All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S03E08.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

>> NARRATOR: A mighty empire

ruled by the descendants

of gods.

A remote island where stone

giants walked the Earth.

And a fertile garden where

modern man was born.

Are the legends behind these

ancient locations really based

on fact?

If so, why did they exist?

And why have the answers been

lost for centuries?

>> GEORGE NOORY: How in the heck

did they make these?

How did they move them?

Nobody has the answer.

>> DAVID CHILDRESS: It may well

be that the Garden of Eden today

is underwater.

>> GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: These

cultures were connected by

flying machines operated 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 might we find proof by

searching for our planet's

mysterious lost worlds?

>> NARRATOR: Central America.

In a fertile valley between the

Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean

Sea, in what is now Honduras,

lie the monumental ruins

of Copán.

This archaeological site is

believed to have been the

cultural and political center of

the once mighty Maya

civilization that thrived

between 2000 BC and 800 AD.

>> PAYSON SHEETS: People have

called Copán the Paris of

Mesoamerica because it was

such a place for the arts

and humanities.

The sculpture is beautiful.

The architecture is just

magnificent.

>> NARRATOR: It is believed

that, at one time, Copán was

inhabited by as many as 20,000

people and covered an area of

ten square miles.

But in the ninth century, this

incredible Mayan city was

abandoned, and its people

vanished.

When Spanish conquistadors

arrived in the 16th century,

they found only a few farming

hamlets.

But why?

>> DAVID CHEETHAM: They

decimated their environment.

Warfare became endemic.

And it ended.

And people left.

They walked away.

>> PHILIP COPPENS: To some

extent, the idea that the Mayans

became a lost culture is a yes

and a no.

We know that they stopped

building, but at the very heart

of the Mayan is a belief‐‐

it's a religion‐‐ which

continues to beat until this

very day, saying, "Please pay

attention to us because we have

this vast body of knowledge we

want to share with the world."

>> NARRATOR: At Copán, the Maya

had built a complex of

monuments, temples and plazas,

as well as sculptured stone

pillars depicting ancient kings.

The Maya were also one of the

earliest ancient civilizations

to create a written language.

>> ADRIAN GILBERT: In the last

20, 30 years, there's been a

huge advance in the decoding of

their hieroglyphs.

This is something that's

happened in our generation,

and it's still ongoing.

>> NARRATOR: Might a closer look

at the Mayan stone carvings

and their hieroglyphs provide

proof of contact with

extraterrestrials at Copán?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, the answer is yes.

>> TSOUKALOS: Some of the large

statues at Copán are infinitely

fascinating to me because the

gear that they're wearing is

very reminiscent of something

technological.

One of the figures has a box

with tubes coming out

and buttons and just very

weird things.

These statues look like some

type of a being wearing an

astronaut suit.

And, in my opinion, that means

that we were visited by some

type of extraterrestrials who

were very similar in appearance

to us, because according to the

ancient texts, we were created

in their image.

>> NARRATOR: Researchers working

in Copán have also found stone

sculptures called stelae, which

have provoked controversy since

the site was discovered in 1576.

And various interpretations

of the carvings suggest the

Maya may have had knowledge

of a world far beyond their

own continent.

>> CHILDRESS: This is one of

the curious dragon sculptures

here at Copán, of which there

are many.

In fact, these very Oriental

statues would look right at

place in China or some other

Oriental country.

Some archaeologists believe that

there are elephants on either

side of this Copán ruler.

So why would there be, here at

Copán, such Asian motifs as

elephants and dragons in a place

in Central America that is so

far away from China and

Southeast Asia?

Is there some kind of

extraterrestrial connection

between the Mayans and the

Chinese, and an origin for both

that comes from the stars?

>> NARRATOR: How could the early

Maya of Central America have had

knowledge possessed by people

living in Asia‐‐ on the other

side of the Pacific Ocean?

>> TSOUKALOS: One of the basic

premises of the ancient

astronaut theory suggests that

there was contact between

ancient cultures way before

we give them credit.

