All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens S02E02

>> NARRATOR: Zeus...

Surya...

Thor...

For thousands of years, ancient

myths have described gods who

came down from the heavens.

>> ERICH VON DANIKEN: Always

you have someone who is

descending from the sky.

With loud noise, with

thundering, with fire.

With smoke.

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: They would

have come from the most

powerful and magical place

possible-- from the stars.

>> NARRATOR: But just who were

these mystical beings that

ruled the skies with

supernatural powers?

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: You could

wonder if these tales of Zeus's

thunderbolts, Thor's hammer,

if these weren't real weapons.

>> NARRATOR: Did our ancient

ancestors create the gods from

their own imaginations?

Or did they simply report

events they believed to be true?

>> GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Our

ancestors misinterpreted

extraterrestrials as gods,

because that is was the only way

that they could explain away

what they witnessed.

>> 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 were the gods of

our ancestors actually visitors

our ancestors actually visitors
from other worlds?

from other worlds?

>> NARRATOR: Truva, Turkey.

For over 150 years, this small

city has been the center of one

of the greatest archaeological

finds in modern history: the

possible discovery of the

possible discovery of the
legendary city of Troy.

legendary city of Troy.

In 1868, amateur archaeologist

Heinrich Schliemann, set out to

find what he believed was the

city that served as the basis

for the Trojan War, as described

in one of the greatest pieces of

classical literature, Homer's

epic poem, the Iliad.

Written in the eighth century

BC, Homer's Iliadtells the

tale of a great war, born of

feuding and jealous gods.

While most scholars believed

the story of the Trojan War was

a work of fiction, Schliemann

was determined to prove the

was determined to prove the
myth was a reality.

myth was a reality.

>> RICHARD RADER: Heinrich

Schliemann's discoveries rocked

the archaeological world.

Armed with his copy of the

Iliad,basically, he just

decided that he was gonna find

Troy.

And so he went and just dug a

big hole, and when he went, he

big hole, and when he went, he
discovered the real Troy.

discovered the real Troy.

>> NARRATOR: But if Homer's

story of Troy was true, what

would it say about other Greek

stories and myths?

stories and myths?
Might those also be true?

Might those also be true?

Did powerful gods and goddesses

actually exist?

And, if so, where did they come

And, if so, where did they come
from?

from?

Hellas, also known as Greece.

Each day, thousands of tourists

visit temples and monuments

built to honor the gods of

another age.

The Acropolis...

Delphi...

The Parthenon...

The Temple of Apollo.

These ancient sites reflect a

powerful reverence for beings

that supposedly ruled the world

that supposedly ruled the world
thousands of years ago.

thousands of years ago.

>> CHILDRESS: When you look at

many of the mythologies around

the world, they have these

stories of gods coming down from

stories of gods coming down from
the sky.

the sky.

>> RADER: There's a beautiful

description of the way that the

gods move, like, when they kind

of come down to the Earth.

You get the sense of them

gliding down, but the way that

they move is kind of beyond

time.

It just kind of happens.

>> NARRATOR: If the ancient

Greeks invented the stories of

gods as a primitive attempt to

explain their universe, how can

we account for similar deities

found in widely different

regions and cultures around the

globe?

Was it mere coincidence?

Or was there a common origin

for these gods, who supposedly

traveled to Earth from the

traveled to Earth from the
skies?

skies?

>> JASON MARTELL: The earliest

civilization we have, 3800 BC,

the Sumerians actually give us

visual descriptions of these

beings and speak of this time

that they lived amongst their

living gods.

They called their gods the

Annunaki and that term simply

meant "those who from heaven

come to earth."

>> RADER: Mythology is chock-

full of these episodes of gods

coming down to earth.

I mean, because mythology is so

interested in the relationship

between gods and humans, there

is necessarily gonna be a lot

of communication, and communion

between the two of them.

>> NARRATOR: In his 2000 book,

Odyssey of the Gods,Erich von

Daniken argues that the world's

sacred books are full of

descriptions, not of gods, but

of supernatural beings

interacting with humans.

>> VON DANIKEN: Some thousands

of years ago, when our

forefathers were still

primitive, some

extraterrestrials descended to

our planet.

