All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S03E03.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

>> NARRATOR: Gods descending to

Earth... converging on the same

hallowed ground... a holy shrine

built to mark the landing... of

a meteorite... and sacred caves

whose walls are lined with

images of strange, half‐human

beings.

>> Allahu Akbar.

>> NARRATOR: Are holy sites

around the world the product of

man's reverence for God... or

are they the result of contact

with ancient space travelers?

>> GEORGE NOORY: There's no

question that these monuments

might have had some kind of E. T.

intervention.

They're just too immense, too

perfect to be constructed by

ancient mankind.

>> GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Yes, it

was human beings who built this

place but with technology given

by extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: Millions of people

around the world believe we have

been visited in the past by

extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help

to shape our history?

And if so, how did they

influence the creation of

mankind's sacred places?

It is perhaps the most sacred

site in all of humanity, the

place where three of the world's

most prominent religions‐‐

Christianity, Judaism and

Islam‐‐ all converge.

It is the heart and soul of what

is called the Holy Land.

Temple Mount, Old City,

Jerusalem, and this 35‐acre

plateau, surrounded by ancient

walls, has been considered

sacred for thousands of years.

>> ROBERT MULLINS, PhD: The

Temple Mount is sacred to Jews

and Christians because it's at

this spot that Abraham bound

Isaac and prepared to sacrifice

him in Genesis 22.

For Muslims this site is sacred

because it's from the Rock,

where the Dome of the Rock today

stands, that Muhammad ascended

into Heaven.

>> PHILIP COPPENS: What we have

on the Temple Mount really is a

mixture of three religions, and

each one of them has got an

aspect to it which makes the

place even more important, but

in origin really what we have is

a place where God touched down

on Planet Earth, and ever after,

this is the place where

communications with the

afterlife or the divine realm is

to be made.

>> NARRATOR: Each year millions

of pilgrims come to Temple Mount

to worship God and celebrate

holy occasions.

But why?

In the tenth century B. C., King

David and the Israelites chose

this rocky high ground to build

a great temple.

>> MARVIN MEYER, PhD: This was

the site that David, the great

king of Israel, had conquered,

and so it already had a kind of

a blessing about it because this

was where the people of Israel

were destined to center their

lives in this sacred kind of

place.

>> MICHAEL COOGAN, PhD:

According to the Bible, King

David, who had just made

Jerusalem his capital, wanted to

build in it a house for the

Lord, but for reasons that

aren't entirely clear, he didn't

do so, and it was his son

Solomon who built the First

Jewish Temple.

>> NARRATOR: Completed in 957

B.C. by David's son King

Solomon, the Temple was said to

house the Ark of the Covenant,

the sacred chest believed to

have contained the stone tablets

on which the Ten Commandments

were written... but according to

many ancient astronaut

theorists, the Ark also may have

contained a power source of

extraterrestrial origin.

>> ERICH VON DANIKEN: In the

Bible, you read about the Ark of

the Covenant.

Moses was ordered to go to the

Holy Mountain, and the Lord gave

Moses instruction to construct

the Ark of the Covenant.

As we know later, the Ark of the

Covenant was something very,

very dangerous.

>> COOGAN: Solomon installed it

in the Temple and it served as

the focal point of the Temple in

its innermost room, the holy of

holies, into which only the

chief priest, the high priest

could go.

>> MULLINS: It's in this

innermost sanctum, the holy of

holies, where God was viewed as

resident, so in a sense, the Ark

of the Covenant was God's throne

in the holy of holies and the

place where God reigned from

Jerusalem.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

Talmud, a central text of

Judaism, King Solomon possessed

a magic ring with a special

symbol called the Seal of

Solomon, today known as the Star

of David.

>> MEYER: This special ring

would allow him to accomplish

things beyond what mortals could

usually accomplish, and part of

what he could do with that ring

with the seal on it was control

the demons, and that gave him a

kind of power and an ability in

the construction of that temple

that others would never have

had.

>> NARRATOR: According to

Islamic text, King Solomon also

had a magic carpet of green

silk, sufficient for his throne

and all his forces to stand on.

>> TSOUKALOS: Now, magic

carpets‐‐ do they exist?

Of course not.

So what was it that our

ancestors tried to describe in

those stories?

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: So where was

he getting these strange powers?

Was he really in contact with

extraterrestrials who had

literally given him a spacecraft

to fly around in?

>> NARRATOR: After studying the

intricate geometry and design of

Solomon's Temple, even Sir Isaac

Newton questioned if the king

had built the Temple with

"secret knowledge."

