Original subtitles

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: I have traveled

to mysterious ancient sites all around the world.

I've seen solid rock cut with laser-like precision,

monuments erected with stone blocks

weighing hundreds of tons,

and enormous pyramids positioned

to line up perfectly with the stars.

But while mainstream scholars struggle to explain

how our ancestors were able to accomplish

such an amazing feat, for me, the answer's quite simple.

Our ancestors had access to advanced technology,

and that technology was not of this world.

Critics believe that it insults the accomplishments

of ancient people when ancient astronaut theorists

suggest that they could've had help from alien beings,

but this is ridiculous,

because it is not we who say that extraterrestrials

were helping us to achieve amazing technological feats.

But it is, in fact, our ancestors who say it.

The Inca in Peru claimed

that the ancient fortress of Sacsayhuaman

was constructed with the aid of the sky god Virococha.

Early descriptions of Teotihuacán in Mexico,

a city aligned with Orion's belt,

tell of gods descending from the sky in ships.

And Hindu stories connect the temple complex

of Vizianagaram in India with gods who traveled

in flying craft called Vimana.

Was there advanced alien technology at work here

on Earth in the ancient past?

According to our ancestors, the answer is yes.

NARRATOR: Stone Valley Materials Quarry,

Riverside, California.

February, 2012.

A massive,

680,000-pound granite monolith

is prepped to travel over 100 miles

to become part of an exhibit

at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Workers from 100 utility crews,

a 1.4-million-pound crane,

and a 44-axle tractor trailer rig

with over 2,400 horsepower are needed to move the rock.

STEPHEN VANDER HART: It's gonna require

hydraulically jacking the boulder up off the ground--

which is incredibly, uh, difficult in itself--

building steel girders underneath it,

placing 208 tires underneath those steel girders,

having one power unit pulling it and one pushing it,

and still, after all that, only achieving

about five miles an hour.

NARRATOR: The boulder, called Levitated Mass,

is a gigantic payload by modern construction standards,

but it is small when compared

to many of the solid blocks moved by ancient builders.

HART: From my perspective, it is almost impossible

to take the 340-ton rock

and move it without modern-day technology.

It baffles my mind.

I-I have no idea.

It's crazy to think about.

NARRATOR: How did our ancestors move monoliths,

some over five times the size of Levitated Mass,

without the aid of high-powered machines?

Researchers believe the ancients

not only used power to move solid stone,

but to cut it as well.

And the evidence can be found

on a remote cliff face buried in the Andes Mountains.

Ollantaytambo, Peru.

The walls of this ancient mountain stronghold

tell the story of what some experts

believe to have been thousands of craftsmen

shaping and cutting solid stone with a precision

that today could only be matched

with high-powered machine tools.

BRIEN FOERSTER: We find huge, cube-like sections of stone--

andesite, which is very hard--

have been removed from the mountain

with such accuracy

that we can't find a scratch in the surface.

The corners also are not sharp.

They're perfectly rounded,

and no one can explain how this could have been achieved.

The ability to fit perfectly-fitting stones

of several tons in weight together

so that a single human hair can't fit in between them

is not a question of sweat or man-hours.

It's a question of technology.

It's really done to perfection.

And not just perfection with small blocks of stone,

but with blocks of stone weighing many, many tons.

I believe that Ollantaytambo

is evidence of really advanced human civilization on Earth

that was also worldwide and had power tools.

NARRATOR: But if our ancestors really used

sophisticated tools that ran on some sort of power,

might there have been other applications

of this technology beyond moving and cutting stone?

BILL BIRNES: All over the world,

we have extraordinarily advanced civilizations

with urban systems.

Things we have today and delivery systems for water,

for handling waste,

pumps, very sophisticated farming

and agricultural techniques

that they should not have had,

given the level of technology they worked with.

TSOUKALOS: The only thing that we have left over

is the original stone

that all these ancient structures we're built in.

Everything else that was built on top of it

that had to do potentially with electrical components,

that has disappeared, because only stone

withstands the test of time.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that

the most dominant civilizations of antiquity

were able to achieve such status

because of energy-driven technologies?

And if so, what was the source of that power?

Perhaps clues may be found

among ancient Mesopotamian artifacts.

The National Museum of Iraq.

In 1938, the museum director discovers

terra-cotta pots and copper cylinders

in the archives that may have been used

as galvanic cells.

The nearly 2,000-year-old devices,

called Baghdad batteries,

are believed to predate the invention

of the cell battery by more than 1,000 years.