And because of misunderstanding,

like of technology, our

forefathers thought that these

extraterrestrials must be some

extraterrestrials must be some
gods.

gods.

>> NARRATOR: Mount Olympus.

Greece's highest mountain.

According to ancient myths,

this site was the home of the

gods.

[thunder crashes]

It was here, on Mount Olympus,

that Zeus sat on his throne and

determined the fate of

mortal men.

>> TSOUKALOS: Whenever we have

references to Mount Olympus, it

is described to be this

magnificent palace on top of

Mount Olympus allegedly, and the

temple walls were always

gleaming of gold, or gleaming

with silver, and a lot of little

lights that they described as

jewels.

Well, if you look at that

from modern perspective,

what if that place-- Mount

Olympus-- wasn't necessarily the

top of a mountain, but it was,

in fact, a spaceship, because it

is described how sometimes there

was a big rumbling with Mount

Olympus, and the entire top

lifted off.

>> NARRATOR: But if Mount

Olympus was home to alien

visitors, could Zeus have been

their leader?

According to both the Iliadand

the Odyssey,Zeus was often

depicted as wielding a

lightning bolt.

>> CREMO: It appears to be a

very powerful weapon because he

could destroy whole cities with

this thunderbolt weapon of his.

>> NARRATOR: Similarly, Zeus's

brother Poseidon, the god of

the sea, was armed with a

trident.

>> CREMO: He was able to create

tsunamis, tidal waves with this

weapon.

The trident weapon of Poseidon

seems to have been something

more than just a pitchfork.

>> TSOUKALOS: So is it possible

that the lightning bolt and

the trident is some type of a

the trident is some type of a
direct energy device?

direct energy device?

>> NARRATOR: Arguably, one of

the most important of the Greek

gods was Apollo, who rode the

skies in his chariot of fire.

>> VON DANIKEN: Apollo first

was the teacher of the young

Greeks living there.

He teach them how to make

buildings on the mountain, on

the hillside.

He teach them how to make roads.

He teach them in astronomy.

>> NARRATOR: Centuries later,

when Rome ruled over Europe and

the Mediterranean, from the

first century BC until the

seventh century AD, the Romans

paid homage to gods similar to

the Greeks.

Zeus was now known as Jupiter.

Poseidon was called Neptune.

But Apollo was known to both

the Romans and the Greeks.

Coincidence?

Or, as most ancient astronaut

theorists believe, was it the

historical account of powerful

beings that came to Earth

thousands of years ago?

[neighing]

>> MARTELL: We know that the

extraterrestrials more than

likely are the source of what

they call gods.

How did they get here?

More than likely in some type of

craft.

>> PHILIP COPPENS: What we map

into our myths and our legends

are incredible stories,

incredible events, and any

extraterrestrial being, any

ancient alien who has come here

on Earth, will be written down

into this account because it is

such an extraordinary event that

it'll be marked forever.

>> NARRATOR: But if the stories

of Greek and Roman gods are

true, can evidence of their

existence be found in other

parts of the globe?

parts of the globe?
And, if so, where did they go?

And, if so, where did they go?

>> NARRATOR: 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

two miles long.

The Carnac stones were hewn from

local rock formations and

erected between 4,500 to 2,500

BC, at the end of the Stone Age.

They are the largest collection

of standing stones in the

of standing stones in the
world.

world.

>> CHILDRESS: 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.

Legends here say that giants

built Carnac, but you have to

wonder, what is the real purpose

of these giant megaliths, and

why would prehistoric people

have moved all of these massive

stones and placed them in the

many alignments here at Carnac?

>> CREMO: Thousands of large

stones have been arranged in

very interesting patterns.

They're arranged in intersecting

lines that form triangles that

could only be visible from above

the Earth.

These arrangements of stones

may have been a way of

communicating with

extraterrestrial beings.

>> NARRATOR: The ancient Greek

poet Pindar spoke of a mystical

land called Hyperborea, far to

the north, where the sun shined

the north, where the sun shined
24 hours a day.

24 hours a day.

Legends claim that Apollo

visited Hyperborea, traveling in

his chariot of fire every

20 years.

>> TSOUKALOS: Apollo would tell

to the Greeks, "Okay, I've got

to go see some other people.

I've got to go and teach them."

And they're, like, "Well, where

are you off to?"

