Sky Beings Across Lost Civilizations | Ancient Aliens

Video: "Sky Beings Across Lost Civilizations | Ancient Aliens" (History Channel)

Full auto-transcript: NARRATOR: In April 2019, David Childress traveled to Peru with author Hugh Newman to meet with Jorge Luis Delgado, a local expert on and a descendant of the Inca. Jorge believes that many of Peru's most incredible ancient structures do, in fact, predate the Inca. CHILDRESS: All right. Here we are. NARRATOR: On this day, Jorge took David and Hugh to one of Peru's most mysterious sites: a location outside of Cusco known only as the X-Zone. Overlooking the sprawling stone fortress of Sacsayhuamán, the X-Zone is an impressive collection of megalithic ruins, rock-cut monuments and a maze of underground tunnels. -HENRY: It's incredible. -CHILDRESS: What kind of technology does it take to cut these so perfectly and straight and then fit them in where you can't fit a piece of paper or a razor blade in here. HENRY: It seems like they're softening the stones somehow, and they're kind of shaping it and then putting it back in. Like some magical technology. NARRATOR: Naylamp was the deity worshipped by the Sican people who settled in northern Peru around 750 AD, centuries before the Inca. Their oral traditions describe Naylamp as a strange being with sharp birdlike features who, upon his death, sprouted wings and then ascended into the sky. Is it possible that these traditional beliefs are grounded in fact, as the Sican people claim? And, if so, could Naylamp have been, as ancient astronaut theorists suspect, an extraterrestrial being? Southeastern Turkey, 7,000 feet high atop a barren mountain called Nemrut 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. ADRIAN 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 a 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. ADRIAN GILBERT: I think it's meant to symbolize Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. Because you've got the gods seated around and so now you've got a peek above them. I think this is all very symbolic. It's a stage for carrying out certain rituals and performances. DONALD SANDERS: And he also shows himself in the relief stele shaking hands to all the gods as if they gods recognize him as one of their own and are welcoming him into heaven. NARRATOR: 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 Dagi suggests the king had a profound interest in and understanding of star sciences. One example of the advance 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 in the lion's body fits with the positions of stars of Leo, given in the 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. ADRIAN GILBERT: The shaft runs into the mountainside there at an angle 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 constellation of Leo and once when in line with Orion. ADRIAN GILBERT: Now, that is a very interesting point in the sky because it's the pathway of the sun crosses over the Milky Way, our galaxy. And that to the ancient world was known as a Gate of Heaven. There are two of this, one where they cross in the north, the other way 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, just going back to heaven through Heaven's Gate. NARRATOR: Given the fact that neither Antiochus' is 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? [music playing] Central America, in a fertile valley between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, in what is now Honduras, lie the monumental ruins of Copan. This archeological site is believed to have been the cultural and political center of the once mighty Maya civilization that thrived between 2000 BC and 800 AD. People have called Copan the Paris of Mesoamerica because it was such a place for the arts and humanities. The sculpture is beautiful, the architecture is just magnificent. NARRATOR: It is believed that at one time, Copan was inhabited by as many as 20,000 people and covered an area of 10 square miles. But in the 9th century, this incredible Mayan city was abandoned and its people vanished. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century, they found only a few farming hamlets. But why? They decimated their environment. Warfare became endemic. And it ended, and people left. They walked away. PHILIP COPPENS: To some extent the idea that the Mayans became a lost culture is a yes and a no. We know that they stopped building, but at the very heart of the Mayan is the belief. It's the religion which continues to beat until this very day, saying, please pay attention to us because we have this vast body of knowledge. We want to share it with the world. [music playing] NARRATOR: At Copan, the Maya had built a complex of monuments, temples, and plazas, as well as sculptured stone pillars depicting ancient kings. The Maya were also one of the earliest ancient civilizations to create a written language. In the last 20, 30 years, it's been a huge advance in decoding of their hieroglyphs. This is something has happened in our generation. It's still ongoing. NARRATOR: Might a closer look at the Mayan stone carvings and their hieroglyphs provide proof of contact with extraterrestrials at Copan? According to ancient astronaut theorists, the answer is yes. GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: Some of the large statues at the Copan are infinitely fascinating to me because the gear that they're wearing is very reminiscent of something technological. One of the figures has a box with tubes coming out, and buttons, and just very weird things. These statues look like some type of a being wearing an astronaut suit. And in my opinion, that means that we were visited by some type of extraterrestrials who were very similar in appearance to us. Because according to the ancient texts, we were created in their image. NARRATOR: Researchers working in Copan have also found stone sculptures called stele, which have provoked controversy since the site was discovered in 1576. And various interpretations of the carvings suggest the Maya may have had knowledge of a world far beyond their own continent. DAVID CHILDRESS: This is one of the curious dragon sculptures here at Copan of which there are many. In fact, these very oriental statues would look right at place in China or some other oriental country. Some archeologists believe that there are elephants on either side of this Copan ruler. So why would there be here at Copan such Asian motif, says, elephants and dragons, in a place in Central America that is so far away from China and Southeast Asia? Is there some kind of extraterrestrial