Original subtitles

NARRATOR: A 500-ton monument

that appears to hover above the ground,

giant statues said to have been created

with advanced technology

and ornate pillars that depict otherworldly visitors.

Throughout the world,

enormous stone monuments

have stood for thousands of years,

and many are said to have an otherworldly connection.

Now Ancient Aliens is taking a look back

at ten of the most mysterious monoliths we've investigated,

towering standing stones

that point to extraterrestrial intervention on planet Earth.

♪ ♪

Across the globe,

there are towering stone monuments

that date back thousands of years.

They're called monoliths, and there are more than 50,000

of these mysterious standing stones

that often weigh tens or even hundreds of tons.

But how were they built, what purpose did they serve

and why are so many of them associated

with stories of otherworldly beings?

We start our countdown

with the tallest stone in England,

which also happens to be a hot spot

for strange hovering orbs.

At number ten on our countdown of mysterious monoliths:

the Rudston Monolith.

NARRATOR: Rudston, England.

At the north end of this quaint village in Yorkshire

stands a 12th-century parish church

that is famous throughout the region.

Not because of the church itself

but because of an ancient monolith

that towers above the church cemetery.

The Rudston Monolith

is the tallest standing stone in Britain.

Currently, it is 25 feet in height,

and it weighs 40 tons.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists believe the Rudston Monolith

dates back to at least 2000 BC.

And according to local historians,

the giant standing stone has been associated

with strange phenomena in the area for centuries.

TIM BRENNAN: We have reports of high strangeness

in the region dating back to the tenth century.

We have accounts of lights in the sky,

intelligent light forms

that seem to have a purpose and a will of their own.

DAVID CHILDRESS: So you have to wonder,

is the Rudston Monolith there

because of all these strange effects?

Or perhaps the Rudston Monolith itself

is helping create some of these effects?

NARRATOR: Could this ancient monolith

be a magnet for unusual phenomena?

And if so, how?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

there may be a connection to the fact

that the Rudston Monolith stands at a convergence point

of what are known as "ley lines."

Ley lines are identified

when numerous significant ancient sites line up

in perfectly straight lines.

And researchers have found that along these ley lines,

there are strong Earth energy currents.

CHILDRESS: The Rudston Monolith, apparently,

is at a junction of three ley lines.

And there's an energy associated with these.

It's a subtle energy, but it's there,

and it can be amplified by these standing stones.

HUGH NEWMAN: The ancients knew what they were doing.

They were placing these stones in specific spots

and it would affect the energy.

But were they working with other beings to do this?

You have to ask these kind of questions,

because why would they do it?

COLLINS: It seems as if it was the result

of some kind of contact with entities,

perhaps even extraterrestrials.

One of the most remarkable things I've ever seen

is a giant monument in the countryside of Japan

that is one of the largest and oldest monoliths

anywhere on Earth.

And what's even more intriguing

is that ancient lore claims that this massive stone

was carved to resemble a ship that flew through the sky.

Number nine on our countdown: the Ishi no Hoden monument.

NARRATOR: Takasago, Japan.

This small city just west of Osaka

is home to one of the most extraordinary wonders

of the ancient world,

a colossal monolith called Ishi no Hoden,

or "the Floating Stone."

Standing 18 feet tall,

21 feet wide and almost 24 feet thick,

the Ishi no Hoden is estimated to weigh 500 tons,

making it one of the largest monoliths on Earth.

In 2017,

Giorgio Tsoukalos traveled to the Oshiko shrine

to investigate the colossal monolith.

He is joined by fellow ancient astronaut theorist

Takeharu Mikami.

[speaking Japanese]

TSOUKALOS: Wow.

It's gigantic.

I-I want to-- I need to walk around.

I mean, I had no idea how massive this is.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists have been unable to date its construction,

but according to Japanese mythology,

the Ishi no Hoden could be more than 16,000 years old.

The massive monument is made of volcanic tuff

and was carved in place out of the surrounding bedrock.

Its name, "Floating Stone," comes from a unique feature

that can be seen under the huge rock.

[speaking Japanese]

So, you want to just look down below here.

[Mikami speaking Japanese]

TSUKAMOTO: It looks like it's floating

over the water.

TSOUKALOS: It really does.

NARRATOR: But what interests Giorgio the most

is what the monolith is said to represent.

[speaking Japanese]

TSUKAMOTO: So, this monolith is said to be related

to one of the first gods

that descended from the heavens to Japan,

and he is said to have traveled over the country

on a-a sky ship made out of a giant rock.