And he's, like, "Well, I'm

actually going to a place that's

beyond where the north wind

comes.

It's the land of the

Hyperboreans."

>> NARRATOR: 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.

>> VON DANIKEN: Many

speculations existed since

centuries, and only a few years

ago, in France, they started to

photograph this whole French

Brittany by helicopters.

And when they put the pictures

together, all of a sudden,

someone realized, hey, this is

not coincidence.

The distances of the lines are

always the same-- 2,860 meters.

Or exactly the half of 2,860

Or exactly the half of 2,860
meters.

meters.

The angles are always the same.

It's Pythagorean triangles.

It's all a gigantic

geometrical pattern.

From Stone Age, which

is impossible.

Our Stone Age people had no idea

of Pythagoras' triangles.

Pythagoras was about 420 BC.

>> NARRATOR: Even though the

geometric arrangement of the

Carnac stones predates the

Pythagorean theorem by more

than 2,000 years, one question

remains:

Why were the stones arranged in

such a precise pattern?

>> CHILDRESS: The Carnac stones

are one of the few things on the

planet that can actually be seen

from space.

And they're a perfect marker for

any kind of aerial vehicle

looking down on the Earth.

Many of the tourists who come

here to Carnac claim that they

can actually feel the energy

emanating from these granite

megaliths.

How did these ancient people

know about this energy?

Is it possible that they were

able to use this energy to even

move and erect these giant

stones?

>> VON DANIKEN: I am of the

opinion that they were made on

purpose.

The extraterrestrials told our

ancestor: do this and this.

It's not the extraterrestrials

who made the stone lines.

It's the humans who made it,

but by the order of the

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: But were the Carnac

stones a signpost for an ancient

astronaut called Apollo, as he

flew his spacecraft high above

the land?

>> CHILDRESS: If the Greek god

Apollo was really some kind of

ancient astronaut, it's possible

that the stones here at Carnac

were a directional finder

pointing the way to the far

north, to the Hyperborea of the

north, to the Hyperborea of the
ancient gods.

ancient gods.

>> NARRATOR: Over 1,000 miles

north of Carnac lies

Scandinavia, home to an ancient

people called the Norse.

The Norse were tribal Germanic

people who lived in what is now

known as Sweden, Denmark,

Iceland and Norway.

Norse legends record the

triumphs of great warriors with

advanced weaponry, sophisticated

combat techniques and

navigational prowess.

Like the Greeks, Norse mythology

includes supernatural beings,

includes supernatural beings,
other worlds and powerful gods.

other worlds and powerful gods.

But like the Romans, could the

Norse myths refer not to

different gods, but the same

gods as those depicted by the

ancient Greeks?

>> CHILDRESS: There are a number

of similarities between Greek

mythology and Norse mythology.

And many of the gods are, uh,

almost identical.

And they do much the same thing.

[thunder cracks, rumbles]

>> NARRATOR: Descriptions of the

Viking god Odin-- the god of

war, death and knowledge--

and the Greek god Zeus, bear

striking similarities.

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: Zeus and

>> JONATHAN YOUNG: Zeus and
Odin are both sky father gods.

Odin are both sky father gods.

They travel through the skies

in chariots because they are

akin to the solar, uh,

divinities.

The precursor to many, uh,

religious beliefs is sun

worship.

The ancients knew that life came

from the sun.

So that is a great mystery and

So that is a great mystery and
a source of great awe.

a source of great awe.

>> COPPENS: What you're getting

there is not just some minor

deity, but you really are

nailing it down to one of the

chief deities.

This is a very important

character.

And so whoever is behind Odin

or Zeus is obviously a person,

or a divine entity, which is

shared by these cultures.

And it's clear that whoever

inspired the myth of Zeus or

Odin is somehow somebody who had

an extremely important

contribution to make to both

civilizations.

So this entity was definitely

So this entity was definitely
known throughout Europe.

known throughout Europe.

>> NARRATOR: Ancient alien

theorists also point to

similarities between the

sophisticated weapons possessed

by both the Norse and the Greek

gods.

Among Odin's weapons was a spear

that never missed its target.

The Norse god Thor, god of

storms, strength and fertility,

wielded a powerful hammer.

