All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens Origins - S01E10 - Submerged Evidence

NARRATOR:
Ancient ruins submerged

for thousands of years.

Alien creatures
lurking beneath our seas.

And unidentified objects
emerging

from the depths of the ocean.

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.

It's fascinating to think
of stories from around the world

of disc-shaped craft
coming up out of the water.

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.

♪ ♪

You know, on Ancient Aliens,
we often talk about

what people
have seen in the sky,

but there are many accounts
of strange beings and craft

coming up out of the water.

Yeah, and when you
consider the fact

that two-thirds of our planet
is covered in water,

you have to imagine
that there are things

hidden in the oceans and lakes
that we know nothing about.

In fact, we're finding
entire cities

in the depths of the ocean.

Oh, absolutely.

That's why we start this episode
with Atlantis,

the legendary island
that sank into the ocean.

And let me tell you,
if we find Atlantis,

then I know we'll find
more proof of ET visitation.

We covered it in season two
in "Underwater Worlds."

NARRATOR: Covering more
than 71% of the planet,

the Earth's oceans are a vast
and largely unexplored mystery.

For most of recorded history,
man could only guess

at what lay beneath
the ocean's surface.

But new technologies
are reaching new depths.

Researchers around the world
are finding the unexpected:

underwater complexes
and sophisticated monuments

that defy the conventional
historical record.

MICHAEL CREMO: There are
remains of urban civilizations

on parts of the Earth

that were exposed on land

10,000 and more years ago.

And this means
that urban civilization

is far older
by many thousands of years

than many scientists
now believe possible.

NARRATOR:
Scientific theory suggests

that during Earth's
last ice age,

ocean levels were once
much lower than they are today.

GRAHAM HANCOCK:
You have to envisage a world

in which there are
two-mile-deep ice caps

sitting on top
of Northern Europe

and North America

in which are accumulated
enormous quantities of water.

And we know that this water
began to melt

about 21,000 years ago

and finished melting
about 10,000 years ago.

NARRATOR:
As a result, rich coastal lands

were slowly submerged
by rising sea levels.

Ten million square miles
of land was flooded

all around the world.

That's roughly
the size of Europe

and China added together--

were just rubbed
from the record.

They just disappear
from the story.

And in my opinion,
archaeology is not doing

enough work to investigate
those lost and submerged lands.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: While much of the
ocean's floor remains unexplored,

for thousands of years,

philosophers and scientists
have been drawn

to one of the greatest
mysteries of the sea,

the legend
of the lost city of Atlantis.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
It's been said that more books

have been written about Atlantis
than any other subject.

But most of what we know
comes from

the Greek philosopher Plato,

who wrote two books
about Atlantis,

the Timaeus and the Critias.

NARRATOR:
Written in 360 BC,

Plato described Atlantis
as a highly advanced city,

ringed by concentric walls,

which flourished 9,000 years
before his own time.

CREMO:
There are descriptions

of huge palaces for kings.

It's stated that Atlantis
had huge naval forces,

which it used to conquer
other parts of the world.

It was an urban civilization.

According to
the ancient Greek texts,

Atlantis was connected

with extraterrestrials
from the beginning.

It was founded
by the Greek god Poseidon.

♪ ♪

Poseidon can be regarded
as an extraterrestrial

in the sense of
not being of this Earth.

NARRATOR:
According to the legend,

after a failed attempt
to invade Athens,

disaster struck the island.

According to Plato,
Atlantis was destroyed

in a day and a night...

...in a cataclysmic destruction

that sank the entire island

and its capital city.

Some researchers believe

that the Atlanteans
somehow destroyed themselves.

NARRATOR: According to
Plato, Atlantis was located

in front of
the Pillars of Hercules,

a location beyond
what some scholars attribute

to modern Gibraltar.

CHILDRESS:
And to the ancients,

as they left
the Mediterranean Sea

to go into the larger
Atlantic Ocean,

this was where they went
beyond the Pillars of Hercules

between Spain and Morocco.

NARRATOR: Across the Atlantic lies
the island chain of the Bahamas,

just southeast of Florida.

Here in 1968,

archaeologist
J. Manson Valentine believed

he found part of Atlantis
when he discovered

an unusual rock formation
off the coast

of North Bimini Island.

JOHN VAN AUKEN: It's only in
about 12 to 18 feet of water,

so you can, uh, view it easily.

First, scientists thought
this was just beach rock,

but then several
other scientists

exploring the Bimini Road
noticed

that the beach rock was on top
of other beach rock,

with balancing stones
wedged in between.

And they said,
"Nature doesn't do that.

Man does."

And they realized
this is a harbor,

a breakwater for a harbor.

From the shallow edges of Bimini

all the way to the Gulf Stream
in 300 feet of water,

we have found many
fascinating complexities

that look like remnants
of ancient cities or structures:

roads, pathways,
structures covered in coral.

NARRATOR: Could the Bimini
ruins be remnants of Atlantis?

And if so, could these roads
lead to other sites

buried under sand and water?

♪ ♪

In the year 2000,
while mapping the seafloor

off the western coast of Cuba,
a research expedition

led by Russian-Canadian
oceanographer Paulina Zelitsky

spotted symmetrical
stone structures

deep below the water.

Remarkably,
they were over a half mile down.

PAULINA A. ZELITSKY: Divers cannot
do this kind of investigation,

so we have to use
remote operated vehicle.

And this vehicle is equipped

with video cameras
and manipulators.

And it's controlled
from the deck of the ship.

NARRATOR:
The expedition was also armed

with side-scan sonar equipment
used to create images

of large areas of the seafloor
and underwater objects.

I was in control room
on board of the ship,

and we were receiving that image
coming from side-scan.

And this is just one
of the many other images

that we were obtaining
of the 80, uh, structures

made of large stones

placed one on top of another.

♪ ♪

LINDA MOULTON HOWE:
Well, what do they end up with?

It is an image that shows
these rectangular,

90-degree angles
over and over and over

on very large structures that
seemed to have wide avenues.

NARRATOR:
The exploration found

huge stone blocks
in pyramid shapes,

others more circular.

Most were gigantic,
reaching 16 feet in height

and weighing several tons.

30 geometric structures emerged,

appearing to be
the remains of streets,

buildings, tunnels and pyramids,

all at a depth of 2,200 feet
below the surface of the water.

ANDREW COLLINS:
We might well have here

the evidence of
a prehistoric culture

that would probably go back
tens of thousands of years.

And that's very exciting indeed.

NARRATOR:
Using dating techniques based on

the presence
of nearby volcanic ash,

geologists estimated
the underwater city sank

over 6,000 years ago.

HOWE:
Could this be, a half mile down,

some part of the sunken Atlantis

from 9,000, 10,000 years ago
that Plato talked about?

