Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - The Evidence - full transcript

NARRATOR: Mega-machines
cutting through solid rock...

the transportation of multi-ton
stone blocks...

modern aircraft carrying
millions of people each day

around the world...

and space shuttles sending
humans to the stars.

(over radio):
And liftoff of Endeavor...

NARRATOR: But are these
examples of modern technology,

or is there evidence that these
incredible achievements existed

on Earth thousands ofyears ago?

GRAHAM HANCOCK: You begin to
have to ask yourself,

are we missing part of
the story?



NARRATOR:
Could ancient man

have possessed knowledge far
beyond that of our own century?

And if so,
where did it come from?

DR. ALGUND EENBOOM: I think that
people in ancient times were

visited by beings coming
not from this Earth,

and they gave us
scientific technologies.

PHILIP COPPENS:
It becomes ever more apparent

that the possible answer of

"Have aliens visited
in the past?"

could be a potential yes.

NARRATOR: Millions of people
around the world believe we have

been visited in the past by
extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help
to shape our history?



And if so, what ifthere were
clues left behind,

sometimes hiding in plain sight?

What ifwe could find
the evidence?

NARRATOR:
Saqqara, Egypt.

Located roughly 20 miles
south of Cairo,

it is home to the
world-famous step pyramid

of King Djoser.

Dating back
more than 4,000 years,

it is the oldest of
Egypt's 97 pyramids.

Saqqara is also famous for being

one of Egypt's
oldest burial grounds,

earning it the nickname
"City ofthe Dead."

It was here, in 1891, that
French archeologists unearthed

an ancient tomb containing the
burial remains of Pa-di-Imen,

an official
from the third century BC.

Among the various items
discovered

was a small wooden
model ofwhat appeared to be

a bird, lying beside a papyrus
bearing the inscription:

"I want to fly."

The artifact was later sent to
the Cairo Museum,

where authorities placed it
alongside

several other bird figurines.

The model sat largely
unnoticed, until 1969,

when Egyptologist Dr. Kahlil
Messiha was examining

the bird collection and noticed
that there was something

very different about
the Saqqara bird.

DR. UWE APEL: It's
interesting because on one hand,

clearly, it should look like a
bird because it has eyes and has

a typical nose of a bird.

On the other hand, the wings are
clearly not bird wings.

DR. ALGUND EENBOOM:
To the middle ofthe rim,

you see this
wing a bit thicker.

In this region, the lift-up is
the highest.

The whole thing becomes thinner
to the, um, end ofthe wings.

And those wings, uh, model down.

And this is a very modern
aerodynamic design.

APEL: Then the other point
is, birds have no rudders.

Because a bird does not need
a rudder

because of its
aerodynamic architecture.

And so, there is the idea they
are not representing birds,

but flying machines,
or aircraft.

NARRATOR: Could the ancient
Egyptians have possessed

the power offlight?

In 2006, aviation
and aerodynamics expert

Simon Sanderson built a scale
model ofthe Saqqara bird

five times larger
than the original

to test that possibility.

We're running
at a constant speed,

slowly increasing
the angle of attack,

and then measuring the
forces which it's producing.

That way, we can learn about
its flight characteristics.

At ten degrees, we're producing
four times weight and lift.

So, it actually would be flying
now. That's good.

EENBOOM:
Tests shows

the Saqqara bird is
a highly-developed glider.

And this is a design
we use today.

NARRATOR:
During the Sanderson tests,

it was discovered that the only
thing preventing

the Saqqara bird from
achieving flight

was the lack of
a rear stabilizing rudder,

or elevator,
needed to maintain balance.

Is it possible
that the Saqqara bird

ever possessed this
critical component?

APEL:
What is, uh...

missing is something
like an elevator,

but ifyou look at this feature
here, then we may interpret

that something like an elevator
was connected here,

but was lost during history.

NARRATOR:
Computer models

seem to confirm that the Saqqara
bird is certainly airworthy.

But there is another problem to
consider: launching a glider.

Modern methods require the use
of a towplane

that pulls the
glider into the air,

then releases it when a proper
altitude is reached.

So, how might
the ancient Egyptians

have launched the Saqqara bird?

The scientifics of
Egyptology told us

that such a bird could be
powered off by catapults to fly.

And, uh, we had high acceptance
by Egyptian scientists.

NARRATOR: The idea of using
a catapult does have

a contemporary parallel.

Many oftoday's glider
enthusiasts

employ a bungee cord system

to launch their
sail craft into the air.

But ifthe Saqqara bird is
capable offlight,

where would ancient Egyptians
have acquired such technology?

EENBOOM: I think that people
in ancient times

were visited by beings coming
not from this Earth,

and they gave us culture
and scientific technologies

to improve our life on Earth

coming from the primitive
to a higher developed culture.

ABEL: If ancient cultures
would be able to produce

any really flyable machine,

they would be far more advanced
than we believe today.

It changes our... our viewpoint
of ancient societies.

COPPENS: It's a fact
that our ancestors

were more intelligent and had
more technological superiority

capabilities than our history
books give them credit for.

HANCOCK: You begin to
have to ask yourself,

"Are we missing
part ofthe story?"

And honestly, I think we are.

I think there has been

a forgotten episode
in human history.

And, uh, we're a species
with amnesia.

We don't really remember who
orwhat we are.

ROBERT BAUVAL: I haven't been
convinced that there is

evidence that supports
an ancient visitation.

But there is no reason why not,
and I think to shut oneself

to that possibility
is a mistake,

mainly because there are so many
anomalies that we can't explain.

NARRATOR:
7,000 miles from Egypt,

the dense jungles and
rugged mountains of Colombia

contain a vast number of
archaeological sites.

Many treasure hunters believed
the legendary City of Gold,

El Dorado, lies hidden here

somewhere under
a thick canopy oftrees.

While the mythical metropolis
has never been found,

early in the 20th century,
tomb-robbers searching along

the Magdalena River stumbled
upon a gravesite dating back

1,500 years to a
pre-Colombian civilization

known as the Tolima.

Among the funerary objects
found there

were hundreds of small two- to
three-inch gold figurines.

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
Many ofthose

looked like insects and fish.

However, out ofthose hundreds
that they found,

they also found about a dozen

that are eerily reminiscent
of modern-day fighterjets.

They have a triangular shape.

They have an upright tailfin,

stabilizers...

and a fuselage.

And they have nothing in common

with anything similar in nature.

NARRATOR: Could these gold
objects really be proof

that Earth has been visited by
ancient aliens?

APEL:
One ofthe objects

shows a typical swept wings,
like with a modern aircraft.

And ifyou compare it to
something like a space shuttle,

you see that the basic wing
shape is very similar

to wing shapes for high-speed
aerodynamic bodies

like a space shuttle is.

COPPENS: There is not a
single insect in the world

which has got its wings
at the bottom.

Now, when you exclude the
possibility that it's an insect,

one ofthe things which remain
is the fact that this is

actually, yes,
what it looks like: a plane.

NARRATOR: In 1997,
German aviation experts

including Algund Eenboom
and Peter Belting,

set out to prove the
speculation by building

a scale-model replica
ofthe gold flyer,

fully equipped with landing gear
and a working engine.