These ancient cultures were, in

fact, connected by flying

machines, and those flying

machines were usually operated

by extraterrestrials.

And especially in the Mayan

carvings, we find many

references of the gods

descending from the sky in

flying serpents.

Now, do flying serpents

>> NARRATOR: Do the many strange

carvings found at Copán really

provide proof of contact between

the Maya and otherworldly

beings?

And if so, might that contact

have produced offspring that

could also be traced to an

extraterrestrial source?

On the west side of the main

temple at Copán stands a 63‐step

structure known as the

Hieroglyphic Stairway.

It contains more than 1,200

stones carved with symbols that

record the history of the kings

of Copán.

>> CHILDRESS: This Hieroglyphic

Stairway is the longest Mayan

inscription in the world.

It emphasizes the divine right

of the 16 rulers of the Copán

dynasty to rule their subjects‐‐

a power given to them by

the gods.

>> SHEETS: The Hieroglyphic

Stairway mentions the various

rulers of Copán and talks about

them in a semidivine sense.

So they're human, they're

mortal, but they are much more

than that.

They are royal.

They have a spirit in their

blood, and Maya called it Xuit

Lel.

A Xuit Lel is in the blood and

is the most powerful thing to

get access to the supernatural.

So a king's Xuit Lel,

when shed in a bloodletting

ceremony and burned with copal

incense, goes up into the

heavens and takes a message to

the deities, and they did things

for the Maya.

>> NARRATOR: Could the Maya

rulers really have been

the descendants of

extraterrestrials, as ancient

astronaut theorists believe?

Perhaps conclusive evidence can

be found in what is widely

believed to be the most advanced

celestial calendar system of

ancient times.

>> VON DANIKEN: The Mayas had

the most precise calendar of all

the people in antiquity, even

the Babylonians, the Sumerians.

They did not only observe our

planetary system, they observed

Orion, they observed Sirius and

other far away systems.

>> LOHSE: One of the things

that sets the Maya apart was

their ability to monitor the

passage of astronomical events

and to track the movements of

constellations to predict

eclipses.

They really developed some of

this knowledge and skill to a

pretty high degree.

>> NARRATOR: But why did the

Maya create such precise maps of

the cosmos?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, the Mayans' knowledge

of the stars, in fact, came to

them from the stars, brought by

extraterrestrial beings.

>> COPPENS: When it comes to the

ancient Maya, their creation

mythology invokes these legends

which say that somewhere just

south of Orion's belt is this

place where life originated from

and came to planet Earth,

112 BC, when the ancient

Mayans said the gods came

to Earth.

>> VON DANIKEN: Their teachers

were the gods, and the gods were

the extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: If beings from

another star system really came

to Earth in the ancient past,

did they create the foundations

of Mayan civilization and breed

with its rulers?

Might they have also visited

other areas of our planet?

Perhaps further evidence can be

found at a desolate mountain

kingdom known to ancient priests

from the East as the magi.

>> NARRATOR: Southeastern

Turkey.

7,000 feet high, atop a barren

mountain called Nemrud Dagi, lie

the ruins of the lost Kingdom of

Commagene.

Here, in 62 BC, a mysterious

royal sanctuary was built by

King Antiochus I.

Colossal statues were created of

lions and eagles, and Persian

and Greek gods, as well as two

massive sculptures of the king

himself.

>> GILBERT: Now, what Antiochus

was trying to do was to produce

a synthesis, a new version of

the old religions.

And what he basically did was to

take the Persian gods and put

them into Greek dress.

So you've got a synthesis

happening of the Persian gods

with their Greek equivalents.

>> SANDERS: The reason he

built a colossal statue of

himself among the gods was,

I guess, a presumption on his

part that he would indeed

ascend to heaven and eventually

be among them.

>> NARRATOR: The conical peak

was the highest point in the

kingdom of King Antiochus.

Measuring 150 feet high and 500

feet wide, it is man‐made with

countless small limestone rocks,

and was said to be the location

of the king's royal tomb.

Researchers believe the memorial

was originally built as two

large plazas.