COLLINS: Well, the Atlantis
myth is integrally related

with the area of the Caribbean
and the Bahamas,

in particular Cuba.

Plato talks about
an island empire.

He's probably talking
about dozens

of different islands
of different sizes,

not just in the western Atlantic
but probably stretching out

right into
the central Atlantic area.

NARRATOR: Both the Cuban
and the Bahamian ruins

lie on the western edge
of the Bermuda Triangle,

an area of ocean covering
over 500,000 square miles,

known for magnetic anomalies,

extraterrestrial sightings

and unexplained disappearances
of aircraft and ships.

Could there be a connection
between Atlantis

and the area known as
the Devil's Triangle?

BILL BIRNES: On the edge
of the Bermuda Triangle,

there are underwater ruins

of the ancient city of Atlantis,

the prehistoric city
of Atlantis.

So, yes, there is a theory
that Atlantis lies

not near Greece
but in the Bermuda Triangle.

NARRATOR:
If Plato's texts are true,

then other Greek myths
may provide a hint

of the true fate of Atlantis.

One myth tells of the Titan
goddess named Asteria...

...who fell from the sky
and became an island.

TSOUKALOS: In ancient Greece,
we have a number of myths

which describe islands,

bronze, gleaming islands

that fell from the sky
and landed in water.

I don't think that Atlantis,
therefore,

was an actual stationary,
physical island.

Atlantis, according to Plato,
disappeared in one night

with a lot of fire
and a lot of smoke.

See, I don't think
that Atlantis sank.

I think Atlantis lifted off.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Was Atlantis a safe
haven for ancient aliens

before the end
of Earth's last ice age?

And if so, could there be
other alien cities

submerged deep underwater?

NARRATOR:
Yonaguni, Japan.

This small island is at
the westernmost tip

of the Japanese archipelago.

Scholars believe the first
inhabitants migrated here

from Southeast Asia
during prehistoric times.

In 1987, in nearby waters,

dive tour operator
Kihachiro Aratake

made a shocking discovery.

A massive complex
of stone formations

lay hidden a mere 60 feet
beneath the ocean surface.

Experts call it
one of the greatest discoveries

in the history
of underwater archaeology.

HANCOCK: What's intriguing
about the complex at Yonaguni

is that there are
a whole range of monuments

pretty much side by side.

And this, to my eye,

looks unmistakably to be
the work of human beings,

not the random action
of the ocean

on differential layers of stone.

(speaking Japanese)

(translated): There are several
reasons why I think this is not

a natural formation.

A number of tools
and numerous engraved stones

were found at the site.

Because of these things,
there is no doubt to me

that this was made artificially.

NARRATOR: Submerged beneath
60 to 100 feet of water,

the largest of the formations

resemble a massive
five-layered stepped pyramid,

the size of two football fields.

WILCOCK:
You see unambiguous carvings

that clearly are geometric
in nature,

tons of right angles.

We see channels
that you can walk through

with stairwells at the end

that are perfectly
rectangular in shape.

There are places
where you find megaliths

piled on top of one another

to create a tunnel
through which you can swim.

There's a set of megaliths
positioned side by side,

uh, against
the side of the cliff.

There's a gigantic
human face carved underwater.

(translated): There is a stone
in which is carved

a face almost 23 feet tall.

Our first impression
was that it looked

a lot like the moai
on Easter Island.

Then we began to realize that it
strongly resembled the Sphinx,

which guarded the pyramids.

We wondered if that
might be the function

the face is also serving here.

HANCOCK: It's the whole combination
of all these structures together

which convinced me that we're
looking at a ceremonial complex.

The mystery surrounding the-the
Yonaguni underwater structure is

when did it go underwater?

The geological evidence
is that it was submerged

during the meltdown
of the last ice age.

All around the world,
whether it is France,

India or Japan,

there are man-made structures
that lie underwater.

Two ways how our ancestors
could've done this.

Either they had scuba gear--
I don't think so--

or this stuff was built

when the ocean levels were lower

and that
was over 14,000 years ago.

And 14,000 years ago,

according
to mainstream archaeology,

we were just dwelling in caves,
hunter-gatherers.

NARRATOR: Could the Yonaguni
structures have been built

by such primitive people?

And what evidence exists
of the people

who inhabited this island?

(translated):
Human fossils were found,

so I'm sure there were people
living on the island.

But there's some question
about whether or not

they had the technology
to create structures,

or anything like this.

HANCOCK: It's not so much the
question of could the stone

have been chipped away
and removed.

It's a question
of the-the vision,

of the scale of the complex,

of-of thinking
in those kind of terms.

And we know of no other,
uh, Stone Age culture

that thought
in those kind of terms,

of creating a gigantic, uh,
seemingly ceremonial complex.

NARRATOR: If, according to scholars,
the ancient Japanese people

could not have built
this monument, who did?

And how did it get here?

BIRNES: The speculation
is that extraterrestrials

created the Yonaguni monument.

The engineering
is just beyond the capacity

of Stone Age civilizations.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut
theorists also believe

the key to the Yonaguni mystery

is found
in its global positioning.

Strangely, the complex lies
within an area of the Pacific

long suspected
of extraterrestrial activity.

It's called
the Dragon's Triangle.

Just south of Japan,
you have a mysterious area

called the Dragon's Triangle,

which is very similar
to the Bermuda Triangle

because you have planes that
have disappeared from the air,

ships that have
disappeared from the ocean.

In fact, Japan has
declared this a disaster area.

Don't fly through it.

Stay the heck away
because if you go in there,

terrible things
can happen to you.

(pinging)

BIRNES In ancient Japan and even
into the relatively modern era,

there are stories
about the Dragon Sea,

in which objects
rise out of the water

and sail through the air.

In ancient Japan, these were
winged monsters breathing fire.

In more modern times,

these took on the appearance
of actual machines.

When you compare
those descriptions

of these devices
with the description

that Columbus gave of a craft,
nearing the Bermuda Triangle,

actually rising
out of the water,

a light that followed the ship,

you realize there's a similarity

in both of these locations
to things, objects,

that are in the water,

and rise out of the water
and fly through the air.

NARRATOR: But why are
the two submerged structures

found within the perimeter
of these strange regions

of the planet where so much
unusual activity occurs?

Is it coincidence that
the Earth's 25th parallel north

cuts through
both the Bermuda Triangle

and the Dragon's Triangle?

BIRNES: They lie on a
plane, along the same line,

and both of them have
the same magnetic phenomena,

in which compass bearings are
lost and instruments go down.

(alarm blaring)

People wonder if there's
a real strange UFO connection.

GIAN QUASAR: If UFOs and
flying saucers do exist,

then we should suspect
that they could

originally come from
an ancient super civilization.