EENBOOM: It was rather simple,
because we don't need to put

much parts to this shape because
this shape is perfect.

Everything was already done by
the native people

2,000 years ago.

TSOUKALOS: They did not add
an inch or remove an inch.

Theyjust essentially blew the
little thing into a larger size.

I mean, this is sensational

that pre-Colombian culture knew
about aerodynamics.

NARRATOR: Once completed, the
remote-controlled flyer took off

down a makeshift runway
and flew.

COPPENS: When you see this
thing taking off,

you really feel
that this is the real deal.

It was a very successful test
and showed us how perfect

ancient people were
working out aerodynamic design.

What it shows you
that there must

be something happened.

We are not quite sure how it
did, but that it did.

This is applied science.

This isn'tjust thinking
somewhere.

This is people going out there
and making sure and proving,

what I still see, anybody can
see this, that this is real.

This is genuine.

This little thing, which sits in
a museum, could fly.

TSOUKALOS:
So we have two examples

from opposite side ofthe
planet, and both examples

are aerodynamically sound
and they fly.

So, to suggest that all ofthis
is coincidence...

I mean, after a while,

even coincidence
no longer makes sense.

BILL BIRNES:
Could the ancients have seen

actual entities, like ancient
gods, ancient astronauts,

actually flying around in what
amounted to modern aircraft?

NARRATOR: The answer to these
questions may be found

in ancient documents
that describe

flight patterns, aircraft specs,
and even aerial battles

in remarkable detail.

NARRATOR:
Over the past 50 years,

NASA has sent astronauts
into space inside large rockets.

This method has been described
by some as simply

"putting a man on a large
firecracker

and lighting the fuse."

Man's ability to travel farther
into space

will require more
advanced propulsion systems.

Several are being
researched by NASA.

ROBERT FRISBEE: There are a
wide variety of advanced

propulsion technologies that are
being actively developed

and studied by NASA and other
researchers.

A really exotic version
ofthat

is to use a launch-assist
catapult,

use technology derived from the
magnetic levitation trains

to build a maglev sled

that carries your rocket,
gets it up to about Mach 1,

and then launches
the rocket from it.

NARRATOR: While these
futuristic propulsion systems

seem like something out of
science fiction,

ancient alien theorists believe
past civilizations

possessed these same advanced
technologies.

They point to a number of
cultural myths that describe

sky people coming to Earth in
fire-breathing dragons,

or metallic-looking machines

as proof of extraterrestrial
visitation.

DAVID CHILDRESS: In my mind,
legends and myths

are based on something real.

And while they've been
"mythified" and exaggerated

in many cases, in my mind, some
core oftruth here in that

people really were flying in
airships in ancient times

just like we do today.

NARRATOR: But might these
airships have reached

Earth using the same type of
propulsion systems we use today?

The answer may be found deep in
the Indian subcontinent.

India-- over 1.1 billion people
crowd its modern cities

and rural townships, speaking
hundreds of languages,

and practicing a number of
different religions.

India is considered one ofthe
oldest civilizations

with settlements dating back
over 1 1,000 years.

It is also home to several of
the oldest records

of ancient technologies.

Ancient Sanskrit texts, dating
back as far as 6000 BC,

describe in varied but vivid
detail flying machines

called "vimanas."

EENBOOM: Vimanas are airplanes,
and they are powered

by some jet engines.

This seems to be true because
all the description

ofthe flight behavior:
"elephants ran away in panic."

Grass was thrown out
because there was

a lot of pressure from behind
those vimanas.

So that we can say this is a
description ofthe spaceship.

NARRATOR: Although mainstream
historians believe

the vimana texts are myths,
many ofthe documents contain

passages that seem to describe
modern machinery and technology.

CHILDRESS: The
Vymaanika-Shaastra goes into

metals that are used
in these craft.

It talks about electricity
and power sources.

It talks about the pilots and
the clothing they have to wear.

It talks about the food that
they eat.

It talks even about the weapons
that are kept on these airships.

EENBOOM: The flight menus of
the vimanas are quite similar

to the flight menus you find

in the modern passenger
flight business.

Or when you go to the military
jet engines,

of course,
they have also flight menus

because it's necessary
for a pilot

to get knowledge about his plane
he wanted to flywith.

MICHAEL CREMO: We also
learned that these vimanas

could be controlled mentally.

And this is a technology

that modern militaries are
beginning to develop.

Even today, with as advanced as
we think we are

almost every manifestation

of an actual extraterrestrial
civilization today

would look almost like magic to
us, where it has to do

with technological
electromagnetic systems

that interface with coherent
thought and organized thought.

And this gets into... people go,
"Now, you're losing me here."

But I tell people, I say,
"Yeah, well, you gotta push

"your boundaries a little bit

ifyou're talking about a true
interstellar civilization."

NARRATOR: The
Vymaanika-Shaastra,

or Science ofAeronautics,
indicates vimanas used

a propulsion system
based on a combination

of gyroscopes, electricity,
and mercury.

Is this possible?

CHILDRESS: Mercury is an
unusual element.

Mercury is metal.

It's also a liquid, and, uh,
is a conductor of electricity.

You know, there's unusual things
you can do with mercury.

You can put it into a closed
gyroscopic device

with mercury spinning around,
and then you can electrify it.

And studies have been done
on this

by NASA and by other scientists.

And they find that you have
levitation effects,

antigravity kind of effects,

and a spinning,
bright light is part of it, too.

NARRATOR:
The Vymaanika-Shaastra suggests

vimanas were powered
by several gyroscopes

placed inside a
sealed liquid mercury vortex.

FRISBEE:
Here's an example of

a little kid's gyroscope.

You spin it with a heavy wheel
around a central axis.

Well, a gyroscope seems to do

a lot of strange things,
even defy gravity.

And it does this because it uses
what's called rotational,

or angular, momentum.

And it wants to keep a
particular orientation

on its spin axis,
the center rod.

Ifyou push on that rod,
it will want to

"righten" itself up to
its original orientation.

It wants to keep that same
angular momentum.

Gyroscopes are used
all over the place:

in airplanes, in spacecraft,
in submarines.

This allows them to determine
their position

based on where they started.

They can also use it for finding
their velocity or even just

the orientation ofthe vehicle
in space.

One ofthe texts talks about
mercury rotating and driving

some sort of a powerful wind,
or a windmill effect.

That might be some sort ofwhat
we call

a "flywheel energy
storage" where you have

a spinning disc, and then you
extract energy from it slowly.

That would be the mercury.

And then that could be used to
drive some sort of a propeller,

or what we'd call a ducted fan
sort of system,

like you have in a hovercraft.

Mercury would be quite good
for that,

because it's a high density,

so you'd have a small
package for your power plant,

and that's always good when
you're building an aircraft.

NARRATOR: Flywheel energy
storage systems, however,

tend to lose power quickly.

To navigate across space, its
size would have to be enormous.

FRISBEE:
They're fine for use

by power companies for
load-leveling.

You put energy in when you
don't need it.

You get energy out
when you need it.

But they're setting on the
ground.

To have something light enough
to actually fly,

it's not at all clear that this
would be a practical device.

Now, maybe the people were
trying to describe something

that kind
of looked like this to them.

It might not have actually been
mercury.

