In Search of Ancient Mysteries (1973) - full transcript

-Nazca, a remote desert
plain in the Peruvian Andes,

may hold the key to
an ancient puzzle.

On January 5, 1973, we
reported the possibility

that the lines and figures
etched on the mysterious plain

marked the site
of a landing made

by astronauts
thousands of years ago.

Since then, the
strange drawings,

visible only from the air,
have been photographed

by aerial survey, satellite,
and the Skylab astronauts.

The lines of Nazca, when added
to the evidence of other sites

around the world, indicates
that the Earth may not merely



have been visited by
ancient astronauts,

it may in fact have
been colonized by them.

There are marks that have been
left by past civilizations

to indicate the presence
on Earth of explorers who

came across the divide of space.

If those colonists
inspire the legends

of gods who came from
the skies, can we

find the historic
fact of their presence

in the midst of ancient men?

100 years ago, an
amateur archaeologist

decided that Homer's "Iliad"
was not myth, but history.

He followed the epic of
Khan through the Aegean Sea

to Asia Minor,
and there he found

the ruins of the
lost city of Troy.



What other legendary
places contain

evidence that converts myth to
history, that supports tales

of events so far
beyond the range

of normal human experience
they have for centuries been

dismissed as
allegory and legend?

In the last 50 years,
science has developed tools

to date past events and
probe ancient mysteries,

so we are finding that old
accounts take on meaning.

-If we look for evidence that
the Earth has had visitors

from outer space, the best
book at this time we can use

is the Bible, once again.

In the Bible, the Old Testament,
the book of the Prophet

Ezekiel, it gives us a
very detailed account

of several visits of
extraterrestrial beings

to this Earth.

-It's possible
that in the course

of our history and
the last 13,000 years,

[INAUDIBLE] have come here have
conducted survey measurements,

possibly even had some small
settlements established here

for a time and pulled out again.

NARRATOR: As we left our
tracks on the moon, so too must

the ancient astronauts have
set theirs on the Earth.

If so, where is the
evidence of their presence?

Where are the artifacts
they have left behind?

Perhaps the clues are not
all buried in the past.

-Gemini VII.

-Yes, sir, VII, go ahead.

-I have a bogey at
10 o'clock high.

-This is Houston, say again VII?

-I said we have a bogey
at 10 o'clock high.

-Roger.

-Shellway Control here ago.

The reference in that
conversation was a bogey.

It was a reported
sighting the bogey.

This is Gemini control in
Houston, at four hours,

24 minutes into the flight.

Bogey is the code word for
a unidentified aircraft.

But a bogey in space is almost
beyond belief-- or is it?

The following program speculates
on what might have happened.

It is based on
established facts,

but it is not a news report.

The sun in our heavens will burn
for another four billion years,

then it will expand
to a red giant.

It has happened elsewhere.

Many suns in the
universe have died.

Somewhere in space, an
advanced civilization

may have seen the
end approaching

and begun the search for new
planet that could sustain life.

We have come of age in space.

Our own explorations
tell us it is possible

that man-like creatures might
have come here in their quest

for a place to regenerate life.

If they had come from
an Earth-like planet,

this Earth would have
been an ideal new home.

And here they might have landed,
in the mysterious Peruvian

Andes, near a lake
called Titicaca.

From the shore, the outline
of Titicaca has no pattern.

Only when viewed
from space does it

take on the shape of a
jaguar about to pounce.

In the ancient
language of the region,

Titicaca means "stone
of the jaguar."

Was it named by arriving
space colonists?

An arid mesa called
the altiplano fringes

Lake Titicaca.

On the barren, windswept
plain, the air is thin

and corn does not grow.

It is a harsh
environment, yet there

is reason to believe that
here long ago a colony

was established by visitors
from another planet.

It is possible that the first
inhabitants of the altiplano

are our dim and
distant ancestors.

We may never know what
actually occurred here.

Most of the traces
have been obliterated.

The Inca who dominated
this part of the world

erased the histories of
the regions they conquered.