TSOUKALOS: So, what you're telling me is that there is

an ancient Japanese legend that speaks of a deity

flying around in the sky

with a gigantic vehicle made of stone?

-[speaks Japanese] -Absolutely.

TSOUKALOS: The fact that they used this water mirror

underneath this stone to show as if it is hovering

and floating in the air,

to me, is one of the smoking guns

by our ancestors

to show that these things were actually in the sky.

Our next mysterious monoliths

are an instantly recognizable symbol of ancient Egypt.

They are the most perfectly carved stones in existence,

and some of the largest as well.

But what most people don't know is that these towering pillars

were seen as points of contact with the gods.

At number eight on our list: obelisks.

NARRATOR: Thousands of years ago, the people here produced

some of the most enduring monuments on Earth,

including massive pyramids, elaborate temples

and some of the largest monoliths ever created,

called obelisks.

The Egyptian obelisk is one of the most unique

pieces of architecture in ancient Egypt.

Every obelisk you look at,

it is geometrically perfect.

They were always made of granite,

and they were four-sided,

and towered upwards

and eventually ended in this perfect pyramid.

NARRATOR: Most obelisks are between 70 and 100 feet tall,

and they can weigh over 100 tons.

But what compelled the Egyptians

to carve such perfect monoliths in the first place?

Perhaps the answer can be found by taking a closer look

at the unique properties of this stone.

CHILDRESS: Obelisks, they're a piece of crystalline granite,

and within the granite is quartz crystal.

So, obelisks themselves are, in a sense, a crystal tower.

It's an antenna.

And any antenna can receive a broadcast

and it can give a broadcast.

NARRATOR: Could it be that 4,000-year-old obelisks were antennas?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

the writings of the ancient Egyptians themselves

support this idea.

According to hieroglyphic records known as the Edfu texts,

a 130-foot-tall obelisk

once stood at Abu Gorab in Memphis,

where the people could commune with the gods.

TSOUKALOS: Abu Gorab was known as the "Place of the Gods."

And what's so interesting is that

most mainstream Egyptologists

are actually saying that we know it as a place

where the ancients connected with divine energies.

The ancient astronaut theory is suggesting

that ancient Egyptians were in direct contact

with those extraterrestrials.

I find it fascinating that many of the monoliths

we've investigated on Ancient Aliens

are covered in symbols or writing

that point to an otherworldly connection.

One of the most compelling examples of this

can be found in an ancient Mayan city in Honduras.

At number seven on our list

of the top ten mysterious monoliths:

the stelae of Copán.

NARRATOR: This ancient site, located deep in the jungle,

served as one of the most important city centers

of the Maya civilization.

At the peak of its power in the 9th century AD,

the kingdom of Copán had a population

of at least 20,000 people,

and covered an area of over 100 square miles.

Copán is a classic Maya city

that sits at the far eastern edge of the Maya world.

Most of the Maya world is built out of limestone,

and a lot of those limestone monuments have now melted.

But Copán's sculpture,

because it's in volcanic tuff, is beautiful.

It's deep relief and still very visible.

NARRATOR: Among the most remarkable carvings discovered at Copán

are the more than 80 monolithic statues known as "stelae."

DAVID CHEETHAM: The most fantastic part of Copán

is the carved monuments which are carved in the round.

They're not what we call plano-convex,

like a slab with a, you know, low-relief carving.

These are carved in a sort of a Michelangelo way,

in the round, and they're absolutely fantastic.

BARNHART: Copán is full of big stelae

that that stand ten, 12 feet above

the surface of the plaza.

They are single monolithic stones carved

with all sorts of hieroglyphs and images of rulers.

NARRATOR: The most well-known of Copán's stelae

were built during the 43-year reign

of the ruler Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil,

better known by the nickname 18 Rabbit.

DAVID SEDAT: On one of the stelae of Copán,

18 Rabbit portrayed himself

as the foremost patron god of Copán,

the all-encompassing god K'intay Ahau.

And on the stelae,

he basically gives a dissertation on the cosmos.

TSOUKALOS: For all intents and purposes,

18 Rabbit is depicted like modern-day astronauts.

You see tubes, you see weird boxes,

you see weird canisters and tanks, you see boots,

It looks more technological in origin.

NARRATOR: Does the monolithic statue

of 18 Rabbit commemorate the Maya's interactions

with extraterrestrials?

