Skip to main content
Loading Explore guides…
Chichen Itza & Ancient Aliens · Acedra
Home
Explore
History
Chichen Itza & Ancient Aliens
Sign in to save
Chat
If YouTube asks you to sign in, open the video on YouTube.
Watch on YouTube
Reload player
Transcript
132 segments
Copy
Hide video
0:01
NARRATOR: Chichen Itza, Mexico.
0:03
Located on the Yucatan Peninsula are the ruins of an ancient Mayan city that thrived from 750 to 1,200 AD. It was here, in 1969, that Erich von Daniken had an amazing realization involving the city's central pyramid of El Castillo. I was standing before this great pyramid. I understood nothing. I took every possible literature from a Central American archeologist to learn what's this all about. [music playing]
0:48
And then I learned the game. They are talking of visitors from outside. Of course, they call them gods. MAN 1: According to the ancient Mayan myths, their main deity was Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan, Kucumatz, all those different names for the exact same deity, which was described to be a winged or a flying serpent, or a flying snake. Whatever it was that they saw up in the sky could best be described as a flying snake. When we're looking across the world, Chichen Itza is a very important location.
1:27
It is one of those places where it is said that the gods descended to and decreed the fate of mankind. [music playing] And there is one specific pyramid, El Castillo, the castle, where you see an intricate light show happening on specifically the equinoxes March 21 and September 21. ERICH VON DANIKEN: In the early morning, you see the sun rising up. And while the sun goes up, you see on the stairway, light and shadow, triangles of light and shadow.
1:59
They are produced because of the nine platforms. The light and shadow triangles slowly go down the step to the pyramid until the sun is up there. The message is absolutely clear. God Kukulcan visited the Earth and disappeared again with the promise to return in a far away future. So they have given this, all information of the return of the gods, into their temple. MAN 2: And I think this is one of the great things which Erich has done. Not just in the story of Chichen Itza,
2:36
but of so many other aspects and other places in this world as well. Whereby he focuses on certain details and says, look, this is important. This is a detail which is extremely difficult to create. This is something which traditional archeology tends to overlook. NARRATOR: By making a connection between the ancient Maya's knowledge of astronomy and their precise architecture, Erich von Daniken and was convinced that there was much more to his ancient alien hypothesis than he had imagined.
3:07
For further proof, he looked to another Mayan temple, one that housed what some say was the first ancient astronaut, Lord Pacal. DAVID CHILDRESS: At the ancient Mayan city of Palenque was a tomb that was discovered in the 1950s. And inside this tomb was a lid on this sarcophagus for Lord Pacal And that lid is very highly decorated with a picture of Lord Pacal. And in that picture, he's doing some really unusual things. ERICH VON DANIKEN: You see a man bending forward, almost
3:51
like a racing motorcyclist. He has his nose on some kind of oxygen mask. He uses his upper hand to manipulate the knob. You see his lower hand, he manipulates some controls. He's sitting on a kind of chair in a sort of capsule. DAVID CHILDRESS: When Erich looked at that lid, he saw a Mayan king in a rocket ship. And that guy was returning to the stars, going back into space. It was an exciting interpretation. And it was one of the main things in "Chariots of the Gods."
4:25
And when other people looked at that lid and saw his explanation, they had to agree with him. NARRATOR: Could Erich von Daniken be correct? Was Lord Pacal really an extraterrestrial who visited Earth in the distant past, one who perhaps shared highly advanced knowledge with mankind?
4:51
NARRA[music playing]Central America [music playing]
4:57
the impressive ruins ofern e the ancient Maya city of Copan. the ancient Maya city of Copan.
5:03
And though Copan's temples, pyramids, and monuments And though Copan's temples, pyramids, and monuments
5:09
rank among the most important of any Mayan sites, rank among the most important of any Mayan sites,
5:13
rank among the most important of any Mayan sites, of the Maya have been drawn to a 72-step structure known as the Hieroglyphic Stairway. as the Hieroglyphic Stairway. as the Hieroglyphic Stairway. The Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan was constructed in the early 700s AD with the intent of writing out the history of Copan
5:34
was constructed in the early 700s AD with the intent of writing out the history of Copan at that time. And so it was designed as a public monument And so it was designed as a public monument
5:42
And so it was designed as a public monument to the glory and success of all the kings from Yax K'uk' Mo'
5:47
all the way to the 13th one who commissioned it to be built. all the way to the 13th one who commissioned it to be built.