>> TSOUKALOS: Right there we

have a correlation, a

connection, because not only

does Zeus have the thunderbolt,

but what does Odin have?

And Thor?

They have a hammer.

Thor has a hammer with which he

can smash things, destroy

things, and, you know, the

hammer idea is pretty close with

the description to the lightning

rod that Zeus has.

>> CHILDRESS: So you have to

wonder if these tales of Zeus's

thunderbolts, Thor's hammer--

if these weren't real weapons,

just like we have today, where

we have directed energy-beam

weapons, or are developing some

kind of literal thunderbolt

coming out of a spacecraft.

[weapons zapping]

[wind whistling]

>> NARRATOR: But such

similarities are not limited to

the Greek and Norse myths.

In India, the ancient epic of

the Mahabharata describes

visitations from gods that

possessed the advanced

technology of space travel.

>> VON DANIKEN: There you can

read, some thousands of years

ago, gigantic cities surrounded

our planet.

They used the word "cities,"

because they had no word for

"mother spaceship."

And of a sudden, out of these

cities, smaller spacecrafts

came out.

Of course, in ancient India,

they had no word like

"spacecraft," so they called it

"spacecraft," so they called it
"vimana."

"vimana."

>> NARRATOR: The ancient texts

of the Hebrew Bible also

describes a prophet who traveled

the skies in a sophisticated

machine.

>> VON DANIKEN: Who is Enoch?

He was the seventh antediluvian

prophet in the Old Testament,

including the Torah of the

Jewish community.

Enoch is only described with two

phrases, that's all.

And it says that the Lord took

him away in a fiery chariot

into the heaven.

>> NARRATOR: But technology was

not the only characteristic

these ancient deities had in

common.

According to legends, the gods

enjoyed intimate relations with

humans.

But if aliens did choose human

women as their sexual partners,

what was their motivation?

And just what was the outcome of

And just what was the outcome of
these very close encounters?

these very close encounters?

>> NARRATOR: Ancient myths are

full of stories of gods

descending to Earth to mate with

humans.

>> CHILDRESS: According to many

sources, including Norse

mythology, Greek mythology and

even the Bible, we have the

stories of the sons of god,

or actual gods, from Mount

Olympus or Valhalla, and

they're coming to Earth.

They find, uh, the daughters of

men attractive.

>> TSOUKALOS: When all these

encounters happened, and when

women slept with those gods--

which can be found in multiple

texts all around the planet--

that those women actually had

sex with extraterrestrials,

not with gods.

'Cause gods do not exist.

[thunder crashing, rumbling]

>> NARRATOR: According to

Homer's Iliad,the citizens of

Sparta were renowned for their

heroic warriors and their

beautiful women.

Zeus, the Greek god of the sky,

admired a human named Leda.

One afternoon, while Leda walked

alone in an orchard, Zeus

changed into a swan, enveloped

her in his powerful wings, and

made love to her.

Only later did Leda realize she

had been impregnated by a god.

>> CHILDRESS: When you look at

Greek mythology, and many of the

mythologies around the world,

they have these stories of gods

coming down from the sky, and

have sexual intercourse

with these humans, and, in a

sense, create a new breed of

sense, create a new breed of
human.

human.

>> NARRATOR: The offspring of

these couplings were described

by the ancients as demigods, or

half-gods.

Experts suggest demigods were

supernatural hybrid beings of

human and alien origin.

Ancient Greeks believed these

beings were exceptional...

and destined to perform

extraordinary feats.

>> COPPENS: It is a tradition in

many civilizations that there

were certain human children

who were somehow not human, but

somehow had a connection to the

stars, to a realm beyond Earth.

And this specialness seems to be

there from birth, and it somehow

seems to involve a DNA

component, which maybe science

needs to look at, and needs

to study.

>> NARRATOR: Some of the oldest

accounts of gods and humans

interbreeding can be found in

ancient Hindu texts.

>> CREMO: In the ancient

Sanskrit writings of India, we

find this account:

A Queen named Kunti mated with

a celestial being, an

extraterrestrial, who was known

as the sun god.

The product of this mating was

Karna, one of the heroes of the

Indian epic, the Mahabharata.

>> NARRATOR: Perhaps the most

famous demigod is the Greek

hero Heracles, also known as

the Roman Hercules.