Archeologists speculate they may have been used

to electroplate gold onto silver for decorative jewelry.

JASON MARTELL: The Baghdad battery

that we've currently found in Iraq--

about a dozen of them-- it can generate

around four volts.

Now, a current modern-day flashlight

could be run by a nine-volt battery.

So if we think of a Baghdad battery

around this size generating four volts,

what if we increased the size to around six feet?

That might generate 20, 30, 50 volts

and have the sufficient power

to actually utilize energy in a way that we do today.

NARRATOR: Mainstream scientists agree

that the Baghdad battery is evidence

ancient man had the means to create power

and the understanding of how to apply it.

But is there proof of even more complex devices

that may have run on electricity?

370 miles south of the Giza Plateau

stands the Hathor Temple.

Approximately 4,000 years old,

the halls of this monument are lined with curious images.

But one relief depicts what many ancient astronaut theorists

believe to be proof that the ancients used power.

They call it the Dendera bulb.

Here is a replica of the bulb

that's shown in the Dendera reliefs in Egypt.

What's interesting about this bulb is the fact that

on the wall relief we see the bulb is actually

plugged into what appears to be a power source.

NARRATOR: Did our ancestors have an understanding

of how to generate power

thousands of years before modern man?

Or is it possible that they received the knowledge

from some otherworldly source,

as some ancient astronaut theorists contend?

MARTELL: Electricity is one of those things

that ancient cultures seem to be harnessing

in ways that we still can't wrap our brain around.

So it's very possible that when we look at things

like electricity, where would they get this information?

We have all sorts of stories, mythologies and legends

that could be interpreted as gods who, in reality,

were misinterpreted extraterrestrials gifting man

with technology in the form of power.

For example, when God said, "Let there be light"

in the Old Testament,

or when Prometheus gave fire to man.

The Burning Bush and the Eternal Flame

at the Temple of Apollo, all of that conceivably

could have been technology.

The question is not if they used power,

the question is where did they get the knowledge

with which they created the power?

NARRATOR: Is there really evidence among the ruins

of ancient civilizations that man had access

to sophisticated technologies that ran on power?

If so, where are the mysterious power plants

that generated the energy?

Perhaps they're still here, hiding in plain sight.

TSOUKALOS: One of the great mysteries of the Pyramid of Giza

is how ancient people were able to light

the interior chambers while they were being built.

At first, it was thought that torches were used,

but the ceilings inside the pyramid show no traces of soot.

One time, I was actually inside the King's Chamber

when the lights went out, and I tried to use my lighter,

but it didn't work.

There wasn't even enough oxygen to feed the flame.

So how was it done?

Some have proposed that light was directed

from outside with a series of copper mirrors.

But people have actually tried to recreate this,

and after passing through only a few corners,

the sunlight fades away to nothing.

So the only remaining solution is that it was illuminated

with an artificial light source, possibly a type of lightbulb.

But what's really amazing is where the power

to light the bulb might've come from.

NARRATOR: The Giza Necropolis, Egypt.

1993.

A team of engineers uses a remotely operated camera

in an attempt to discover the true function

of what is believed to be an airshaft

leading from the supposed Queen's Chamber

of the Great Pyramid.

First discovered in 1872, archaeologists

long considered these narrow tunnels

to be ventilation ducts.

MARTELL: This robot traveled

up this small shaft, which was too small for a human

or any type of device to go through,

and all of a sudden, it finds a closed door

hinged by two little metal clamps.

NARRATOR: According to mainstream archaeologists,

the door and metal handles were intentionally built

as a symbolic passageway that the queen would travel through

to the afterlife.

But some researchers have questioned

why this passageway would have been designed

with a deliberate blockage.

And why-- on a plateau filled with monumental pyramids

believed to serve as royal tombs--

is the Great Pyramid the only one with such a door?

Egyptologists are very much fond of saying

that pyramids are tombs and that they have been robbed

at some point in the past.

But the fact is that we have found,

in the 20th century, a number of pyramids

whose central king's chamber, so to speak, is intact.

And when they opened the sarcophagus,

they found that sarcophagus to be empty as well.

NARRATOR: If the Great Pyramid was not a tomb,

what may have been its true purpose?

In May 2011,

another team of researchers set out to further explore

the blocked airshaft in the Queen's Chamber.

This time, the crew used a robot equipped

with a micro-snake camera to slip through a hole

and reveal what was beyond the door.

When they actually penetrated this small door,

they found a hidden room within the pyramid.