5:53
all the way to the 13th one who commissioned it to be built. the ancient Maya symbols, known as glyphs, the ancient Maya symbols, known as glyphs, make up what historians believe is most sophisticated ond one of the oldest and most sophisticated systems of writing.
6:08
But for centuries, the glyphs found throughout Mesoamerica
6:10
But for centuries, the glyphs found throughout Mesoamerica But for centuries, the glyphs found throughout Mesoamerica
6:14
were undecipherable.
6:17
Then, in 1880, German librarian and anthropologist Ernst
6:19
Then, in 1880, German librarian and anthropologist Ernst Forstemann cracked the code. Forstemann cracked the code. Ernest Forstemann was a librarian at Dresden.
6:27
Ernest Forstemann was a librarian at Dresden. And in his desk, he kept one of the four Maya books, the "Dresden Codex." He was a brilliant mathematician and extremely logical
6:36
He was a brilliant mathematician and extremely logical and had enormous insights. And at a time when we couldn't read a single Maya hieroglyph, he was able to figure out the Maya calligraphy.
6:47
he was able to figure out the Maya calligraphy.
6:51
GERARDO ALDANA: Maya hieroglyphic writing GERARDO ALDANA: Maya hieroglyphic writing
6:55
And that's because it uses really two components. There are logographs. Logographs are really pict that represent entire words. So balam, for example, which is jaguar, So balam, for example, which is jaguar, So balam, for example, which is jaguar, So balam, for example, which is jaguar,
7:08
On the other hand, we have these things that we
7:10
And these are glyphs.
7:12
They're images that Anrepresent sounds.s.
7:16
NARRATOR: According to interpretations of the Hieroglyphic Stairway, the glyphs chronicle not only the history but also the origin of the ancient Maya rulers. GERARDO ALDANA: The hieroglyphs are really
7:30
attached to what was important to royalty at the time, attached to what was important to royalty at the time,
7:33
attached to what was important to royalty at the time, They went out of their way to demonstrate how they were connected to their ancestors and the gods of their ancestors connected to their ancestors and the gods of their ancestors to establish their right to rule. to establish their right to rule. This is a picture I took of the-- a closeup of a sculpture of Uaxaclajuun a closeup of a sculpture of Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil, the 13th ruler of Copan.
7:55
Ub'aah K'awiil, the 13th ruler of Copan. Ub'aah K'awiil, the 13th ruler of Copan.
8:00
And he's depicted here on the front in all of his finery. And then, the sculptor put a hieroglyphic passage And then, the sculptor put a hieroglyphic passage
8:08
on the side. We don't think commoners could read. But all the elites could. But all the elites could. And the king could. So he or another elite individual could come here and impress people by saying, this demonstrates the semidivinity of our king and his power to intercede between us and the heavens. and his power to intercede between us and the heavens.
8:32
NARRATOR: But just what was the real source of power and authority behind the Maya priests and kings? Do the hieroglyphs reveal an otherworldly truth
8:41
Do the hieroglyphs reveal an otherworldly truth to their origin as the Maya themselves maintain? Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer is yes. Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer is yes.
8:54
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: What we have to think about today
8:59
And the origin is nothing else but that they, the initial cabal of priests, they
9:03
that they, the initial cabal of priests, they that they, the initial cabal of priests, they
9:08
were all in contact with extraterrestrials. were all in contact with extraterrestrials. And that's why they were revered. Our ancestors thought they were gods Obecause they didn'tt understand the nuts and bolts aspects behind those visits. But when it all aspeccomes down to it,isits. But when it all comes down to it, it was all a huge misunderstanding it was all a huge misunderstanding
9:30
and a way to keep the common people in place.