Heracles was half-man/half-god,

conceived in the union of Zeus

and a mortal woman named

and a mortal woman named
Alcmene.

Alcmene.

Mainstream scholars have often

dismissed the tales of demigods

as fantasy.

[thunder crashing]

But ancient astronaut theorists

believe they reflect actual

living entities.

>> CREMO: These types of

accounts in the ancient wisdom

traditions have a modern

equivalent in accounts of alien

terrestrial hybrids, which is

part of the modern UFO alien

part of the modern UFO alien
abduction type of account.

abduction type of account.

It's remarkable that we find,

in these modern reports, exact

equivalents in the ancient

accounts.

That suggests that we're

dealing with realities here.

We're not just dealing with

imaginary stories.

>> NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut

theorists say the term "star

children" is another way to

describe the offspring of

humans and ancient

extraterrestrials.

They claim that in the early

traditions of nearly every

major world religion,

"star children" correlate to

supernatural beings known as

"gods."

>> TSOUKALOS: "Star child" is

an often-used reference in

ancient texts when a woman had

a quote, unquote "divine

interaction" with one of the

gods, often resulting in a woman

being pregnant without having

slept with anyone.

You know, is such a thing even

possible?

Yes, it is.

Today, artificial insemination.

That's what happens today.

You no longer have to have sex

in order to have babies.

We have the exact same

description thousands of years

ago, where women, without

sleeping with anyone, all of a

sudden became pregnant, and the

question is how is that

possible?

>> NARRATOR: Did aliens that

came to Earth in ancient times

use advanced fertility

technology?

>> CHILDRESS: Within Greek

mythology you have many strange

stories of centaurs, uh...

cyclops, weird genetic half

human, uh, half animal

creations.

And you have to speculate,

at least to a point, that

there's a possibility of

strange genetic engineering

going on here, and creating

what are literal monsters in

the past.

>> CREMO: In some of the

writings of ancient

civilizations, we see accounts

of mating between

extraterrestrial beings and

humans, producing monsters or

giants or other similar types

of beings.

And why is that?

I believe it's because it has

actually happened in the past.

>> NARRATOR: Could these ancient

tales of enormous creatures--

half human, half beast--

be rooted in truth?

And if so, is there any

evidence these giant hybrids

evidence these giant hybrids
really existed?

really existed?

>> NARRATOR: Lovelock, Nevada.

In the early 1800s, local

legends passed down by the Piute

Indians told of a race of

giants who were exterminated by

their tribe.

It is said this was done by

trapping the giants in a cave,

shooting arrows at them, and

then starting a large fire at

the mouth of the cave.

Evidence of the slaughter lay

undisturbed until the early 20th

undisturbed until the early 20th
century.

century.

>> CHILDRESS: Lovelock Cave was

first discovered by local

ranchers who were looking for

bat guano to use in their

fields.

>> NARRATOR: In need of

fertilizer for their crops, the

ranchers removed nearly ten

feet of guano-enriched soil

from the surface of the cave.

>> CHILDRESS: And then they

>> CHILDRESS: And then they
began finding human remains.

began finding human remains.

They found up to 40 or 50 people

inside this cave.

One was allegedly seven feet,

seven inches tall.

They all had long, red hair and

They all had long, red hair and
were literal giants.

were literal giants.

>> NARRATOR: If these skeletons

were the remains of the

legendary red-haired giants,

were they visitors from distant

continents?

>> CHILDRESS: Throughout the

19th century, many giant

skeletons were allegedly

discovered in the Midwest, also

in parts of California and

around Death Valley.

And the skeletons here, found at

Lovelock, are one of the few

that were really excavated by

an accredited university.

>> NARRATOR: Archaeologists from

the Nevada Historical Society

and the University of

California believe the cave was

occupied from approximately

1500 BC until a few hundred

years before white men appeared

in the Nevada territory.

75 miles from the cave site,

a local museum has preserved

several skulls that some

believe are recovered remains

of the giants.

>> CHILDRESS: Inside this

cabinet here, are three skulls

from the Lovelock caves.

When you first see these skulls,

they seem to be pretty much

normal-looking skulls.

However, it's when we really

start to compare the jawbones

with this modern dental

impression of a normal adult

male, that we see that these

jawbones are unusually large.