As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

the answer is a resounding yes.

The Maya, in their own words,

tell us that the founders of the Mayan civilization

were, in fact, star beings

that had come down in the distant past.

CHILDRESS: It would seem that

these gods of the ancient Maya were real physical beings,

and they were interacting with the Mayans,

giving them knowledge,

and were really instrumental in creating

this advanced culture in Central America.

2,500 miles south of Copán,

high in the Andes mountains of Bolivia,

is a massive doorway carved from a single piece of stone.

It stands near one of the most extraordinary

ancient sites on the planet, called Puma Punku.

And carved into the monolithic doorway

are strange, winged beings that, from the perspective

of an ancient astronaut theorist like myself,

clearly represent extraterrestrial visitors.

Number six on our countdown: the Gate of the Sun.

NARRATOR: While searching for the southern capital of the Inca Empire,

Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León

comes upon a mysterious site,

a vast, abandoned city near the shore of Lake Titicaca

that the locals call Tiahuanaco.

The ruined city contains temples,

huge megalithic structures

and vast ceremonial buildings.

Tiahuanaco was huge.

It spanned for miles and miles

and had a population of perhaps as many as 20,000 people.

NARRATOR: Among Tiahuanaco's most impressive ruins

is a terrace mound called Puma Punku,

containing dozens of stone blocks

cut with extraordinary precision.

And at the opposite end of the complex,

at the entrance to a large, sunken plaza,

stands a giant carved doorway called the Gate of the Sun.

Cut and shaped from a single andesite stone,

the massive monolith is ten feet tall, 13 feet wide

and weighs more than ten tons.

ALEXEI VRANICH: The Gate of the Sun is the icon of Tiahuanaco,

if not for all of South America.

And it is an amazing sculpture

that's carved with some very elaborate iconography.

WILLIAM HENRY: It features the Inca god Viracocha,

who's the god of creation, who's portrayed

as a sort of a humanoid figure with rays coming off his head.

NEWMAN: Viracocha was

the primary deity of the Andes,

going back many thousands of years.

He was thought to be the founder of all the ancient sites

we see in Peru and Bolivia today,

including Tiahuanaco, Cuzco, Sacsayhuamán,

Machu Picchu and many others.

NARRATOR: When European explorers

rediscovered the monolithic doorway in the 19 century,

it was lying flat on the ground and broken into two pieces.

Today, it stands where it was found,

but many archaeologists believe

this is not its original location.

BARNHARDT: It's standing there, and we all know

it's not where it used to be.

Its architecture and the way the stone is cut

in these right angles,

the only other place in all of Tiahuanaco

that we see that is Puma Punku.

TSOUKALOS: Puma Punku is one of the most enigmatic places

on planet Earth.

Some of the stone blocks are over 100 metric tons,

at an altitude of almost 13,000 feet.

And the legend is

that this place was built by the so-called gods.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that Puma Punku

was built by otherworldly beings, as legend suggests?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and believe further clues can be found

by taking a closer look at the depiction of Viracocha

carved on the Gate of the Sun,

and the strange beings that surround him.

TSOUKALOS: Viracocha

is flanked with 48 winged beings.

Now, why would these beings

have wings attached to them?

Well, because our ancestors try to signify flight.

What I think is depicted

on the Gate of the Sun is a type of a celestial pantheon,

suggesting that whoever came and imparted knowledge

at Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku

were beings that had a celestial connection,

meaning they came from the sky.

We're nearly halfway through our countdown

of the top ten mysterious monoliths.

And while the monuments we have investigated so far

are tall standing stones,

archaeologists have also discovered monoliths

that are perfectly round.

At number five: the stone spheres.

NARRATOR: Zavidovici, Bosnia.

2016.

Archaeologist Dr. Sam Osmanagich and a small team of researchers

are hiking along the Bosna river

when they spot what appears to be an enormous stone sphere

hidden in the forest floor.

We started clearing it, realizing

that it was huge.

Monumental in size.

Once we cleared almost all of it,

we've done the measurements.

It is more than three meters in diameter.

The specific weight: 37 tons.

So, this was the largest stone sphere discovery in the world.

NARRATOR: While the giant stone sphere in Bosnia is impressive,

it is not unique.

HENRY: From Kansas to Kazakhstan,

we find these stone spheres.

Some of them are massive,

and the key thing that links all of them

is this incredible mystery about how were they created,

why were they created,

and ultimately, what is their purpose?