9:36
NARRATOR: Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula. For over 2000 years, rain drenched jungles and fertile plains served as the home of one of the ancient world's greatest civilizations, the Maya. [music playing]
9:56
Scholars estimate that between 250 and 900 AD, the Mayan population consisted of between 15 to 20 million people and extended as far South as Costa Rica and Guatemala. Archeological evidence suggests the Maya were one of the first ancient people to develop a written language, used modern mathematical methods, and built massive multi-storey celestial observatories, all at a time when Europeans were struggling through the so-called dark ages. [music playing]
10:39
SEAN-DAVID MORTON: The Maya are considered one of the great advanced civilizations with hyper advanced astronomy, astrology, trigonometry, architecture, all of these things while the Europeans were at the time rolling around in the mud. NARRATOR: But perhaps the most amazing Mayan Achievement was their system of charting the stars and planets in the form of a calendar. [music playing] The Mayans were timekeepers above and beyond all other things. Keeping up with time was magic.
11:09
It was power to the Mayans. They were tracking in particular Venus, phases of the moon, eclipses, but they also tracked precession, which is an extraordinarily long cycle. What it means is that every year on say March 15, the Pleiades rise for the first time in the sky. If you wait 72 years, the day of the rising of the Pleiades will be one day earlier. If you wait another 72 years, it'll be a day earlier still. And if you wait 26,000 years, the Pleiades
11:49
will move back to that same day. [music playing] NARRATOR: According to scholars, the Maya believed that time, like the stars, moved in repeating patterns called calendar cycles and that these cycles could be used to predict future events. One of these calendar cycles, the Mayan long count lasts for 5,125 years and will end on December 21, 2012. But why? Why did the Maya choose this date, and what did they believe would happen to our world?
12:30
Perhaps a clue can be found in an astronomical phenomenon located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, an area where there are no stars. SEAN-DAVID MORTON: The Mayans knew not only did they know where the center of the galaxy was, but they understood that it was a light year across Black hole that they call the Great Rift. LOGAN HAWKES: The Maya believe this was the birth canal of the universe and that all things came from the birth canal of the universe.
13:00
And on December 21, 2012, the Earth, the Sun, and this birth canal, the dark rift, are all in perfect alignment, and this only happens every 26,000 years. NARRATOR: Could the fact that the mile long count calendar ends on the same day as this rare alignment in the Milky Way galaxy be a mere coincidence? And did this advanced understanding of celestial cycles really come from ancient Mayan astronomers observing the stars with only their naked eyes?
13:38
LOGAN HAWKES: The Mayans believed that this knowledge came to them from their gods and their gods then existed in the stars. So is it possible that these gods could have been extraterrestrials? The answer to that question is, yes, it's possible. GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: According to the Maya themselves, this knowledge was not something that they came up with, but it was given to them as a gift from the gods. The gift back then was not material stuff. It was knowledge.
14:12
Knowledge is the currency of the universe. [music playing]
14:18
NARRATOR: Planet Earth, 65 million years ago, an eight-mile-wide asteroid hurtles towards the planet at approximately 12 miles per second and strikes the region now known as the Yucatan Peninsula with a force of 100 million megatons of TNT. According to mainstream science, this catastrophic event forever changed the climate and the topography of Earth, and ended the reign of the dinosaurs.
15:01
DAVID MORRISON: The object that came in was 8 or 10 miles in diameter. That impact dug a deep hole, lofted material into the atmosphere, black dust, which shrouded the planet in darkness for months, maybe for a couple of years.
15:21
So there'll be a time in which the sunlight was simply shut out from the Earth's surface, and photosynthetic organisms like plants would begin to die. The plant-eating dinosaurs would have nothing to eat and would have died off. The meat-eating dinosaurs would then have nothing to eat either. And this might have lasted anywhere from 5 to 10 years. How quickly the extinction took place is a matter of debate.
15:51
NARRATOR: But is it possible that some species of dinosaur actually survived this cataclysmic event, and not only survived, but thrived for several thousands or even millions of years?