But in the mounds, rubble and
broken walls of an Andean plain

lie the ruins of
a once great city.

Called Tiahuanaco, it stands
mysterious and unexpected

at 13,000 feet above sea level.

It might have housed the
most advanced civilization

of ancient times.

Long before the Inca arrival,
Tiahuanaco was a reality,

and the question
arises, how much

did the Inca take
away and plunder,

and how much in technology?

The Inca did not
build Tiahuanaco,

nor did the ancestors
of Indians who

now live on this
desolate mountain plain.

Who did create this city?

Estimates of its age range
from 1,200 to 15,000 years old.

Could Tiahuanaco have been
built by colonists possessed

of a technology far more
advanced than that of man?

This subterranean
temple is not unlike

an anthropological
museum, or the trophy

room of some big game hunter.

The faces show a
bewildering variety

of shapes and expressions.

Some are familiar,
others alien-- a range

that covers the racial
spectrum of man.

Are these models of men, or
experimental designs for man?

Grim, helmeted carvings
found in South America

seem to trace their inspiration
from the Tiahuanaco monolith.

In 1927, the carvings
were interpreted

as an account of the Earth's
original capture of the moon.

The theory was
dismissed as nonsense.

But after seven
Apollo flights, there

has emerged a similar theory--
that the moon has wandered

into our solar system, only
to be captured by the Earth.

Of all the mysteries
of Tiahuanaco,

none loom quite as large
as a monolithic archway

called "the gate of the sun."

Cut from a single
block of Andesite,

it weighs at least 10 tons.

Beyond the twin questions
of how it got here

and how it was cut by
people who did not possess

metal tools is the mystery
of the strange creatures that

run across its face, for the
carefully chiseled lines depict

birds that never flew in
the skies above the Earth.

The most arresting
features are the eyes,

which are composed of
still another creature--

figures barely discernible
but nonetheless

familiar to us, as space
helmeted astronauts.

No less mysterious are the
eyes of the god atop the arch.

Two tears are deeply
etched into is cheeks,

and no one can say why the
Sun God of Tiahuanaco weeps.

So it stands, a
brooding mysterious ruin

atop a desolate mountain
plateau 13,000 feet in the air.

Was it built by those
who came to make

a new home of planet Earth?

300 miles away on another plain
lie the strange lines of Nazca.

Nazca may have been a landing
field, a base camp from which

ancient astronauts
took off to explore

the planet they had
found-- perhaps.

But the lines of Nazca,
which take shape only when

viewed from the air, might have
another function, one directly

related to space and
suborbital travel.

For these lines radiating
in all directions

look not unlike the route
maps of a modern day airline.

Do they point the way to
other outposts on the Earth?

A route map for the
Earth's original colonists?

If followed, where
will they lead?

One line, pointing
east, leads to

a remarkable, unexplained
artifact 300 miles away.

No one can say when the great
stone of Sayhuite was carved,

nor do we know what tools
were used, but here it stands.

Various interpretations
have called

it a sacrificial altar, a city
plan, a map of the universe,

and a model of colonial
outposts on Earth.

Complete even to the
agricultural terraces

that make farming
possible in the mountains.

The terraces in the
Peruvian Andes, for example,

have been in continuous
use for centuries.

They reach upwards to the
ruins of an ancient city,

complete with temple,
astronomical observatory,

and a fortress to
guard the crops.

Did the founding
colonists design

these modern stepping stones
for a settling of planet?

Sacsayhuaman, is a
megalithic fortress

presumably built by the Inca.

The snake marks a stone
so heavily magnetized

it will cause a compass
needle to spin wildly.

Legend says the
Inca kings received

a special power from this stone.

With it, their empire spread
from the Pacific coast

to the Amazon jungle,
leaving a record

of accomplishment
wrapped in enigma.

The Inca knew
nothing of the wheel,

and yet their roads
are still in use today.

They have no alphabet, yet
they developed an engineering

technology that built structures
such as this-- or did they?