>> BILL BIRNES, JD, PhD: It was

very highly advanced

architecturally, catching

certain kinds of light, being

very precise in its astronomical

alignment, and the question for

modern scholars and architects

is, what was the level of

technology available to King

Solomon that allowed him to

design and lay out the Temple

according to these principles?

>> MEYER: There's a text, as a

matter of fact, called the

Testament of Solomon, that

suggests that Solomon didn't

only use mortal builders and

architects, but he brought in

demons.

He forced them to do some of the

labor because demons are

especially strong.

>> NARRATOR: Might an advanced

energy source within the Ark of

the Covenant have allowed King

Solomon to wield immense power,

and might that power have had an

extraterrestrial origin?

After King Solomon's Temple was

destroyed in the sixth century

B.C. by the Babylonians, a

Second Temple was built on the

same site in the first century

B.C. by King Herod the Great.

According to the New Testament,

it was this Second Temple that

played a significant role in the

life of Jesus of Nazareth

because it was here that Jesus

chased out the moneylenders, an

event which led to his

crucifixion and death at the

hands of both the Jews and the

Romans.

And it was also nearby, on the

Mount of Olives, that Jesus

reportedly rose from the dead

and ascended bodily into Heaven.

>> REVEREND BARRY H. DOWNING:

When we get to the story of

Jesus, we find that his

disciples believe that he

ascended into Heaven and then

someday he would return.

So this idea of the

extraterrestrial reality, of

which Jesus is part, is

something that the biblical

tradition says, "Yes, you can,

you can buy that."

>> NARRATOR: But might Jesus,

like King Solomon before him,

really have been connected to an

otherworldly reality, as ancient

astronaut theorists suggest?

>> REVEREND MICHAEL J. S. CARTER:

The topic of ascension, when

dealing with extraterrestrial

contacts, is a common one

because we have Jesus ascending

in the New Testament.

These stories give credence to

the fact that there is some type

of technology that is lifting up

human beings into a craft, into

a waiting ship.

>> NARRATOR: Nearly six

centuries after the Second

Hebrew Temple was destroyed by

the Romans in 70 A. D., Persian

invaders built yet another holy

shrine on the site‐‐ the Dome of

the Rock, known to Muslims as

the Noble Sanctuary.

>> COOGAN: This magnificent

seventh‐century architectural

monument of Islam was built over

a huge outcrop of bedrock which,

according to Muslim tradition,

was the site from which Muhammad

had been taken up into Heaven by

God.

>> MEYER: In fact, there is a

hole in the rock showing the

exact route that Muhammad took

when he ascended into Heaven, to

Allah, to have a vision of the

divine, and to return back once

again to this very site.

So for Muslims the Dome of the

Rock is a very significant and a

very sacred place.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

Islamic Koran, the rock from

which Muhammad ascended is

called the Foundation Stone.

This rock is believed by

religious scholars to have also

been the very stone beneath the

Ark of the Covenant and the holy

of holies in Solomon's Temple.

>> COPPENS: This is where God

came down to Earth and where

certain people actually are said

to have made contact with God,

so this is a piece of rock which

is of such importance because of

the fact that something of the

divine manifested itself there.

>> TSOUKALOS: That stone

signifies the coming together of

the kingdoms of Heaven and

Earth.

The problem is, we've forgotten

that whoever visited us in the

past wasn't God, but it was

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: Some ancient

astronaut theorists believe that

Temple Mount was one of the

earliest intergalactic gateways.

But could space travelers really

have landed here tens of

thousands of years ago?

>> CHILDRESS: It seems that the

reverence for the site of

Jerusalem may stem from it early

on being some kind of a

spaceport, a gigantic landing

pad for extraterrestrials, and

that's why King Solomon built

his temple there, and then later

the Muslims built the Dome of

the Rock.

(whistle blows)

>> NARRATOR: Saudi Arabia, the

heart of the Middle East.

>> Allahu Akbar.

>> NARRATOR: In a narrow valley

50 miles inland from the Red Sea

lies Islam's holiest city Mecca.

Here, in the year 570, Muhammad,

the founder of Islam, was born,

considered by Muslims to be a

prophet and the messenger of

God.

>> COOGAN: At that time, Mecca

was a prosperous commercial

center, a port from which goods

brought from India and farther

away in Asia were transported

over land north to Damascus and

by sea to Egypt.