DUNN: What they found was copper fittings or the metal fittings.

Another feature of the back of these

metal fittings was that on one side,

the loop looked like it was corroded.

The camera also looked down and scanned the floor,

and what we saw was red markings.

My interpretation of those were they were electrical symbols.

But why were they there?

NARRATOR: Could these artifacts be actual evidence

that electricity once coursed through the structure?

[electrical hissing]

And if so,

could the Great Pyramid of Giza have been built

to serve as not a royal tomb but a power plant,

as some researchers contend?

DUNN: If we dismiss the tomb theory

and we look at the pyramid itself,

we see something that modern engineers

can really tune into and understand.

What we have is a very, very precise building

that has the precision of a fraction of an inch.

It's something that is very noteworthy

and not indicative of a simple agrarian culture.

So what we have is something that is almost like a machine.

NARRATOR: If the Great Pyramid was a sophisticated machine,

potentially capable of creating energy,

how could it have worked?

Some researchers believe clues can be found

by exploring underneath the structure.

In 2000, maritime engineer John Cadman proposed a theory

that the Egyptians pumped water from the nearby Nile River

into a small chamber underneath the Great Pyramid.

The pump could then create intense hydraulic pressure

that would cause the entire pyramid to vibrate.

JOHN CADMAN: In the subterranean chamber, there is some evidence

that shows that there had been water present in it,

and that there's water erosion

on the floor, and then up in the thin area.

And then also,

because it was a hydraulic pulse generator.

So you have a rarefaction wave,

which is an extremely low pressure wave,

which would have struck the ceiling,

and the ceiling is actually chipped.

And that would have been from the actual compression waves

hitting the ceiling.

It's very evident.

NARRATOR: If Cadman's theory proves true,

what would have been the purpose of the hydraulic pulse?

Engineer Chris Dunn believes the answer can be found

by further examination of the shafts in what some call

the Queen's Chamber,

where traces of zinc

and hydrochloric acid have been discovered.

DUNN: I believe the chemical coming in through

the northern shaft was hydrated zinc

and the other chemical coming through the southern shaft

and into the chamber was dilute hydrochloric acid.

These are actually seen on the chamber walls.

NARRATOR: Dunn suggests that the two chemicals

were poured down through the shafts

and then mixed together inside the Queen's Chamber,

triggering combustion.

This vessel represents the Queen's Chamber.

Into the tubes, we're going to pour hydrated zinc...

...and then hydrochloric acid.

When you bring these two liquids together,

and a chemical reaction occurs,

and a product of that chemical reaction is hydrogen.

And you can see the vapor, the hydrogen,

escaping through the chimney.

And there you have the reaction.

NARRATOR: Dunn speculates that the hydrogen gas

traveled from the Queen's Chamber

into the King's Chamber.

Then, the vibrations from the subterranean pool

energized the hydrogen atoms into a microwave energy beam.

The evidence that indicates the use of hydrogen

can be found in the King's Chamber.

There's a shaft in the King's Chamber,

has dimensions of 8.4 by 4.8,

which would be suitable for a wave guide for a MASER,

or Microwave Amplification

through Stimulated Emission Radiation.

And from there, we can actually propose

many different ideas of what they did with it.

NARRATOR: Might the Great Pyramid of Giza

actually have created power in the remote past?

And is it possible that energy ran the advanced tools

of early builders and devices like the Dendera bulb?

DUNN: We can use our imaginations

and, uh, come up with all kinds of devices

to power with that kind of energy.

Uh, from simple domestic appliances

to highly advanced spacecraft.

I mean, all things are possible.

The ancient Egyptians demonstrated

an exceptional level of skill

in everything that they created during the Old Kingdom.

But the question remains: did they do it on their own?

Or did they have some access to information

or technology that was not of this Earth?

NARRATOR: If Giza was in fact a power plant,

could the energy have been used for some otherworldly purpose,

as some ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

And if the power coming from Giza was that strong,

could it have traveled beyond Egypt?

Answers may be found in a material that connects Giza

to a special kind of monolith,

one that exists on continents all over the world.

TSOUKALOS: One of the earliest symbols of ancient Egypt

is the djed pillar.

It is commonly understood to represent stability,

but it also bears a striking resemblance

to a modern-day device.

It first appears on the staff of the creator god Ptah,

and is this pillar with four rings at the top

that looks very much like a Tesla coil,

a device invented to transmit electricity wirelessly.

And I suggest that,

based on other evidence found in Egypt,

our ancestors did just that.

