Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 14, Episode 6 - Secrets of the Maya - full transcript

ATOR: The mass destruction
of an ancient culture.

JONATHAN YOUNG:
Their art, their philosophy,

their scientific findings...
He burned the whole thing.

NARRATOR: Lost texts that
could have offered evidence

of extraterrestrial contact
from across the globe.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
Literally, people were coming

from all over the world
to Mexico at this time.

PRAVEEN MOHAN:
Here we are in the middle

of South America
in a remote site

that looks exactly like
Hindu carvings.

- How is that possible?
- It's amazing.



NARRATOR: Could the Vatican
still be hiding proof

of mankind's ancient alien
origins?

GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:
I predict thousands

as-of-yet undiscovered sites

will finally show
that our ancestors

made contact
with extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.



We have never been alone.

NARRATOR:
The Yucatán Peninsula.

1549.

A fleet
of Spanish galleons arrive

on the coast of the New World.

And with them is a small army
of Roman Catholic priests,

who, during what is the height
of the Inquisition,

are determined to rescue
the pagan souls

of the natives for Almighty God.

And leading them...
Direct from the Vatican...

Is the fanatical Franciscan
friar Diego de Landa.

During the Spanish
colonial period

in what we call Mexico Yucatán,

the cradle of Mayan
civilization,

it was the priests who had a lot
of power because the Vatican

was one of the most powerful
nations on the Earth.

JASON MARTELL:
Diego de Landa came over

wanting to teach
Christian understandings

and principles to the Mayans,

but was probably intimidated
by the vast wealth of knowledge

that he actually saw
that they had tapped into.

NARRATOR: The Mayan civilization
that Friar Diego de Landa came upon

had thrived
in the rain-drenched jungles

and fertile plains
of Central America

for more than 2,000 years.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: The Spanish
conquerors found pyramids,

they found temples,
they found paved roads

and they found thousands and
thousands of Maya handwritings,

thousands of it.

MARTELL: We have a lot of
very interesting information

that comes out of this culture
we call the Maya.

They have been revered for many
things in their knowledge base,

especially around time and
concepts of math and science,

and the movements
of the solar system.

NARRATOR: But while the Maya were
in many ways culturally advanced,

their religious beliefs
were notoriously bloodthirsty.

They believed
in human sacrifice,

and as far as Friar Diego
de Landa was concerned,

did so at the expense
of their eternal souls.

It was a clash of cultures

that would not end well
for the Maya people.

Diego de Landa, later,
when he was back in Spain again,

he wrote down, "We found
thousands of handwritings

"of the Indians.

But they all contained
just a Devil's thing."

YOUNG: A new teaching,
a new religion comes into a place

where there is a very strong
adherence to a body of ideas.

We have a competitive situation.

One maneuver is to destroy

as much evidence of the old way
as you can,

and that will help
reduce its grip.

"It's not sacred anymore,
this is just stuff,

so we can burn it
with impunity."

NARRATOR:
On July 12, 1562,

the Catholic priests,

with the armed assistance
of the Spanish military,

executed what was known
during the Inquisition

as an auto-da-fé,
or "act of faith,"

whereby the Maya population

was forced to declare
their religious conversion

to Christianity
or be put to death.

It was also a day that
reportedly saw the destruction

of all of the Maya
sacred scrolls

and more than
5,000 priceless images,

an entire historical record.

YOUNG: There were thousands
of books called codices,

probably scrolls, burned.

All their art, their philosophy,
their scientific findings,

the accumulative knowledge
of this great civilization,

they burned the whole thing.

NARRATOR: But by burning the
vast knowledge accumulated

by the Maya,
did Friar Diego de Landa

also destroy something of
even greater historical value?

Might he have erased all traces

of the Maya's
extraterrestrial ancestors?

There's very interesting
information told to us

by the Mayan elders
that still exist today.

They speak of a time
that they were led to this land

by the sky people.

Could they be referencing
some type of lost race,

even possibly
extraterrestrial in nature?

They seemed to have knowledge
of math and science,

which we can't explain
how they got this information.

When you ask them,
"How did they gain

all of this
amazing information?"

they always reference, "We
learned it from the sky people."

HUGH NEWMAN: There were
traditions in ancient Mexico

of a great teacher
arriving on the Gulf Coast.

And when he arrived,
he brought with him

the arts of civilization.

We know the tradition
may have originated

with a great civilization

who were around
long before the Maya,

but no one knows
who they really were,

or where they really came from.

NARRATOR:
Tres Zapotes, Mexico,

1938.

Archeologist Matthew Stirling,

chief of the Smithsonian's
Bureau of American Ethnology,

follows up on a report
that had gone unexamined

for more than 70 years,
the discovery by a local farmer

of an ancient
megalithic sculpture.

Stirling's investigation
results in a remarkable find:

A giant stone head
buried in the ground.

It was the first in what,
to date,

has become a total
of 17 such heads,

each weighing
a staggering eight tons,

and all estimated
to be some 3,000 years old.

It is a date which suggests
that the heads were carved

not by the Maya,

but by an even older
civilization, the Olmecs.

STEPHEN JETT:
The Olmecs, uh,

they're often called the mother
culture of Mesoamerica.

They are the first
complex culture

of any size and significance
in that part of the world.

ANDREW COLLINS: The Olmec people
come into existence

probably about 1400 BC

in the Tabasco region
of what is today Mexico.

But then, very suddenly,
you have the rise

of a full-blown society
and civilization.

And the question becomes
"Where did the Olmec come from?"

The controversy is that many of
the beautifully carved statues

and stelae
seemed to show African men.

JETT: They appear to be not
native to the New World,

but are native
to sub-Saharan Africa.

This is not scientific
physical anthropology,

but just the appearance of these
things is pretty suggestive.

NEWMAN: And they also show Chinese,
Vietnamese, possibly Polynesian

and even Caucasian people
carved into solid rock.

So, there's big mystery
about the Olmecs.

CHILDRESS: Where are all
these people coming from?

Early archeologists were
dumbfounded by all of these

different racial characteristics

that we're seeing in the Olmec
figurines and statues.

Literally, people were coming
from all over the world

to Mexico at this time.

And how did they do that?

NARRATOR:
Do the Olmec heads and artifacts

present evidence
that this ancient civilization

had its genetic origins
not in South America,

as many mainstream
archaeologists believe,

but thousands of miles away, and
on the other side of the Earth?

But how?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest

the answer may be found
after a careful examination

of a number
of extraordinary Olmec artifacts

found in La Venta, Mexico.

TSOUKALOS:
In La Venta, we have carvings

that show the Olmecs
in very bizarre scenes.

One of them
is this plumed serpent,

this snake that appears
to be floating in the sky,

and then down below,
you actually see a person

sitting inside
this flying snake.

And so you have to wonder
if somehow the Olmecs

had access
to aviation technology,

and I personally think they did,

because at the Museum of Natural
History in New York City,

there is a Olmec figurine.

He is clearly wearing
some type of a pressurized suit.

He has some type of controls
with tubes on his chest.

On the side, you have six wings
coming out of him.

In my opinion, it is
the smoking gun of our ancestors

having access
to aviation technology

thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the ancestors of the Olmec people

had come to South America
from far across the ocean?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and believe the way
they got there

may not have been in ships,
but across the skies,

in extraterrestrially-designed
spacecraft.

NARRATOR:
San Agustín, Colombia.

March 27, 2019.

Ancient astronaut theorist
David Childress

has come to this
remote mountain town

to explore and study a site
that has baffled

the scientific community
for decades.

Joining him is Hindu historian

Praveen Mohan.

- CHILDRESS: Hello, Praveen.
- Hi, David.

- Welcome to Colombia.
- I know.

- CHILDRESS: Jump on in here.
- Sure.

CHILDRESS:
You know, Praveen,

I was here
a number of years ago.

And I thought,
"All right, there's a lot

of Hindu influence here."

And, so, that's when I thought
that I need some expert

on Hinduism, like you,
to come here to San Agustín

and-and see it for themselves.

Yeah, when I got the call

about a place like this
in Colombia,

I was surprised.

A Hindu site in South America?

My heart is actually pounding

- to see the site.
- (chuckles)

NARRATOR: Located deep
within the Andean foothills

of southern Colombia,

the San Agustín
Archaeological Park is home

to more than 500
megalithic stone statues

of unknown origin.

First discovered
by a Spanish monk

in the mid-18th century,

they appear to be the work

of the region's
earliest civilizations

and are thought to date back
as many as 2,000 years.

So, this is the main gate here.

We've got a bit of a walk
through the jungle.

And this is a very remote spot,
even today.

So high in the mountains.

You wonder how people got
to this site,

why they would have
even chosen this.

- Here it is.
- Wow.

- Check it out.
- Yeah, let's see.

NARRATOR:
David Childress

has been researching this area
for many years.

He is convinced
that many of the statues

show strong connections

to the Olmec statues

that were first discovered
in Mexico

more than 1,600 miles
to the north

in the 1800s.

CHILDRESS:
We know that the Olmecs

were in Mexico
and also in Central America,

but evidence of the Olmecs
in South America

has been elusive until now.

Here at San Agustín,
we have that evidence.

This would be one
of the earliest Olmec sites

because it's thought

that San Agustín started

as early as 3000 BC,

and other Olmec sites in Mexico

are only dated
to around 1000 BC,

so this is
an extremely important site.

What I really wanted
to show you is,

what I think is Hindu things,

- which are right over here.
- Okay.

- Wow!
- NARRATOR: It is David Childress' belief

that the stone sculptures

of the San Agustín
Archaeological Park

not only show
strong similarities

to the Olmec carvings
found in Mexico,

but also show
even more profound connections

to Hindu carvings
and artwork found in India

and Southeast Asia.

I think you'll be
interested in this.

MOHAN: Oh, a figure holding a
skull flanked by two other figures.

That is so Hindu.

And these two doorkeepers...

see how they're holding weapons
to protect the main deity?

We can see a central deity
holding a skull.

And two guardian doorkeepers
holding tools.

This is typical
South Indian architecture.

This is exactly what's portrayed
in these temples.

This is amazing because I've
never seen anything like this

in South America.

What's really interesting to me,

is that the main deity
is shown with fangs.

That's typical of South India;

In Tamil Nadu,
Shiva is shown with fangs.

CHILDRESS:
You think that's maybe Shiva,

- right there in the middle?
- MOHAN: Yes.

NARRATOR: Shiva?
Also known as "The Destroyer"?

Is it possible that evidence
of this uniquely Hindu deity

has been found
in South America...

and on ancient megalithic
stone carvings

dating back some 2,000 years?

So how bout these
right here, huh?

Wow, yeah,
these are, uh, lingams.

These are symbols of Shiva.

And we can see these lingams
have more and more

details on them.

And look... here
it even has a face.

- CHILDRESS: Yeah, how bout that?
- MOHAN: You see this...

is a classic mukhalingam.

It is a lingam
with a face on top.

- A mukhalingam?
- Yeah.

The word mukha means face,
and the lingam means

a cylindrical structure.

And this is
classic Hindu iconography,

and you can see this
in many ancient temples.

So here, have a look
at this one here.

I think you'll find this
pretty interesting.

Wow!

An eagle holding a snake
in its beaks,

and then it's also
holding the snake

on its talons.
I mean, this is

classic Hindu iconography.

This is Garuda holding the Naga.

So Garuda is always depicted
as a giant bird,

and then typically,
he's holding a snake...

- Yeah.
- In his beak and his talons.

I've seen something very similar
to this in Vietnam,

in a place called Champa.

I can show you
a picture of this.

CHILDRESS: So the snake that he's
holding in his beak and talons

- is a Naga snake, is that right?
- Yes. Yes.

In Hindu text, we don't see
the Garuda as an animal

or the snake as an animal.

There are two different races;
One is the Garuda,

which actually comes from
a planet up above the sky.

The Nagas are reptilian,
snake-like shape-shifting beings

which live underground.

CHILDRESS: Now that's an interesting
story, because that's

on the flag of Mexico today.

- MOHAN: Oh, really?
- Yeah, how bout that?

MOHAN:
Oh, wow, wow!

CHILDRESS: So the Garuda is in
some ways a symbol of the airships,

- the spaceships...
- Absolutely.

- And the flight that they would use.
- Yes.

Here we are in the middle
of South America,

in a remote site that looks
exactly like Hindu carvings.

I mean, without any connection,
how is that possible?

Well, do you think, then,

that these Hindu demigods

are, are flying
in-in spaceships,

even scouting, they're
creating a place like this?

It's all so strange, but it's,
it's so obvious that

some kind of high, technical
civilization was here.

- Yes. Mm-hmm.
- It's... it's amazing.

NARRATOR:
Ancient Hindus?

Traveling across the Pacific
Ocean in flying aircraft?

But even if
such an incredible feat

was possible...
where is the evidence?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

the evidence not only exists,
but has been tested.

And it confirms the likelihood
that extraterrestrial visitors

came here to Earth
thousands of years ago.

NARRATOR: At the San Agustín
In Archaeological Park

in Colombia, South America,

ancient astronaut theorist
David Childress

and Hindu expert Praveen Mohan

are investigating
what they believe to be

conclusive evidence
that Hindu explorers

migrated to this area
more than 2,000 years ago.

So here, have a look
at this dolmen here.

- What do you see?
- Wow, there's a, uh,

central deity
flanked by two doorkeepers.

But these doorkeepers
are not human or even humanoid.

You can see the scales
on the body,

you know, see the lines.

And what's
even more interesting...

I mean, it seems almost like
they have a hood

on top of them,

which is characteristic
of cobras,

and cobras don't exist
in Americas.

How did this motif get here?

And believe it or not,

we still have
this same depiction

in many
Southeast Asian countries.

In fact, I have pictures of it.

- CHILDRESS: Right.
- MOHAN: Yeah, this is a temple.

This is in Thailand.

You can see that this is being
guarded by two Nagas.

CHILDRESS: I see that,
and they have their ribs, uh,

on their stomach,
just like this.

MOHAN: Yeah,
the-the scales on the bodies.

CHILDRESS:
Yeah, that's fascinating.

MOHAN:
And you know, there's yet

another characteristic feature

that you would really love.

These are feathered serpents
like Kukulkan.

CHILDRESS: The feathered serpent of Kukulkan?
- Yes.

MOHAN:
And flanking on the pyramid.

NARRATOR:
Kukulkan?

The Mayan god
that is most famously depicted

on the temple of El Castillo
in Chichen Itza?

The one described
as a feathered serpent

that descended to Earth
from the sky?

But as far as
many ancient astronaut theorists

are concerned, depictions
of the god Kukulkan

are not merely depictions
of a flying serpent,

as many mainstream
archaeologists believe,

but of a spaceman.

And they cite
the presence of a humanoid face,

often seen emerging
from the mouth of the serpent,

as really a depiction
of a helmeted astronaut

piloting a large,
flying spacecraft,

similar to what is known
as a "vimana"

in the Hindu tradition.

In the Mahbharata, we can see

very advanced flying machines,
which are called vimanas.

It is clearly established

that the gods come down
from the sky using vimanas.

It is also talked about

in Mayan culture.

There are several types
of vimanas that

- you yourself have published.
- Uh-huh.

And there is a type of vimana
which has tail fins, correct?

Yeah, the Chicuna vimana

- has wings...
- Yeah, yeah.

While other vimanas were discoid

and other vimanas were,
like, tubular,

- cigar-shaped ships.
- Yes, yeah.

And what's really
fascinating is that,

in the Gold Museum in Bogotá,

we have the same vimanas
made of gold,

- correct? These discoid...
- We have the-the gold airplanes there.

NARRATOR:
In the early 1900s,

tomb robbers came upon
a grave site

along Colombia's Magdalena River

dating back an estimated
1,500 years.

Inside, they discovered hundreds
of small gold figurines.

TSOUKALOS: Hundreds of these small,
gold objects have been found,

many of which are rooted
in the animal kingdom.

17 eerily look like
modern-day airplanes.

The wings are attached
at the bottom.

Birds, they have
their wings attached

where we have our shoulders,
like this.

So no formation in the
animal kingdom exists

in the form of these
Quimbaya artifacts.

And, in 1996, two engineers

took a couple of these
ancient artifacts,

blew them up to this size,

put a propeller inside,
threw it up in the air,

and it flew.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that
among the Quimbaya figurines

found in Colombia

are representations of what
the Hindu people

on the other side of the world
described as vimanas?

Ancient astronaut theorists
suggest the answer can be found

by examining a character
from the ancient Hindu texts:

A character who bears
the name "Maya."

The word "Maya" itself
is a Hindu word.

It means "illusion"
or "god of illusion."

And this was the name
given to the king of Asuras,

and he's known as Maya
because he's able to create

these magical illusions.

DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: Maya,
he was born of divine god Brahma.

He was a great architect,
he was a great magician,

and he invented
the flying machine.

He was not of the Earth because

he was not born on Earth,

so he was obviously
extraterrestrial.

MOHAN: Maya actually
traveled out of India,

and he might've gone to Mexico.

Now, interestingly,

Mayans have a book
called Popul Vuh.

In that book,
they talk about how

a specific god
came from the east,

and I think this
is the same god that

both these cultures
are talking about.

NARRATOR: If the divine
King Maya was a real being,

as millions of Hindus believe,
is it possible

that the Mayan civilization
of Central America

adopted his name?

According to ancient astronaut
theorist David Childress,

the answer is a resounding yes,

and he believes that at
San Agustín there is a sculpture

that doesn't only
support his theory,

but may also be a depiction

of an actual alien visitor.

Would you like to see,
perhaps, a spaceman?

- (chuckling): A spaceman?
- Yes.

- There's one more site.
- Yeah, absolutely!

NARRATOR: San Agustín
Archaeological Park in Colombia

is located along the west bank

of the Magdalena River,
near a place where it converges

with two other rivers.

It is a location that ancient
astronaut theorists believe

has a startling and
not accidental significance.

MOHAN: They could've set
up this site anywhere,

but why did they choose
San Agustín in Colombia?

In India, we have this place
called Triveni Sangam

where three great rivers meet,

and that site is chosen
as a sacred site.

We have a lot of temples
in this place.

Whoever came from India to here

chose this place
because this is where

all these three rivers meet.

And to find a place like this,

you needed to have
aerial survey.

They were using the vimanas,
which is why

they set up this ancient
Shiva temple here.

NARRATOR:
Vimanas?

The extraterrestrial
flying machines

that are described
in the Mahabharata,

the ancient Hindu text?

Is it possible
that Hindu explorers

made the journey from India
to South America,

and then settled in this region
centuries ago?

And could they have made
that journey,

a distance of some 12,000 miles,
by means of a vimana?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and they believe that the answer

to what compelled them
to come there

can be found by examining
one of the ancient stone statues

located in San Agustín
Archeological Park.

This was the final statue
that I wanted you to look at.

- Pretty curious, huh?
- Yeah.

CHILDRESS:
I-I don't know what to call this

e-except a spaceman.

You can see that he's wearing
some kind of a helmet.

It looks like he has
a visor, he's got

two rectangular eyes
and a rectangular mouth,

he has no nose.

He's holding this,

what they call a-a power staff.

But what's really
fascinating about that is

he's holding that long cylinder,
and, if you look carefully,

it's going even below his feet.

He's using that cylinder

to go into the ground.
Now this is very interesting

because, in Hindu culture,
there's a god

called Swarna Kala Bhairava,
and he's the god of gold,

and he uses a tool called keyla,

and he uses it to go
into the ground and mine gold.

It could be a special probe
that you can put in the ground

and detect gold and minerals,

so perhaps he is
the extraterrestrial

that is guiding them.

He's a spaceman
in a spacesuit with his

gold mining tools.

NARRATOR:
A spaceman mining gold?

In 1976, author and researcher
Zecharia Sitchin

published a book called
The 12th Planet,

in which he translated

and interpreted the writings

of humanity's earliest
known civilization,

the Sumerians.
According to Sitchin,

the beings described
in the texts, the Anunnaki,

were, in fact,
visitors from another planet.

They created humankind as slaves
that could be forced to mine

the gold the Anunnaki needed
to power their spacecraft.

CHILDRESS:
San Agustín is still

a remote mountain area today,

and coming here in ancient times

would've been
extremely difficult,

but this was
a gold-bearing area,

and if you're looking for gold,
this is the place to come.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the strange carvings

found in the area can be proof

that Sitchin's
incredible theory is true?

And that an ancient race
of people

traveled from Asia
to South America

in pursuit of a metal

they had been taught to consider

not just essential, but sacred?

When you talk about how
this place was used for gold,

you know, how they were mining
gold as offerings to gods,

that's exactly what Hindus do,
even today.

And Colombia, right here,

in-in this remote spot,
is land of gold.

So much of the gold
in South America

- came from right here.
- Mm-hmm.

So this is what they
were looking for, gold,

and they came here,
and they found it.

They're flying here,

they're creating
a place like this,

they're also sending ships

across the Pacific Ocean.

- They're bringing power tools.
- Mm-hmm.

And when they're not mining,

they're creating these
amazing statues, that...

And there are hundreds of them
all over here.

MOHAN: Your theory
about people and Mayans

moving from South India
and-and coming here

all the way to South America,

this is all tying together.

We have an extraterrestrial god

who comes down
and he mines for gold,

and he builds
an entire civilization.

I think that makes
a lot of sense.

CHILDRESS:
When it comes to San Agustín,

the Spanish did not know
about this ancient site,

and if they had known about it,

they probably
would've destroyed it.

So throughout Colombia
and Mesoamerica,

we have ruins
of ancient civilizations

still undiscovered,

and with the discoveries
at San Agustín

in the last hundred years,
we now have a chance

to rewrite
South American history.

NARRATOR: Do the stone
statues at San Agustín

provide compelling evidence,

not only that there was
interaction between the peoples

of Asia
and those of South America

centuries ago, but also
that this interaction

was made possible as the result

of extraterrestrial
intervention?

Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,

and they suggest
further proof can be found

locked away in the secret vaults

of the Vatican Library.

NARRATOR:
Southeast Asia.

2000 BC.

An ethnically diverse
civilization

of seafaring explorers emerges

in the area
of modern-day Vietnam.

At roughly the same time

the Olmec appear in Mesoamerica.

The Cham were an Austronesian

and are
an Austronesian-speaking group.

In, uh, central Vietnam,
Austronesian languages include

Polynesian, Indonesian
and so forth.

And they are closely associated
with highly maritime people.

The word "Cham" represents
a race that extended

from Egypt to India
to Southeast Asia.

The ancient Cham were Hindu.

I believe
there was a Cham migration

to South and Central America.

This was ultimately
a partnership

between advanced
human civilizations

and extraterrestrials.

That's why you see
all of the the diversity

in these artifacts
and these giant structures

that defy logic.

NARRATOR:
If the giant Olmec heads

and artifacts
found in Mexico resemble

a community made up
of multiple ethnicities...

Ethnicities that were
not previously believed

to have been present
in Central or South America

until the 15th century...

Then is it possible
that these people

were among a wave of migrants
who traveled to South America

from various parts of Southern
and Southeast Asia

thousands of years ago?

JETT:
It has occurred to me

that the Cham
might conceivably have been

involved as the
sort of middle persons

in maritime transactions

between Southeast Asia
and the New World,

particularly, perhaps,
northwestern South America.

Modern DNA mapping,

what we call, uh,
molecular DNA study,

has been revolutionizing
the understanding

of human migrations
over the globe.

COLLINS:
What this is very clearly

stating again and again

is there was a relationship
between the peoples

of Southern India,

places like Sri Lanka,
Southeast Asia,

Australia, Micronesia,
Melanesia,

through Polynesia
and particularly

into South America
and Mesoamerica.

NARRATOR:
But if hundreds,

perhaps thousands of people
migrated from Southern

and Southeast Asia
to South America,

how did they get there?

Was it by sailing ship?

Or was it by means
of an alien-inspired aircraft

known as vimana,

as many ancient astronaut
theorists believe?

MOHAN:
We hear this story

time and time again
in Mahabharata.

Some vimanas have
these huge wings

and they have, like, a tail fin,
like a modern-day aircraft.

Almost all these machines
were mentioned

5,000 years ago in Mahabharata.

NARRATOR:
But if mass migration

on a large scale
had been taking place

centuries ago and with the help
of extraterrestrial technology,

then why has no evidence
been found

to support
this incredible theory?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

the answer dates back
to the bloody persecutions

of the Maya by the Spanish
in the 16th century,

and the deliberate destruction
of hundreds of years

of the Maya's written history
by Friar Diego de Landa.

A destruction that many ancient
astronaut theorists suggest

was not as thorough
as we were made to believe.

CHILDRESS:
Catholic Church was trying

to destroy the old religion
and they-they made a big show

of having huge bonfires of books

and destroying them,

but at the same time,
the Catholic Church

was trying
to accumulate knowledge.

TSOUKALOS:
It would also not surprise me

if Diego de Landa
did not burn everything.

And maybe some of these texts

did make it back to the Vatican.

People often say, "Oh, but the
Vatican just destroys stuff."

Actually...
they don't, on the whole.

What they do is they hide it.

What kind of other
organization in the world

is known to have

an archive that's actually
called "the Secret Archive"?

It's quite possible that while,
on the surface,

the Catholic Church was trying
to destroy everything,

this knowledge that
they're gathering in North

and South America
can benefit the Catholic Church

in the future
and that's what they thought.

PICKNETT:
It might molder away,

but at least they have
control of it.

That's the important thing.

The Vatican
is always about control.

Knowledge is power.

The Vatican
has always known this.

The Vatican has always
known secrets

it doesn't want
the average person to know.

NARRATOR:
Did the Catholic Church appear

to destroy the Maya histories
and sacred scrolls

only to have hidden them away
in the Vatican's

notorious secret archive?

As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,

the answer... is yes.

And the Church's motives
may not have been

to simply steal
valuable ancient knowledge,

but something far more profound.

They believe the real reason
was to hide the proof

that the origins
of the Maya civilization

and those that existed
thousands of years earlier

couldn't only be traced
to other continents,

but to other planets.

NARRATOR:
Giant megalithic stone heads...

figurines of what appear
to be flying craft...

and statues that evoke cultures

found on the other side
of the world.

According to ancient astronaut
theorists,

it is this information
that the Catholic Church

sought to suppress
when they attempted to destroy

all traces of the Maya culture
nearly 500 years ago.

MARTELL:
Now, what's interesting is,

all these great ancient
cultures,

including the Mayan,
seemed to have

knowledge of math and science,
which we can't explain

how they got this information.

When you ask them,
they always tell you

it came from the gods.

NARRATOR:
If the proof existed,

not only
of cross-Pacific migration,

but also extraterrestrial
visitation,

many ancient astronaut
theorists believe

it would have posed
a serious threat

to a Catholic hierarchy
steeped in

the bigotry and intolerance
of the Inquisition.

But if this incredible theory
is true,

what then happened to
the extraterrestrial visitors?

Why did they come here
only to leave or go into hiding?

CHILDRESS:
Because of various

wars going on, cataclysms,

eventually, these civilizations
began to collapse.

As civilizations do.

And what happened in the end
was the, the airships,

they stopped coming.
And then,

the extraterrestrial demigods
pulled their technology back.

So we don't know
what happened there

with the extraterrestrials
and where they went.

And so you have to wonder

if they don't want us
to know that they are here.

The extraterrestrials
may have just decided, "Okay.

"Humans on planet Earth
have, have got

"the seeds of civilization.

"Let's just stand back

and see what they do."

NARRATOR: As far as ancient
astronaut theorists are concerned,

the proof of extraterrestrial
visitation is still out there,

much of it buried beneath
centuries of dirt and rocks.

But every day,
the truth is being revealed.

In February 2018
through March 2019,

archeologists made a number
of incredible discoveries

just in the area
of Mexico alone.

Mayan artifacts were discovered
in Teotihuacan,

a location previously thought
to have been

inhabited only by the Aztecs.

200 more artifacts were found
in a hidden cave

under the Mayan site
of Chichen Itza.

And beneath dense jungles
near Lake Pátzcuaro,

LiDAR scanning
uncovered an ancient city

the size of Manhattan.

TSOUKALOS:
In the early 1990s,

there were these
science fiction stories

that one day we'll be able
to somehow look

underneath the overgrown jungle.

And sure enough, here we are,
20, 25 years later,

and that technology now exists.

Satellites are now able to look

through the soil
into the ground to see

if other structures exist.

And guess what? They do.

We have only now begun a new era

of discovery and I predict
thousands as-of-yet

undiscovered sites will finally

see the light of day.

If you have a puzzle
with a thousand pieces,

in order to see
the final picture,

you don't need to lay down
all 1,000 pieces.

If you lay down 980 pieces,
I guarantee you,

you will see the big picture.

NARRATOR: Is mankind on an
incredible threshold of discovery?

One that will confirm that
extraterrestrial visitation

has occurred all over
the world and for centuries?

Perhaps beneath the ruins of a
newly discovered site in Mexico,

archeologists will uncover
the ultimate evidence

of alien contact

and proof of humanity's
true origins.