16:08
Perhaps clues can be recovered near a crater where scientists believe the giant asteroid struck the Earth, right in the heart of what is now the Yucatan Peninsula. Today, less than 90 miles from the epicenter of the asteroid impact lies one of the largest and best-preserved cities of the ancient Maya, Chichen Itza. You have to wonder if it's not some strange coincidence that the same spot the Yucatan, which experienced this devastating asteroid strike which caused the extinction
16:49
of the dinosaurs, is also the main habitation area of the ancient Maya.
16:57
PHILIP COPPENS: Chichen Itza is said to have been the place where the Mayans made contact with the gods.
17:05
And I find it an extraordinary coincidence, of all the potential places around the Gulf of Mexico which they could have chosen, they took a place where literally something fell from the sky 65 million years ago. And the Mayans believed that this contact with the gods, this contact with the sky happened there up until the most recent of times. And so what we have here is either coincidence or something else going on, and really this something else
17:34
is only something which hardly anybody has touched upon, but I think it is something which really needs to be explored in far more detail. In the Mayan area and other areas of Mexico, there are curious depictions of dinosaurs. There's pterosaurs, there's a famous dinosaur that appears on one of the paintings at Bonampak.
17:59
So you have to wonder just how the Mayans knew about dinosaurs. Supposedly, dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
18:09
DAVID MORRISON: But if, as mainstream scientists believe, the dinosaurs had been extinct for millions of years before the evolution of mankind on this planet, then what would explain the wealth of Mayan art depicting interactions between humans and what appear to be dinosaurs found in the very area where they supposedly died off?
18:35
[narrator]<i> Mexico City.</i> <i> Beneath the current-day capital of Mexico</i> <i> lie the ruins of the ancient Aztec metropolis</i> <i> known as Tenochtitlan.</i>
18:46
<i> The Aztecs dominated much of central Mexico</i> <i> from the 14th to the 16th century AD,</i> <i> and Tenochtitlan is considered</i> <i> to be their first official settlement.</i>
19:01
<i> An incredibly sophisticated city</i> <i> featuring a grid system of canals and causeways.</i>
19:08
<i> But according to their historical texts,</i> <i> the Aztec civilization did not originate here.</i>
19:17
[Edwin]<i> The Aztecs say they started</i> <i> from this place up in the north</i> called Chicomoztac. It was a cave, and inside that cave it had seven different caverns. And there were said to be seven different tribes. [mysterious music] <i> And the Aztecs say</i> <i> they were part of the seven tribes</i> <i> that came from the seven chambers of Chicomoztac.</i>
19:39
[narrator]<i> While Chicomoztac</i> <i> was once thought to be a mythological place,</i>
19:45
<i> some scholars believe archeological evidence suggests</i> <i> that it really did exist</i> <i> and is located at the site of the ancient pyramid complex</i> <i> known today as Teotihuacan.</i>
20:01
[Edwin]<i> The place of seven caves,</i> <i> we think maybe that has actually been</i> <i> located archaeologically</i>
20:10
<i> at the site of the main temple</i> <i> of Teotihuacan called the Pyramid of the Sun</i> which sits just north of the valley of Mexico.
20:20
<i> Underneath it is actually a cave</i> <i> with seven different spots that it extends out into.</i> <i> And that's where the Aztecs said</i> <i> their original ancestors came from.</i>
20:35
[narrator]<i> In the 16th century,</i> <i> Spanish chronicler Geronimo de Mendieta</i> <i> recorded the legends of the local native population.</i> <i> According to their accounts,</i> <i> the Aztec believed that they were fashioned</i> <i> by a group of stranded gods within these seven caves.</i> [Jonathan]<i> Mendieta wrote an account of Aztec legend.</i> In this report, he describes a giant flint knife landing on the Earth. <i> And the Earth was trembling and shaking</i>
21:05
<i> as this enormous flint knife landed.</i> [crashes] Then some 1,600 gods disgorged from this thing and they are responsible for launching Aztec civilization.