The one on the east side was

used to celebrate the birthday

of King Antiochus.

The one on the west side was

used to commemorate the day in

62 BC when Antiochus became

the leader of a secret society.

>> GILBERT: I think it's meant

to symbolize Mount Olympus,

the home of the gods.

'Cause you've got the gods

seated round it and then you've

got a peak above them.

I think this is all very

symbolic.

It's a stage for carrying out

certain rituals and

performances.

>> SANDERS: And he also shows

himself in the relief stelae

shaking hands to all the gods,

as if the gods recognize him as

one of their own and are

welcoming him into Heaven.

>> NARRATOR: Mysteriously, both

the site and the kingdom were

abandoned in the first

century AD.

And, so far, the king's

legendary burial chamber has

never been found.

But another question still

remains: just why did King

Antiochus build this mysterious

and massive monumental

sanctuary?

According to researchers,

evidence found at Nemrud Dagi

suggests the king had a profound

interest in, and understanding

of, star sciences.

>> GILBERT: One example of the

advanced knowledge of astronomy

that they had is actually the

lion horoscope, which gives us a

very precise date.

We know that the position of the

stars on the lion's body fits

with the positions of stars of

Leo given in a book of

Eratosthenes, who was a Greek

astronomer from Alexandria who

wrote a book about the stars.

>> NARRATOR: The arrangement of

stars on the lion horoscope

represented the constellation of

Leo as seen in the sky in July

62 BC, a configuration that

wouldn't be visible again for

25,000 years.

Further evidence of the

exceptional knowledge of the

stars was found in a nearby

shaft that Antiochus built into

the mountain.

>> GILBERT: The shaft runs into

the mountainside there, at an

angle of 35 degrees to the

horizontal, and it's about

150 meters long, and there's

nothing at the bottom.

>> NARRATOR: Computer analysis

reveals that on two days of the

year, the sun's rays would

illuminate the bottom of the

shaft‐‐ once when in line with

the constellation of Leo and

once when in line with Orion.

>> GILBERT: Now, that is a very

interesting point in the sky,

because it's the path where the

sun crosses over the Milky Way,

our galaxy.

And that, to the ancient world,

was known as the Gate of Heaven.

And there were two of these‐‐

one where they cross in the

north and the other where they

cross in the south.

There were two Gates to Heaven.

So we can understand that that

gateway would be where the soul

of the king is going back to

heaven through Heaven's Gate.

>> NARRATOR: Given the fact

that neither Antiochus's tomb or

remains have been found, is it

possible that the king actually

journeyed to the stars through

a heavenly gate, as ancient

astronaut theorists contend?

During his life, researchers

believe Antiochus studied with

a priestly sect of Eastern

astrologers called the magi, who

were thought to be able to

predict and even manipulate

events based on their knowledge

of the stars.

>> JASON MARTELL: The magi were

renowned priests from the far

Near East who had advanced

astronomical knowledge.

And it's well known that most of

the astronomers from the Near

East, specifically ancient Iraq,

Sumer, recorded series of events

happening in the heavens over

hundreds of thousands of years.

This information was kept on

stone tablets, held very

sacredly and only passed down

to the high priests.

>> NARRATOR: According to the

Gospel of Matthew in the

New Testament, it was three of

these magi who followed

celestial signs and stars to

the birthplace of Jesus

in Bethlehem.

A coincidence?

>> MARTELL: What's interesting

about this story is that the

Star of Bethlehem wasn't used

as a navigation point.

It is clearly stated as it

guided the wise men to the

place of Christ.

A star cannot guide someone.

It can only be used as a

navigation point.

So this brings up the idea that

the star was possibly a UFO.

>> TSOUKALOS: Today, we think

that the magi were magicians,

and that is actually why we

have the word "magic" today.

But when I hear about magical

powers, that raises a flag,

because magic, as such, does

not exist.

So were these magi, in fact, in

possession of some type of an

extraterrestrial technology?

Because, according to the

ancient texts, it was the

initiates of each culture who

were in touch with

extraterrestrials.