NARRATOR: What compelled ancient people

to create monoliths in the shape of spheres?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest clues can be found

by examining a discovery

made deep in the jungles of Central America.

In the 1930s,

workers in Costa Rica found hundreds of giant stone spheres.

NEWMAN: About 300 have been discovered so far.

Some of them are huge,

between eight and nine feet tall and wide.

They look like they're created in a machine.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists believe

that the Diquis civilization carved the spheres

with simple stone tools.

And they are thought to be at least 1,000 years old.

But just what purpose did they serve?

ESTEBAN CARRANZA: We do not know the original location of most of the spheres.

You start to wonder, what if we could

go back in time and see the exact location

of all the spheres, what would they show?

Would they show a pattern?

Would they show a constellation map?

Would they be like the Nazca Lines,

like a pattern that you could only see from above?

NARRATOR: How and why Costa Rica's monolithic spheres

were created has been lost to history,

but ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that local legends reveal a connection

to otherworldly beings.

HENRY: One very interesting explanation for the Costa Rica spheres

is that they were created by Tará, the God of Thunder,

who used some sort of a blowpipe to shoot

these spheres out of the pipe in order to push back hurricanes.

Ancient astronaut theory says

that within legends like this, there's often a kernel of truth.

And so, you have to wonder, is this a calling card

from some extraterrestrial entity,

a sky god, Tará, with some sort of message?

The fact that our ancestors created

such perfectly round spheres is truly fascinating.

And even more intriguing is a collection

of huge monoliths that are not only round,

but are also carved with mysterious human features.

At number four on our countdown

of the top ten mysterious monoliths:

the colossal heads.

NARRATOR: Tres Zapotes, Mexico.

1938.

Smithsonian archaeologist Matthew Stirling

makes a remarkable find.

He discovers a colossal stone head

buried in the ground.

Over the next few years,

16 more heads are discovered

partially buried at four locations in Mexico,

including ten in San Lorenzo and four in La Venta.

These monolithic statues are carved from basalt

and vary in height from nearly five feet

to over 11 feet tall,

the largest weighing approximately 50 tons.

Archaeologists believe the stone heads are

some 3,000 years old and were created by the Olmecs.

The Olmecs, uh, they're often called

the mother culture of Mesoamerica.

They are the first complex culture

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

NARRATOR: For decades, archaeologists assumed

the colossal stone heads were carved

to honor important figures in Olmec society.

But just who they depict has been the source

of debate among researchers.

The controversy is that many of the beautifully carved

statues and stelae seemed to show African men.

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

But are native to sub-Saharan Africa.

This is not scientific,

uh, physical anthropology, but just the appearance

of these things, uh, is pretty suggestive.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Olmec stone heads

are a record of ancient visitors

who traveled thousands of miles to Central Mexico?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

these monoliths might serve a more profound purpose.

And as evidence, they point to research

done by a team of scientists at Harvard,

Yale, and MIT that revealed

the colossal stone heads

have unusual magnetic properties.

WILLIAMS: The Olmec...

were craftsmen at finding these magnetic fields in basalt rock.

And they would actually hunt down large stones,

take it back and carve it into heads.

And they were so precise with knowing

where the magnetic fields were

that they actually carved around these anomalies.

CHILDRESS: When we look at how the ancients were selecting

certain stones that were magnetic

or had certain energies,

we wonder how they could know

about all of the properties of these stones.

Are they getting this information

from extraterrestrials?

NARRATOR: Could it be that the ancient people

of Mesoamerica received instructions

to sculpt these giant basalt heads

from extraterrestrial visitors?

But if so, why?

According to ancient astronaut theorists,

they may have been designed for data storage.

CHILDRESS: Certain stones like basalt

hold a magnetic field

and can be magnetized.

A basalt stone could actually act

like a hard disk for a computer.

JASON MARTELL: When we look at how we store information today,

we have to understand

that an extraterrestrial civilization

might approach this from a different angle.

So is it possible that extraterrestrials

have embedded ancient sacred knowledge

in statues or in monuments?

And if we were able to extract this information,

there could be a wealth of information ready,

waiting at our fingertips.

Running through the countryside

of northwestern France are thousands of standing stones

that are aligned in perfectly straight rows.

And while their purpose is unknown,

some believe they were part

of a long-lost technology.

At number three on our countdown

of the top ten mysterious monoliths:

the Carnac Stones.