And these are, really, the

skulls of giant people who were

perhaps seven, even eight feet

tall.

One of the odd things with these

skulls is that they're not

actually put on display here at

the museum.

And they're kept hidden in this

cabinet.

Now, we don't know if that's

really, uh, just out of, um,

respect for, uh, Native

Americans, or whether there's

really something unusual about

these giant skulls that they

don't want them to display.

>> NARRATOR: Are the Nevada

bones evidence of a race of

giants that existed all through

early human history?

If so, could the giants be the

descendants of

extraterrestrials?

According to the Hebrew

Testament, one such giant

appeared in the valley of Elah

2,500 years ago.

Each morning, for 40 days, a

Philistine giant over nine feet

tall challenged the Israelites

to a fight.

to a fight.
His name was Goliath.

His name was Goliath.

>> COPPENS: David and Goliath

is one of those episodes

in the Bible where you

wonder what is going on.

Is it just a metaphor or are we

dealing with a fundamental

interpretation?

And in that sense, Goliath has

to be a giant creature.

The question then is: "He cannot

The question then is: "He cannot
be human. What is he?"

be human. What is he?"

>> NARRATOR: David's stunning

triumph over Goliath was

considered a mere fable,

until archaeologists turned up

evidence that suggests this

confrontation really did happen.

On the outskirts of

Tell Es-Safi, Israel, scientists

discovered a moat that may have

once protected the Philistine

fortress.

Nearby, they found shards of

pottery inscribed with the name

Goliath.

Tests indicate the pottery is

from the same time period as

described in the Bible.

Ancient astronaut theorists

claim this is unmistakable

evidence of extraterrestrial

giants in biblical times.

giants in biblical times.
And they say there is much more.

And they say there is much more.

The most common megalithic

construction known is the

dolmen.

Believed to be burial chambers,

they are found throughout

Europe, the Middle East, South

America, and Asia.

Could these mega structures be

Could these mega structures be
the ruins of giants?

the ruins of giants?

>> COPPENS: Archaeology likes

to use the word "dolmen," but

they were formerly known in

folklore as "giant's graves."

>> FATHER WILLIAM FULCO: A

dolmen is shaped like the Greek

letter "pi" with the top on it.

And they're made of enormous

blocks of limestone.

And even today, it's...

We are marveled that anyone

could construct those things,

and wonder how they got the top

on top of the uprights.

And those were built during the

Middle Bronze Period, which is

roughly 2000 to 1500 before the

common era.

So seeing things like that,

people questioned, those

must've been made by giants.

I mean, ordinary people could

not have done that.

>> COPPENS: Are we dealing with

metaphors or are we dealing

with hard evidence?

Are these physical creatures

which somehow roamed the earth?

And I think, on volume, we have

to accept that some of these

were real.

The question, then, is how did

The question, then, is how did
these genetic freaks come about?

these genetic freaks come about?

>> TSOUKALOS: One of the main

tenets of ancient astronaut

theory suggests that a long

time ago, extraterrestrials

changed our genetic makeup

through a targeted mutation of

our genes, essentially in the

lab.

So they took a couple of human

beings, altered their DNA, then

reinserted those people back

into the population, so through

procreation, those people would

pass on those new genetic

alterations to the entire

population.

>> NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut

theorists suggest the evidence

points to one conclusion, that

aliens changed the genetics of

early human DNA.

>> COPPENS: For an alien being

to work with DNA is so easy

that just creating a new type

is not at all that difficult.

Even today, we have the

capability to create new types

of animals.

The question is, were we

created as such, as well?

>> NARRATOR: But what reason

could extraterrestrial visitors

have had for populating the

Earth with mixed species and

monstrous hybrids?

Were they the result of some

kind of scientific experiment

kind of scientific experiment
gone terribly wrong?

gone terribly wrong?

Did ancient aliens have some

reason to experiment with human

reason to experiment with human
DNA?

DNA?

>> NARRATOR: The Galapagos

Islands, off the coast of South

America, are known for their

America, are known for their
unique biodiversity.

unique biodiversity.

In 1832, a naturalist named

Charles Darwin came to these

islands to observe and record

several species of animals not

seen before.

The result of his studies

formed the basis for his

controversial book, The Origin

of Species.