And it was the initiates who

later became priests or magi.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that

Antiochus was, in fact, a magi,

one who learned celestial

knowledge from extraterrestrial

sources?

If so, might the monumental

sanctuary at Nemrud Dagi have

been built as a place to contact

star travelers?

The answer may have been found

among the ruins of Nemrud Dagi.

>> GILBERT: The head of

Antiochus is placed on the

statue which is appropriate for

Mercury, and that's because

Mercury is the planet of

initiation for priests.

And he's one himself, so he

models it on himself.

And people think this is him

being boastful‐‐ sitting among

the gods.

It's not.

It's actually a code to say that

he's one with the priests.

>> NARRATOR: Eventually annexed

by the Romans in the first

century AD, King Antiochus and

his court became scattered

throughout the region.

Or were they?

According to ancient astronaut

theorists, they may have instead

used a heavenly gate to depart

through... to a distant realm.

An audacious idea?

Perhaps.

And there are those who believe

further evidence can be found in

one of the driest areas of the

world‐‐ in South America.

>> NARRATOR: Peru,

South America.

250 miles south of the capitol

of Lima lies one of the driest

places on Earth‐‐ a wasteland

that once was home to an ancient

civilization called Nazca.

Thriving between the 15th

century BC and 500 AD, the

Nazca were a deeply religious

and spiritual people who built

their ceremonial center in the

temple city of Cahuachi.

>> OREFICI (translated):

Cahuachi is the

largest adobe ceremonial center

in the world.

Therefore, we find groups of

temples and pyramids of

immense size.

Spirituality was the most

important thing in Cahuachi.

The people of Nazca used the

sacred spaces to elevate

themselves in order to

communicate with the deities.

>> BRIEN FOERSTER: The Nazca

predominantly were a farming

people, so Cahuachi was built

at the prime, when they had

all the food they needed and

they had enough resources to be

able to develop a highly evolved

religious system.

>> NARRATOR: But the Nazca

people and their culture

mysteriously vanished some

1,200 years ago, though not

before etching a series of

enormous geoglyphs‐‐ or ground

drawings‐‐ into the nearby

desert floor.

>> OREFICI (translated): The

Nazca Lines were an important

element of their religious

worship and their ceremonies.

They would walk through these

lines during their ceremonies,

breaking ceramics and offering

important elements to the

deities from their own culture.

>> NARRATOR: The great geoglyphs

are composed of dozens of

spirals, triangles and

trapezoids, as well as miles of

zigzagging lines.

>> FOERSTER: This whole flat

area, which covers several

square miles, is covered in

stones made of iron oxide,

either red or black, and that's

what gives it the darkish,

brownish red appearance.

But right underneath the surface

is clay, which is white, and all

I have to do...

...is that.

The contrast between the clay

and the iron oxide gives a

Nazca Line.

>> NARRATOR: Acre‐sized drawings

depict a hummingbird, a spider,

a killer whale and a human

figure with owllike eyes.

>> FOERSTER: They would have had

to have had observation from the

sky in order to guide the

workforce on the ground as to

how to draw complicated figures

such as the spider and the

hummingbird.

>> NARRATOR: Preserved for

centuries by the lack of wind

and rain, the lines are best

seen from the air, and were

first spotted by aviators in

the 1930s.

But why did the Nazca create

patterns that could only

be properly seen from a

great height?

>> JORGE LUIS DELGADO MAMANI:

The obvious answer is because

you can see only from the sky.

Many of our ancestors would talk

about the star people.

All the sacred sites‐‐ we

consider it is for whom?

For the star people.

>> CHILDRESS: At Nazca and other

areas in Peru, there are legends

of sky people and gods coming

down from the sky.

>> NARRATOR: But might the

so‐called star people referred

to in the Nazca legends really

have been extraterrestrial

beings, as ancient astronaut

theorists believe?

>> VON DANIKEN : In the

beginning, there was just one

line made by some robot or some

extraterrestrial spaceship,

some space shuttle, because they

were looking for raw material

for energy.