It makes you wonder
if flying saucers, UFOs--

whatever you want to call them--

actually use the area of the
Triangle as their major base,

and perhaps are even
coming back to the remnants

of a civilization
that they were familiar with.

NARRATOR: What if the
sunken monuments at Yonguni

and near Cuba had alien origins?

Might they have
been used as alien bases?

And if we believe

extraterrestrials
functioned on land,

could they have
also functioned underwater?

Could there be more evidence
lying in the vast Pacific?

When we talk about things
hidden in our oceans,

it's fascinating to think of
stories from around the world

of disc-shaped craft
coming up out of the water.

Yeah, and these stories have
happened throughout history.

One of my most favorite
comes out of Japan,

where a craft washed up on shore
and it is said

that it had strange
inscriptions all around it.

Yeah, and they said there was
a being inside the craft

-holding some kind of a box.
-Mm-hmm.

And this was documented
by multiple witnesses.

NARRATOR: As an island nation,
it should come as no mystery

that much
of Japan's rich history

is tied to the waters
of the Pacific Ocean.

But although
many of Japan's legends

are largely unknown to the West,

some are drawing the attention
of ancient astronaut theorists.

One such legend
dates back to 1803,

and traces its origins
to a beach north of Tokyo.

Allegedly, a craft
that was quite large in size

washed up on the shore in Japan.

A strange round ship drifted
ashore in this area and, uh...

The woman did not speak any
language they could identify.

There were written inscriptions
inside her craft

that they could not identify

and she's clutching this box

that she didn't want
anybody to touch.

TANAKA:

NARRATOR: Known as the
legend of the Utsuro-bune,

or "hollow ship,"
the details of the story

have puzzled historians
for centuries.

Where, for example,

did the mysterious
hollow ship come from?

Could it have come from the area

of the submerged
Yonaguni monument?

Who was the strange woman?

And what were
the contents of the box

she guarded so carefully?

Was it a human head?

Or was it, as some ancient
astronaut theorists believe,

a type of brain or other form of
extraterrestrial intelligence?

If so, could it have
been intended as a gift

to the early Japanese
by an ancient space traveler?

There's five different drawings
that have survived

from completely different
regions of Japan--

they're almost identical
to modern UFO reports.

TANAKA:

NARRATOR: As evidence
to support their claims,

ancient astronaut theorists
point to

early Japanese carvings
and statuary,

each suggesting a variety
of extraterrestrial encounters.

This is a dogu figure
and it comes from Japan.

And even to the untrained eye,
you look at this

and it's as if this being
is wearing some type of a suit,

with a helmet, some goggles.

On the back, there are
all these weird buckles

and circles, you know, straps.

Very similar
to a modern-day space suit.

In my opinion,

this is a likeness
of a possible extraterrestrial

that visited Earth
thousands of years ago.

(indistinct radio chatter)

NARRATOR: Archaeologists have
catalogued the existence

of more than 15,000 dogu figures

made during the Jomon period
of prehistoric Japan

dating from approximately
14,000 to 300 years BC.

But could, as ancient
astronaut theorists believe,

these strange dogu figures

really be
a primitive interpretation

of a pressurized space suit
or diving apparel?

The story behind
those dogu figures is very clear

and anyone can go
and read translations

of the ancient texts
that the dogu,

a long time ago,
descended from the sky

and taught
the first Japanese people

in various disciplines.

And the whole Japanese culture,

including the kimono
and the tea ceremony,

the use of wasabi and ginger
for eating sushi,

the way that they build
their architecture,

their written language,
everything, they say,

came from these visitors,

from these gods
from the universe.

VON DÄNIKEN: The picture shows
beings who look like astronauts,

they are dressed
like an astronaut.

They have the helmet
as an astronaut.

They have some strange tools
in their hands,

tools which we
do not understand.

Now there is a link,
the Japanese call it dogus.

In North America, we have still
the Hopi tribe in Arizona,

and the Hopi Indians

are still making today
kachina dolls.

Kachina dolls look similar
to the Japanese dogu figures.

Further back,
in the Sahara Desert, Africa,

we found cave paintings.

When you see the picture,
you see definitely

an astronaut suit,
no doubt, absolutely.

Now, you compare
these cave paintings

with the kachina dolls
of the Hopi

and with the dogu of Japan.

You have one line.

NARRATOR:
Do the mysterious dogu figures

provide tangible evidence
of extraterrestrial encounters

in Japan's ancient past?

And does the legend
of the Utsuro-bune

suggest that the Earth's oceans

may be hiding even more
proof of alien contact?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining ancient accounts

detailing otherworldly entities

that inhabit our oceans.

ng

is that there are
multiple ancient cultures

that describe encounters
with amphibious

human-like beings.

In other words, fish people.

Yeah, like the Greek stories
of the Telchines,

these fish-like beings
who were sometimes described

as the children of Poseidon.

Yeah, and what's interesting
is they're described

as master metallurgists
with high technology.

We featured the Telchines

in a season three episode called
"Aliens, Gods and Heroes."

NARRATOR:
Cape Sounion, Greece.

Perched on the headland,

surrounded on
three sides by the sea,

lies the ruins of
the Temple of Poseidon,

built in 440 BC.

The second son of
the Titan King Cronus,

Poseidon was worshipped
throughout Greece

almost as much as
his younger brother Zeus.

Poseidon was the god of the sea.

He was also the god
of earthquakes

and, strangely, horses.

When Poseidon
was in a good mood,

he created new lands
out of the sea.

He gave, uh, calm waters
for good voyages.

When he was in a bad mood,

he destroyed ships
and brought storms.

(thunder crashing)

RADER: Poseidon does rule
over the kingdom of the sea.

It is envisioned as a kind
of a place where people live.

And when he comes
out of that place,

yes, he rides the spectacular
kind of, like, water chariot

that is driven by dolphins,

and he holds onto
a really big trident.

NARRATOR:
In Greek mythology,

Cronus eats all of his children
except for Zeus,

who eventually
rescues his siblings,

including Poseidon,
from the belly of his father.

A potion is prepared
that makes him heave up

all the other siblings of Zeus,

and these become
the gods of Olympus.

NARRATOR:
But ancient astronaut theorists

believe this Greek myth
is actually a metaphor

for an extraterrestrial event.

They believe the notion
of gods being vomited up

from the belly of their father

actually describes
mutinous aliens

being expelled
from the mother ship.

Any being which is swallowed up
into a living creature

will not be able
to survive for three days.

It will die from suffocation

and will begin to decay.

What we have here
is not a creature,

but something else.

It could've been an object,
which was clearly

of a man-made or
extraterrestrial origin.

VON DÄNIKEN:
A mutiny took place.

Some of the extraterrestrials,
they had sex

with wonderful earthly,
uh, females, women.

They were not allowed
to do this.

So, one of these
extraterrestrials

who were not allowed to go
back with the mother spaceship

had the name of Poseidon.