Were they creators
or inheritors?

Descendants or beneficiaries
of a civilization and culture

transplanted to the Andes
from somewhere else?

Sacsayhuaman is built of
enormous blocks of stone,

cut and beveled to fit together
with micrometer accuracy.

No one has even a clue as to
how these blocks, some weighing

more 100 tons, were
quarried, shaped,

transported, and set into place.

35 feet underwater and 1,000
yards off the northern shore

of the island Bimini
in the Caribbean,

there is another wall.

There's absolutely no indication
of who might have built it,

but the huge blocks bear
a striking resemblance

to the masonry of the Incas.

Some scientists claim it is
a natural formation and not

a wall at all.

But if ocean currents cut
the stones in the sea pile,

did they also cut them at
right angles to each other?

The Bimini Wall has been
one of many mysteries

in the Caribbean region known
as the Bermuda Triangle.

Here, ships and planes
vanish under circumstances

that defy all
logical explanation.

Just after the close of World
War II in December 1945,

five Navy fighter planes
vanished without a trace,

leaving a mystery that
remains unanswered today.

Their disappearance has been
the subject of a 25 year

investigation by a magazine
reporter, Art Fort.

-Well, a routine
Naval Air patrol

took off from the Fort
Lauderdale Naval Air Station--

five planes, 14 crew members,
five different radios.

After the planes were in the
air a few hours, they vanished.

Five radios did not
give a coherent reason

of why they vanished.

The men were never seen again.

No wreckage of the
planes was ever found.

There was no radio contact
after they were lost.

A search plane went up after
them with 13 men aboard,

with every bit of equipment
necessary to find them.

It vanished within
seven minutes.

Particularly significant in
the case of the missing planes

was the radio
transmission report

that remains in the record in
the archives in Washington.

Lieutenant Robert F.
Cox was flying out

to try to find Flight 19.

He said on the radio, what
is your present altitude?

I will fly south to meet you.

And Taylor, who commanded
Flight 19 replied,

don't come after me.

He was warning his
fellow flyers who

were trying to rescue the plane
which they thought was lost.

And he said, they look like
they're from outer space.

Don't come after me.

NARRATOR: More than
100 ships and airplanes

have been lost in
the Bermuda Triangle,

taking with them 1,000 lives.

There is no explanation
for the disappearances that

have taken place in clear
weather and calm seas.

But now we have
one more question--

is this the corridor
to outer space?

Did the first colonists
plant a homing device,

a navigational aid, under these
waters, a beacon for spacecraft

to home in on that
somehow interferes

with our own
navigational devices?

In the beginning,
the Earth was a place

of violent geologic change.

Volcanoes thrust
mountains upward.

Islands were created
and destroyed

in the violent birth
pangs of our world.

In this same underwater
volcanic cauldron,

life may have had
its beginnings.

The principal basis
of life is protein.

The process by which life
might have originated

from inert chemicals
is the subject

of experiments by Dr. Sidney Fox
at the Institute of Molecular

Evolution at the
University of Miami.

-What's happening
here is a splashing

on a hot zone where
the temperature is

above the boiling point of water
of a mixture of amino acids,

water, and other
volatile material.

At this temperature,
the water vaporizes,

the volatile material leaves,
and the small amino acid

molecules join together to form
long, protean-like molecules.

These protean-like molecules or,
as we call them, proteinoids,

upon simple contact with
water in the laboratory,

produce what is a
kind of minimal cell.

NARRATOR: The product of
Dr. Fox's experiments,

cells born in a test
tube, they challenge

all traditional concepts
of life on Earth.

-In our view, the formation
of primordial cells

on the early Earth
must have occurred

many times, many places.

If the conditions were
right, we see no reason

why this process could not
occur elsewhere in the universe.

NARRATOR: There
are other theories

that attempt to explain
the origin of life.

The Earth is 4.6
billion years old,

but the universe in
which it is placed

is far older-- perhaps
13 billion years old.