21:22
[Edwin]<i> The Aztecs talk about</i> <i> the many gods coming down to Earth</i> <i> and creating humans.</i> They create them out of bone, ash, and their own blood. <i> And they make them somewhat in their own image</i> <i>but they make them specifically so that they will honor them</i> <i> and they will serve them.</i>
21:45
[Giorgio]<i> All of a sudden,</i> <i> there is a description of a giant flint knife</i> <i> that descended from the sky and somebody emerged out of it.</i>
21:55
<i> One has to wonder</i> whether or not our ancestors were witness to a landing of some type of a craft.
22:06
<i> If so, then the Aztec story suggests</i> <i> that at some point in our history,</i> <i> extraterrestrials created mankind.</i>
22:17
<i> And something very strange was going on</i> <i> at Teotihuacan.</i> [narrator]<i> Located just 30 miles northeast</i> <i> of Mexico City,</i> <i> the Teotihuacan complex</i> <i> encompasses nearly eight square miles</i> <i> and is dated to the first century AD.</i> <i> It is the oldest</i> <i> and most sophisticated city of Mesoamerica,</i> <i> an area that extends from northern Mexico</i> <i> down through Central America.</i>
22:47
<i> The civilization predated the Maya</i> <i> by at least a hundred years.</i> <i> At its peak,</i> <i> it was said to have supported</i> <i> nearly 100,000 residents.</i> <i> It was also the largest city</i> <i> in the entire western hemisphere</i> <i> prior to the 15th century</i> <i> and served as the major commerce and religious center</i> <i> for the region.</i> [Edwin]<i> The significance of Teotihuacan</i> <i> cannot be overstated.</i> <i> It is the Rome of Mesoamerica.</i>
23:19
The things that Teotihuacan did set the pattern for all other city states after it.
23:27
[narrator]<i> The central features of the complex</i> <i> are two large pyramids</i> <i>known as the Pyramid of the Sun</i> <i> and the Pyramid of the Moon.</i>
23:38
<i> As well as a temple dedicated to Quetzalcoatl,</i> <i> the feathered serpent.</i>
23:46
<i> These structures stand alongside a thoroughfare</i> <i> referred to as the Avenue of the Dead.</i>
23:53
<i> Over 200 smaller buildings, platforms, and pyramids</i> <i> are found adjacent to the avenue.</i> <i> And there are thousands of living quarters</i> <i> just outside the complex.</i> <i> But as incredible as Teotihuacan is,</i> <i> no one knows exactly who built this metropolis</i> <i> or what happened to its occupants.</i> [Edwin]<i> Teotihuacan, despite its size,</i> <i> has no hieroglyphs whatsoever.</i> There are other cultures in Mesoamerica that were using writing systems.
24:26
There's nothing like that at Teotihuacan.
24:30
<i> So we don't really have a clear history</i> <i>of what happened at Teotihuacan</i> <i> and we can't really find evidence of their rulers.</i>
24:51
...to develop a complete huge, complex citadel...
25:02
[Will]<i> We have such a sophisticated site</i> <i> that embodies engineering principles,</i> <i> craftsmanship,</i> <i> art.</i> <i> Where did it originate?</i> 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.
25:26
<i> So we have to ask, where did it come from?</i> [David]<i> We've become conditioned</i> <i> to look at these awesome works of stone architecture</i> and think, "Oh, primitive people did that, and they used primitive methods and primitive technology." <i> But we have to rethink the fundamental assumptions</i> <i> and come to a greater and greater level of understanding</i> <i> that the technology required to build these artifacts,</i>
25:48
<i> in fact, is greater than anything that they possessed.</i>
25:54
[narrator]<i> Teotihuacan, Mexico.</i> <i> In 2003, archeologists in this ancient city</i> <i> made a startling discovery.</i>
26:05
<i> A previously unknown tunnel lies 45 feet beneath</i> <i> the Temple of the Feathered Serpent,</i> <i>one of the most sacred pyramids on the continent.</i>
26:18
<i> Working underground,</i> <i> scientists methodically explored</i> <i> the debris-filled tunnel</i> <i> using a robotic probe with an infrared scanner.</i> <i> After some 250 feet, they reached a side cave.</i> The tail-end of the tunnel, the terminus, is loaded with yellowish metallic-looking orbs. <i> Apparently colored clay.</i>
26:43
[Edwin]<i> The orbs are very interesting objects.</i> I've never seen anything like them in any kind of other archeological context.