Poseidon fell in love

with the beautiful human girl.

And he made her pregnant.

RADER: Poseidon is married, all right?
He's got a child.

He's got some
grandchildren, right?

There's the whole caste
of sea nymphs as well,

all of them presumably,
like, live in this place.

YOUNG: Poseidon has the
power of the deep,

the-the unseen place.

If you look out at the sea,
you see a surface,

and you're aware there's
a whole world below that,

suggesting powers beyond
that which meet the eye.

NARRATOR:
Among the mythical creatures

associated with Poseidon
are the Telchines,

a race of advanced
"fish children."

These human-like beings

could live both in
and out of water.

They are masters of technology,

and seem to match up
with the fish gods

of ancient Sumeria,
who worked for Enki,

the great god of alchemy
and technology and smithcraft.

RADER: The Telchines are also
kind of in the shadowy territory

of god, human, monster things.

They're just these
kind of figures

who are not gods,
but who are like human beings.

There's one story about

the Roman version of Zeus,
Jupiter, trying to destroy them.

Now, we don't know whether
they are actually all destroyed,

but it's possibly
because of their

relationship to the magic.

NARRATOR: In Greek legend, the
Telchines were also metallurgists.

They were said to have created
Poseidon's magical trident

and to have cast
the first bronze statues

of the gods of Olympus.

And, according
to some historians,

the Telchines may not
have been creatures of myth,

but were beings
who actually existed.

RADER: There were people
called Telchines.

We do actually have
evidence of these beings.

They were actual ancient Greeks

who had specific
tasks and trades

like, uh, metallurgy,
like smithing, and so on.

And so, you could see how it is

that a being like the Telchines,

that these things could in fact

not just be
these mythological beings

but like actual people.

So, the way that we look at
the ancient Greeks and Romans

would have been the way
that they would have looked at

the stories that are
being told about the Iliad.

TSOUKALOS: We've got the
stories of the Telchine,

and they were able
to survive underwater

for unlimited amounts of time.

Now, how is
such a thing possible?

NARRATOR:
Could the ancient Greek myths

really be based
on actual events?

Were the Telchines early humans

enabled with godlike abilities?

According to some researchers,
these entities,

along with other legendary
underwater creatures,

were not fictional creations,

but aliens of the sea.

NARRATOR:
Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan.

May, 2014.

At the historic
Miyakonojo Shimazu Residence,

the mummified remains
of a sea animal

with webbed hands and feet
are put on public display.

Discovered in 1818,

the bones are the first
of their kind to be exhibited,

and are purported to be
from the legendary Kappa,

a species of amphibious
humanoid creatures

believed to lurk
in the waters of Japan.

DOMINIC STEAVU: These remains
were from, allegedly, a Kappa

that had been shot in 1818
near a local river.

The Kappa, which translates as,

"water child," is a creature

that is usually about
five feet in height...

...has scaly skin,

and is usually blue
or green in color.

It has a turtle shell
on its back,

and a beak, as well as

a kind of plate
on the top of its head

in which it always
has to carry water.

If it spills this water,
then it loses all of its power

and it can die within
a very short period of time.

So, the Kappa is
basically a water demon.

KEN GERHARD:
The Kappa is perceived to be

a very malevolent
and quite violent creature.

And, in fact,

children are warned

to stay away from
bodies of water,

because the Kappa will actually

drag them in and drown them.

NARRATOR: While accounts of the
Kappa are rare in modern times,

there are still sightings
in remote areas

like the Fukuoka Prefecture.

In fact, to this day,

signs can be found
posted near bodies of water

throughout Japan
warning of the Kappa.

For ancient astronaut theorists,

the Kappa are not only real,

but their existence is proof
of otherworldly beings

inhabiting the Earth's waters.

WILCOCK:
These Kappa are reported

as having
an unusual intelligence.

Apparently, they can speak

even though they have
a bird-like beak.

And now, physical
tangible artifacts

of the body of the Kappa
have gone on display.

Will we find genetic markers

that clearly show that it could
not be something from Earth?

NARRATOR: Could it be that the Kappa
are indigenous to planet Earth,

or did they come here

by some extraterrestrial means?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining the many
historical accounts

of mermaids.

The very earliest accounts
of mermaid-like creatures

reveal a connection with beings
that come from the sky.

A story from ancient Syria
that dates back to 1000 BC

relates that
the goddess Atargatis

came down from the sky
and dove into a lake

to become a half-fish,
half-human creature.

And in Greek mythology,
the goddess Aphrodite

is sometimes associated
with mermaid-like beings.

COLEMAN: If you look at some
of the ancient classic authors

from the Greeks,
from the Sumerians,

you see tales of mermaids
in which there is

a very direct connection
with the heavens,

with a fish-like creature
that comes from outer space.

There's something out there
that may not even

be connected to our
known biological world.

NARRATOR:
For ancient astronaut theorists,

the strongest evidence
that humanoid sea creatures

not only existed, but came
from somewhere beyond our Earth,

can be found in the origin tale

of yet another aquatic creature
with human traits.

The West African Dogons

worship ancestral spirits
they call the Nommo,

the first living creatures
created by their sky god Amma.

Described as amphibious,
hermaphroditic,

fish-like creatures,
they descended from the stars

in a vessel accompanied
by fire and thunder.

TSOUKALOS: There's a
really incredible story

of the Nommo
that descended from the sky

in a loud, noisy whirlwind

that made the earth
shake when it landed.

And their knowledge of
everything was given to them

by that being that descended
in a whirlwind from the sky.

HENRY: Now this is interesting
because we have

so many traditions of
extraterrestrial beings

riding upon clouds
that you have to ask,

did the Nommo
come from the stars?

Were they extraterrestrial
beings that came to Earth

to teach the Dogon?

Is this perhaps
why they called them

the monitors and the teachers?

WILCOCK:
The legend said they described

the star Sirius as being
their point of origin

and had very
accurate information

about a dwarf star
called Sirius B

that wasn't even
known at the time.

The Dogon said
that when the Nommo landed

and came out of this craft
that they arrived in,

they almost immediately
got into the water.

Because they were essentially
fish-like humanoids,

it seems that they needed
to be in the water.

We are definitely dealing
with some sort of

intelligent aquatic
humanoid species

that came here as an
extraterrestrial visitor

from outer space.

NARRATOR: Might the detailed
descriptions of the Nommo

suggest that they were
extraterrestrials

that came from space
to inhabit our oceans?

And might these
be the same beings

that are described
in the accounts

of the Kappa and mermaids?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and suggest this
otherworldly connection

may also explain the existence

of legendary sea monsters.

You knows

of these humanoid amphibious
creatures around the world,

we also have stories
of sea monsters.