>> TSOUKALOS: After a while, the

local population would see all

those tracks on the ground, and

they would say that these tracks

were just left behind by these

divine beings, by the gods, and

then they would wonder, "And

what can we do for those gods

to return?"

>> NARRATOR: According to

ancient astronaut theory,

the earliest of the Nazca Lines

were made in imitation of the

trails left by the first

space visitors.

Later generations added more

elaborate lines, and then

shapes and figures, all in an

attempt to signal the star gods

to return.

But they never did.

>> OREFICI (translated): And

this caused the population to

doubt the deities, because it

was mainly a psychological

problem they had with their

deities that brought about the

abandonment and collapse of the

Nazca culture.

>> NARRATOR: But could there be

other evidence of alien contact

with the ancient people of Peru

that is even more astounding

than the Nazca Lines?

>> CHILDRESS: Some of the skulls

that we find today, because it's

a very dry desert and they're

well preserved, are some of the

most astonishing, elongated

skulls that you'll ever see.

And they look like

extraterrestrials.

>> NARRATOR: According to Nazca

legends, the gods had elongated

heads, much like the distended

skulls of the controversial

Egyptian pharaoh King

Tutankhamen and his sister

Meretaten.

>> FORRESTER: I honestly believe

that the largest of the

elongated skulls represent

hybrid human beings dating

back thousands of years,

who lived here very peacefully

and could very well be the

ancestors of the Inca.

And that could be the reason why

the Inca suddenly were these

people of incredible

sophistication who came from

seemingly nowhere.

It's possible that they're

descendants from star beings.

>> CHILDRESS: Were they trying

to imitate people they had

already seen, gods from

outer space?

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible

the ancient Nazca altered their

bodies and their lands in order

to communicate with or emulate

something their ancestors may

have witnessed, something out of

this world?

Perhaps further clues to

mankind's extraterrestrial

connection can be found in the

most remote place on planet

Earth: in the South Pacific.

>> NARRATOR: The South

Pacific Ocean.

2,300 miles west of South

America, in one of the most

remote places on Earth, giant

stone figures stand with their

backs to the sea.

Called moai by the native

inhabitants, they are the silent

sentinels of Easter Island.

>> STEVENSON: The moais are

scattered throughout the island,

and they're positioned on top of

platforms, for the most part.

A moai is a stone sculpture of a

deceased ancestor.

They were once living

individuals who ruled the

society or led the society.

They were chiefs.

And then, upon their death, we

believe that they've become

represented in stone.

>> NARRATOR: Nearly 900 moai

were carved between the 12th

and 18th centuries.

Hewn with stone tools from

volcanic rock, the tallest

stands a towering 33 feet high

and weighs a staggering 75 tons.

>> NARRATOR: The people who

created the moai called

themselves the Rapa Nui,

and mainstream historians

believe their Polynesian

ancestors came to the island in

canoes from across the vast

Pacific Ocean between 700 and

1100 AD.

But over several centuries, for

reasons that are still unclear,

what was once an island paradise

withered into a treeless desert,

stalked by famine, violence and

some say cannibalism.

When the first Europeans arrived

in 1722, the Rapa Nui culture

had already been nearly

wiped out...

and few could imagine how such

primitive people could have

created the moai.

>> NOORY: How in the heck did

they make these?

Where did they come from?

And how did they move them?

Nobody has the answer.

>> NARRATOR: Modern scientists

have tried, and so far have

failed, to duplicate the feats

of the ancient Rapa Nui.

In 1987, anthropologist Charles

Love used rollers to move a

nine‐ton moai replica at Western

Wyoming Community College.

>> Ready?

On three.

One, two, three.

>> Come on, Rick.

Come on.

>> Good.

Thank you.

Whoa.

Only able to budge it about half

an inch.

>> NARRATOR: Other researchers

have tried pulling moai with

sleds.

But there is a unique problem

with the idea of moving moai

with sleds or rollers.

>> LOVE: When you go to Easter

Island, you don't get the

impression they had enough wood

to have rollers.

And in fact, in the 1700s, the

first four expeditions to Easter

Island never really saw a tree.