NARRATOR: The sun temple at Abu Gorab,

Memphis, Egypt.

In 1898, an excavation team with the Berlin Museum

discovered the base of a massive obelisk

estimated to have once stood at over 160 feet tall.

According to the ancient Egyptian

building texts from Edfu, Abu Gorab was known

as the "Place of the Gods."

Egyptologists know it as a place

where the ancients connected with divine energies.

It is said that this is the very place

where pharaohs and priests experienced heightened awareness

through the use of vibrations

transmitted through the obelisk.

MARTELL: This ancient obelisk was used as a geodetic marker,

pinpointing the source of some type of ancient energy.

Maybe not spiritual energy, but actual physical energy

that they were able to harness.

NARRATOR: While scholars believe Abu Gorab was home

to one of the largest obelisks ever constructed,

similar-shaped monoliths have been found

in hundreds of variations all over the world.

Unsuitable for shelter, storage, or a higher vantage point,

could obelisks have served another, more powerful purpose?

CHILDRESS: There's evidence that obelisks are

tapping into this natural energy that's-that's part of the Earth.

The whole concept is to take

these natural energies of the Earth and manipulate them.

It's a subtle energy, but for those who have the devices

and technology to see and measure this energy,

it's something that can be used.

I believe obelisks are kind of like

acupuncture needles for the Earth,

focusing and possibly healing Earth energy meridians

that are not balanced,

and that the ancient cultures knew how to do that.

NARRATOR: A vast number of obelisks

are constructed from granite,

a stone containing high concentrations

of energy-responsive quartz crystal.

Because of its crystalline structure,

quartz has the ability to convert

the Earth's natural electrical vibrations into usable energy

by a property known as piezoelectricity.

The "piezo" is for the vibrating or oscillating,

and the "electric" is for electric.

What this means is that you can use electricity

to make them vibrate mechanically.

And when they vibrate mechanically,

they can generate electricity.

DOC BARHAM: Crystals have been used throughout all of history

for various inventions, various technologies,

and for getting things done.

Your watch that you wear on your wrist

could be a technology that uses crystals.

Crystals are literally a tool and a technology

that's essentially for transducing energy,

and that is taking energy in one state

and essentially converting it to another state.

NARRATOR: Is it possible the ancient cultures

that erected obelisks had some understanding

of the high-tech properties of quartz?

And, if so, could they have used obelisks

to transmit energy over vast distances?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer is yes

and that evidence can be found

by studying the work of Nicola Tesla.

In July 1899, the famed scientist

claimed to have invented a way to transmit electricity

through the air, wirelessly, all over the world.

By harnessing the Earth's natural conductivity,

or what Tesla called "standing waves,"

giant transmitters could send and receive

limitless amounts of electricity,

flowing like invisible water.

And one of the key components in his system was quartz crystal.

DENNIN: Typically, when we deal

with the energy of electromagnetic waves,

it's in what we call a propagating form.

It's like the flashlight-- you turn it on and it moves.

It propagates through space

and goes from one place to another.

A standing wave is kind of a different phenomena,

because the wave just oscillates in one place, up and down,

and the energy goes in between two different regions,

back and forth.

NARRATOR: Some researchers believe that, like Tesla,

ancient builders discovered the ability to harness

and broadcast Earth's power,

and the ancient equivalent to Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower

may have been the Great Pyramid.

The walls of this massive monument

contain a high concentration of quartz crystal,

and some believe the Great Pyramid,

in conjunction with the obelisks,

made up what may have been

a global wireless energy network.

DUNN: The pyramids were actually geomechanical devices.

In other words, they were attached to the Earth.

They were tuned to vibrate with the frequencies of the Earth,

and they converted the energies of the Earth

into electromagnetic energy.

CHILDRESS: Obelisks themselves,

uh, particularly the ones we find in Egypt, are in fact

giant crystal antennas,

and they can broadcast power

in the way that Nikola Tesla, the great American inventor,

wanted to broadcast power.

NARRATOR: Could obelisks have been constructed

as ancient energy conductors?

And was this expertise really the product of man alone?

Or might it have been the result

of an otherworldly intelligence,

as ancient astronaut theorists contend?

COPPENS: We do know that obelisks

symbolize this power of the gods.

The top of the obelisk is a small pyramid.

It is a Benben stone.

And it is the Benben stone which is said

to have been a communication device with the deities.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: It's possible

that inside of some pyramids

there might be some sort of energy.

Let's say some sort of equipment which creates waves.