Right, for example,
these giant octopus creatures

like the kraken,
or, for example,

-the Loch Ness Monster.
-CHILDRESS: Yeah,

and we have reports of UFOs
over Loch Ness.

So, you have to wonder
if there's not a connection

between extraterrestrials
and these monsters.

We covered this in
a season three episode called

"Aliens and Monsters."

NARRATOR:
In March 2010,

a panel of 41
international experts concluded

that the impact of an asteroid
that smashed into Earth

at Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula
65 million years ago,

probably triggered
the global climate change

that resulted
in the mass extinction

of the Earth's dinosaurs.

But is there also evidence

that some dinosaur species
survived?

And if so,
might they also have evolved?

Paleontologists tell us that,
"Oh, these things

have been extinct
for-for 65 million years,"

yet, they still crop up.

And they appear to be
prehistoric animals,

dinosaurs, literally,
that have survived

right down to today.

Much like the coelacanth

and, uh, alligators,
and sharks and turtles,

also have survived from
those same prehistoric times.

I believe that ancient,
prehistoric monsters

are still living
in remote areas of the world,

either in oceans and lakes
or jungle areas to today.

NARRATOR:
In the Highlands of Scotland,

the legend
of the Loch Ness Monster

has long been part of Celtic
and Norse folklore.

Recorded accounts of sightings
can be traced to the year 565,

to the Irish monk Saint Columba,

a powerful leader
who founded monasteries

in both Ireland and Scotland.

In his journals,
Columba wrote of an encounter

with people burying a man
near the shores

of the now-fabled Loch Ness.

JASON MARTELL: They explained to Father
Columba that the man who had died

had been swimming in the lake
and was attacked

by the water beast.

Upon hearing this,
Father Columba sent

his own follower into the lake.

When the beast
came after this man,

Father Columba made
the sign of a cross

and commanded the beast
not to harm the man.

The beast fled and was never
seen harming another man again.

NICK REDFERN: A lot of people don't
realize how big Loch Ness is.

It's 23 miles long, a mile wide,

and at its deepest point,
it's about 800 feet.

And the water
is very, very dark and dense,

and so, it is the prime location
where, conceivably,

if they didn't need
to surface that often,

they would sort of
bypass detection.

When we're confronted
with the Loch Ness Monster

or any kind
of anomalous creature,

the question really is,
where does it come from?

Is it a remnant
of the dinosaur age

or is it something
which is out of this world?

We know that, for example,

Saint Columba definitely felt
that lake was sacred

and that there was
something present there

which had
a religious connotation,

which is why he went
to that place to begin with.

The intriguing thing is that
there actually have been

a significant number
of UFO sightings

over the loch itself,
of strange, brightly lit objects

hovering over the water
late at night,

which clearly aren't
helicopters or aircraft

or meteorites or anything
like that at all.

So, in other words, Loch Ness
is a weird and spooky place.

NARRATOR: Could the so-called
sea monsters of Loch Ness

possibly be descendants
of ancient dinosaurs?

Or might it be
of another, perhaps,

extraterrestrial origin?

And if so, what might this say

about other mythical sea beasts,

like the seven-headed Sumerian
sea monster, the Leviathan?

YOUNG: The Leviathan is sometimes
described as a-a serpent

or a crocodile or a dragon,
but it lurks.

It is the gatekeeper
to a portal to hell,

and this gateway to hell
is apparently deep in the ocean,

and the Leviathan is there,
forever lurking.

NARRATOR: In Greek myths,
the Hydra was described

as an ancient sea serpent
with many heads.

It was said to be a descendant
of the Earth goddess, Gaia.

Hercules was sent
to kill the Hydra.

But it was terribly difficult.

He would slice off the head

and two heads would form.

He had to ask help
from his nephew.

And his nephew had
a brilliant idea: bring a torch.

Fire might keep
the heads from forming.

So Hercules would bash off one
of the heads, and his-his nephew

would essentially cauterize
the neck so that another one

wouldn't form, and in this way,
the Hydra was finally defeated.

COPPENS: In the case
of a Hydra, we have something,

which has several heads,
which is once again

a category of a creature

which you would expect
not to see.

So we're either confronted here

with something which
was genetically engineered,

or which genetically went wrong,
but clearly it was

of such importance that
it was adhered to in mythology

where it attained
a status over the years,

over the centuries up
until this moment in time.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: According
to Scandinavian legend,

the kraken are legendary sea
monsters of gargantuan size

and are said
to have roamed the seas

off the coasts
of Norway and Iceland.

This fearsome beast was infamous

for its attacks
on sailing ships.

YOUNG: The danger was not only
being attacked by the kraken.

They would come up to
the surface and were enormous,

the size of small islands,
so you could, you could

have a collision with a-a kraken

that wasn't even
out to attack you.

Another great danger was
that if it submerged suddenly,

it formed such a great whirlpool
that it could pull a ship under.

NARRATOR: Could such legendary sea
monsters have actually existed?

Might they have
escaped extinction

in the safety
of cold deep waters?

And if so, what other alien life

might be lurking
beneath the surface?

When we talk about
strange underwater creatures,

it's not just, you know,
things we find in mythology.

And in fact,
there are some really bizarre

underwater creatures
that we know really exist.

Yeah, we now have the technology

to explore the deepest
parts of our oceans.

We're finding creatures
that are so strange

that even some scientists
are calling them

"aliens of the sea."

Right, and what's
even more mind-blowing

is that astronauts
have found evidence

that some
of these aquatic lifeforms

can survive
in the vacuum of space.

Now how exciting is that?

(indistinct radio chatter)

NARRATOR:
August 19, 2014.

During a routine cleaning,

Russian cosmonauts aboard
the International Space Station

discover something
incredibly unexpected

covering parts of the windows:

living sea plankton.

According
to some mainstream scientists,

the tiny organisms may have
been carried to the station

on air currents
from the Earth's oceans,

or perhaps launched into space
on a contaminated rocket.

But many say these are both
highly improbable scenarios.

In the previous episode
of cleaning,

which was only
about a few weeks prior

to that particular date,
there was nothing found.

And the space station
was in orbit,

there was no connection
with the ground.

So I-I really think that
there's absolutely no chance

that these are
microorganisms that were

somehow lifted from the Earth.

NARRATOR: Astrobiologist
Chandra Wickramasinghe

believes the plankton is
of extraterrestrial origin,

and evidence of panspermia--

the idea that life exists

throughout the universe
and is spread

by comets and asteroids.

WICKRAMASINGHE: I think what happened
was that a small fragment of a comet

that carried microorganisms,
uh, including plankton

landed on the window of the, uh,
International Space Station.

It's not surprising if one
accepts the idea that life

is continuing to arrive
at the Earth from space.

PAUL DAVIES: There's always been
a problem about life on Earth.

Did it actually
start here on Earth

or come here
from somewhere else?