It might have been some other
liquid metal.

EENBOOM: The mercury vortex
engine is perhaps a failure

in the translation, because
the vortex is not a material

quite suitable to a jet engine.

GREER: The issue of how are
these civilizations traveling

faster than the speed of light
is a fundamental question.

It's a scientific application of
things that have been studied

for thousands ofyears and
they're within the Vadas--

the ancient Vedic teachings or
other ancient teachings--

and it is there.

NARRATOR: But ifvimanas
existed, could this prove

there was a worldwide
transportation network

thousands ofyears
before Columbus?

The answer might be found on a
mountaintop outside Mexico City.

In the 21st century,

modern transportation
and communication methods

have connected the world like
never before.

Products or ideas, no matter
where in the world they may have

originated, can spread to even
the most remote countries.

A hip-hop hit in Brooklyn might
make it big in Tokyo

before it's
even heard in Manhattan.

This cultural interconnection
has transformed the globe,

but is it new?

Mainstream archaeologists
believe ancient civilizations

such as those found in the
remote Pacific Islands, Asia,

and South America developed
independently from each other.

But ancient astronaut theorists
contend that similarities

in building styles and beliefs
found in these cultures suggest

that a worldwide trade route

may have connected them
to each other.

CHILDRESS: Butjust like we
have airports today

around the world, in ancient
times with the vimanas,

there would have been
hangars for the craft,

airports for them to land.

And those airports would have
been situated

in strategic
places around the world.

And that's exactly what we see
in remote places.

NARRATOR: Could the complex
set of lines

covering Peru's Nazca plain
or the mysterious plateau

above Mexico's Oaxaca valley
be evidence

of runways for a worldwide air
transportation system?

One ofthe unusual
archaeological sites in Mexico

is a place called Monte Albán.

That is also a mountain where
the top ofthe mountain was

completely cut off and leveled

to make a very flat
tabletop mountain.

And there's a megalithic city
there, too,

that's extremely old.

This was probably some kind of
vimana airport.

EENBOOM: The vimanas could be
a kind of missing link

between the single cultures in
the world,

because they had just a very
short time to flow from one part

ofthe world to the other.

NARRATOR: Legends of air
travel are also found

in ancient
Africa and the Middle East.

According to The Kebra Nagast,
a holy book ofthe Ethiopians

written sometime before the
second centuryAD,

the queen of Sheba was once
given a gift of a flying carpet

by King Solomon of Israel.

TSOUKALOS:
The Kebra Nagast

is one ofthe most important
texts you've never heard of.

The Kebra Nagast means
The Book of Kings,

and it is the most sacred book
ofthe Ethiopians.

In it, King Solomon is
described--

he had access to
some type of a flying machine.

And in that part ofthe world,

the term "flying carpet" was
always used very liberally.

My question is, did they really
mean actual flying carpets

or was it another term with
which to describe

some type of a flying machine?

CHILDRESS: This was the
original Chariots ofthe Gods

that Erich von Daniken talked
about--

the flying magic carpets
of the Arabian Nights stories.

There are traditions in the
Middle East of King Solomon

having this airship and flying
to different places

in the Middle East,
certain mountains

which are known as
the Mountains of Solomon.

These may have been certain
airports

or landing areas for
these vimanas.

Nicholas Rourke, famous
Russian-American explorer

who traveled all through central
Asia and Tibet in the 1920s,

he, too, claimed that Tibetans
had traditions of King Solomon

flying to Tibet
in this aircraft.

NARRATOR: The Kebra Nagast
also describes how King Solomon

used his flying airship to make
maps ofthe world.

But could these have any
relation to other ancient maps

some believe may have been made
by extraterrestrials?

HANCOCK: Some ofthese maps
show the world

not as it looks today, but as it
looked during the last ice age.

And this is really hard to
explain.

Everybody's heard ofthe Piri
Reis map,

but they've perhaps not heard of
the Orontius Finnaeus map

or-or the Mercator maps that
showAntarctica in great detail

hundreds ofyears before
Antarctica was even discovered.

NARRATOR: One ofthe most
referenced stories

of ancient aircraft is found in
a surprising place: the Bible.

In the Book of Ezekiel,
the prophet describes

a flying chariot containing
wheels within wheels

and powered by angels.

Although Bible historians
suggest

Ezekiel was speaking
symbolically

about the terrifying enemies
facing Israel,

could this be another
example of an alien visitation

and proofthat prehistoric
aircraft existed?

In the story of Ezekiel's throne
chariot-- this flying vehicle

that doesn't seem to have any
means of propulsion--

ifwe thought ofthe word
"angel" as representing

something like celestial energy,
it sounds much more like

a spacecraft then, because
some ofthe angels

are going back and forth.

Well, that sounds like flames.

That sounds like propulsion.

Some ofthem are wheel-like.

Well, those sound like flying
saucers.

Our ancestors weren't idiots.

Ezekiel saw something that was
so frightening to him

that he fell to his knees.

Then, out ofthe glory of God,
came this being

in these bright clothes that
looked like metal,

and told Ezekiel, "All
right, man, we brought you here.

We want you to measure this
monument, this building."

And Ezekiel asks, "Well, why
should I do this?"

And the being says, "That's why
we brought you here."

And then you have 40 pages,

in the second part ofthe Book
of Ezekiel,

with measurement
after measurement

after measurement ofthis
gigantic building,

in which, by the way,
the glory ofthe Lord landed.

NARRATOR:
In the early 1970s,

NASA scientist Josef
Blumrich set out to disprove

the theory that what Ezekiel
witnessed was a spaceship.

Josef Blumrich is your
proverbial rocket scientist.

He worked on the moon project
for NASA

and, from the mind of a
rocket engineer,

started to look
at what was written

in the first part
ofthe Book of Ezekiel.

And after many months of
research, Josef Blumrich

came to the conclusion that
what Ezekiel described

in his eyewitness report, it was
indeed a type of spacecraft.

NARRATOR:
Josef Blumrich

would go on to write
The Spaceships of Ezekiel.

Several years later,

a German structural engineer
named Hans Herbert Beier

sketched out a blueprint ofthe
second section

ofthe Book of Ezekiel, where
Ezekiel is told to construct

an open-topped building to house
the flying chariot.

Ezekiel's spaceship fit exactly
into the temple

that Hans Herbert Beier
recreated.

So what we have here is a proof
by indication.

Here we have a NASA engineer
and a structural engineer--

they didn't know
of each other's work--

and both pieces fit
together like a puzzle.

In any court of law, that's
evidence that would hold up.

HANCOCK: I think that
scientists feel uncomfortable

with the notion ofthe lost
civilization,

precisely because the evidence
for it is so ambiguous.

It's not so in your face that
it's immediately obvious.

Uh, and, you know, the result is

that science has not welcomed
this idea.

It'll take much more evidence
before it's widely accepted.

TSOUKALOS: The god that I
believe in doesn't need

a vehicle in which to move
around from point A to point B.

Whatever was described in the
Old Testament wasn't God,

it was a misunderstood
flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial

whom our ancestors
misinterpreted

as being divine and
supernatural.

And why?

Because of misunderstood
technology.

And that is the underlying
thread that applies

to all of
the ancient astronaut theory.