It was in this commercial center

that the Prophet Muhammad

received his first revelation.

>> MEYER: If you want to

encounter Muhammad, if you want,

in a way, to meet with his

ideas, one of the greatest

places to go is to go to Mecca.

>> BIRNES: Muslims pray in the

direction of Mecca five times a

day, so certainly as a holy

shrine, it is the center of the

Earth, a Heaven's gate where the

opening of Heaven takes place,

and that's why it is so revered.

>> NARRATOR: In the center of

Mecca lies the Grand Mosque, the

largest and holiest place of

worship for Muslims... and at

the heart of the Grand Mosque is

the Kaaba, a cube‐shaped granite

structure measuring 43 feet high

by 36 feet wide.

According to Islamic tradition,

the Kaaba was built

approximately in 2000 B. C. by

Abraham, a figure who serves as

patriarch to both Muslims and

Jews.

>> MEYER: In the Bible it is

said that Abraham had a couple

of children, and his first son

was Ishmael and his second son

was Isaac, and it is said in

Islam that Abraham and Ishmael

were in fact the two that came

to build the Kaaba.

>> NARRATOR: Covered by black

silk and embroidered in gold,

the Kaaba is the most sacred

structure in Islam.

Nearly three million Muslims

make a pilgrimage to the Kaaba

every year, a journey known as

the hajj.

>> MEYER: Every Muslim, if he or

she can do so, sometime in a

lifetime is obliged to go on a

pilgrimage, or the hajj, to

Mecca, in a way, to walk in the

footsteps of Abraham and of

Ishmael, to walk in the

footsteps of Muhammad.

>> MULLINS: The main ritual

performed at the Kaaba is for

pilgrims to enter into the

enclosure where the Kaaba is,

that cubicle structure, and

circumnavigate the Kaaba seven

times in a counterclockwise

direction.

>> MEYER: In one part of that

building there is a black stone

that is imbedded in the side of

the building, and nobody knows

exactly where it came from, but

the legend is that it came down

from the sky.

It was brought down by an angel

and found its way into this

particular location of the

shrine.

>> COOGAN: There's another

tradition that suggests that

this rock had been worshipped

long before Muhammad's time and

that it is in fact an ancient

meteorite... which for ancient

peoples would have been a sign

from a god or gods.

>> MULLINS: Now, during the

time that they're encircling the

Kaaba seven times, if they are

able, they should try to kiss

the meteorite stone, but because

of the numbers of people,

especially in recent times,

that's impossible, so the

practice is that if you're

unable to kiss the stone, you

should point towards the stone.

That shows your respect for the

stone and your veneration of it.

>> NOORY: People believe that,

of course, it was a meteorite

that fell from the heavens that

they have been able to keep.

Some of it is in small

fragments.

It's broken away, but they've

kept it intact with this silver

lining structure around it.

It is a magnificent artifact.

>> NARRATOR: Might the Black

Stone really be a meteorite, as

many scientists and scholars

believe?

If so, what does that say about

the historical‐‐ and possibly

metaphysical‐‐ origins of the

Islamic faith?

>> CHILDRESS: It's kind of

strange really that all the

Muslims are all praying towards

Mecca and to this black stone

that's there.

There are stories that the Kaaba

in Mecca is radiating some kind

of energy...

that it energizes people and

increases their spirituality

and health.

Perhaps it's coming from this

meteorite, this black stone of

extraterrestrial origin.

>> NARRATOR: Today, because of

its intense spiritual

significance in the Islamic

world...

any forensic examination of the

Black Stone is strictly

forbidden.

As far as Muslims are concerned,

the Black Stone simply

"descended from paradise."

>> VON DANIKEN: Archangel

Michael descended from the sky,

and Michael gave Abraham an

information in a written form...

and this information was sealed

into a stone, and this stone

is today's Kaaba.

It is said it is a stone from

Heaven.

>> NOORY: The ancients possessed

an ability to look toward the

heavens in order to get their

divine guidance.

This could very well be another

one of those cases.

>> NARRATOR: According to

researchers, the position of the

Kaaba is precisely aligned with

the rising of the star Canopus,

the cycles of the moon, and the

summer and winter solstices.

But just how‐‐ and where‐‐ did

the ancients obtain such an

advanced knowledge of astronomy?

>> MARTELL: Just as the planets

are revolving around the sun,

the knowledge of traveling

around the Kaaba was a symbolic

reference for knowledge of

astronomical alignments taking

place at that time.