So I could imagine

that some of the real gods, the extraterrestrials,

some thousands of years ago,

they left some little technology inside the pyramid,

and this technology was very super modern

and powerful.

NARRATOR: Could the numerous obelisks

found at various sites all around the world

actually be remnants of a power system

far more sophisticated than anything available today?

And is it possible our ancestors

may have pioneered other types of power plants

thousands of years ago,

which would be considered cutting-edge

by 21st century standards?

Some believe the answer can be found

in the remote mountains of the Himalayas.

[bird screeching]

NARRATOR: The Indus Valley,

Pakistan, 1922.

The Indian Archeological Survey discovers the remnants

of what is the largest ancient city

of the Indus Valley civilizations,

Mohenjo Daro.

The artifacts and architecture

catalogued at the site indicate a metropolis

prospered here nearly 4,600 years ago.

But the skeletal remains found among the ruins

tell a puzzling story.

I understand that they found

a lot of radioactive ash there,

and they found radioactive people there.

And so the assumption is

that there must have been some radiation event,

and so it is possible that there was some kind of

nuclear explosion there a long time ago.

The problem is that in order to do that,

in order for that to be the case,

you would have to have some very advanced technology.

CHILDRESS: These people are just lying dead in the street.

There's radioactive skeletons.

There are ceramics that have been melted.

It's as if some kind of atomic,

nuclear detonation went off in this area,

totally destroying these cities and killing everyone.

What we may be seeing is the residue

of one of the ancient power plants

used by extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: But if, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,

Mohenjo Daro was wiped out in a nuclear meltdown,

where is the power plant

that might have caused such mass devastation?

Mount Kailash, Western Tibet.

At an elevation of nearly 22,000 feet,

this mountain is one of the most distinctive peaks

in the world.

COPPENS: This is a very interesting shape

for a mountain.

It is cone-shaped from one side

and pyramid-shaped from another.

And this is precisely the shape we see elsewhere

in ancient Sumeria,

ancient Egypt, various other ancient civilizations,

whereby this pyramid-shaped object

really is said to have some form of power,

some kind of connection with the deity.

NARRATOR: In the Eastern World, Mount Kailash is regarded

as the spiritual center of the universe

and the birthplace of four of the world's religions:

Hinduism,

Buddhism,

Jainism,

and Taoism.

For thousands of years,

religious pilgrims have trekked here

to perform the holy ritual of walking

a 32-mile circular path carved along the mountain's base.

COPPENS: Everybody at one point in their lifetime

had to go to this place to connect with the gods.

And this is really the interesting aspect,

because what is it about this mountain

which sets it apart from other mountains?

There are several possibilities.

One of them is that the gods really took residence here.

NARRATOR: Is it possible,

as some ancient astronaut theorists speculate,

that Mount Kailash was once inhabited,

or perhaps operated, by the gods?

They say the true significance of this mountain can be found

detailed in an ancient Chinese drawing.

One thing that's fascinating about Mount Kailash

is that numerous religions have stories

of gods or transcendent beings actually living here.

Hindus believe that Lord Shiva dwelled here,

while Jainism associates the mountain

with Rishabha, the first perfect man.

And followers of Bon, a Tibetan religion,

believe it to be the home of the sky goddess Sipaimen.

Now, you have to ask,

did our ancestors tell stories of gods inhabiting this area

because they actually encountered

extraterrestrial beings?

If so, then Mount Kailash

was once much more than just a mountain.

NARRATOR: The Magao Caves, Western China.

Between 500 B.C. and 1500 A.D.,

Buddhist monks stored thousands of scrolls and manuscripts

inside a series of painted temples and shrines

dug into a hillside

approximately 600 miles north of Mount Kailash.

Here, in 1907,

Hungarian-born British explorer Aurel Stein

discovered a sealed-off room

containing nearly 50,000 manuscripts

in various languages.

WILLIAM HENRY: Aurel Stein finds this incredible place

called the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas,

which is sort of like a Buddhist hall of records.

It's a cache of thousands upon thousands

of ancient Buddhist texts.

Included within this is the Diamond Sutra,

which is the oldest printed manuscript

known to human history.

NARRATOR: The collection of ancient texts and relics

also included a second-century A.D. Buddhist diagram

of a cosmic mountain called Mount Meru,

a sacred site believed to be a stairway

connecting heaven and earth.

For nearly 100 years,

the ancient illustration drew little notice,

but recently, the diagram caught the attention

of a scientist from Northrup Grumman

who specializes in the development

of advanced weapons for the military.