NARRATOR: But while ancient
texts provide tantalizing clues

to our past, physical evidence

paints an even clearer picture.

But will modern science

finally prove the ancient
astronaut theory?

FRISBEE:
Did the ancient

civilizations of Earth have
access to advanced technology?

Well, it seems like they had
something going on.

NARRATOR: In today's largest
construction sites

and quarries, huge mega-machines

are used to dig, cut,
and lift stone.

These man-made creatures dwarf
their creators

and perform the work of
thousands of men

using modern hydraulic
technologies.

Without such equipment,

builders could never construct
modern skyscrapers.

Yet, thousands ofyears ago,
ancient civilizations were

accomplishing the same work
while constructing

their monuments and temples
using massive stones.

These enormous blocks-- many
weighing in excess of

100 tons-- would be a challenge
even for today's engineers.

Yet thousands ofyears ago,
people cut them

out of solid rock, transported
them for miles

and then lifted them
precisely into place.

But how?

Did they cut these massive
stone blocks with hammers,

chisels, and copper wire,

as mainstream archeologists
suggest?

Could they have lifted and
transported them

without a pulley system
or the wheel?

Or did ancient civilizations
possess advanced technologies

that have since been lost to
science?

BAUVAL: At Giza, you just
don't have the pyramids.

Linked to the pyramids are what

Egyptologists call valley
temples.

It doesn't take a rocket
engineer that when

you go there, there's something
not quite right here.

Whereas the pyramids are built

with blocks of
two to three tons,

these temples, which are minute
compared to the pyramids,

are built with blocks of 100
tons and some ofthem 200 tons.

Let me tell you what a 100-ton
block is.

Ifyou take 100 family cars

and you squeeze them together
you get one ofthese blocks.

First of all, let alone how
they moved these blocks

is why would they want to use
100-ton blocks?

It simply doesn't make sense.

There's no reason for them to
want to

build out of granite blocks
the size of a semi truck.

It's like, "Okay, let's do
something,

but let's do it as difficult as
we could possibly do it."

The reason why I am convinced
that sophisticated technology

was utilized in
these ancient rocks is because,

ifwe go to a stone quarry
today and look at the scope

of machinery required to
accomplish similar things,

those machines are huge.

NARRATOR: Subscribers to
ancient alien theory

do not believe extraterrestrials
built these amazing monuments,

but instead provided some type
oftechnological know-how

or tools to our ancestors.

Engineering expert Chris Dunn
has spent several decades

researching
the construction tools

used by the ancient Egyptians.

DUNN:
We're normally taught

by Egyptologists,

that the ancient Egyptians had
simple tools.

They went to work every day
using stone balls,

copper chisels or copper tube
and sand

to grind holes in diorite and
granite, extremely hard rock.

And what I have actually
gathered over the years

is information that seems to
actually argue

against that notion that they
had simple tools.

NARRATOR: In Egypt,
Dunn was able

to examine ancient
sites firsthand.

What he found has proved to be

both revolutionary
and controversial.

DUNN: Ifyou look at the Giza
Plateau and all the stones

that they actually placed in the
Great Pyramid

and the Khafre Pyramid
and Menkaura's Pyramid,

two and a half million blocks
of stone

in the Great Pyramid alone.

They had to have had some
efficient means of cutting them

to size and putting
them into place.

They had to have had somebody on
site who is saying,

"Okay, I need a block this
size," and then

getting a block to them that
size stat, like immediately.

NARRATOR: While searching
several miles north of Giza,

at Abu Rawash, Dunn stumbled
upon a clue

when he spotted a granite
block containing a deep cut.

DUNN:
When I first saw it,

I just didn't know what to make
of it.

And it was only after puzzling
over it for days, and sometimes

waking up at 3:00 in the
morning scratching my head

and thinking, well, how did they
make this cut?

And finally, to realize that the
only way that they could have

actually cut that thing was with

a saw that was 35 feet in
diameter.

NARRATOR: The idea that
ancient Egyptians used

giant saws provoked much
resistance

from mainstream archeologists.

Dunn however, was convinced.

DUNN: As an ex-machinist I
look for tool marks.

I look for them everywhere I go.

And I could be accused of, well,
you know, ifyou're going to

look for something, you're
probably going to find it

because you're looking at it
through a certain filter.

Accepted, I agree.

But the question is,
why is it there?

Clearly, to me,
that is a machine mark.

But there were no machines
back then.

So what do I do?

I just go looking for more
machine marks.

And they're all over the place.

You find them on statues.

You'll find them particularly in
the Luxor Museum.

There seems to be an impression
on the side ofAmon's buttock

where it meets the bench,
where there is an undercut.

It was the slip of a tool.

And therefore, it must have been
a tool that was quite efficient.

NARRATOR: Dunn also believes
that the large depressions

in the ground at Giza are not
boat pits as is claimed

by mainstream archeologists,

but were actually
used to hold the 35-foot saws.

I speculate that they
were actually saw pits,

the saws were mounted
in these pits,

and that they ran the
blocks through the saws

before they put them in the
Great Pyramid.

NARRATOR: Another mystery
involves how mega-stones were

lifted up and placed into a
precise position.

What you find in modern
construction

is that to build big buildings,

you need to
build big instruments which help

build these big buildings.

And that is something which
archeology has never addressed.

NARRATOR: The three largest
man-made stones in the world are

found at the Temple of Jupiter
at Baalbek in Lebanon.

Each weighs an estimated 1,000
tons-- or two million pounds.

A nearby quarry contains an even
bigger stone,

known as the Stone
ofthe Pregnant Woman.

This giant rectangular block
weighs an incredible 1,200 tons.

To move it today would take

the strength of 21 heavy-lift
cranes.

PETER PALUTIKOF: Being in
the construction industry,

if a certain project is being
constructed somewhere,

particularly in mountainous
areas, how would we carry

this machinery, these cranes,
and all that?

They are so heavy that it's

virtually impossible to take
them to the site.

ROGER HOPKINS: This stone
came off of a...

a project in Palm Springs,
where they had one of

the largest excavators they
could rent.

They had trouble loading it into
the truck.

It's well in excess offive
tons-- 10,000 pounds--

small in megalithic terms,
but basically what we can handle

with modern machinery.

We're supposed to
accept that the people who built

the pyramids did not have the
wheel, did not have the pulley,

did not have iron.

In fact, they had nothing but
brutal manpower

and pieces of strings.

The context does not fit
the evidence.

HOPKINS: I've done pulling
operations in upper Egypt.

Thousands of people involved in
the various stages of

the project, moving very fragile
pieces of stone that weigh

hundreds, if not thousands,
oftons.

Yes, you can use ropes, but
you're going to have to use

other mechanical advantages.

NARRATOR: But if ancient
civilizations did not possess

modern mechanical equipment,

how did they move and lift
mega-ton stones?

Some believe they were given a
technical advantage from

extraterrestrial visitors.

You've got to ask
yourself, why would they try

and do something that seems so
incredibly difficult?

The answer to why they would do
that has to be that it somehow

wasn't so difficult for them.

It was easy.

TSOUKALOS:
There exists

one very concise description of
how these massive stones were

transported from the quarry to
the building site.

