknowns.

Uh, so my own opinion is, yes,

life is probably either extremely likely elsewhere,

or else, uh, we don't have a clue as to what life really is.

So if we're looking for life elsewhere in the galaxy,

a good place to start looking would be Orion.

NARRATOR: Even with today's technology,

traveling to Orion would take hundreds of thousands of years.

But might there be another, more profound mechanism,

perhaps from out of this world,

that would make such an expansive trip

in one lifetime possible?

In 1935,

30 years after his groundbreaking

special theory of relativity,

Albert Einstein published a collaborative paper

called "The Einstein-Rosen Bridge."

According to this theory,

bridges, or black holes, exist in the universe,

allowing shortcuts through space and time.

Today, physicists refer to them as wormholes.

It's 1,500 light-years distant, about, to Orion.

If we were somehow able to use wormhole technology...

...then, conceivably, we could shorten the travel time

or even make it instantaneous,

although the theory, even, of how wormholes could work

is still being developed.

SEAGER: Almost anything that's possible theoretically in physics

exists somewhere in our universe.

So I believe that wormholes exist somewhere

but not anywhere close to Earth.

NARRATOR: Might advanced extraterrestrial beings have traveled here

not in a spacecraft

but through an interdimensional space-time portal,

as some researchers suggest?

If so, could sacred sites

that align to specific star systems

possess a more profound purpose,

one serving to not only mark a destination

but perhaps to also access a portal to another world?

You know, all around the world,

uh, civilizations created observatories

where they could observe the stars.

And you have to wonder, you know,

why they were all doing this.

HENRY: Right. And another big question is,

why would the ancestors, all around the world,

align their temples with particular star systems?

And one answer that comes back over and over again

is, they wanted to create conduits,

-this point of connection. -TSOUKALOS: Yeah.

And they observed all the star constellations.

But the fact that they only chose to replicate

the Pleiades,

Orion, and Sirius on Earth predominantly,

that, to me, suggests the idea

that that is where our first teachers came from.

CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS