transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you, and hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up. Spring's calling. Ross, work your magic.
Speaker 2:
[00:15] An island of giant statues, a vast plateau covered in enormous geoglyphs, a megalithic settlement that dates back more than 12,000 years. On Ancient Aliens, we've trekked across deserts, hacked through jungles, flown to remote islands, and climbed rugged mountains in order to investigate extraordinary sites that seem to defy any conventional explanation. We're going to look back at what I consider to be the top 10 ancient sites we've visited. And you can decide for yourself, do these places hold the proof that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials?
Speaker 3:
[01:00] 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. Here is Ancient Astronaut Theorist, Giorgio Tsoukalos.
Speaker 2:
[01:31] When I think of all the mysterious sites we've investigated on Ancient Aliens, it's really tough to narrow them down to the top 10, and even tougher to rank them. Each of these sites offers compelling evidence that extraterrestrials visited our ancestors. And at one particular site in Peru, that evidence is imprinted right on the vast desert floor. And what makes it even more incredible is that you can only see it from high above the earth. At number 10 on my list of top 10 mysterious sites, the Nazca Lines.
Speaker 3:
[02:10] Southern Peru, 1927 While hiking in the foothills of the arid Nazca desert, archaeologist Torabio Mejia-Sespe discovers what appears to be a large network of ancient roads carved into the earth. Years later, as airplane travel to the region becomes more frequent, aerial flyovers reveal nearly 100 other designs in the nearby landscape. Nick Redfern is the author of The Real Men in Black.
Speaker 4:
[02:42] The Nazca Lines consist of these massive drawings or carvings, if you like, on the ground. Everything from geometric symbols, lines, to animals, even fish, birds. But the intriguing thing about them is, you know, number one, they're massive and they can really only be seen properly from the sky.
Speaker 3:
[03:03] According to mainstream archaeologists, these mysterious earth drawings were created by the Nazca, an ancient people that flourished in the region between the 1st century and 8th century AD. But what was their purpose? Here is Eric Von Daniken, author of Chariots of the Gods.
Speaker 5:
[03:25] Archaeology has still no answer. In my opinion, it has something to do with the extraterrestrials. Our ancestors made these gigantic signs in the ground because they want to signalize to the beings up there, we are here, come down here.
Speaker 2:
[03:44] If you leave Nazca and travel due west some 2,400 miles out into the Pacific Ocean, you will eventually reach one of the most remote islands on earth. It was discovered by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722, and he was amazed by the gigantic stone statues he found all over the island. They have become one of archaeology's greatest riddles. Mysterious Site No.
Speaker 3:
[04:12] 9, Easter Island April 5, 1722 Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen and his crew are 2400 miles off the coast of Chile when they spot a small landmass completely isolated in the Pacific Ocean. As they draw closer, they are surprised to find that the remote island is inhabited. But even more unexpected are the giant stone figures staring out at them from the shore. Paul Bon, Ph.D., is the author of Geoglyphs, Mysteries of the Ancient World.
Speaker 6:
[04:48] The statues on Easter Island, which we called Moai, are one of the great archaeological wonders of the world. We know they carved something like a thousand of them over a period of probably roughly about 500 years, weighing tens of tons. No other culture in the world has ever done this, certainly not on this scale. In many ways, we still don't know exactly how they did it.
Speaker 3:
[05:11] The Moai were found to have been carved from the volcanic bedrock at the center of the island. But exactly how the native people managed to move such enormous statues out to Easter Island's shoreline, in some cases more than 11 miles from the quarry, has been the subject of endless debate.
Speaker 6:
[05:30] There have been many theories over the years as to how they were moved. The first theories thought that they must have been dragged horizontally on sledges or rollers or something of that kind. It was tried again recently for a TV film, and again they moved it a few meters, but it really doesn't prove anything. You're talking about several hundred statues, and it would depend on the size and weight of the statue, the number of people you had available to help, the distance you were going to go, the kind of terrain. So basically, we don't really know.
Speaker 3:
[06:08] Alex Gueira-Terra is an archaeologist and author of Rongo Rongo.
Speaker 7:
[06:14] According with the oral tradition and the legends, the people used the mana of the Ariki to make the white walk. The Ariki were the god or kings of the communities. The mana is a special energy or power that some Ariki and important people of the different tribes used to have.
Speaker 2:
[06:37] So one has to wonder if mana was some type of extraterrestrial technology that allowed these stones to be levitated into place. Some have suggested that sound technology was used in order to move some of these rocks, because scientists have proposed that levitation technology can be achieved with one thing, sound frequencies.
Speaker 3:
[07:06] David Childress, author of Technology of the Gods.
Speaker 8:
[07:10] Nismana is an energy that no one understands today. Is it some kind of extraterrestrial energy?
Speaker 3:
[07:18] We just don't know.
Speaker 2:
[07:20] You know, what's really curious is that so many of the world's most massive megaliths are found on islands where in ancient times resources and manpower were extremely limited. And on one island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, you'll find some of the oldest and most enormous structures anywhere on earth. Number eight in our countdown of mysterious sites, the islands of Malta.
Speaker 3:
[07:49] The Maltese Islands lie in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Italy. Scholars believe the first inhabitants migrated here from the nearby island of Sicily in 5200 BC. Today, stone structures on two of the islands, Malta and Gozo, are considered by archaeologists to be among the greatest achievements by ancient builders anywhere in the world. This is Linda Enex, founder of Mediterranean Institute for Ancient Civilizations.
Speaker 9:
[08:22] There are engineering features in these temples that are just astonishing. We're talking about walls enclosing space, paved walkways, they were ceilings at one time. Definitely much more complex than anything else that was appearing on earth for a very long time.
Speaker 3:
[08:42] In 2014, Giorgio Tsoukalos traveled to Malta to get an up-close look at its incredible megalithic structures. At the temple of Hajar Im, he met with Dr. Anthony Bonanno, a professor of archaeology and classical literature.
Speaker 2:
[08:59] What does Hajar Im actually mean?
Speaker 10:
[09:01] Stones of worship or standing stones?
Speaker 2:
[09:04] Like this one right here. Check this out. This is huge.
Speaker 10:
[09:08] Yes. Three meters high by six meters fifty wide and about another meter thick. That makes about twenty odd tons.
Speaker 2:
[09:18] Minimum.
Speaker 10:
[09:19] Minimum, yes.
Speaker 2:
[09:20] This is incredible. So this is one of the largest freestanding stones. I mean, you know, when I see stuff like this, that's when I wonder, you know, how did they carry it?
Speaker 10:
[09:30] They quarried it in this case. Yes, they must have quarried it and then put it up right, yes.
Speaker 3:
[09:35] While visitors to these islands are immediately struck by the massive megaliths, one of Malta's most incredible structures remained hidden for centuries. In 1902, construction workers accidentally discovered one of Malta's most curious features, a mysterious underground sanctuary dating to 2500 BC. Called the Hypogeum, the subterranean structure was revealed to be three levels deep, all hewn from solid stone. Here is geologist Jeff Williams.
Speaker 11:
[10:09] How could people from that far back, how could they know how to construct such a thing? If you look at some of the chambers, it looks like it's actually been carved with some type of laser, so I don't know exactly how it was done, but I do know that they had a technology that far exceeds what we have today as far as stone cutting.
Speaker 2:
[10:27] If you look at the way some of these walls have been cut, there had to have been a type of plan or construction plan beforehand, and one has to wonder if that engineering knowledge was imparted upon the builders, which were our ancestors, by extraterrestrials.
Speaker 3:
[10:49] Could the incredible stonework found at the Hypogeum have been achieved using extraterrestrial technology? Curiously, the first archaeological investigations performed at the site in 1907 turned up more than 7,000 skeletons. According to a National Geographic Magazine article from May 1920, many were found to have unusually long skulls.
Speaker 2:
[11:17] In 2014, I had the great privilege of looking at five of these elongated skulls. And they were very interesting because one of those skulls that I looked at had a missing sagittal suture.
Speaker 3:
[11:31] The sagittal suture connects to the sides and roof of the cranium. This suture is open when a person is born and closes around the age of 35.
Speaker 12:
[11:42] As you can see even from the inside, there's no sign of the middle suture.
Speaker 2:
[11:48] Right.
Speaker 12:
[11:49] Completely fused.
Speaker 2:
[11:51] That's fascinating. Even if you have a suture that ossifies or fuses together, you still have a fine line that you can discover or detect. And with the one skull that I was able to look at in Malta, that suture was completely missing.
Speaker 3:
[12:11] Enormous megalithic structures built more than 5,000 years ago. A mysterious underground sanctuary hidden for centuries. Ancient skulls of abnormal size and shape. As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, the evidence all points to one conclusion, that the islands of Malta were once home to extraterrestrial beings.
Speaker 2:
[12:41] There aren't many places on earth that can turn modern archaeology on its head like the next mysterious site on our countdown. It's a place that mainstream science says can't possibly exist. But not only does it exist, it may even provide evidence of the great flood described in the Bible. Number seven in our countdown of the top ten mysterious sites, Gobekli Tepe.
Speaker 3:
[13:08] Sanliurfa, Turkey, October 1994. While plowing his field, Shepherd Savak Yildiz spots a strangely shaped stone protruding from the ground. After brushing away the dirt, he realizes that it may be part of a much larger object. Hugh Newman is the co-author of Megalith Studies in Stone.
Speaker 13:
[13:35] It wasn't until German archaeologist Klaus Schmitt visited the site and began digging. They realized what was really at this site.
Speaker 3:
[13:45] William Henry is an author and investigative mythologist.
Speaker 14:
[13:49] What he discovered was mind-blowing. After discovering the first T-shaped pillar buried at the site, he soon found more of these massive structures.
Speaker 3:
[14:00] Klaus Schmitt had the sediment layers of the site radiocarbon dated. The results indicated that the stone structures could be as much as 12,000 years old. More than 5,000 years older than mankind's first known civilization in Mesopotamia. Some researchers proposed the megalithic structures provide evidence that an advanced civilization existed on Earth many thousands of years ago. One that was assisted by otherworldly visitors. Before falling victim to a deadly cataclysm.
Speaker 13:
[14:36] There is evidence of a great cataclysm that took place around 12,900 years ago. It's called the Younger Dryas Impact Event. Where comets and air bursts impacted the land and the ice sheets causing massive flooding. And Gebekli Tepe dates to the time of the Younger Dryas events that would take place over a few thousand year period.
Speaker 15:
[15:00] Gebekli Tepe could be the smoking gun of a lost civilisation. Because it confirms that at the time of the last ice age, there was high culture existing in the world. This is something that had been speculated for many years.
Speaker 2:
[15:16] If you think Gebekli Tepe is one of the most mysterious sites on earth, there is another that I think is even more baffling. It's a series of massive stones in northern France that have been arranged in a very deliberate and perplexing geometric pattern. Even modern archaeology can't explain their purpose. At number 6 on our countdown of the top 10 mysterious sites, the Standing Stones of Carnac.
Speaker 3:
[15:45] On the northwest coast of France, just south of Brittany, lies one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. At the seaside village of Carnac, over 3,000 megalithic stones are placed in rows over 2 miles long. The Carnac stones were hewn from local rock formations and erected between 4500 to 2500 BC, at the end of the Stone Age. They are the largest collection of standing stones in the world.
Speaker 8:
[16:18] Archaeologists are baffled by the many megaliths at Carnac here. It's clearly a massive construction project with blocks of granite weighing 50 to 100 to even up to 350 tons.
Speaker 3:
[16:37] Although mainstream archaeologists speculate that the Carnac stones are most likely tomb markers, ancient astronaut theorists believe these stones are intentionally laid out in a unique geometric formation. Here is geologist Robert Schock, PhD, from Boston University.
Speaker 16:
[16:58] The Carnac stones were laid out incredibly precisely using standard units of measurement that show very sophisticated mathematics. It's been suggested that they were using the Pythagorean Theorem thousands of years ago. It may elude us now exactly what they were trying to accomplish, but it seems like they were encoding some kind of information.
Speaker 3:
[17:24] The Pythagorean Theorem wasn't established until two thousand years after the last Carnac stones were erected. So how could the builders have possessed this knowledge? And why were the stones arranged in such precise geometrical patterns?
Speaker 8:
[17:41] The Carnac stones are a perfect marker for any kind of aerial vehicle looking down on the earth.
Speaker 5:
[17:47] The extraterrestrials told our ancestors, do this, move stones, put it exactly in this pattern we order you. It was on purpose. The idea was that generations in the far future must start to ask questions. That's the situation we have today.
Speaker 3:
[18:06] Could the Carnac stones contain a mathematical message left by extraterrestrials? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and suggest further evidence can be found by examining a famous megalithic site to the north.
Speaker 2:
[18:28] We're nearly halfway through our countdown of my top 10 most mysterious sites that we've investigated on Ancient Aliens. And the next site on my list is one that some believe has the power to heal, while others say it was once a portal through space and time. But what's most amazing to me is that ancient people arranged these stones to be an exact replica of our solar system. Number 5, Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England.
Speaker 3:
[19:02] The Neolithic monument known as Stonehenge has dominated the landscape here for no less than 5,000 years. The iconic stone circle consists of vertical standing stones towering 13 feet tall and weighing 25 tons each, topped by connecting horizontal lentil stones and surrounding a smaller ring of stones in the center.
Speaker 13:
[19:27] Stonehenge is unlike any stone circle anywhere on the planet. It's perfectly circular, it has lintels above it. It's designed with precision engineered astronomical alignments. How could the ancient stone age people of Britain move these stones into place?
Speaker 3:
[19:47] However Stonehenge was constructed, it involved moving much more than just the blocks that stand today. According to researchers, this is just 25% of the original monument. The center of a much larger structure that was surrounded by multiple concentric circles. Constructed over a period of more than a thousand years. Here is John Martinow, editor of Megalith Studies in Stone.
Speaker 17:
[20:17] So, Stonehenge is very interesting in that it evolves over a very long period of time. And the first thing that goes up at Stonehenge is not there anymore. It's the 56 holes that today are known as the Aubrey Circle. That used to be filled with 56 stones in a big stone circle just inside the henge.
Speaker 2:
[20:38] Stonehenge is a replica of our solar system on Earth. Each circle corresponds with one of our planets inside our solar system, including Pluto. So, now we have a structure that's at least 4,000 years old. And our ancestors knew about Pluto without telescopes. Someone told them about Pluto and all of our planets in our solar system. And that is the message, because in Neolithic time, there is no way that they knew about this. As amazing as Stonehenge looks today, remember, what's still standing is only a fraction of the original structure. But 2,400 miles to the south is an even more extraordinary ancient site that remains almost perfectly intact. The number 4 site on my countdown, Egypt's Giza Plateau.
Speaker 3:
[21:39] In April 2018, ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos, Egyptologist Rami Romani and archaeoastronomer Dr. Giulio Mali traveled to Cairo to investigate what is perhaps the most impressive structure ever constructed on Earth, the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Speaker 18:
[22:01] This is one of the most incredible, incredible. Every single block is bigger than this car.
Speaker 2:
[22:08] Yeah, it is insane.
Speaker 18:
[22:09] It really is. Are you ready for some climbing?
Speaker 2:
[22:12] I have goosebumps on my calves right now.
Speaker 3:
[22:17] Built from more than 2 million limestone blocks, each weighing thousands of pounds, the pyramid is aligned perfectly to the cardinal points of the compass, north, south, east, and west, suggesting that its builders possessed extraordinary geographical knowledge. According to mainstream Egyptologists, the Great Pyramid was built sometime around 2500 BC as the burial tomb of the pharaoh Khufu. But this claim has yet to be proven.
Speaker 8:
[22:51] Archaeologists and Egyptologists claim that they were tombs for the pharaohs, and yet no Egyptian pharaoh was ever found in a pyramid in Egypt. We have found the mummies of many Egyptian pharaohs, but they're found in vaults deep underground at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, hundreds of miles away from the pyramids. The pyramids, no real explanation of what their purpose was.
Speaker 3:
[23:19] But if the pyramids at Giza were not intended to house the remains of the dead pharaohs, then why were these towering monuments built? In his 1998 book, The Giza Power Plant, noted machinist and engineer Christopher Dunn proposed that the shape, positions of chambers, and proximity to underground rivers indicate the pyramids of Giza functioned as ancient power plants. This incredible hypothesis, which has since been adopted by other scientists and researchers, may be impossible to ever prove. But ancient astronaut theorists believe new information about the Great Pyramid may soon be revealed. In March 2016, archaeologists examining the ancient structure with a new technology known as Muography made a shocking discovery. A mysterious chamber inside the structure that is as large as the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 5:
[24:21] This new room is only the beginning of it. I'm sure within the next months or at least two years, they will discover more rooms in the Great Pyramid. I personally think that the Great Pyramid in Egypt holds some sort of time capsule.
Speaker 3:
[24:38] Perhaps what lies within the Great Pyramid will reveal not only incredible truths about ancient Egypt, but about the history of humankind. Could there be clues that reveal that Egypt was once home to an extra-terrestrial civilization?
Speaker 2:
[24:57] High in the mountains of Peru lies a city with monumental walls so tightly joined that modern engineers admit that they couldn't replicate it today. Which begs the question, how did ancient people accomplish this without the help of modern technology? And at an altitude of 12,000 feet? Number 3 on my countdown of the world's top 10 mysterious sites, Sacsayhuaman.
Speaker 3:
[25:26] Cusco, Peru. On the northern outskirts of what was once the capital city of the Inca, at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet, looms the ancient fortress of Sacsayhuaman. Mainstream archaeologists suggest the Inca built this megalithic site in the 15th century AD. But many researchers now believe that the foundation of Sacsayhuaman dates back centuries earlier. Here is Graham Hancock, author of Underworld, The Mysterious Origins of Civilization.
Speaker 19:
[26:03] My feeling is that we're looking at a two-phase construction site in many of the so-called Inca stone monuments, and that the Inca structures sit on top of much more ancient rock-cut structures and megalithic structures that we just don't know who built them. And this actually fits with the Inca's own view.
Speaker 3:
[26:23] Like many Inca sites, Sacsayhuaman features astonishing stonework, but not all of it credited to the Inca. According to conventional archaeology, the Kilke culture built the older sections of the site approximately 1,000 years ago. But the Inca themselves believed the site was constructed by an earlier unnamed race of people, led by a powerful god who descended from the skies. Here is Jason Martel, author of Knowledge Apocalypse.
Speaker 20:
[26:57] Throughout time, there has been witness to a god named Veracocha that visited the South American people and blessed them and gave them all types of technology. Some of his physical characteristics make him stand out from the indigenous population because he was not at all similar to the indigenous people.
Speaker 13:
[27:17] Veracocha was the primary deity of the Andes, going back many thousands of years. He was thought to be the founder of all the ancient sites we see in Peru and Bolivia today.
Speaker 3:
[27:31] But did Veracocha actually exist? Could he have been, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest, a visitor from an alien world? If so, it might help to explain just how the ancient site was constructed. Jorge Luis Delgado is an Andean guide and author of Andean Awakening.
Speaker 21:
[27:54] It's amazing all these, the weight of the stones. It's difficult definitely for any human to move even in groups. And the other aspect is how it's put together. In some stones, we will see still now there is like some marks that it seems that it was dissolved.
Speaker 19:
[28:15] The walls are put together with blocks of stone weighing 50 or 100 tons, cut and shaped like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle so that they lock together so tightly that you can't even get a sheet of paper between them.
Speaker 3:
[28:30] According to local legend, a bird was responsible for the seamless construction. Legends say the winged creature carried a powerful chemical in its beak, a substance capable of melting stone.
Speaker 21:
[28:46] Sacsayhuaman means the head of the falcon, falcon's head. But maybe it was some falcons or maybe some bird people who could connect with the place.
Speaker 3:
[29:01] But is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest, that the mythical bird might actually have been a spacecraft piloted by alien visitors, known to the locals as Space Brothers?
Speaker 21:
[29:15] I believe that it's a combination of the Space Brothers' technology with other kinds of possibilities. Nowadays we know, well, different kinds of tools. We didn't have before these kinds of tools. Or maybe we had more sophisticated. So the thing is that this place, Sacsayhuaman, it continues as a mystery.
Speaker 2:
[29:41] Many of the sites we featured on my countdown are famous because they were constructed with stone blocks of the most extraordinary size and weight. And no megalithic construction on Earth is more staggering than my number two most mysterious site, the ruins of Baalbek.
Speaker 3:
[30:02] Eastern Lebanon, the Beqa Valley. Here at this archaeological site stands the ruins of Heliopolis, built in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great to honor Zeus. But beneath the Corinthian columns and remnants of both Greek and Roman architecture, lie the ruins of a site that is much, much older. According to archaeologists, it dates back nearly 9,000 years. The ancient city of Baalbek, named after the early Canaanite deity, Baal. This is archaeologist Hanan Sharath.
Speaker 7:
[30:44] Baal is the god of life, the god of the sky, the god of the sun. He was the god that was venerated on the site of Baalbek during the Canaanite and the Phoenician times.
Speaker 3:
[30:57] Here is archaeologist Robert Mullins.
Speaker 22:
[31:00] And so because it was already sacred to the god Baal, then later the Greeks and the Romans then would build temples on this very same spot.
Speaker 3:
[31:11] Archaeological surveys have revealed that the enormous stone foundation that lies at the base of the site dates back thousands of years.
Speaker 7:
[31:20] Baalbek, as we know from the archaeological evidence, must have existed during the Aolithic period, between 6,000 to 8,000 years or even 9,000 years BC.
Speaker 3:
[31:32] But even more significant to ancient astronaut theorists is their belief that the colossal stone platform may have been built using extraterrestrial technology. As evidence, researchers point to the gigantic megalithic stones incorporated into the foundation, each weighing between 800 to 1,600 tons and perfectly fitted together.
Speaker 5:
[31:58] In Walbeck, stone blocks were transported which had a weight of over 1,500 tons. And this is not in a flat land. It's all mountain. We have absolutely no idea how such heavy loads could have been transported in the mountain. I have not even a speculation to this. But for sure, it does never fit into the prehistoric knowledge of our ancestors.
Speaker 3:
[32:30] Philipp Koppens is the author of The Ancient Alien Question.
Speaker 23:
[32:35] This is the real mystery of Walbeck. How these stones came to be there, why they were placed there and specifically how they were transported into place. Because some of the stones are of such magnitude that modern machinery isn't capable of putting them there. But somehow our ancestors were able to do this.
Speaker 3:
[32:54] Bill Burns, PhD, is the co-author of The Day After Roswell.
Speaker 24:
[33:00] It is one of the oldest, oldest megalithic sites on the planet. And it has these huge stones laid out in a precise geometrical shape at a time when the prehistoric people who would have lived there would have no concept of how to move stones of that nature.
Speaker 3:
[33:18] But if the moving, hoisting, and setting of such massive stones was so incredibly difficult, then who or what helped to place them there? And perhaps more importantly, why?
Speaker 23:
[33:34] We know that the ancients always went to power places, and Baalbek clearly is one of them. It is a place where the gods were worshiped, where the gods were said to be present. And so when it comes to Baalbek, this platform was built there for a reason. For what purpose it was used is a question we can't answer at this moment in time. But what we do know is that whatever was happening there had a great religious significance to them and was linked with worshipping deities. Deities which clearly are of an otherworldly origin. Hopefully, at one point, archaeology will be so open-minded that they actually want to explore this further.
Speaker 2:
[34:12] We finally reached number one on my top 10 countdown of Ancient Aliens most mysterious sites. Lying in ruins atop a vast plateau in the Andes Mountains, at an altitude of over 12,000 feet, the megalithic stones found at this incredible location are among the largest on planet Earth. But even more impressive is how they were cut with such exact precision. And to me, they provide the strongest evidence that extraterrestrials visited our planet and changed the course of human history. My number one most mysterious site, Puma Punku.
Speaker 3:
[34:55] Bolivia, South America. Here lie the mysterious ancient ruins of Puma Punku. Spread across a desert plateau are dozens of megalithic stone blocks cut with extreme precision, and some weighing more than 100 tons.
Speaker 8:
[35:16] These are the mysterious ruins of Puma Punku, nearly 13,000 feet in the Altiplano of Bolivia. What you have here are massive blocks of granite scattered like some kids' toy blocks around the site. Archaeologists are baffled by what Puma Punku was, how it looked, and what the purpose of this enormous structure would have been.
Speaker 3:
[35:49] What sets Puma Punku apart from other ancient megalithic sites is the incredible stonework, which some researchers suggest is far too sophisticated to have been accomplished using primitive tools.
Speaker 8:
[36:04] One of the amazing things here at Puma Punku is the precision of the blocks. You can see with this block of granite that it's really been cut at very accurate right angles Not only do these granite blocks have precision corners, but they also have these difficult drill holes that are going right through the rock.
Speaker 3:
[36:33] Mainstream scientists believe the site was originally constructed about 2,000 years ago. But in 1945, archaeologist Arthur Poznanski proposed that Puma Punku was much, much older. By examining the structures and what he believed were their original alignment with the stars, he dated the ruins to 15,000 BC. But how could such primitive people, living perhaps over 10,000 years ago, have produced such flawless stonework?
Speaker 5:
[37:09] The Spanish conqueror asked the Inca, the people living there, including the king of the Inca, what is this, Puma Punku? And they all said, it's not us. It's not our forefather who made this. This were made by the gods in one single night.
Speaker 2:
[37:30] One of the earliest chronicles that we have in regards to Puma Punku talks about that these giant platforms were moved through the air by the sound of a trumpet. They basically floated into place. And here's another very interesting thing that according to the myths, this is exactly what happened with the Moai on Easter Island.
Speaker 3:
[37:57] Could it be that the local traditions of Easter Island and Puma Punku tell nearly identical stories of levitation because the ancient people at both sites witnessed the same extraterrestrial technology? And if the stone blocks of Puma Punku were once part of a megalithic structure, how did it end up in ruins? Brian Forrester, author of The Enigma of Tiwan Kaku and Puma Punku.
Speaker 25:
[38:27] I honestly believe that Puma Punku is more than 12,000 years old. 12,000 years ago, there was a global cataclysm that destroyed a lot of ancient sites that we find, whether in Egypt or the Altiplano of Bolivia.
Speaker 16:
[38:44] We had at the end of the last ice age, all kinds of catastrophic flooding due to the events and the climate changes and the melting of the glaciers and increased precipitation. There were incredible rises in sea levels since the end of the last ice age.
Speaker 25:
[39:02] More than 12,000 years ago, Lake Titicaca was 100 feet higher than it is today. And I believe that Puma Punku was literally on the shore of the lake at that time, whereas now it's 8 miles away. 12,000 years ago, it was hit by a wave of mud coming from Lake Titicaca as a tsunami.
Speaker 3:
[39:26] A megalithic structure built more than 12,000 years ago with the help of extraterrestrial technology destroyed by a great cataclysm. If this incredible story is true, one question still remains. What was Puma Punku?
Speaker 8:
[39:45] When you look at the complexity of Puma Punku, the huge platforms, the interlocking blocks that was made into what they thought were indestructible walls, what you could have is the kind of perfectly made granite spaceport that extraterrestrials would want.
Speaker 2:
[40:06] Although the origins of many of the incredible sites we featured on Ancient Aliens continue to be debated, to me, Puma Punku is so extraordinary that it is the one site where I will say yes, this was likely built directly by the aliens themselves. But make no mistake, each and every one of the sites on our countdown deserves to be investigated with an open mind. And it is only by asking the questions that we can finally uncover the truth of our extraterrestrial origins.