26:53
<i> On the inside, they are clay.</i> <i> On the outside, they're coated with some sort of gold flecks,</i> <i>so they look like golden balls.</i> [narrator]<i> What purpose these golden balls served</i> <i> is unknown.</i> <i> But some archeologists believe</i> <i> the cavern in which they were found</i> <i> was a place of sacred ritual.</i>
27:15
<i> Like the clay balls,</i> <i> the walls were also covered in gold flecks.</i> <i> So if the cavern was illuminated by a torch</i> <i> during a ceremony,</i> <i> it would've shimmered with a thousand points of light</i> <i> resembling the cosmos.</i>
27:33
[David]<i> These beautiful orbs of yellow material</i> strongly suggest that someone was illustrating planets.
27:43
<i> We do know that the Mayan calendar</i> <i> is heavily calibrated to the orbital parameters</i> <i> of the planets in our solar system,</i> <i>specifically the inner planets.</i>
27:58
[narrator]<i> The Red Planet's connection</i> <i> to the Mayan calendar</i> <i> is portrayed in</i> The Dresden Codex.
28:04
<i> This rare book from Mayan antiquity</i> <i> describes the calendar in relation Mars' movements</i> <i> across the sky.</i> <i> The Dresden Codex</i> is one of four remaining books that the Maya wrote. <i> It is, in many regards, an astronomical almanac.</i> <i> There are many different sections of the book</i> <i> that talk about different astronomical phenomena.</i> <i>One of them is the planet Mars.</i>
28:34
<i>There's an almanac near the end of the book</i> <i> that breaks up days into 10 groups of 78 days,</i> <i> equaling 780 days,</i> <i> which is the synodic period of Mars.</i> In other words, the time in which it takes Mars <i> to get back to the same place on the horizon</i> <i> from a human perspective.</i>
28:57
[dramatic music]
29:02
[narrator]<i> Scholars believe Mars played an important role</i> <i> in the Maya astrology</i> <i> that's described in The Dresden Codex.</i> Above that almanac is a sky band <i> shown with various aspects of celestial symbols</i> <i> we recognize out of hieroglyphs.</i> <i> And hanging off of it</i> <i> is this interesting dragon-like creature.</i> <i> That dragon-like creature</i> <i> is recognized as the face of Mars.</i>
29:36
[narrator]<i> Giant megalithic stone heads.</i> <i> Figurines of what appear to be flying craft.</i> <i>And statues that evoke cultures</i> <i> found on the other side of the world.</i> <i> According to ancient astronaut theorists,</i> <i> it is this information</i> <i> that the Catholic church sought to suppress</i> <i> when they attempted to destroy all traces of the Maya culture</i> <i> nearly 500 years ago.</i> Now what's interesting is all these great ancient cultures,
30:06
including the Mayan, seem to have knowledge of math and science which we can't explain how they got this information. <i> When you ask them, they always tell you</i> <i> it came from the gods.</i> [mysterious music]
30:21
[narrator]<i> If the proof existed,</i> <i> not only of cross-Pacific migration</i> <i> but also extraterrestrial visitation,</i> <i> many ancient astronaut theorists believe</i> <i> it would've posed a serious threat</i> <i> to a Catholic hierarchy</i> <i> steeped in the bigotry and intolerance</i> <i> of the Inquisition.</i>
30:39
<i> But if this incredible theory is true,</i> <i> what then happened to the extraterrestrial visitors?</i> <i> Why did they come here only to leave or go into hiding?</i>
30:52
[Childress]<i> Because of various wars going on,</i> <i> cataclysms,</i> eventually, these civilizations began to collapse, as civilizations do. <i> And what happened in the end was the airships,</i> <i> they stopped coming</i> and then the extraterrestrial demi-gods pulled their technology back. <i> So we don't know what happened there</i> <i> with the extraterrestrials and where they went.</i> <i> And so you have to wonder if they don't want us to know</i> <i> that they are here.</i>
31:23
<i> The extraterrestrials may have just decided,</i> "Okay, humans on planet Earth have got the seeds of civilization. Let's just stand back and see what they do."