Seeing as we don't know how
life began, it's up for grabs.

NARRATOR: But whether life
originated on Earth

or somewhere else
in the universe,

one thing is now certain.

Sea plankton can survive
in outer space.

Surviving space
is very difficult

actually, primarily because
of the-the vacuum of space,

and then the intense radiation.

And so those things,
um, in general,

will sort of rip apart tissues.

So the presence of-of plankton

on the space station,
um, is remarkable.

NARRATOR: The discovery of plankton
on the International Space Station

has led ancient astronaut
theorists to ask the question:

If sea life can thrive in
the furthest reaches of space,

could the reverse
be true as well?

Might there be
undiscovered alien life-forms

dwelling in the deepest
regions of our oceans?

♪ ♪

Portsmouth, England.

December 21, 1872.

The HMS Challenger sets out

on a three-year
scientific expedition

to survey the Earth's oceans

and search for new marine life.

At the time of its departure,

the mainstream
scientific viewpoint

is that life cannot exist

more than 1,800 feet beneath
the surface of the ocean.

But in March of 1875,

after more than
two years at sea,

the crew of the HMS Challenger
makes a remarkable discovery.

Using a deep-sea dredge,
they uncover

an abundance of life at depths

well beyond 1,800 feet.

Every time they dredged
the waters of the ocean,

they kept bringing up
weirder and weirder creatures

at deeper and deeper levels.

And it quickly became
apparent that the oceans

are teeming with life.

Throughout time,
we tend to sort of, uh,

impose our own limitations
and our own perspectives

on sort of our view
of the universe, right?

And so our idea of the deep
ocean was similar to that, too.

We thought that probably
nothing else could live

at great depths because we
certainly couldn't survive, um,

our bodies
couldn't take the pressure.

It's sort of biased,
I think, our interpretation

of life in the deep ocean.

WILCOCK: They found over 4,700
different types of new life.

It was a wealth of data
so vast that it filled

50 volumes

with 30,000 pages
of information.

And was essentially a scientific
revolution for its time.

Uh, 220-plus, uh, uh, crew.

Only five scientists.

NARRATOR: In addition to finding
new species of marine life,

the Challenger crew
also made the first discovery

of what are called
"cosmic spherules."

Nickel-iron micrometeorites
from outer space.

According to some scientists,
these spherules could be capable

of carrying
extraterrestrial life.

DAVIES: A lot of those rocks would
have carried a microbial cargo.

Cocooned inside of rocks,
a microbe could be

quite happy in
the harsh conditions of space.

In particular,
it would be shielded

from radiation
by the depth of rock.

It could probably stay in
the dormant phase out in space

for certainly thousands,
if not millions of years.

HENRY: When scientists explored these
nickel-iron spherules in depth,

they discovered
that they contained iron

that was
extraterrestrial in origin.

Is it possible that these
extraterrestrial substances

were brought here
by alien beings and deposited

in the oceans of Earth,
along with other forms of life?

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the Challenger

discovered the conveyance

of extraterrestrial life
on the seafloor?

Might the deepest parts
of the ocean be as alien to us

as the farthest reaches
of outer space?

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe

the answer is a resounding yes

and point to other
strange creatures

that have recently been found in
the seemingly inhospitable deep.

♪ ♪

March 2005.

Scientists off the coast
of Easter Island

discover the yeti crab,
a furry crustacean

that thrives on the seafloor
near hydrothermal vents,

fissures that release
geothermally heated water.

Using the hair that covers
its body, the crab is able

to filter out the toxic minerals
the vents excrete.

But as extraordinary
as the yeti crab is,

it is just one of many forms
of marine life

known to be able to exist
in such extreme conditions.

Because of the unique
conditions that exist

in the hydrothermal vents, um,

some really interesting
and remarkable organisms,

uh, can be found there.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Another newly discovered
organism that puzzles scientists

is the ctenophore,
or comb jelly.

When neurobiologist Leonid Moroz
sequenced the DNA

of this translucent creature

at the University of Florida
in 2007,

he discovered they possessed
a complex nervous system

completely different
from the entire animal kingdom.

NARRATOR: How comb jellies function
continues to baffle scientists,

and their unique properties
have led Dr. Moroz

to dub them, quote,
"aliens of the sea."

We're still finding incredible
creatures in the ocean,

creatures that we never
even knew existed.

Could be extraterrestrial life.

It's a big planet, and there are
a lot of mysteries still here.

NARRATOR: Could there really be alien
life thriving in Earth's oceans?

And if so,
might our waters harbor

not only extraterrestrial
marine life

but also advanced,
intelligent beings?

Perhaps further evidence
can be found

in the accounts
of mysterious flying objects

rising from the depth
of the sea.

You know, we really live
in the most exciting of times

because for the first time ever,

we get to see video

that was shot by Navy pilots

showing unidentified craft

flying into and out
of the ocean.

Yeah, and that's
really exciting footage.

And what we call USOs,

or unidentified
submerged objects,

have been reported by
the military going back decades.

Right, and there was one case
where they detected

a USO at a depth
of more than 20,000 feet.

We featured this
in a 2013 episode,

"Aliens and Forbidden Islands."

NARRATOR:
March 1963.

75 miles off the coast
of Puerto Rico.

While training
in anti-submarine maneuvers,

the United States Navy's fleet,

led by the USS Wasp
aircraft carrier,

detects an unknown sonar target
moving in the nearby waters.

For four days, the fleet tracked
the unknown object,

recording its speed
at more than 150 knots,

or 170 miles per hour.

DOLAN:
There is nothing

in any naval inventory
anywhere in the world

that can approach anything
remotely that speed.

Not then, not now.

Moreover, the object
descended to a depth

of something like 27,000 feet.

Again, another impossibility.

The pressures down there
are vastly too much.

They would crush any vessel
that went down that deep.

At that time,
the technology that we had,

the best that
we could do underwater

was about 45 knots

and a maximum depth
of about 3,000 feet.

For the last 100, 200 years,

there have been
many, many accounts

of objects that have
been seen underwater.

But exactly what they are,
we still do not know.

There's been a tremendous surge
of UFO sightings

in Puerto Rico
since the early 1990s.

And for many
of the Puerto Rican witnesses,

they're absolutely convinced
that there's

some sort of massive
futuristic installation

deep below Puerto Rico
under the ocean bed.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
aliens have bases here on Earth,

hidden deep underwater

and off the coasts of islands?

Could this explain why
so many islands around the world

have stories
of unexplained sightings

of objects both overhead

and beneath the sea?

Isolated island would be
a perfect location

for, say,
extraterrestrial beings

to make their base
of operations.

Radar could spot any kind of
a craft in orbit very quickly.

However, if you had your base
underwater, near an island,

a lot more difficult
to be discovered.

Islands are
essentially mountains

that are mostly underwater.