The master builders had the
capability of putting some type

of a white substance--
paper-like substance--

onto the stones
and they rode on it,

and then they basically gave
the stone block a push,

and it moved
by six feet as if by magic.

Now, did that thing really move
by magic?

No, some technology was used.

CHILDRESS: That is part of
the solution.

In order to really move massive
amounts of stone like that,

they would have had to have been
levitated--

somehow made weightless--
and then just moved

through the air by some kind of
device, perhaps even

a handheld kind of device,
like some beam weapon.

NARRATOR: Ancient man's
method of moving large blocks

is only one mystery.

Another surrounds the techniques
oftheir stonemasons.

How did prehistoric
civilizations cut

such intricately-designed
patterns in solid granite?

NARRATOR:
Palm Springs, California.

Master stonemason and sculptor
Roger Hopkins uses a variety

of advanced tools to cut and
shape hard stones.

Powered implements such as
diamond-tipped wires

and polishers enable him to
fashion works of art

out of huge granite blocks
obtained from nearby quarries.

Yet even with
these high-tech tools,

Hopkins cannot replicate
what ancient civilizations

accomplished
thousands ofyears ago.

Could these advanced engineering
methods be the smoking gun

that proves humans had help from
alien beings?

HOPKINS: The precision on
some ofthe work that I've seen

is just incredible.

It's possible to do by hand,

but it would take an incredible
amount oftime.

Plus, you have to have years of
experience

to be able to pull it off.

TSOUKALOS: In my opinion,
the most tangible

pieces of evidence that we have

regarding possible
extraterrestrial technology

is when we look at the ancient
stone-cutting techniques.

Because in some instances,

we ourselves today could not
replicate what our ancestors

allegedly accomplished with
stonemasonry.

NARRATOR: Puma Punku is a
large temple complex

located on
a high plateau in Bolivia.

Mainstream archeologists

date the site from approximately
200 BC.

The people who lived here had
neither a written language

nor the wheel, yet somehow
they built

one ofthe world's most
complex structures.

Ancient alien theorists view
Puma Punku

as clear proof of
extraterrestrial influence.

TSOUKALOS: The ruins we find
at Puma Punku

are simply extraordinary.

Puma Punku defies logic.

COPPENS: The interest of Puma
Punku is not so much

that the individual stones
sorted together perfectly,

but the fact that the stones,
as such, are of

such tremendous design that it
requires concepts of mathematics

which are far beyond anything we
are actually using right now.

Yet somehow in the past,
somebody has made that

for a specific purpose, and in a
way which even computer programs

today would kind of go,
"How is this possible?"

TSOUKALOS: In the highlands
of Bolivia, Puma Punku--

some ofthese blocks are over 40
to 50 tons each.

What can you tell us about this?

HOPKINS: Boy, they... they had
their stone-cutting abilities

you know, pretty well fine-tuned
for 5,000 years old.

I mean, it's almost
unbelievable.

But these cutting planes
that they

have on here are very
impressive.

And some ofthe incise cuts--

see, like in here, all these
interior cuts--

very hard to do.

I mean, it would be difficult
for us with our equipment

to get that kind of precision.

TSOUKALOS: Let's talk a
little bit about inside boxes.

Ew, I was afraid you were gonna
pull something like this on me.

That is a hell
of a piece ofwork.

I mean, ifwe were to do
something like that today,

we'd use-- what they have, these
computer-driven CNC machines

which are... have diamond tips.

And you have a template that,
you know, the computer follows.

And even then, it may not come
out as perfect.

TSOUKALOS: Because even
though you can tell

-that obviously this piece broke
off... -Mm-hmm.

Nowhere in here
can you see any imperfection.

It's like... And by the way,
when you're there, ifyou go

with your finger over these
edges, and you put a little

pressure on your fingertip,
you can cut yourself.

This is how sharp the edges are.

NARRATOR: But where could the
ancient peoples have developed

such technology?

Is it really possible that
extraterrestrial visitors

provided different construction
methods and tools?

When I saw these blocks,

I didn't really think
that they were cut.

The first thing really that I
thought ofwas this appears very

similar to Frank Lloyd Wright's
textile block system

of construction, which he used
in his California houses

in the early 1920s.

Now what he did was-- he took
concrete, poured it into molds.

TSOUKALOS:
There actually are

ancient Incan legends that
suggest that they had

the capability
of softening the stone.

At Sacsayhuaman, for example,

we find these gigantic stone
blocks, gigantic stone walls,

where it looks as ifthose
stones were molten,

put into place, and then the
stone hardened again.

NARRATOR: Several hundred
miles north of Puma Punku,

Machu Picchu sits high atop the
Peruvian Andes.

Built by the Incas in the 15th
century, this stone citadel was

suddenly abandoned about 100
years later.

Like Puma Punku, Machu Picchu
also has signs

of advanced engineering
and possibly, molded stones.

DUNN: I can't help but think
that whoever was behind this

thought the process through
from beginning to end.

They didn't quarry the rock,
and then decide,

"How the heck are
we gonna transport this?"

They knew from beginning to end
what needed to be done

with whatever techniques
and technology

they were going to use, so that
this was no big deal.

In industry today, there's a
kind of an adage:

"Keep it simple, stupid."

NARRATOR: Based on his
experience, Mike Dunn believes

the simplest way to build the
great walls of Machu Picchu

would have been to transport
small rocks to the site,

then melt them, and use molds

to fashion the exact size
and shape needed.

DUNN:
That would solve a lot

of difficulties of constructing
this wall.

First, you have your shapes, all
the same size, each shape.

So you're guaranteed that they
would fit together,

as opposed to
being cut by different artisans.

HOPKINS:
Melting the rocks,

and then pouring them into place
would take an incredible amount

of heatjust to spoil off pieces
of stone.

I have a stone torch which I use
for sometimes shaping granite.

And, I mean, it generates a
temperature

of in excess of 3,000 degrees.

3,000 degrees... that's a lot.

DUNN: When we look back at
the ancients, and we see

a technology that they couldn't
possibly know,

there's only two possibilities
then: either God did it--

which we really
don't think happened--

or some high-tech civilization
from another planet came

and showed them how to do it,
then took their materials

and tools and went back home.

The idea behind that is that
none ofthese ancient monuments

were constructed or manufactured
by extraterrestrials.

It was us humans who built it

with extraterrestrial
technology.

HOPKINS: It's entirely possible
that there were visitations,

that they pointed
out ways to do things,

and that they wanted to leave
some kind of a record.

I mean, ifyou're gonna leave a
permanent record, the only way

you can do that is in stone.

NARRATOR: But if advanced
beings from another planet

really did bring their
technology to Earth,

might the ancient astronauts

have left one oftheir tools
behind?

NARRATOR:
The methods used

to build huge megalithic
structures such as Puma Punku

and the pyramids of Egypt remain
a mystery.

But what about the tools used to
build them?

Where are they?

And might they provide a clue

as to how these enormous stone
structures were created?

HOPKINS: A lot ofthe real
ancient mysterious work

was done at a time when there
was no steel,

and the copper they had
was, yeah, they could harden it

by cold-hammering it, but still,

it wouldn't make a dent in rocks
like basalt and granite.

So theywould have had to use,
you know, much more laborious

techniques, or they had some
sort of advanced technology

which escapes me, and I've been
in the business 40 years.