Time enough for
uncounted species

to rise, create civilizations,
and scatter them

across the universe,
reaching even a small out

of the way planet called Earth.

Dr. Leslie Orgel is a
biologist at the Salk

Institute in California.

He and Nobel Prize
winner Sir Francis Crick

developed a theory of
directed panspermia, the idea

that life on Earth was sent
here by a superior civilization.

Dr. Orgel.

-In the 19th century,
there were two theories

about how life could have got
to the Earth from outside.

One theory, which was due
to Lord Kelvin in England,

said that life arrived as a
spore carried on a meteorite.

And the other theory, which
was popularized by Arrhenious

in Sweden, suggested
that a spore

could have been blown
directly from a planet

on another solar system
all the way to the Earth.

In the last 10 or 20 years,
it's become more and more clear

that these theories
just won't work.

That a spore coming
from outer space

would be destroyed by radiation
long before it got here.

And a meteorite
probably could never

escape from another
solar system.

Now, directed panspermia
is a sort of last attempt

to resurrect the
theory that life

could have come
here from elsewhere.

And the notion is that
maybe life was deliberately

sent here by a technological
society on some other planet,

probably in our own galaxy.

If life had arisen on the Earth
and evolved spontaneously here,

it seems at least
possible that we

would have many
very different forms

of life competing
with each other.

In fact, we know that all
living things have evolved

from a single cell which
inhabited the Earth about three

or four billion
years ago, and there

don't seem to be any
traces of any competitors

of that sort of a cell.

There are perfectly normal
biological explanations

of this that don't call for
anything magical or anything

extraterrestrial.

But even when all
is said and done,

it remains a little
bit surprising

that there isn't any evidence
for other sorts of organisms

than the ones we see.

NARRATOR: If a
rocket had crossed

the reaches of open space
and brought to Earth

the seeds of life, then it is
possible that the seed of men

also traveled here,
directed by intelligent

from another planet.

Did the primitive Peruvians
also know of these origins?

If they did, it
would explain why

they carved fertility symbols
from only one material--

meteorites.

For thousands of
years, Neanderthal

was the most advanced
primate on Earth

and a logical ancestor of man.

But Neanderthal suddenly
disappeared 35,000 years ago,

and a new presence appeared
on Earth-- Cro-Magnon.

So different is he
from Neanderthal,

most scientists cannot
account for his presence.

They know only that
suddenly these creatures

began to walk the Earth.

We are their descendants.

But the question remains-- are
they descended from the stars?

Or did they receive from
some ancient astronauts

the knowledge and
tools that enabled man

to rise above the other
creatures struggling

for survival on Earth?

Do ancient drawings
commemorate such an event?

Furrows in the California
desert are merely scratches when

seen from ground
level, but from the air

they take on astonishing shapes.

They were formed by men who
lived here thousands of years

ago-- men who could not
possibly have sculpted

these images without
some direction

from an observer
high in the sky.

All over the world,
men have cut, shaped

and gouged the Earth
to create images

that could only be
seen from the heavens.

Thousands of years ago,
someone carved remarkable Earth

drawings on the
English hillsides.

Were they placed
there in tribute

to some distant forebearer
who came from space?

Is that why man
first turned his eyes

upward toward the gods in
search of his primal beginnings,

and in the process began
to question and learn

of the gigantic forces
at work in the universe?

Is that how man's first science,
astronomy, came into being?

In the ancient world,
there were no more

accomplished astronomers
than the Babylonians.

Their Cuneiform tablets
mark the phases of Venus,

the four moons of Jupiter,
and the satellites of Saturn.

None of these
bodies or events can

be seen without a
telescope-- a device invented

3,000 years after the
tablets were carved.

In the shadow of
the Acropolis stands

a 2,000 year old observatory
called The Tower of the Winds.

Among the best preserved of
all classical Greek buildings,

the tower had frustrated
archaeologists for years

with the mystery of
what it once had held.

An early Greek text spoke
of an astronomical clock

mounted inside the tower,
but how did it work?