In it, Darwin proposed his

theory of evolution, which

held that all life evolved over

time, through a process of

natural selection.

But even Darwin's theories

could not explain the

developmental gap between apes

and man.

There was, it was believed,

a transitional species that had

to exist, one which became

referred to as, "the missing

link."

>> TSOUKALOS: Homo sapiens have

been around for 300,000 years.

And only in a few thousand

years, our brain size

years, our brain size
essentially tripled.

essentially tripled.

Now, that does not jive with

ordinary evolution.

You need time.

A very long time.

However, today, biologists

cannot quite put a finger on

how our brain volume tripled in

a very short time period.

a very short time period.
That is still a mystery.

That is still a mystery.

>> NARRATOR: Could it be, as

many ancient astronaut

theorists believe, that ancient

aliens had a hand in

jump-starting human evolution

on our planet?

>> COPPENS: Science has been

unable to find the missing link,

and maybe that's simply because

Earth is unable to offer that

missing link.

Maybe the missing link is not

of this Earth.

Maybe the missing link is

somewhere outside,

extraterrestrial.

>> NARRATOR: In 1996, medical

science took a giant step

forward when geneticists

successfully cloned a sheep.

This revolutionary technology

marked a significant

advancement in our

understanding of DNA.

But could extraterrestrial

visitors have also possessed

visitors have also possessed
knowledge of genetics?

knowledge of genetics?

>> MARTELL: In the Sumerian

records of mythology, they

explain how they genetically

engineered the first human

being.

And so, it's very possible that

extraterrestrials did

genetically engineer us.

>> COPPENS: More and more

creatures are being discovered,

as science goes along, in

little caves, or on little

islands, whereby DNA evidence

clearly shows that something

else has been happening.

We're probably gonna get to

hard scientific fact that

something interbred with humans,

on certain occasions, certain

on certain occasions, certain
moments in time.

moments in time.

>> NARRATOR: Could the giants

and monsters described in the

ancient myths be examples of

genetic mutations?

And if so, what purpose might

they have served?

>> CREMO: There are actually

accounts in the ancient

Sanskrit writings of India of

how, in their original attempts

to produce...

living things in the universe,

the gods, or the

extraterrestrial beings, made

mistakes and produced different

types of monsters and giants

and things like that.

>> VON DANIKEN: Why should the

so-called "gods" first make such

mixed creatures?

What's the purpose of it?

Did they observe a lion, and

they say to themself, "Why don't

we mix the strongness of the

muscle of the one animal with

the heat expellant, uh, skin of

the other animal, to use it at

some other planet, which is

different to Earth?"

So they start to make breedings.

They start to make mixed

creatures.

>> NARRATOR: Scholars and

archaeologists generally agree

that sometime around 3000 BC,

during the Megalithic Era,

mankind took a quantum leap

forward with regard to

civilization and use of

technology.

According to myths and legends,

human beings gave credit to

their gods for giving them

this knowledge.

But if the gods were, in fact,

alien visitors, might mankind's

quantum leap forward have had a

more intergalactic origin?

>> COPPENS: It is clear that

something affected multiple

continents on this planet

around 3000 BC.

The pyramids began to be built

at that moment in time.

Why?

What was that imperative?

Was it a global imperative?

Yes.

Was it an imperative which came

from outside of this world?

Yes.

>> NARRATOR: If aliens

intervened to speed the

advancement of human beings, is

it also possible that they have

influenced mankind at other

critical junctures in history?

And, if so, could they have

continued to monitor us,

even today?

>> MARTELL: It's very possible

that, if there was some type of

genetic intervention,

by an extraterrestrial race,

on humanity, they would be very

interested to see their

interested to see their
experiment progress.

experiment progress.

>> VON DANIKEN: I am often

asked the question, "Is it not

ridiculous to believe that

extraterrestrials should, in a

way or other, look similar to

us, or even think similar

to us?"

No.

The question is wrong.

They are not, by coincidence,

similar to us, but we are

similar to them, because we are

the product.

>> NARRATOR: But if alien

beings did interbreed with

humans, why?

Was it to save their own

species?

Or, perhaps, hide the genetic

traces of their presence here

on Earth?

Could there even be aliens

Could there even be aliens
living among us