DUNN: The tools and machines
must have been

equal to the task of actually
building the pyramids...

Crafting those statues to such a
high order of precision...

Crafting those boxes to a
modern-day precision

that we
find in our inspection lab.

And the big question:
Where are the tools?

NARRATOR:
In the late 19th century,

British archaeologist
Sir Flinders Petrie

scoured Egypt, looking not for
the biggest items,

but the smallest.

Petrie was absolutely fascinated

by the technical achievements of
the Egyptians,

particularly the
early Egyptians.

He constantly was looking for
how they made things,

how they developed things,
how they continued

to sort of basically perfect
their tools.

DUNN: We're normally taught
that the ancient Egyptians

had simple tools, and what
Petrie brought out is

information that seems to
actually argue

against that notion.

CHALLIS: This is an example
of a drill hole.

You can see
the very fine lines on it.

You can see the technology
that's made to use it.

Um, you can see how
it's a perfect hole

almost all the way through,
but it tapers at one end.

This is a fragment
of a diorite bowl.

It's one ofthe hardest
substances, and you can see

on this, on this fragment that
there's a, a lathe mark,

which is really interesting that
they managed

to make such a mark in such a
hard material.

NARRATOR: Among all the tools
discovered by Petrie, however,

one stood out from all the rest.

While working inside the Great
Pyramid, Petrie stumbled across

a tubular drill made of granite.

CHALLIS: Tubular drills amongst
the ancient Egyptians were

actually fairly common.

I mean, Petrie found
quite a few ofthem.

Um, the interesting thing about
the one that he found in Giza is

that it's such hard stone that
was so carefully carved,

precisely grooved.

As you can see, it's got very,
very fine markings on it,

basically lines, literally a
couple of millimeters apart.

You can see it goes all the way
round very, very accurately,

hardly any waves at all.

He was absolutely
amazed by this.

He kept returning to it
throughout his life.

His theorywas that the
Egyptians must have had access

to diamonds or some kind of
jewel that would have cut it.

The interesting thing about
Petrie's theory about how these

drill lines are made was that he
never discovered any diamonds

in ancient Egypt.

So where were they?
Where did they go?

We don't know.

NARRATOR: Ifthe ancient
Egyptians didn't

possess diamonds, how were
the precision grooves

cut onto the granite drill?

Did Petrie accidentally discover
a tool

made by extraterrestrials?

Machinist expert Chris Dunn
attempted

to answer this question by
creating his own granite drill,

using the known tools
and techniques

ofthe ancient Egyptians.

In order to test the
Egyptologist theory about how

the ancient Egyptians drilled
into granite, I took a tube

and I fixed a crank on it,
and actually used sand

and silicon carbide, and after
many hours ofturning

and drilling into this
piece of granite,

finally got deep enough that I
could actually pop a core out.

And the reason for that was to
actually look at the surface,

notjust ofthe whole,
but ofthe core.

NARRATOR: The next step
was to use

a high-tech industrial
microscope to compare

his drill core to a latex copy
ofthe one at the Petrie Museum.

We have under the microscope
a... the core

that we drilled with the copper
tube and sand.

And as you can see,
the surface ofthe core,

the striations are
not very clear.

There's nothing really
distinctive in terms of

the feed ofthe tool marks using
sand and, and copper.

Now bringing the latex that they
took ofthe core

in the Petrie Museum, and we see
something totally different.

The striations are very clear,
and they're quite deep.

The devil is actually in the
details, and the details

ofthis particular artifact are
what I consider to be

a smoking gun in terms ofwhat
level oftechnology we give

the ancient Egyptians
credit for.

NARRATOR: Intrigued by his
discovery, Chris Dunn performed

other experiments using his
precision instruments.

DUNN:
As you can see,

this is a... an inspection
surface plate, uh,

probably ground to within
2/10,000 of an inch.

That is one-tenth the thickness
of a human hair.

Now, I was really amazed when I
went inside the serapeum

and put these gauges up against
the surface,

and found them to be
within what I consider to be

the tolerance ofthese
particular gauges.

Ifyou would put a piece of
paper under one edge

ofthat blade--
just a piece of paper--

you begin to see
that there was...

would be light leaking through.

And so, the precision on the
inside ofthe granite boxes

in the serapeum are,
I would say,

within 2/1,000 of an inch,

which is incredible, because
those tolerances can'tjust

appear by accident.

It was very shocking.

It was astounding to me to go to
Egypt and, uh, go into

a facility that was supposedly
3,000 years old

and find the same kind of
precision.

I was amazed.

I've seen evidence ofthe
carvings on granite done

in Egypt, and they did... they
did it with little shards of,

uh... of quartz.

I believe they would have just

scratched away the stone
with that.

That's... that's one
possibility, but I mean,

that's... that... that's a heck
of a lot ofwork to do that.

I mean, we're talking, somebody
would devote years to doing

something like that.

TSOUKALOS:
But here is my point.

Here we have a real-life
stonecutter-- you.

Yeah.

You see this, and there's, like,
smoke coming out ofyour head.

Let's put it this way-- I had a
client come in and ask me

to do that, I wouldn't do it for
any amount of money, because

I'm not going to waste my life
trying to replicate that.

NARRATOR: But precision-cut
stone monuments are not

the only enduring Middle Eastern
mysteries.

Engineering experts have also
examined the Bible story

ofthe Israelites' exodus
from Egypt.

Just how did they survive for
40 years in the desert?

Could they have possessed
intricate machines

with extraordinary abilities,
used not for building,

but for man's own survival?

NARRATOR: In the Hebrew Bible,
the Book of Exodus describes

how the Jewish people suffered
as slaves living in Egypt.

Then sometime in the 14th
century BC, the ruling pharaoh

feared their growing numbers
and ordered the killing of all

first-born Jews living in Egypt.

In an effort to save her son,
one mother put her child

in a small basket and set him
adrift on the Nile River.

That child was found by the
pharaoh's family,

who named him Moses and raised
him as their own.

As an adult, Moses discovered
his true identity and demanded

that the pharaoh free the Jews.

When the pharaoh rejected him,

Moses helped the Jews escape
from Egypt.

(thunder cracks)

Historians believe that Moses
and his people

crossed the Red Sea and made
their way into the Sinai Desert.

According to the ancient text,
God grew angry at the Jews

for idol-worshipping
and forced them

to wander the desert aimlessly

for 40 years before allowing
them to enter Israel.

During this time, the Bible says
the Israelites survived

by eating a single food source:
manna.

But what is manna?

A naturally abundant food
provided by God or,

as some believe,
something very different?

TUDOR PARFITT: In the Bible,
it explains how the Israelites

got from Egypt,
where they'd been slaves,

to the Promised Land.

They had to cross
the Sinai Desert.

And inevitably, given that there
was a lot of Israelites

and very little growing, as it
was a desert,

they ran short on supplies.

God stepped in at this point
and sent manna from heaven.

This took the form of some kind
of seeds that rained down

upon the desert, and then they
were collected the next day.

And they provided food for the
Israelites, except Friday,

when there was a double portion,
because on Saturday,

being the Sabbath,
it didn't fall.