31:36
[narrator]<i> As far as ancient astronaut theorists</i> <i> are concerned,</i> <i> the proof of extraterrestrial visitation</i> <i> is still out there,</i> <i> much of it buried</i> <i> beneath centuries of dirt and rocks.</i> <i> But every day, the truth is being revealed.</i> <i> In February 2018 through March 2019,</i> <i> archeologists made a number of incredible discoveries</i> <i> just in the area of Mexico alone.</i> <i>Mayan artifacts were discovered in Teotihuacan,</i>
32:06
<i> a location previously thought to have been inhabited</i> <i> only by the Aztecs.</i> <i> Two hundred more artifacts were found in a hidden cave</i> <i> under the Mayan site of Chichen Itza.</i> <i> And beneath dense jungles near Lake Patzcuaro,</i> <i> lidar scanning uncovered an ancient city</i> <i> the size of Manhattan.</i>
32:30
[Giorgio]<i> In the early 1990s,</i> there were these science fiction stories that one day we'll be able to somehow look <i> underneath the overgrown jungle.</i> <i> And true enough, here we are 20, 25 years later</i> and that technology now exists. <i> Satellites are now able</i> <i> to look through the soil into the ground</i> <i> to see if other structures exist.</i> And guess what? They do. <i> We have only now begun a new era of discovery</i> <i> and I predict thousands</i>
33:07
<i> as of yet undiscovered sites</i> will finally see the light of day. <i> If you have a puzzle with a thousand pieces,</i> <i> in order to see the final picture,</i> <i> you don't need to lay down all 1,000 pieces.</i> <i> If you lay down 980 pieces,</i> I guarantee you, you will see the big picture.
33:33
[narrator]<i> Is mankind</i> <i> on an incredible threshold of discovery?</i> <i> One that will confirm that extraterrestrial visitation</i> <i>has occurred all over the world and for centuries?</i> <i>Perhaps beneath the ruins of a newly-discovered site in Mexico</i> <i> archeologists will uncover the ultimate evidence</i> <i> of alien contact</i> <i> and proof of humanity's true origins.</i>
34:06
<i> Teotihuacan, Mexico.</i> <i> Dating back to at least the first century AD,</i> <i> this ancient complex</i> <i> was once the largest city in Mesoamerica</i> <i> with a population of 125,000.</i>
34:23
<i> One of the most sacred temples at the site</i> <i> is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.</i> <i> An enormous step pyramid</i> <i> dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl.</i> [Edwin]<i> Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent,</i> goes all the way back to Olmec times, to the BCE period. But the first place we really see Quetzalcoatl is in Teotihuacan, the city just north of modern Mexico City. <i> They build an actual pyramid,</i> <i> a temple of Quetzalcoatl,</i> <i> right around 250 AD.</i>
34:59
<i> So it's probably Teotihuacan</i> <i> who really put forward the idea and the identity</i> <i> of Quetzalcoatl as a deity for the rest of Mesoamerica.</i> Quetzalcoatl was a creator god. He was associated with the planet Venus. <i> He brought the rain,</i> <i> he brought water, he brought civilization.</i> <i> He brought the arts.</i> <i> This was the creator divinity</i> <i> for the Aztec culture.</i> <i> He was a flying serpent. He was a dragon.</i>
35:30
[Hugh]<i> Quetzalcoatl brought peace, harmony</i> and high wisdom and a very high level of intelligence and teaching to this particular land. He was often depicted as a human being as well. <i> He arrived on a raft of serpents</i> <i> and settled on these lands.</i> [Edwin]<i> Quetzalcoatl also shows up</i> <i> in the post-classic Maya city of Chichen Itza.</i> <i>But they gave him a Mayan name.</i> <i> They call him "Kukulkan,"</i> which is basically "the holy feathered serpent" in Maya.