What did it look like?

No one could say
until a Greek sponge

diver found these
clockwork gears in the sea.

Scientists estimated the gears
had been build about 80 BC.

Moreover, they determined
that these plates and dials

had been part of an extremely
complex piece of machinery

that had in fact been mounted
in The Tower of the Winds.

Finally, they concluded that
it was an astronomical computer

used to calculate the motions
of the stars and planets.

A stone circle
crown, Intihuatana,

it may have been an
astronomical calculator.

No one knows precisely
how it was used.

But, alternately,
sun and shadow fill

the boxes that
compose its rings.

The Inca called this the
"hitching post of the sun."

With it they marked the
seasons, but it also

had a religious purpose.

It served to tie
the Inca directly

with the stars from which
they claimed descent.

And perhaps their claim was
also made for all mankind.

To some scholars, the world's
oldest source of wisdom

is in India.

This chant is part of a spoken
encyclopedia called Aveda.

It is at least 5,000 years old,
and may represent the oldest

body of technical knowledge
known to man, with references

to television, atomic energy,
and interplanetary travel.

Committed to paper
400 years ago,

it is still the target
of intensive research

by scholars such as Padmashree
Sivaramamurti, the Director

of the National Museum of India.

-In ancient India as
all over the world,

they had a desire to
travel in the sky.

We have the aerial car of
the god of light, Sulia,

mentioned in the
[INAUDIBLE] itself.

We have also the [INAUDIBLE],
the wonderful airplane

that could carry any number,
mentioned in [INAUDIBLE].

A real aerial car
managed by an engine,

the [INAUDIBLE] could
transport themselves

to be any planet that they
wanted because of their Sidley.

NARRATOR: A force
known as Sidley

was said to exist in the
world of the ancients.

Using Sidley they could
transport themselves

anywhere on Earth,
into the skies,

and finally, to other planets.

What was Sidley, and
who brought it to Earth?

If the tales and images of space
travel were limited to India,

they could be dismissed
as the product

of overworked imaginations.

But how then could we account
for primitive drawings

in the rocks of Indio
County, California?

In the 20th century, we accept
the existence of spacecraft.

What event could possibly have
inspired this 14,000 year old

drawing of a spaceship
landing on the Earth?

On a rocky plain in the
Andes called Toro Muerto,

hundreds of petroglyphs
depict the same scene.

Are ancient figures with
spacesuit-like costumes

the record of beings
actually encountered?

And where did the
Indians of Columbia

find models for these
golden helmets and figures

sculpted more than
1,000 years ago?

The same people molded
these golden objects,

which look startlingly like a
modern delta wing jet fighter

plane.

Could flight have played
a role in the construction

of this rocky fortress in Peru?

Called Ollantaytambo,
it spans a pass

through the mountains that
link the jungle with the sea.

The Inca builders were
accomplished stonemasons

who built a chain of
fortresses across the Andes.

Nowhere is there an
explanation for the technology

used to carry enormous pink
slabs, each one more than 60

tons, from this mountain
where they were quarried,

across the river and valley
and then 10,000 feet up

the face of Ollantaytambo.

Could it be explained by a
force known in ancient India

as Sidley?

Cusco, once the capital
of the Inca empire,

is a mixture of Spanish
and Inca architecture.

The walls of this street
contain stone that has 12 angles

but within it so tightly
that the stones fit.

But no mortar was ever
used to join them together,

and not even a knife blade can
be slipped between the joints.

The wall once formed a part
of an Inca temple of the sun.

The Spanish conquistadors used
the walls built by the Inca

as the foundation of a church.

In 1950, an earthquake
shattered Cusco,

virtually destroying the church.

Today the people of Cusco are
still rebuilding the church

atop an ancient earthquake
proof structure.

The original walls,
however, remain standing.

Again the question
arises, did the Inca

receive this building technology
from the original colonists?

The strangely knotted
strings are called quipu.

No one today can read them.