NARRATOR: While the Hebrew Bible
fails to give

a clear description of manna,

another ancient Jewish text
provides an alternative clue.

The Zohar is a collection of
spiritual commentaries

and interpretations ofthe
Torah, and is central

to the mystical Kabbalah belief
written in the 13th century.

The Zohar describes what is
called the Ancient of Days

as providing the manna, but what
was this Ancient of Days?

A man, a god or something else?

The text speaks of
different-sized brains,

different-sized faces that were
connected with different tubes

and different light sources.

Theologians have suggested that
this is a description of God.

However, when looked at from a
modern perspective,

what is described in the Zohar
isn't necessarily a god figure,

but rather a type of machine.

NARRATOR: Intrigued by this
information,

two electrical engineers,
George Sassoon and Rodney Dale,

used the anatomical descriptions
ofthe Ancient of Days

to design what
they called a manna machine.

This really is-is the key
diagram ofthe manna machine,

as we built it up
from the texts.

For instance, one here is the
mouth, but it's actually

the air intake, which carries
what is described

as the breath of life.

The air goes up this tube here,
which is described as

the-the brain
ofthe Ancient One,

but is actually a dew still.

So that although we're talking
about the great sea

and the hairs ofthe beard and
so on, at the same time,

we were able to work out their
relative positions

and build out the specification
ofthe machine,

and find that we had something
that was biochemically viable.

(speaking German)

(translated): The machine took
in moist morning air

and condensed it in the part
ofthe machine

that looked like
a Plexiglas dome.

From there, it mixed
with an algae culture.

The culture was treated with
energy,

such as a strong laser light,
in order to speed the growth.

DALE: Of course,
it needed energy

for cultivating the algae.

And this was produced,
we postulate,

in a small nuclear
reactor, which would produce

both heat and light as required.

(Fiebag speaking German)

(translated): The manna machine
was a very dangerous device.

We suspect that the reactor that
powered the machine

was transported in the
Ark ofthe Covenant.

TSOUKALOS: We have multiple
references in the Bible

that whoever came close to the
Ark ofthe Covenant

and didn't know how to operate
it was smitten to death.

(thunder cracks)

And sometimes people, after they
encountered the Ark,

started to lose their nails and
started to lose their hair.

So we have evidence of some type
of radiation poisoning

which was in direct correlation
with the Ark ofthe Covenant.

And so,
the Ark ofthe Covenant housed

an extraterrestrial device which
was given to the Israelites

during their 40-year
wandering through the desert.

NARRATOR: The manna machine is
believed to have supplied

a highly nutritious form of
green algae,

or chlorella,
as its food source.

It's yet another theory
supported by modern science.

DALE: We found that work in the
field of space travel

had already been done, where the
green algae-- chlorella--

was bred in tanks and fed to
people living

in a closed environment
and kept them alive.

NARRATOR: Research studies done
by NASA in the 1960s and 1970s

established that human life
could be sustained

for extended periods oftime by
consuming chlorella algae

and nothing else.

If it's possible for astronauts
to survive on algae,

could the Israelites
have done the same?

(translated): The manna machine
was a sensitive device.

In order to function properly,

it had to be cleaned
once a week.

On that day, the machine was
taken apart and cleaned,

so it's possible that the
Sabbath we have today

actually originated from
cleaning this machine.

DALE: One theory that one could
put forward, of course,

is that the machine, although
they knew how to maintain it

and make it produce the manna,

that it did after a time
pack up, not work anymore.

And that was why they came out
ofthe desert.

NARRATOR: But ifthe Israelites'
survival depended upon

the manna machine,
where did they get it?

Some believe they had stolen it
from the Egyptians

prior to their exodus.

Others suspect extraterrestrials
gave it to them

as a humanitarian gesture,

to prevent their starvation
in the desert.

Eitherway, the answer,
like the Ark ofthe Covenant,

seems lost to history.

Today, scientists have
successfully pioneered

a process that produces a
substance high in protein

by means of solar energy, water
vapor, and chlorella algae.

Could this be a duplication of
alien technology

from thousands ofyears ago?

They actually built a machine,
a machine based on

algae culture producing some
type of super food.

And we can find a similar type
oftechnology

described in the Zohar.

Is history repeating itself?

DALE:
One ofthe big questions is:

Where could the machine
come from?

And I suppose there are two
answers to that.

Either it was built on Earth,

which is a theory I can't
really subscribe to.

The other question of course is
that it might have come

from outer space somewhere.

Now, that's quite a big leap of
imagination, but of course

the interesting part is that it
actually produces food

as is used by a spacecraft.

NARRATOR: Ifthe ancient world
contained manna machines,

giant mega-saws, and
sophisticated aircraft,

what was the energy source for
all ofthis technology?

The answer may be hiding in
plain sight.

Of all the ancient structures
located around the world,

perhaps none is more mysterious
or as enduring

as the Great Pyramid at Giza.

At a height of471 feet,
the Great Pyramid stood

as the tallest structure
in the world

until the completion
ofthe Eiffel Tower in 1889.

But while other pyramids and
temples contain walls

filled with hieroglyphics
describing their purpose,

the Great Pyramid lacks even
a single marking.

What was its function?

Why was it built?

And what secrets remain
hidden inside?

BAUVAL:
Nobody has been able

to explain the interior design
ofthis pyramid.

It simply doesn't make sense,
according to our logic.

You have narrow tunnels that you
have to crouch.

You emerge in grand galleries
that are nine meters high.

You have chambers that are made
of granite,

where granite doesn't
come from in the area.

You have to ship the granite by
barges 600 miles away.

TSOUKALOS:
It's an anonymous site.

Not a single inscription.

Not a single hieroglyph.

Not a single anything.

It's just there.

DUNN: Some people speculated
that it was a temple

and an initiation chamber,
where people would go

to the king's chamber
and become enlightened.

There are anecdotal reports
about people who have been

inside the pyramid and have come
out absolutely shaken and...

because it was haunted.

Egyptologists believe that
the pyramids were built

to bury the dead pharaoh.

The problem with the accepted
view is the fact that

not a single dead pharaoh's body
has been found inside a pyramid,

even when the pyramid was
completely sealed, i.e.,

not a single grave robber could
have entered it.

The Egyptologists say it's to
conceal the body.

Well, why advertise it?

I mean,
there's nothing more visible

than a pyramid for miles.

And to this day, you would have
thought, in this modern age,

with all the knowledge we have,

we should be able to explain
this pyramid.

We cannot explain this pyramid.

NARRATOR: Engineering expert
Christopher Dunn has been on

a personal quest to unlock the
secrets ofthe Great Pyramid

since the late 1970s.

According to him, there are
specific clues in the design

and construction ofthis
mega-monument that can help

answer exactly why it was built.

DUNN: When you look at
the Great Pyramid,

and look at the
culture that built it,

they're brilliant, brilliant
engineers.

In fact, a lot of engineers say

we couldn't build the Great
Pyramid today.

And it was built, supposedly,
4,500 years ago.

And it was built to the
precision of a machine.

When I started to do the
research and I examined

the Great Pyramid with the eye
offunctionality,

um, it was built
like a machine.

Perhaps it functioned like a
machine.

NARRATOR: The interior design of
the Great Pyramid

features four inclined air
shafts emanating

from the king's chamber and the
lower queen's chamber.