NARRATOR: On the northwest coast of France

lies the most famous and mysterious collection

of ancient standing stones found anywhere in the world.

Stretching across an astonishing two miles

of rolling countryside,

more than 3,000 giant monoliths

are organized in neat formations.

They are collectively known as the Carnac Stones.

The megaliths of Carnac in Brittany a-are just amazing.

Some of them stand about 30 or 40 feet tall.

There's multiple avenues of stones going right over hills.

No one's really worked out exactly what their purpose is.

These are arranged in four huge alignments.

Some of them are in parallel lines.

Some of them are fan-like.

NARRATOR: Archeologists believe the monoliths

were erected more than 6,000 years ago,

making them older than the Great Pyramid of Egypt

and the stone circles of Great Britian.

But just why the stones are in such precise alignments

remains a mystery.

KATHLEEN McGOWAN: One of the most interesting is the alignment of Ménec.

When viewed from above, we can see

these 11 almost-perfect parallel lines

that stretch out for almost a mile.

So the Ménec alignment is so pristine

and created with such perfection,

we can't even imagine how it would've

been done in ancient times.

We have to wonder what these lines were for.

TSOUKALOS: I think in Carnac, our ancestors did not know

what they were creating.

The entire region has over 4,000 stones.

Somebody told our ancestors why to move it there,

and above all, how to move it there.

Carnac, at some point,

was an extraterrestrial hot spot.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the position of the Carnac Stones

was directed by extraterrestrial visitors,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

Perhaps clues can be found by examining

a discovery that may point to these mysterious monoliths

having served an energetic purpose.

CHILDRESS: In 1992, a French engineer

named Pierre Méreaux did a study of the Carnac Stones.

And what he found was that

the stones were aligned and placed over areas

that had quartz fissures.

The standing stones themselves are also made of quartz.

And if there are quartz crystals within the stone,

those crystals can actually be vibrating and storing energy.

NARRATOR: Today quartz is used in watches, speakers

and computer storage systems.

Is it possible that the Carnac Stones,

with their high quartz content and strategic placement,

had some kind of technological function?

TAYLOR: It's really interesting that these stones

are standing in just the right locations

where you could create a phenomena like this.

You can store

and create electromagnetic energy

in these types of stones.

Somebody understood something about the quartz in the ground,

the standing stones and the fault line.

It's too big of a coincidence

for them not to have understood that.

NARRATOR: Were the Carnac Stones created

to be part of an electrical grid?

One that was designed by extraterrestrial visitors

to tap into the natural energy produced by the Earth?

If so, what exactly

were they using the energy for?

Energy can be amplified by these standing stones.

And it can be emitted, as well.

Much like we use antennas, and towers,

radio towers and things like that.

We have to wonder, does it have to do

with extraterrestrials and spacecraft?

TSOUKALOS: What if somebody came here

who has been around longer than us

and has figured out how to harness

the energy of the planet

through use of standing stones?

The stone rows in Carnac, Brittany,

to me, are a calling card.

It's a message that somebody was here in the past,

and they were our teachers.

Thousands of miles off the coast of South America

is a tiny island in the South Pacific

where hundreds of massive stone statues

stand guard on the shoreline.

Archaeologists believe that these sentinels

could be more than 800 years old.

But just whom they depict,

and how they were moved into place,

is an intriguing mystery.

Number two on our countdown: the Moai of Easter Island.

NARRATOR: More than 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile,

a rocky island rises from the ocean.

Called Rapa Nui by the locals,

it is best known as Easter Island,

due to the fact that Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen

discovered the island on Easter Sunday, 1722.

As recorded in the ship's log, Roggeveen and his crew

were astonished by what they saw along the shore.

"We noticed certain remarkably tall stone figures.

"These stone figures caused us to be filled with wonder,

"for we could not understand how it was possible to erect them.

"Some of these statues were a good 30 feet in height

and broad in proportion."

Known as the moai,

more than 1,000 of these monolithic statues

are scattered across Easter Island's grassy cliffs.

BAHN: The statues on Easter Island, which we call moai, are

one of the great archeological wonders of the world.

They are unique.

And we believe that, overall,

they carved something like 1,000

of these moai over some centuries.

You don't realize that they're really buried

right up to their chest.

And that these statues are two, three times as large

as we can see because most of them is below ground.

Many of the statues, they're oftentimes

sort of sideways, looking up.