What they are, in essence,
is energetic upwellings

of the energy of the Earth

pushing higher
and higher and higher.

Logically,
these types of locations

would be very attractive
to visitors from another world,

especially visitors that would
be looking for an ideal place

to set up a base
or a landing spot

or simply a place
where they could draw

some of the Earth's energy.

NARRATOR:
The Aleutian Islands.

Just off the Alaskan coast,

this chain of more
than 100 small islands

extends west for 1,100 miles,

separating the Bering Sea
from the Pacific Ocean.

Here, in the summer of 1945,
14 crewmembers

of the United States Army
Transport Delarof

reported seeing what
they believed to be a large UFO

emerge from the waters
near the island of Adak.

It's reported
that a round object

that appeared dark, um, against
the setting sun at the time

actually rose up vertically
into the air

and then circled the boat
two or possibly three times

and was visible
for about seven or eight minutes

before it vanished.

DOLAN: Something that
comes out of the water,

circles around
and then takes off like that,

uh, that's well beyond anything
we're supposed to have.

And they're in
the middle of the ocean.

That's the important thing
to remember here.

There's just nothing, nothing
that's supposed to be there,

and yet there's activity
being reported there.

NARRATOR: UFO sightings
around the Aleutian Islands

continue to this day, but why?

Is it perhaps more
than mere coincidence

that the native people
known as the Aleuts

believe this is the exact spot

where their ancestors
first descended from the skies?

YOUNG: The Aleuts
believe they descended

from a creature
that had come from the sky.

A dog, actually, had fallen
to the island of Umnak

and had had two pups with paws.

But the children
that came from those two

were perfect humans.

So, by way of this descent
from the heavens

and by way of animal form,
we get the Aleutian people.

TSOUKALOS: I find it intriguing
that the Aleuts' origin story

has something to do with them
having arrived from the sky,

essentially saying
that they have been seeded.

So the fact that, to this day,
that area of the world

is considered
a hot spot for UFOs

is not coincidence.

BARA: There have been
rumors that there is

an underground alien or UFO base
in the Aleutian Islands.

The question is:
Could a base really exist there?

And the answer is yeah.

There's plenty of places--
knolls, atolls, volcanoes--

where, if hollowed out,
they would pretty much make

ideal bases for UFOs to use

to come and go as they please
and to investigate that area.

NARRATOR: Could there
really be a connection

between the high number
of UFO sightings

and the Aleuts' origin story?

And if these sacred accounts
are rooted in reality,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest,

might evidence be found
underwater?

Perhaps the undeniable proof

lies on the other side
of the world,

with the extraordinary discovery
of a submerged city.

You know, to me, some of the
most exciting discoveries come

when we find that a story we
thought was fiction is actually

-based on historical fact.
-Right.

One of the best examples of that
is the discovery of Dwarka.

Oh, absolutely. And according
to the ancient Hindu texts,

that was a site
where a cosmic battle

between rival gods happened

who had access
to flying machines

and the most incredible
of weaponry.

And what's so cool is that
archaeologists found

underwater ruins
that many believe

are the remnants
of exactly that city.

Right. And this shows you that

some of the best evidence
for ancient astronaut theory

is actually underwater.

NARRATOR: In 2001, researchers
from India's Oceanic Institute

detected anomalies on the bottom
of the Gulf of Khambhat

seven miles from shore.

HANCOCK:
They had been commissioned

by the Indian government

to do a survey of pollution
in the Gulf of Khambhat,

uh, up in the northwest,
uh, of India.

And they were not
expecting to find

anything except a mess
down there.

But suddenly,
their side-scan sonar

started returning images
of regular structures.

NARRATOR: The images revealed an
enormous network of stone buildings,

now shrouded in mud and sand

and covering an area
of five square miles.

HANCOCK: What we're looking
at in the Gulf of Khambhat

are the remains of cities.

There's actually two of them.

And it turns out
that they are positioned

on the side
of ancient river channels.

They look like cities
that have been submerged

for a very long time

at a time when
mainstream archaeology tells us

there were no cities,
uh, anywhere in the world.

NARRATOR: Powerful crosscurrents
made it nearly impossible

to dive the 170 feet
to the bottom.

Still, scientists retrieved
dozens of artifacts,

including wood
and pottery shards.

CREMO:
Some of the dates

on some of the human artifacts
that were brought up

extended as far back
as 32,000 years.

But the oceanographers
concluded that the area

had been covered by water
about 9,000 years ago.

So this city
had apparently existed

from 32,000

to about 9,000 years ago.

CHILDRESS: Mainstream
scholars today claim that

ancient Indian civilization only
goes back 4,000 or 5,000 years.

Yet, Hindu scholars themselves
say that Hindu civilization

is going back, uh,
many tens of thousands,

even hundreds
of thousands of years.

NARRATOR: Might the ruins
below the Gulf of Khambhat

prove the Hindu scholars right?

Another recent discovery
may support their claims.

200 miles to the northwest
lies the modern city of Dwarka.

Archaeologists digging deep
under the city

found signs of a settlement
once inundated by the sea.

Inspired by this clue,
they began

searching for more ruins
in waters just off the coast.

In only 70 feet of water,

divers discovered
sandstone walls,

cobblestone streets,

and evidence
of a prosperous seaport.

Scholars declared these ruins
to be the remains

of the ancient
and legendary city of Dwarka.

Ancient Hindu texts explain
that the legendary city

of Dwarka was said to be
the dwelling place

of Lord Krishna,

a deity worshipped across
many traditions of Hinduism.

Imagine what it would mean
for the Christian world

to all of a sudden discover
the actual Holy Grail,

the actual Ark of the Covenant.

That would be akin
for the Indian population

to discover an actual Dwarka.

This was a very powerful city,
which was ruled by Lord Krishna,

and Krishna is still
revered until today.

He's one of the highest gods
that we have in Hindu culture.

NARRATOR:
Hindu texts explain
that a king named Salwa

attacked Lord Krishna
in the mythical Dwarka.

Ancient astronaut
theorists believe

the descriptions of the battle

suggest the use of alien
technology and even spacecraft.

CREMO: According to the
ancient Sanskrit texts,

with this spacecraft,
Salwa attacked the city

raining down energy weapons
that resemble lightning.

He destroyed large parts
of the city in this way.

When this happened,
the king of the city,

the god Krishna, responded by

firing weapons
at this spacecraft.

The weapons
are described as arrows,

but they're not ordinary arrows.

It said that they roared like
thunder when they were launched,

and resembled bolts of lightning
or rays of the sun.

In response,
it is said that the spacecraft

began to appear in
different places simultaneously.

It appeared to be moving
in ways that resemble

modern descriptions of UFOs.

So what I find interesting
about this account

is there's a spacecraft
made of metal

that is firing down weapons
on a city on Earth.