>> TSOUKALOS: In Islam, we have

stories of winged angels that

have descended with lots of

light and a lot of wind and the

earth trembling.

So what was described there

wasn't necessarily a

quote‐unquote "divine

encounter," but a

flesh‐and‐blood extraterrestrial

encounter.

>> NARRATOR: Might the Kaaba's

interplanetary alignment suggest

that ancient Muslims may have

possessed secret knowledge?

(people singing)

And might their veneration for

the Black Stone really serve to

commemorate an ancient encounter

with extraterrestrial beings?

As far as ancient astronaut

theorists are concerned, the

answer to both these questions

is a resounding yes.

And they point to further proof

in a series of caves located

halfway around the world.

>> NARRATOR: Western India.

April 28, 1819.

While hunting tigers just

outside the village of Ajanta,

British officer John Smith

discovers 29 elaborate cave

temples carved into the side of

a rocky cliff overlooking the

Waghora River.

Believed to have been

constructed in 200 B. C., the

caves' architecture and artwork

reveal new insights into the

origins of India's mysterious

sacred past.

>> ALMOHAMMADI: Ajanta is unique

in the sense that these are the

most ancient Buddhist caves of

India.

Here they started the work from

200 B. C., and this work

continued till the end of 6th

century A. D.

>> CHILDRESS: As you walk in

to the Ajanta Caves you see all

kinds of temples carved out of

solid rock, niches and alcoves,

even statues.

But it's all been carved out of

one giant block of rock.

>> NARRATOR: Visited yearly by

thousands of Buddhist

worshipers, the caves are

considered sacred even to

this day.

Built as holy shrines and

temples by devoted monks, they

contain numerous places of

worship‐‐ complete with

paintings and sculptures

depicting the life and times of

the Supreme Buddha, often

referred to as the Enlightened

One.

>> EFURD: There are many

different sculpted subjects

at Ajanta.

Many of the sculptures are of

the Buddha.

In addition to those sculptures,

there are various depictions of

other mythological beings.

These are called Jatakas.

These Jatakas show these

previous lives, and these lives

could be related to, say, the

Buddha being born as an animal,

being born as a deity, or being

born as a human.

>> NARRATOR: Even today,

modern engineers are baffled

as to how the caves could have

been cut from the 70‐foot‐high

granite cliffs more than

2,000 ago.

>> EFURD: These caves were

created through the removal of

stone, literally tunneling into

the surface of the rock.

Rock was removed, it was

chiseled away, taken out, and

any interior space that you see

at the caves today, were created

through this removal of stone.

Any architectural details that

one finds at the site, any

sculptures, they're actually

carved from the same piece of

stone, which is the mountainside

itself.

>> NARRATOR: According to

researchers, the Ajanta complex

is significant because of the

deliberate positioning of the

caves around the cliffs‐‐

an arrangement that reveals an

unusually advanced understanding

of celestial activity.

>> EFURD: The caves are carved

into this horseshoe bend, and

are oriented in various

directions.

Some are oriented towards the

west, others to the south, and

some are oriented to the east so

that they are oriented towards

the rising sun.

It does seem to be the case that

ancient peoples in India were

very much interested in the

universe and the relationship of

heavenly bodies.

>> NARRATOR: Evidence of the

cave sculptor's precise

knowledge of celestial

movements can be found in two

particular caves.

Each contains large stupas, or

dome‐shaped structures featuring

Siddhartha Gautama, the

supreme Buddha and spiritual

teacher who founded Buddhism.

>> EFURD: Cave 19 is oriented

towards the winter solstice,

and what this means is that on

the day of the winter solstice,

the morning sunlight would

filter through this large window

on the facade and the sunlight

itself would illuminate the

stupa.

This is also true of Cave 26 at

Ajanta.

It's oriented towards the summer

solstice, and so on the day of

the summer solstice, that light

would filter and strike the

stupa within it.

>> CHILDRESS: Now, this would

have been very difficult to do,

itself, because you're cutting

solid rock from

inside of a cave.

So you would need some pretty

high‐tech gear in order to

tunnel and build and chip away

inside of solid rock in order to

really be perfectly oriented to

the solstice.

>> NARRATOR: Might the Ajanta

Caves have been constructed with

the aid of advanced alien

technology, as ancient astronaut

theorists believe?

If so, might they also have been

considered sacred by the locals

because of their connection to

early extraterrestrial visitors?

>> MARTELL: Many ancient

astronaut theorists look at the

stupa and say it's a symbolic

reference for the power

of flight.