Like the Great Pyramid itself,
their presence and purpose

cannot be easily explained.

The difficulty of building those
shafts is incredible.

It's a bit like building
a chimney

at an incline across a house.

I mean, as a construction
engineer, it's a nightmare.

NARRATOR: In 2002, a team of
engineers and Egyptologists

sent a small robot into one of
the airshafts

connected to the
queen's chamber.

After 65 meters, a stone door
blocked its path.

A hole was then drilled
through it.

On the other side was a small
room with yet another door

leading further up the shaft.

BAUVAL: Since the discovery of
the door,

we've had every university,
archeologist, anthropologist,

every engineer
you can think of--

nobody has been able to explain
the purpose ofthe shafts.

NARRATOR:
But were these shafts ever open?

And ifthey were, what might
they have been used for?

CHRIS DUNN: The early explorers
that went into

the queen's chamber found that
the walls were coated

with a layer of salt.

That kind of gelled with a
theory that I had developed.

You had a dilute hydrochloric
acid solution coming down

one shaft and hydrated zinc
coming down the other shaft.

And when they combined in the
queen's chamber,

they created hydrogen.

NARRATOR:
Hydrogen.

It is one ofthe most powerful
energy sources in the universe.

In the mid-19th century, it was
hydrogen gas that helped lift

some of mankind's first
airships, called zeppelins,

into the sky.

Today, it is used as a fuel to
launch rockets into space.

And if, thousands ofyears ago,
the Great Pyramid was actually

producing hydrogen, that would
make it one ofthe earliest

power plants known to man.

DUNN:
The Giza power plant theory

is essentially the
drawing of energy from the Earth

through the Great Pyramid,

and converting that energy into
microwave energy.

So the chemicals actually come
in through the shafts

into the queen's chamber, and
then they combine and mix

and hydrogen boils off.

The hydrogen is then lighter
than air and it will flow into

all the upper chambers.

The energy from the Earth is
then vibrating

the whole pyramid.

The vibrations are picked up in
the Grand Gallery.

So I proposed the Grand Gallery
was a resonator hall

and there are 27 pair of slots
that actually go up the length

ofthe gallery
and then the resonators were

mounted in there vertically.

CHILDRESS: Christopher Dunn is
theorizing

that with resonating
galleries, the pyramid shot

a microwave out
of one ofthe shafts.

And once you started up
this power plant,

it would have gone on for years,
decades, even hundreds ofyears

without stopping and creating
the microwave.

And that was a usable energy
that could be captured.

DUNN: Now we can speculate where
it goes from there.

It could be collected in the
immediate vicinity,

or it could
keep traveling off into space.

We don't know.

That's the mystery.

NARRATOR: But ifthe Great
Pyramid was actually

a power plant producing energy,
was it doing it alone,

or was it part
of a larger network?

And are there any clues that
could tell us what all ofthat

energy was being used for?

NARRATOR:
Perhaps the 20th century's

most influential inventor
was a Serbian-American

named Nikola Tesla.

His patents on alternating
electrical currents

and distribution helped
establish

the commercial electricity
industry.

He also made contributions to
robotics,

radar, and computer science.

But while Tesla can be credited
for many scientific advances,

one idea that fell short was his
attempt to create

a wireless electrical grid.

CHILDRESS:
Tesla's project

was to have these towers around
the United States

and around the world.

And they would broadcast
electricity

like a television station.

FRISBEE:
Instead of having to string

power lines all over the place,
you just transmit the energy

through the air
or through the ground.

There were a number of
demonstrations ofthis device

for wireless power transmission
during Tesla's lifetime.

So, we know the device worked.

It appears that he was using the
conductivity ofthe ground

or the air to carry
the electric current.

Basically in the air, ifyou put
enough voltage on it,

you'll get an arc across it.

I mean, you see that all the
time in a fluorescent lightbulb.

In the ground you have water,
minerals, salts

that can also
carry the ions along,

and therefore carry the electric
current.

NARRATOR: But while Tesla's
power towers proved popular

in theory, the project ended in
financial failure.

But could Tesla's idea of
wireless electricity have been

a rediscovery of an ancient
technology?

I believe that what Tesla was
doing was trying

to recreate what was an ancient
power system

that was used
around the world,

and the way they did this was
the use of obelisks.

Obelisks as monolithic,
granite towers,

which are one solid
piece of crystal,

and the obelisks themselves
were cut

to special sizes and tuned like
a tuning fork.

NARRATOR: Could these ancient
broadcast towers really have

sent electricity up into the
atmosphere?

And if so, how was the
electricity generated?

Each ofthese obelisks would
have required

some kind of
generating power station

similar to what we have today.

Electricity is created by
rotating magnetic fields.

So rotating magnetic fields
generate AC power.

The very first power station was
built by Nikola Tesla

at Niagara Falls.

You've got to have some sort of
power that's spinning

the rotating fields, and in this
case it would be water.

So every obelisk would have had
to have had a power station

similar to like the one at
Niagara Falls.

It's generating power, but the
obelisk itself is putting

the power into the atmosphere,
making it useable.

And this is similar to
Christopher Dunn's theory

ofthe Giza power plant,
because he believes

that the Great Pyramid
was actually sending

a microwave beam to a satellite
that was in orbit

around the planet.

That satellite then could have
been taking microwave power

and then it could transmit it
again, in theory,

to some other
location on the Earth, such as,

say, a remote island like Easter
Island or something like that.

From some ofthe descriptions

of ancient flying
machines, it's possible that

some form of power beaming
might have been used.

And in fact, for a lot ofthe
schemes that you see,

it actually would make a lot of
sense because you could put

the power beaming station on a
mother ship in orbit.

You're just beaming energy to
the vehicle, where it's

absorbed and turned into
propulsion thrust.

It actually makes a lot of
sense, because you're taking

the energy system, the power
system, off ofthe vehicle

and locating it remotely.

NARRATOR:
Electricity...

power tools...

mega-machinery...

and the ability to explore
the heavens...

Have these
technologies been available

forjust the past few centuries?

Or are they of ancient origin,
only recently rediscovered?

Were our ancestors capable of
these incredible achievements?

Or might they have come from
another source,

one much more out ofthis world?

CHILDRESS: Civilizations were
much more advanced

than we give them credit,

and literally,
as advanced as we are today.

BAUVAL: In my view, we need to
take this seriously,

simply because ofthe scale of
the work.

We're looking at monuments
that took, perhaps,

a century to build.

Even today, we have difficulty
in considering such a project.

DUNN:
Itjust boggles the mind.

And really, to look at those
artifacts

and to go back in time and say,
"How did they do it?"

we are kind of cracking the lid
open a little bit and looking

inside to try and see just what
happened in our history.

It's a question which is a
scientific question.

And you constantly
have to ask it.

And the possible answer of "Have
aliens visited in the past?"

could be a potential yes.

TSOUKALOS: It's a very specific
reason why all ofthis stuff

was built in stone: for
posterity, so it would last.

So that a future generation

would have to stumble across
these monuments.

We are that society who can look
at these ancient monuments

and finally recognize that all
ofthis stuffwas built

as a message for us to see that
our past is way different

than what
we're being taught in school.