connection between the Mayans and the Chinese, and an origin for both that comes from the stars? [music playing] NARRATOR: How could the early Maya of Central America have had knowledge possessed by people living in Asia on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: One of the basic premises of the ancient astronaut theory suggests that there was contact between ancient cultures way before we give them credit. These ancient cultures were, in fact, connected by flying machines, and those flying machines were usually operated by extraterrestrials. NARRATOR: Mexico City. Beneath the current-day capital of Mexico lie the ruins of the ancient Aztec metropolis known as Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs dominated much of central Mexico from the 14th to the 16th century AD, and Tenochtitlan is considered to be their first official settlement-- an incredibly sophisticated city featuring a grid system of canals and causeways. But according to their historical texts, the Aztec civilization did not originate here. DR. EDWIN BARNHART: The Aztecs say they started from this place up in the north called Chicomoztoc. It was a cave, and inside that cave, it had seven different caverns, and there were said to be seven different tribes. And the Aztecs say they were part of the seven tribes that came from the seven chambers of Chicomoztoc. NARRATOR: While Chicomoztoc was once thought to be a mythological place, some scholars believe archaeological evidence suggests that it really did exist, and is located at the site of the ancient pyramid complex known today as Teotihuacan. BARNHART: The place of seven caves, we think maybe that has actually been located archaeologically at the site of the main temple of Teotihuacan, called the Pyramid of the Sun, which sits just north of the Valley of Mexico. Underneath it is actually a cave with seven different spots that it extends out into. And that's where the Aztecs said their original ancestors came from. NARRATOR: In the 16th century, Spanish chronicler Geronimo de Mendieta recorded the legends of the local native population. According to their accounts, the Aztec believed that they were fashioned by a group of stranded gods within these seven caves. JONATHAN YOUNG: Mendieta wrote an account of Aztec legend. In this report, he describes a giant flint knife landing on the Earth. And the Earth was trembling and shaking as this enormous flint knife landed. Then some 1,600 gods disgorged from this thing, and they are responsible for launching Aztec civilization. BARNHART: The Aztecs talk about the many gods coming down to Earth and creating humans. They create them out of bone, ash and their own blood. And they make them somewhat in their own image. But they make them specifically so that they will honor them and they will serve them. GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: All of a sudden, there is a description of a giant flint knife that descended from the sky, and somebody emerged out of it. One has to wonder whether or not our ancestors were witness to a landing of some type of a craft. If so, then the Aztec story suggests that, some point in our history, extraterrestrials created mankind. And something very strange was going on at Teotihuacan. NARRATOR: Located just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, the Teotihuacan complex encompasses nearly eight square miles, and is dated to the first century AD. It is the oldest and most sophisticated city of Mesoamerica, an area that extends from northern Mexico down through Central America. The civilization predated the Maya by at least a hundred years. At its peak, it was said to have supported nearly 100,000 residents. It was also the largest city in the entire Western Hemisphere prior to the 15th century, and served as the major commerce and religious center for the region. BARNHART: The significance of Teotihuacan cannot be overstated. It is the Rome of Mesoamerica. The things that Teotihuacan did set the pattern for all other city-states after it. NARRATOR: The central features of the complex are two large pyramids, known as the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, as well as a temple dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent. These structures stand alongside a thoroughfare referred to as the Avenue of the Dead. Over 200 smaller buildings, platforms and pyramids are found adjacent to the Avenue. And there are thousands of living quarters just outside the complex. But as incredible as Teotihuacan is, no one knows exactly who built this metropolis or what happened to its occupants. BARNHART: Teotihuacan, despite its size, has no hieroglyphs whatsoever. There are other cultures in Mesoamerica that were using writing systems. There's nothing like that at Teotihuacan. So we don't really have a clear history of what happened at Teotihuacan. And we can't really find evidence of their rulers. ...to develop a complete, huge complex, citadel... WILL HART: We have such a sophisticated site that embodies engineering principles, craftsmanship, art. Where did it originate? Where are the smaller versions of this? Well, we don't find any. So, we don't have a progression, an evolution, to show where this came from. So we have to ask: where did it come from? WILCOCK: We've become conditioned to look at these awesome works of stone architecture and think, "Oh, primitive people did that, and they used primitive methods with primitive technology." But we have to rethink the fundamental assumptions, and come to a greater and greater level of understanding that the technology required to build these artifacts, in fact, is greater than anything that they possessed. NARRATOR: But based on the local lore of the region, ancient astronaut theorists suggest that the original builders of the site may not have been human at all. YOUNG: All of the people in this area felt this city was a sacred site connected to a divine realm. The population along the coast were the Totonac. They believed that the place was founded by a dozen sky gods-- the lords of thunder. Other nearby Mesoamerican cultures had their own theories. One associated the site with the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, who was said to have come from Venus. It was the Aztecs who gave the place its name, Teotihuacan-- City of the Gods. The name speaks for itself. So one has to ask the question: what gods? Who were they? Were they just a figment of our ancestors' imagination, or did they see someone? Did somebody visit them to essentially jumpstart civilization?