Many times it's symbolically

shown with a young Buddha placed

in there, and it almost looks

like he could be manipulating

some type of controls within the

stupa.

The stupas were always used as a

way for Buddha to ascend or

descend into the heavens.

And so we do see stupas in this

artwork, very possibly saying

that the Buddha was going into

space.

>> NOORY: There was an obsession

of ancient human beings to

depict things that they saw.

And I think they did it with

carvings on caves and

depictions and sculptures and

monuments... because that's

what they saw.

They were duplicating what they

saw.

Buddhist monks seeing?

Could the Buddhist monks have

been helped by some kind of an

extraterrestrial presence?

>> TSOUKALOS: The ancient

astronaut theory suggests that

if we find paintings or carvings

of half man/half animals,

that that means that those

creatures at one point really

existed, because they were

genetically created by

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Hidden from view within this

mountainous African landscape

lie 11 churches carved entirely

from a single block of stone.

>> TSOUKALOS: If you approach

Lalibela, you don't even

see anything.

But the moment you get closer,

all of a sudden the ground opens

up... and you have these huge,

magnificent churches that have

been cut out of the bedrock.

>> COPPENS: So, really, rather

than building, Lalibela was cut

from the rocks...

from upstairs to downstairs.

So really what you have is an

amazing engineering feat, which

literally topples everything

we know about building

techniques.

>> NARRATOR: Religious ritual is

central to the life of Lalibela.

Each year nearly 21,000

Christian pilgrims come to

worship.

>> GERVERS: Ethiopian

Christianity is much more

directly tied to the Old

Testament than the Christianity

practiced in the Western world

today.

Christianity was introduced to

Ethiopia at about the same time

it was introduced to Western

Europe, to France, for example.

Interestingly enough, that of

all the Christian world,

Ethiopia is the only place where

they have these monolithic

churches.

>> NARRATOR: Mainstream

archaeologists believe the

churches were carved as early as

the 12th century.

But engineers who have studied

the design of the churches have

concluded that their

construction is scientifically

inexplicable.

>> CHILDRESS: When you see the

churches at Lalibela, you can

see that they're using what

would probably have to be

power tools.

Anytime you're cutting hard

stone, you're looking at

specialized cutting tools, you

need iron tools.

Even today we would have to use

power saws and grinding wheels

and chisels.

>> NARRATOR: But if, as ancient

astronaut theorists believe, the

churches of Lalibela could not

have been made without modern

technology, then who, or what,

built them?

>> GERVERS: Now, according

to the story, the life of King

Lalibela, which is written down

in the 15th century, the angel

Gabriel came to King Lalibela

and took him off to the heavenly

Jerusalem, where he had a

conversation with God, and God

said that he wanted him to go

back and build these churches.

So he came back and had them

constructed, he had them hewn

out of the rock.

It took years to complete the

job.

It was 24 hours a day, but

Lalibela had the help of the

angels.

>> BIRNES: So, according to

legend, angels came down from

Heaven and at night did the work

that the human beings could not

do because they were sleeping.

So there were actually two

shifts of workers at the rocks

of Lalibela.

One, human beings working during

the day, and the other,

extraterrestrial beings working

at night, doing the night shift.

>> TSOUKALOS: To me, that is a

very fascinating story, because

in my opinion, angels do

not exist.

Angels were merely a

misinterpretation of

flesh‐and‐blood

extraterrestrials who descended

from the sky with means of

technology.

And that is what these

quote‐unquote, "angels" used.

>> NARRATOR: If the churches of

Lalibela were constructed with

the help of celestial

travelers, why?

Was it to worship God?

Or was it to honor some other

mystical‐‐ or extraterrestrial‐‐

being?

According to the Kebra Nagast,

the ancient holy book

of Ethiopian Christians,

the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant‐‐

the gold box containing the

Ten Commandments‐‐ was

transported to Ethiopia from

Jerusalem sometime in the 9th

century B. C.

>> GERVERS: The child of Solomon

and the Queen of Sheba was named

Menelik I, and he is attributed

with being the first king of

Ethiopia.

When he was 22 years old, he

said to his mother, the Queen of

Sheba, that he wanted to meet

his father, and so she arranged

for him to go to Jerusalem

to do that.

And he spends an extended period

of time there, and got to know

the young noblemen of his age.

And the night before they left,

they went into the temple and

they took the Ark of the

Covenant, and together Menelik

with these noble boys made their

way off back to Ethiopia.