NARRATOR: The legend says that
Krishna eventually departed Earth,

and the ocean consumed
his city of Dwarka.

CREMO:
For many people, the description

of fabulous ancient cities

in the Sanskrit writings
of India were simply mythology.

But with the discovery
of the remains

of a sunken city
off the coast of India

in the location of Dwarka,
all that has changed.

People are beginning to look
at these ancient writings

in a new light and see them
not simply as mythology,

but as actual
historical records.

NARRATOR: Did India's
ancestors witness a war

between
extraterrestrial entities?

If the mythical city
cited in the Hindu texts

turned out to be real,
could there also be evidence

of Krishna
and his supernatural powers?

Ancient alien theorists
believe a link between

the submerged ruins and
extraterrestrials can be found

in another set of texts known
as India's Sangam literature.

CREMO: Sangams were
assemblies of sages.

It says that the first two
Sangams took place

on a sunken landmass
called Kumari Kandam.

This area was once above water
thousands of years ago,

according to the accounts,
but it's now underwater.

It's also interesting
that these assemblies of sages

included
extraterrestrial beings as well.

And this fits in
with evidence discovered

in the Gulf of Cambay

and off the coast
of the present city of Dwarka.

NARRATOR: Are the interpretations
of India's ancient texts

proof of alien contact
in Earth's past?

And are the descriptions of gods

actually descriptions
of extraterrestrials?

Perhaps another discovery,

one beneath a mysterious lake,

will yield even more evidence
of alien visitors

in the remote past.

NARRATOR:
The Andes Mountains, Peru.

Here, at an elevation
of 12,500 feet,

lie the dark waters
of Lake Titicaca,

the highest navigable
body of water in the world.

In August of 2000,
an Italian team of divers

and archaeologists launched
an underwater investigation

of the legendary lake.

There, submerged under
100 feet of water,

the team uncovered traces
of a paved road,

a stone terrace, and a wall
nearly a half mile long.

For centuries,
local legends have spoken

of a lost underwater city
called Wanaku.

Could these ruins provide proof

that such a city
did, in fact, exist?

Then, another
shocking discovery.

Lying on the lakebed was
a large sculptured stone head.

Could this ancient relic
offer a clue

to the origins of this
incredible archaeological find?

Comparisons were quickly made
to similar stonework

found at the nearby
ancient city of Tiahuanaco,

just 12 miles south
of Lake Titicaca,

a city long thought by
ancient astronaut theorists

to have
extraterrestrial origins.

CHILDRESS:
When the early conquistadors

talked to the local
Aymara Indians,

they were told that-that giants

at the, you know,
beginning of-of creation

had-had created Tiahuanaco.

The-the Spanish too were amazed
by the gigantic blocks of stone.

They felt that the devil
had built this building.

HANCOCK: If you look at some of the
rock cut on megalithic structures,

uh, in the site of Tiahuanaco,

I personally believe
very strongly

that we are looking at an
older episode of construction.

And the traces of a forgotten
episode in the human story.

NARRATOR: But if the ruins found
at the bottom of Lake Titicaca

are from the legendary lost city
of Wanaku, what happened to it?

Did it fall prey
to a major earthquake

or other natural disaster?

Or was the city, as some ancient
astronaut theorists believe,

deliberately flooded?

The more you know
about Lake Titicaca,

the stranger it gets.

Archaeologists have problems
in really explaining

why there are sunken ruins there

because they're saying that
the ruins aren't that old.

They're only 1,500 years old.

And that would mean
that Lake Titicaca

has gone through a number
of major changes in that period.

And it's possible that, somehow,

the lake itself and
the shorelines were manipulated

so that certain areas
of Lake Titicaca were flooded

in a sort of artificial way.

There is a type of seahorse
that lives in Lake Titicaca,

and seahorses are coming
from salt water and oceans,

yet these sea horses are living
at nearly 13,000 feet

in the Andes.

NARRATOR: But just how
could an ancient people

have artificially created
South America's largest lake?

A lake that is 118 miles long
and 50 miles wide?

TSOUKALOUS: When you ask
the local population

how did all of this
come into being,

the Aymara Indians
will tell you that all of this

has existed since before
the beginning of time.

JORGE LUIS DELGADO MAMANI:
In the Aymara legends,

the lake is like the-the place

of genesis,
the place where it starts,

all the civilizations
in our continent.

These very,
very, very old roots.

I mean, we're not talking
only about this civilization,

this humanity,
we are talking about our seeds,

the roots of the stars.

Some people believe
that extraterrestrial built,

but what I believe is that
the space brothers help us,

direct us, teach us

because they had experience
in many ways.

The legend says that
once the space brothers

came to this planet,
and they used to live with us,

and they was very important
in our lives,

and they used to be
very powerful people.

NARRATOR: But is it possible
that the lost city of Wanaku

was really built or inhabited

by the ancient ancestors
of the indigenous Aymara people?

And if so, could it have been
deliberately flooded

to avoid detection
from the outside world?

(speaking native language)

(translated):
The elders, they used to talk

about the underwater city.

They talk about the lights
like the stars

connecting with the lake.

The stars,
when they come down to the lake,

there is changes
in the temperatures.

MAMANI: There is many
legends with lights

coming from the underground
of the lake.

It seems they come, they go,

and they return
in the different moments.

CHILDRESS:
You start to get the idea

that there is some kind of
ancient alien underwater base.

And it's possible that some
of these sunken ruins are, uh,

somehow part of that base.

NARRATOR:
Could the ancient city of Wanaku

really have been built
by alien visitors?

And if so, why?

What was their purpose?

Could the discovery of this
and other sunken cities

provide the evidence
that mankind has been seeking

for centuries?

Evidence that proves
we are not alone.

HANCOCK: These mysterious
underwater structures

really don't have any context
or any background,

but just seem to come
from nowhere.

They seem to stand out
as being out of place in time,

so there's some question marks,
some mystery surrounding them

that might shed new light
on human history.

TSOUKALOS:
Atlantis, Lake Titicaca, Dwarka.

All those ancient mystery places

always have had
a connection to the gods.

The gods who, in the
ancient astronaut opinion,

were flesh and blood
extraterrestrials.

And in the end,

the ancient astronaut theory
will be proven right.

The more we'll discover
on our ocean floor,

the more we'll understand
that our history

goes way far deeper
into our past

than what we've been told
because it's right there.

-It's right there, but it's being ignored.
-CHILDRESS: Yeah.

There's so much more
out there to discover.

I mean, we're-- we've only just
scratched the surface.

Yeah, so humanity is more
and more being forced

to face that we have
this lost history,

this lost ancient past,
and it's underwater.

And these stories make it
really clear that maybe

we should be concentrating
our effort on going

deeper into our oceans

instead of trying to go deeper
into space.

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