36:05
[narrator]<i> The ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza</i> <i> lies roughly 900 miles east of Teotihuacan.</i> <i> And at its center</i> <i> stands another massive step pyramid,</i> <i> this one dedicated to the Mayan version</i> <i>of the flying serpent Kukulkan.</i> [Erich]<i> In Chichen Itza, there we have the pyramid</i> <i> of Kukulkan.</i> And every year on the 23rd of March, you see when the sun is going up, some lights and shadows, <i> lights and shadows like triangles</i>
36:39
<i> climbing down the stairway</i> <i> exactly the stairway where his head is on.</i> <i> And on the 21st of September, you see the opposite.</i> <i> Kukulkan disappears.</i> <i>And it's only made by the light and shadow of the natural sun.</i> <i> So still today the message is clear.</i> <i> God Kukulkan has descended to the humans.</i> He teached them for a certain period, and then he disappeared again. [Giorgio]<i> So right there we have living mythology</i> <i> in a structure</i>
37:11
that shows this deity descending from the sky in stone. [William]<i> You wonder if perhaps a craft landed here</i> <i> and this light shadow effect</i> of a serpent making its way, descending down the staircase and then emerging through a serpent head, <i> is a recollection of that original event.</i> [narrator]<i> Is it possible that the pyramid of Kukulkan</i> <i> was not built to honor a mythical dragon god</i> <i> but to commemorate the arrival</i>
37:40
<i> of an extraterrestrial space craft.</i> <i> Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,</i> <i> and suggest this isn't the only dragon-themed structure</i> <i> that marks a location of alien contact.</i>
37:56
<i> Euboea, Greece.</i> <i> The landscape of this small Greek island</i> <i> is spotted with 25 mysterious megalithic structures</i> <i> called dragon houses.</i> [Giorgio]<i> The main dragon house is at the very top</i> <i>of one of the tallest mountains</i> <i> on the island called Mount Ochi.</i> Mount Ochi comes from the word... [speaks Greek] ...which means to descend and to drive. <i> And so this is interesting because, according to legend,</i>
38:30
<i>the reason why the dragon house exists at the top of Mount Ochi</i> <i> is because Zeus allegedly descended from the heavens</i> <i> on top of that mountain.</i>
38:46
[narrator]<i> According to local legend,</i> <i> these stone structures were built by a giant dragon</i> <i> to venerate the god Zeus.</i> <i> In Ancient Greece,</i> <i> the word "dragon" was not only used</i> <i> to describe a flying monster,</i> <i>but also gods and other figures that had human-like form</i> <i> but possessed superhuman powers.</i> Now, when you put all this together, this sounds like the dragon house is a meeting place of heaven and Earth.
39:13
In UFO vernacular, that would be a landing spot. [Giorgio]<i> In my opinion, the dragon was the craft</i> <i> out of which, then,</i> <i> the creator people or the teachers emerged.</i> Our ancestors, basically, they saw a crew coming out of an airplane.
39:35
[narrator]<i> According to ancient astronaut theorists,</i> <i> some of the structures themselves</i> <i> serve as evidence that this was a place</i> <i> of extraterrestrial contact.</i> <i> The dragon house on top of Mount Ochi</i> <i> contains megalithic blocks weighing up to 10 tons</i> <i> and sits at an elevation</i> <i> of almost 5,000 feet.</i>
39:58
[Giorgio]<i> Archeologists have a hard time explaining</i> <i> why it was even built there.</i> <i> Because we are talking of this giant megalithic structure</i> <i> with a ceiling</i> <i> that contains blocks that are up to 10 feet long,</i> <i> two feet thick,</i> <i> at an altitude of 5,000 feet.</i> <i> How was that done?</i> In my opinion, this was an extraterrestrial visitation where Zeus may have descended in his craft and built a day camp.
40:34
<i> [narrator] Could the stone structures</i> <i>found in Greece and Mesoamerica</i> <i> mark the locations where otherworldly beings</i> <i> landed on Earth</i> <i> and ultimately returned to the stars?</i>
Here to help you learn
Sign in to keep a private conversation with your course tutor.
Ask me anything about the material…
Sign in to chat