Could the Ark of the Covenant

ever have resided in Lalibela?

There is no historical reason to

believe it could have, but in

legend you do hear that there

was a time when it was in

Lalibela.

>> COPPENS: Now, interestingly

enough, in Lalibela there is an

altar, which is in the exact

dimensions of the Ark of the

Covenant.

And then the question is really,

what if some of the churches in

Lalibela at some point might not

have shielded the Ark of the

Covenant as well?

>> NARRATOR: According to the

Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the

Ark no longer resides within the

churches at Lalibela but instead

lies 200 miles north in the city

of Aksum.

>> CHILDRESS: Even today there's

a special temple that's guarded

by the Ethiopian priests, and no

one else is allowed inside it,

and it's said that the Ark of

the Covenant is kept inside of

this church.

>> VON DANIKEN: And there is one

big cathedral, it's called the

Cathedral of the Holy Virgin

Mary in the city of Aksum, and

down there is a tunnel, and

under this tunnel are the

remains of the Ark of the

Covenant.

This is known, this is not a

secret.

I have been there.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible that the Ark of the

Covenant might still be hidden

deep within the cathedral at

Aksum?

If so, why has it been concealed

for so long?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, the extraterrestrial

source of the Ark's legendary

power will return one day to

reclaim it, and some believe the

return will happen at the same

sacred place where alien beings

first arrived.

>> NARRATOR: Eastern Lebanon.

The Bekaa Valley.

Here at this archaeological site

stand the ruins of Heliopolis,

built in the fourth century B. C.

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.

>> HANAN CHARAF: 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.

>> MULLINS: 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.

>> NARRATOR: Archaeological

surveys have revealed that the

enormous stone foundation that

lies at the base of the site

dates back tens of thousands of

years.

>> CHARAF: Baalbek, as we know

from the archaeological

evidence, must have existed

during the Neolithic Period,

between 6000 to 8000 years or

even 9000 years B. C.

>> NARRATOR: But even more

significant to ancient astronaut

theorists is their belief that

the colossal stone platform may

once have served as a landing

pad for space travelers.

(garbled radio transmission)

>> CHILDRESS: We don't know why

Baalbek was chosen as this

specific site.

It may well be some kind of

special power place.

But what was originally there

before the Roman temple was this

spaceport platform that was

apparently used for

extraterrestrials coming and

going on Planet Earth.

>> NARRATOR: As evidence,

researchers point to the

gigantic megalithic stones

incorporated into the

foundation, each weighing

between 800 to 1,200 tons and

perfectly fitted together.

>> COPPENS: This is the real

mystery of Baalbek‐‐ 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

is incapable of putting them

there, but somehow our ancestors

were able to do this.

>> CHARAF: And because these

stones were gigantic, ancient

people assumed that

extraterrestrial or unknown

forces brought them to the site

itself.

>> BIRNES: 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, who

would have gone to the Bekaa

Valley in Lebanon would have no

concept of how to move stones of

that nature.

>> NARRATOR: But if the moving,

hoisting, and setting of such

massive stones was so incredibly

difficult, then who‐‐ or what‐‐

placed them there?

And perhaps more importantly,

why?

>> COPPENS: 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 worshipped, 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.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible, as

ancient astronaut theorists

believe, that Baalbek had been

considered a sacred place for

tens of thousands of years

because it was where

extraterrestrial beings first

arrived on Earth?

The answer may have been found

on excavated clay tablets

inscribed with cuneiform script,

written nearly 5,000 years ago

by the earliest known human

civilization, the Sumerians of

Mesopotamia.

>> MARTELL: What's really

interesting about Baalbek is

it's always been known as the

landing place.

There's an actual text from

Sumerian times called "The Epic

of Gilgamesh."

Gilgamesh actually claims to

have seen rockets descend and

ascend from Baalbek, the landing

place.

>> NARRATOR: A comparison

between Baalbek, Lebanon and

Jerusalem's Temple Mount reveals

a striking resemblance between

their massive stone platforms.

Might they have been built for

the same purpose‐‐ to support

the weight of spacecraft?

>> COPPENS: Hopefully at one

point archaeology will be so

open‐minded that they actually

want to explore this further.

>> NOORY: We may never get the

answer, but at least trying to

find out what happened, I think,

is what drives all of us.

>> NARRATOR: Did otherworldly

forces really descend from the

heavens at the world's holiest

places?

It may be that the world's

faithful already know the truth,

or perhaps the truth will be

withheld until some day in the

future.

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