And so that's the real mystery

of Easter Island.

How can you move a multi‐ton

statue if you have no trees for

rollers?

>> NARRATOR: According to the

oral history of the Rapa Nui,

the moai were moved in a very

unusual way.

>> LOVE: They all reply

basically the same thing.

The moai walked to the ahu, and

that's the only explanation that

they give.

>> NARRATOR: But who or what had

the power to make multi‐ton moai

appear to walk to their ahu,

or stone platforms?

In 1919, British archaeologist

Katherine Routledge, who lived

on Easter Island for a year,

recorded the legends and

testimony of an old woman who

said the moai were moved with

a mystical energy called mana.

And according to the oral

histories of the Rapa Nui, mana

came from the gods.

>> TSOUKALOS: Mana was a direct

gift of the gods given to the

Easter Islanders.

Was this mana really a type of

magical force?

Of course not.

It was some type of

misunderstood technology, some

type of a device, an

extraterrestrial tool with which

you could move those massive

Easter Island heads rather

easily.

>> NARRATOR: Did early

inhabitants of Easter Island

really know how to unlock

the secrets of gravity using

mana?

And if so, where might such

power over the physical world

have come from?

Researchers believe there are

clues hidden within mysterious

written texts called

rongorongo, inscribed on pieces

of wood, discovered on the

island in the 19th century.

>> LOVE: This is a

rongorongo board.

And it's a replica of ones of

old.

About 25 of them are known.

We have had about six or eight

different attempts at

translating these things, with

six or eight different results.

>> CHILDRESS: You have to ask

yourself: how could the Easter

Islanders have invented their

own writing without some other

cultural influence coming there?

Would it have been ancient

seafarers coming to Easter

Island or perhaps even space

visitors?

>> NARRATOR: Further evidence of

early contact with otherworldly

beings can be found in numerous

strange stone carvings‐‐ called

petroglyphs.

>> LOVE: What we see in the

petroglyph art of the island are

these figures of bird men, these

tangata manus, carved in bas

relief on the rocks on the very

edge of the precipice.

>> NARRATOR: In the myths of

Easter Island's Rapa Nui, the

bird man represents Makemake,

the chief god and creator of

humanity.

>> COPPENS: Did at some point in

the past a creature come, which

was bird man who flew in from

somewhere.

Did he arrive on this

island and did he indeed

live very much like a pariah?

Did he die or did he take off

again, and is this what the

locals keep this legend of this

creature who came to them alive

through myth, legend and

ritual.

>> NARRATOR: Walking stone

giants, petroglyphs of flying

beings...

might the ancient inhabitants

of Easter Island have been

familiar with antigravity

levitation and spaceflight?

If so, might these astounding

abilities‐‐ forever lost to

time, have been made possible

by extraterrestrial visitors?

Perhaps more evidence can be

found in the most famous and

alluring of all lost worlds‐‐

the Garden of Eden.

>> NARRATOR: The Middle East.

For centuries, archaeologists,

theologians and scholars have

debated the location‐‐ and even

the existence of the ultimate

of all lost worlds‐‐ the

biblical "Garden of Eden."

It was here, according to the

Hebrew Book of Genesis, that

a paradise once existed‐‐

a paradise where the first human

beings, Adam and Eve, were

actually created by God.

But could such a paradise, now

shrouded in myth and legend,

have actually been a real place?

>> COPPENS: When we're looking

at the Garden of Eden, we know

that actually there is a

physical description as to where

it was.

It is said that four very

specific rivers came from it or

were near it.

So we can actually go in search

of this.

>> MULLINS: Two of these rivers,

the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers,

are well known, and actually run

through what is Iraq today.

The other two rivers that are

described are not very clear.

>> NARRATOR: Researchers now

believe the third river, known

as the Karun River, runs through

Iran and joins the Euphrates

just north of the Persian Gulf.

Then, in 2010, satellite imagery

revealed a fossil river, or dry

riverbed, called the Wadi Baton,

that once flowed through

northern Arabia and also joined

with the Euphrates.