NARRATOR: Most moai stand between 13 to 20 feet tall,

but some reach as much as 30 feet high.

According to archaeologists,

the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island

constructed the moai between the 12th and 17th centuries AD.

Why did these people go to such great effort

to build these giant statues?

No one else in Polynesia was doing that.

When you talk to the people of Easter Island today,

the Rapa Nui people,

they say that they were doing them to honor

certain important ancestral Areeki, or rulers.

These moais are images of great ancestors.

NARRATOR: As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,

these monolithic figures

aren't just depictions of ancient rulers,

but visitors from another world.

HENRY: The thing about these moai

is that they have these very strange faces,

very elongated.

They don't look quite human.

They're humanoid, but they're somehow different

than ordinary humans.

They look almost alien in appearance.

And you have to wonder, what do they ultimately represent?

ERICH VON D ÄNIKEN: You cannot exclude that they are representation

of celestial ancestors.

We have all these statues

and the faces of the statues

do not look like the Easter Islanders.

The statues they created, they look like robots,

with long narrow noses with narrow lips.

They have nothing which compares the Easter Island people.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the moai depict extraterrestrial beings

who were once present on Easter Island?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest these visitors

also helped in the erection of the giant statues.

According to the local Rapa Nui people,

their ancestors possessed a type of divine energy

called "mana" that allowed them to levitate the moai.

The king was given the gift of mana

from the great creator god, Makemake.

Mana is a magical energy,

and it seemed to be capable of extraordinary feats.

And the king used the power of mana

to command that the great stone statues walk.

In my opinion, mana was some type

of extraterrestrial technology

that allowed these stones

to be levitated into place.

We're heading towards the number one entry

on our countdown of the most mysterious monoliths.

And some consider these standing stones

to be the most enigmatic on Earth.

We've reached number one on our countdown

of the top ten mysterious monoliths.

And this collection of massive standing stones

has baffled historians for hundreds of years.

It's a neolithic monument that some believe

has a profound connection to the cosmos.

At number one: Stonehenge.

NARRATOR: The neolithic monument known as Stonehenge

has dominated the landscape here for no less than 5,000 years.

This iconic stone circle

consists of an outer ring of 30 monoliths

topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones.

And within this ring

are five even larger stone arches.

NEWMAN: Some of the stones at Stonehenge weigh between 50 and 70 tons.

Some of the stones are even heavier.

So how could you have moved these into place?

If we go to the traditions of ancient England

about how the stones were moved,

we know that there were stories of Merlin

somehow levitating the stones all the way from Ireland.

NARRATOR: Merlin? The powerful wizard of British mythology?

According to some researchers, Merlin was not only real,

but a figure who was not of this world.

McGOWAN: The great 20th-century French philosopher

and historian, Jean Markale,

wrote over 40 books on the Celtic traditions.

And was adamant that Merlin

was an incredibly powerful otherworldly being.

And in a number of the legends,

Merlin brought the understanding of how to utilize these stones

in some extraordinary way in terms of technology,

communications, energy.

NARRATOR: Could the legend of Merlin

really be the story of an ancient alien visitor?

One who helped to build the mysterious Stonehenge monument

for some kind of technological purpose?

The point is that the standing stone formations

that we find all around the world

are pieces of the puzzle,

of the ancient astronaut theory

that, long ago, we received visits from outer space,

and we were visited by none other

than our first teachers on planet Earth.

NARRATOR: But if Stonehenge really was of extraterrestrial design,

the question remains, what purpose

might this megalithic stone circle have served?

According to some ancient astronaut theorists,

the site might have been a portal to another world.

CHILDRESS: Archaeologists now are speculating

that the blue stones

that are part of the Stonehenge complex,

they are a type of black-blue dolerite

that has very bright nodes of quartz in them.

NEWMAN: So you have electrical qualities

when the quartz is kind of crushed,

and then you have magnetic qualities as well,

within the same stone.

So this could have been used to manipulate

earth energy currents.

CHILDRESS: You have to wonder if it's a way

to create a special portal area.

It's got a special energy,

perhaps being manipulated and created

by these megalithic structures.

What is it that compelled ancient people

to construct enormous standing stones

across the globe?

It's a question that ancient astronaut theorists

believe has an extraterrestrial answer.

And whether they were used as energy sources,

or as signals to be seen from above,

or even as points of contact with otherworldly visitors,

the more we learn about the ancient monoliths,

the closer we will come to revealing

the truth about our alien origins.

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