But when the Spaniards
first came to Peru,

the Inca kings would call
upon their rememberers who

would consult the
quipu and account

for every kernel of
corn and man, woman,

and child in the empire.

But the quipu were more than
a numerical accounting system,

for with it, an accomplished
rememberer could call forth

epic poems, historic
dates and events.

The knots show how the decimal
system was used in the quipu.

But added to them
were colored threads

that offered subtle
nuances and shades

of meaning that are
forever lost to us.

So sophisticated was
the quipu, however,

that some investigators
believe it

was the Inca version of
a computer punch card.

An enormous crystal was
placed in a Morchicka grave

more than 1,500 years ago.

It is among the hardest
of all minerals,

yet it was cut,
polished and shaped

by a technology that
theoretically could not

have existed at that time.

Other hands carved this skull.

The British Museum calls
it 15th century Aztec,

but why would the Aztecs who
never created naturalistic art

suddenly render in
crystal a skull?

The bead is turquoise, another
extremely hard gemstone.

It is 1,700 years
old, and was probably

part of a necklace or bracelet.

The whole in each bead has a
diameter of 0.19 millimeters.

Even today, we can barely
drill holes that small.

The Ibis is native
Egypt, but it was

carved into an
ancient stone printing

roller found on the Pacific
coast of South America--

8,000 miles from Egypt.

These 1,500 year
old pottery figures

form a portrait collection
that depicts the races of man.

All are separated by
time and distance,

and yet somehow the
potters of an Indian tribe

called the Morchicka cataloged
races they theoretically

should never have encountered.

An iron pillar was forged
1,700 years ago in India.

It confounds the
laws of metallurgy.

Too large to have been forged
in one piece so long ago,

it is rust-free
after 1,700 years.

No less remarkable, although
a mere 700 years old,

is a rust-free iron tooth.

Found in a Peruvian
grave, it seemingly

is as functional as any
modern dental prosthesis.

Other graves yield a suggestion
that the ancient Peruvians

were accomplished neurosurgeons.

At the Cusco
Archaeological Museum,

Dr. Fernando Cabieses,
Professor of Neurosurgery

at the University of San
Marcos, demonstrates.

-These skulls here are
just a very small sample

of the tremendous
amount of skulls

that were found in the graves
of the ancient Peruvians.

I think that all in all, we have
studied more than 10,000 skulls

that have been unearthed.

Now these are some of the
instruments that they used.

This is called the
tommi knife, which

was used this way just
to open the skull.

This cannot be used in the bone.

To open the bone, they used
other blunt instruments

like this just to pry
up the bone like here,

prying up the bone.

There are some other odd
instruments like this

just to make these indentations.

And there are these two
dozen different instruments

that were used also.

This one here is a very
interesting specimen.

It shows a very
persistent surgeon.

You'll find here that this
man suffered four operations,

and he survived
every one of them.

Either he was a very sick man,
or a very persistent individual

who operated on them.

But he was a very
good technician.

Because, after all, these areas,
especially these two openings,

are right over very, very
dangerous sites that even right

now with all the
techniques that we use now,

we would just be
very much afraid

of operating in these sites.

And this man really survived
these operations in Calca

here near Cusco,
where about I would

say 85% of these skulls
show healed tribulations.

85% of survivals
from skull operations

is a excellent result.

NARRATOR: At the Yerkes
Regional Primate Center,

scientists implant
monkeys with electrodes.

The experiment stimulates
the brain with radio waves,

and thereby controls behavior.

Are today's scientists
seeking knowledge

already gained by similar
experiments performed centuries

ago?

In 1947, a Bedouin boy found the
first of the Dead Sea Scrolls

in the caves of Qumran.

At least 2,200 years
old, they bring

us closer to the original
Bible than any other source,

and contain clear
references to "holy ones"

descending from the heavens.

While Biblical scholars
study the scrolls

for their theological
implications,

other scientists have
looked at the Bible

for evidence of extraterrestrial
visits to the Earth.