Could these two rivers have been

the location of the Pishon

and Gihon rivers‐‐ the lost

rivers mentioned in the Bible‐‐

that point to the actual

location of the Garden of Eden?

>> JURIS ZARINS: When you read

the account in Genesis, it says

that the four rivers formed one

river.

So very careful reading

indicates that the two rivers,

which are today in Iraq‐‐ the

Tigris and Euphrates‐‐ and the

one river, which is in Iran,

the Karun, and the fossil

river in Arabia, when you join

them up, and form one river,

it's at the approximate location

of northern Persian Gulf.

>> NARRATOR: And according to

the Bible, that one river flowed

through the Garden of Eden.

>> ZARINS: And so, based upon

Landsat images and a close

reading of the Hebrew text, I

think that the location of the

Garden of Eden is under the

waters of the Persian Gulf and

not on land.

>> NARRATOR: Scientists believe

that during the last ice age,

the polar ice caps were two

miles high and ocean levels were

170 feet lower than they are

today.

Recent studies suggest the area

of the Persian Gulf would have

been a dry, fertile plain the

size of Great Britain, providing

an ideal refuge to some of the

earliest humans outside Africa

nearly 75,000 years ago.

But as the ice caps melted over

the course of thousands of

years, the waters of what is now

the Indian Ocean flooded the

land and formed the Persian

Gulf.

>> GRAHAM HANCOCK: During that

long period, there were at

least three episodes of very,

very major flooding, when you

would be looking at 30 or 40

foot rises in sea level,

virtually overnight.

>> NARRATOR: Might a great

flood‐‐ perhaps the one

described in the biblical story

of Noah's Ark, really be

responsible for the

disappearance of the so‐called

"Garden of Eden"?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe it is not only possible,

but that the proof can be found

by studying ancient Sumerian

texts.

The earliest known civilization

of Sumer dates to 5,000 BC,

and their first settlement in

southern Mesopotamia was called

Eridu.

>> ZARINS: The ancient Sumerians

have a wonderful story.

They believe that they had lived

in an area that was probably to

the south of what is today

Sumer.

And the reason we know that is

because they said they came out

of the sea.

>> NARRATOR: Ancient cuneiform

writings that have survived on

clay tablets suggest the

Sumerians had been brought to

Eridu by their god Enki.

The cuneiform texts also

describe an alien race named the

Anunnaki who came to Earth and

created the first modern human

beings.

>> ZARINS: "Adam" in Sumerian,

or a very early form of

Sumerian, means "a small rural

settlement."

"Eve," however, isn't Sumerian.

"Eve" in Arabic and the Semitic

languages means "one who

gives birth."

The word "Eden" is a

pre‐Sumerian word and it means

"plain."

>> NARRATOR: But, according to

ancient astronaut theory, the

Sumerian accounts may actually

refer to a more ancient time,

and to a distant fertile plain

now lost under the waters of the

Persian Gulf.

>> COPPENS: Now the question is

this, was the Garden of Eden

really some kind of laboratory

where certain things were

created by the ancient

scientists of their day?

Well, if mankind was created in

a Garden of Eden, then clearly

whoever was creating this

wasn't a human being, it was

somebody else.

>> TSOUKALOS: So is it possible

that the Garden of Eden was

located here on planet Earth?

Yes, but was it a specific

geographic location?

I'm not sure.

Personally, I'm leaning more

towards the idea that the Garden

of Eden was some type of a

closed environment somewhere in

nature, but it definitely was

some type of a laboratory from

where modern man originated.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible that the first humans

were created by extraterrestrial

beings in what is referred to in

the Bible as a "Garden of Eden"?

If so, has the evidence existed

all along, on the cuneiform

tablets of the ancient

Sumerians?

Ancient astronaut theorists

believe the answer is a

definite yes.

And there are those who believe

that such an incredible notion

is not only possible, but that

the proof lies in the further

investigation of lost

civilizations and ancient

worlds‐‐ an investigation that

will not only uncover our past,

but reveal our future.

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