HENRY: He said, "I design particle beam weapons

"for a living for the government.

"Do you realize that that's a blueprint

for a particle accelerator?"

I went and compared the diagram of Mount Meru

with an illustration of what's called the cyclotron--

an atom smasher-- which was used in the development

of the A-bomb for the Manhattan Project.

They're a perfect match for one another.

CHILDRESS: Aurel Stein's diagram of Mount Meru

that he found seemed to show Mount Meru as some kind

of particle beam, uh, accelerator

or some device that was

stacked up, uh, had different lenses.

It would've made it into some device that focused energy.

The kind of energy needed

would have required some tremendous

power plant, something putting out

enormous amounts of energy.

NARRATOR: Might the nearly 2,000-year-old

Buddhist diagram of Mount Meru actually depict a device

that today would run on nuclear power?

Mongolian myth says that these celestial beings

dwelled around Meru because of the energy

that was emitted from it.

It was a transmitter of this cosmic power

that fed these celestial beings or kept them alive.

Whatever the purpose of this device was,

it would have required some extremely

powerful energy source, some type of nuclear power.

And I think that power might have come from Mount Kailash.

This wasn't a place that actually put out

spiritual energy,

but what we're talking about is a place that produced

raw energy, technological energy.

Potentially, we're talking about a power plant.

NARRATOR: Could the ruins at Mohenjo-Daro really be evidence

that a nuclear power plant existed in the Himalayas

thousands of years ago?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes, and speculate

that remnants of a worldwide power grid may be found

among the sacred ruins of ancient civilizations

all over the world.

NARRATOR: Three Mile Island,

Chernobyl,

Fukushima Daiichi.

[alarm blaring]

These sites are now just shells

of what were once thriving power plants

of the 20th century.

MARTELL: Nuclear power is widely used in today's infrastructure,

and it serves a very high need,

but we also know that nuclear power can possibly

become unstable and cause a meltdown.

[Geiger counter clicking]

TSOUKALOS: Just like the power plants

we've seen melting down in modern times,

the ancients saw their own power plants fail.

And did that in turn cause

some of the greatest civilizations to fall?

If we assume that all of these power plants

were somehow connected,

and one power plant went offline,

is it possible that, as a result,

the other power plants went offline, as well?

NARRATOR: Some researchers believe

just as modern engineers employ strategic placement

of power plants today, so did the ancients.

And that some sacred sites were not revered for spiritual

or ritualistic reasons, as mainstream scholars believe,

but actually valued for their capacity to produce energy.

Certain monuments are placed in certain locations,

and we might think this is haphazard.

But we are slowly beginning to realize that it is not the case.

And the reason why is because whether it is the Great Pyramid,

whether it's Stonehenge, whether it's Teotihuacan,

whether it is another important power site of our ancestors,

we're beginning to realize that those sites have

an energy which we don't register at first.

NARRATOR: But if ancient engineers pulled energy

from a power grid, as some researchers believe,

why, after thousands if not tens of thousands of years,

did the power stop flowing?

DUNN: The ancient Egyptians had developed

their knowledge over many years.

And they must have had tools and technology that do not exist

in the archaeological record anymore.

So something happened to this ancient culture that caused

the power plants to shut down and probably wiped out

a large portion of the civilization.

They possessed incredible technology,

which means that they were far older

than we think they are.

And then something happened to them.

Whether they fought, blew themselves up,

or some Earth-wide calamity came and wiped them out.

NARRATOR: But where would agrarian cultures--

some that didn't have the wheel or work animals--

acquire the skills necessary to build

a worldwide energy grid and the power plants to run it?

TSOUKALOS: According to the ancient astronaut theory,

extraterrestrials have always been motivated by the idea

of advancing human civilization.

They've given us so many gifts of knowledge

that power is pretty much a no-brainer.

The thing all these ancient cultures had in common

is that they included stories and artifacts that are meant

to honor those who gave them this knowledge:

the gods.

And the gods were extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that alien beings

helped ancient man create a global network

of sophisticated power plants in the remote past...

...one that may have powered the devices used

to create civilization's

greatest archaeological mysteries?

Today, we consider our modern technology

to be the greatest the world has ever known.

But there is increasing evidence that there may have been

even more incredible technologies

that once existed in the ancient past.

Perhaps when scientists begin rediscovering

these technologies, we'll be close

to rediscovering mankind's true origins.

And we'll finally have proof

that it wasn't myths and fantasies that our ancestors

were carving on the walls of their tombs and temples,

but they were reporting history.