An aerospace engineer at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center,

Josef Blumrich has
found in the visions

of Ezekiel a technical
description of a spaceship.

-The Prophet Ezekiel
describes four encounters

with spaceships.

At first he saw clouds,
fire, and he heard noise

coming out from the
sky out of the north.

And as they approached,
apparently it

came out quite in his direction.

He observed what he
calls living creatures.

But Ezekiel cast the living
creatures has side legs

and round feet, or calves feet
sometimes they are called.

It was the description
of these landing legs

that made me take
the book of Ezekiel

serious from an
engineering point of view.

I have had the opportunity
about 10 years ago

to work with my
group in my office

in their full development
of such landing

gear for an unmanned
lunar landing station.

For that hypothetical vein,
we developed the landing gear,

what we call the
foot pan and what

Ezekiel would call
the round feet.

NARRATOR: Translating Ezekiel
into engineering terms,

Mr. Blumrich had
these artist sketches

made of a landing
vehicle supported

by four helicopter units.

-One of the interesting
examples of Ezekiel's ability

to observe and to
describe the faces he

sees on these living creatures.

He sees four of them-- an oxen,
and a eagle, a man, and so on.

They are located at the top
of these helicopter units.

And consequently,
they contribute

to his impression of having
some living creatures

in front of him.

What they actually are
is quite interesting.

Now, some helicopters, and
particularly in this case

this one, need protection.

Just some hood around to protect
them against dust or weather

and so on.

And such sheet metal
will have cut-outs,

will have humps in
order to accommodate

layers or rods which
are below them,

and they may have the
distinct appearance of faces.

We have a number of such
face-like structures.

Like, for instance,
the Gemini capsule.

There we have very
interesting features

that look like a monster.

And every one of
the audience will

remember to have seen faces in
rocks, in old trees and tree

stumps.

NARRATOR: Jericho was built
more than 9,000 years ago.

Here, man has lived continuously
for a longer period of time

than anywhere else on
the face of the Earth.

And here remains one of the most
puzzling of ancient mysteries.

Great walls, 12 feet thick,
made the city impregnable.

But Joshua called upon his
priests to blow their trumpets

and the walls came
tumbling down.

But how?

One theory holds
that an earthquake

tumbled the walls of Jericho.

An earthquake that
was part of an

enormous planet-wide
catastrophe.

Around the world are
indications of great disasters

that might have caused
the gods, themselves

colonists on an alien planet,
to flee impending doom.

Did their departure inspire
all the myths of Atlantis?

Could there have been several
colonies, lured by time

into the one Atlantis
first reported by Plato?

Are legends, in fact, the
histories of visitors from afar

who colonized the Earth?

Plato told of a
fabulous kingdom that

was then more than
9,000 years old.

"Whatever fragrant things
there now are in the earth,

or woods, or essences which
distill from fruit and flower,

grew and thrived in
that land," wrote Plato.

They constructed
buildings about them

and planted suitable trees.

Some of their
buildings are simple,

but in others they put
together different stones,

varying the color
to please the eye

and to be a natural
source of delight.

They had such an
amount of wealth

as was never possessed
by kings and potentates,

and is not likely
ever to be again.

The entire area
was densely crowded

and kept up a multitudinous
sound of human voices

and din and clatter of
all sorts, night and day.

There were king's
baths and there

were separate baths for
women, and to each of them

they gave as much
adornment as possible.

There were many temples
built and dedicated

to the gods, also gardens
and places of exercise.

Over the centuries,
the people of Atlantis

apparently succumbed to the
greed that seems eventually

to afflict all civilizations.

Their actions must
have angered the gods,

for Plato tells of
Zeus calling together

to inflict punishment
upon Atlantis.

And when he'd call them
together, he spake as follows--

and here Plato ends his
tale in mid-sentence.

But the people of
Atlantis had been warned,

and they fled the
island in haste.

Then Zeus must have spoken,
for the island was shattered

by what may have been the most
powerful volcanic explosion

ever known.

Immense tidal waves
and earthquakes

followed the eruption.

Scientists dated the catastrophe
at approximately 1,500 BC.

This same chronology coincides
with Biblical and other

accounts from all
over the world,

and speak of or hint at
incredible natural disasters.

In Plato's time, this
island was known as Thera.

Today it is called Santorini.

Was it also once the site of
the fabled empire of Atlantis?

We may never know, but the ruins
of some ancient civilization

are here, buried
under a 250-foot layer

of ash and pumice that covered
the island 3,500 years ago.

Was this the end
of the beginning?

The moment when all advanced
forms of technology and culture

vanished from Earth?

Could their destruction be
remembered now only as myths?

Might such myths extend
even beyond the Earth

to incredibly dim memories
of catastrophes suffered

on other planets light
years from our sun?

In the constellation
of Bootis, there

is a red giant called Epsilon.

It is circled by a planet that
may once have supported life.

Some scientists believe
that a space probe

was sent from that
planet toward the Earth.

They believe the probe
received these signals in 1927.

They were the
first radio signals

sent from Earth into space.

These echoes have a
different delay pattern.

There is no natural
explanation for the difference.

Duncan Lunan of the British
Interplanetary Society

has interpreted the echo
pattern as a message

from the space probe.

A message from a dying
planet, an Epsilon Bootis.

-The sun has become what
we call a red giant.

If we look at this
painting here,

it can illustrate the point.

What has happened
is that the sun

has exhausted its reserves
of hydrogen in its core.

And in this situation,
the inhabitants

of the planetary system would
find themselves in real danger.

Their own planet
would get hotter.

In time, all the planets
would get very hot.

They would have in other words
to prevent first interplanetary

and then interstellar travel in
order to get away from the sun.

So the probe then
came to the Earth.

It came to the solar system.

It located the Earth.

It came into orbit
around the Earth,

and it began looking
for intelligent signals

from Earth that would indicate
the presence of intelligence.

All the diagrams as I've
interpreted as star maps seem

to confirm this
indication that it

was about 13,000 years ago
that the probe got here,

and it had finally been
activated by our radio signals

in the 1920s.

Was it doing it because
it was signaling home

that it had been activated?

If so, and if there's
anyone there to hear it,

perhaps in about
another 150 years

we could expect to hear
something from these people.

It's possible that in
the course of our history

and in the last 13,000 years,
that ships from [INAUDIBLE]

have come here, have
conducted survey measurement,

possibly even had some small
settlements established here

for a time, pulled out again.

NARRATOR: It is possible that
visitors from Epsilon Bootis

arrived 13,000 years ago.

Perhaps this city in Peru,
abandoned 3,000 years ago,

was the base.

It once held 100,000 people.

Why did they flee?

We will never know
for they left nothing

of themselves-- no
trace of their presence,

except a silent
city of mud walls.

Might they have been
colonists recalled to base

in the face of an
impending catastrophe?

What happened here
on this windy plain,

halfway between the
sea and the sky?

The only witness
is a mute stone god

who looks out at the ruins
of a once great civilization

and weeps.

It has been estimated there
exist 50,000 civilizations more

advanced than the one we know.

If only one of
those civilizations

saw its sun dying, it could
have seeded the Earth.

Someday, somewhere
in the galaxies,

we may encounter life
that is remarkably

similar to ourselves.

And we will be able to
confirm that the faint traces

of ancient mysteries are the
imprints of our ancestors

from space.

Man has been in space since
1957, when the Russians first

orbited a grapefruit sized
satellite called Sputnik.

Since then, men have
walked upon the moon

and lived in
laboratories that orbit

the space between the
Earth and the moon.

Soon, we shall reach
out to be other planets

of our solar system,
and then the stars.

But even before men ever
dreamed of space travel,

they reported on visitors from
space-- and at this moment,

the reports continue.

Are the most recent
UFO sightings

evidence of continued alien
interest in the Earth?

Is someone in space
still watching

the descendants of a
colony sent to Earth

thousands of years ago?