All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S22E13.en

[Narrator] It is one of the
most unexplored places on Earth.

The majority of the Amazon

is still completely untouched
by archaeology.

[Narrator] But now,
the long-held secrets

of the Amazon are finally
coming to light.

[Andrew Collins] We have
pyramid platforms,

plazas that show
an incredibly advanced

culture that
completely went missing.

So where exactly did
all of this come from?

[Hugh Newman] All across
the Amazon,

they talk about these sky beings

coming down to Earth

and sharing knowledge
about civilization.

[Narrator] Could the dense
jungle canopy of the Amazon

be hiding an alien presence?

[William Henry] Perhaps
it's going to reveal

the greatest understanding
of extraterrestrial contact

anywhere in the world.

♪ ♪

[Narrator] Stretching over
two million square miles

across South America
is Amazonia,

a region of dense jungle,

mighty rivers,

and mysterious phenomena.

More commonly referred to
as simply the Amazon,

this vast rainforest
covers nine nations

and is home to more than
30 million people.

The Amazon is huge.

It's actually an area
larger than

the entire United States.

In terms of trees, there are

16,000 different varieties.

Insects, 2.5 million.

And the flora and fauna there

is more diverse than
any other forest on the planet.

It's almost impossible
to imagine

exactly how vast
and incredible it is.

It's very dense.
It's very dangerous.

It's got rushing waters
filled with dangerous fish.

It's got violent waterfalls,

trees that are so tall

they're hard to climb
to see what's next.

[Narrator] The extreme
conditions in the Amazon

make much of it nearly
impossible to access on foot.

As a result, less than 15%

of this mysterious landscape
has been explored,

mapped, or extensively studied
by modern scientists.

But despite its inaccessibility,

the Amazon is home to hundreds
of Indigenous tribes,

many of which have never made
contact with the outside world.

Just within the Amazon itself

are over 400 Indigenous tribes,

and we know of 300 distinct
languages they speak.

These people may have been
around for thousands of years,

so we have
an incredible resource here.

We have a window
into the ancient world.

[Narrator] Many of the
native peoples of the Amazon

claim to have
inhabited the areas

they live in for centuries.

Like the Asháninka,

one of Peru's largest
Indigenous groups.

According to the Asháninka,

their ancestors
were taught how to live

in harmony with the rainforest

by celestial visitors
who came down from the sky.

The Asháninka say that
part of the creation

involved star beings

that came down and taught humans

essential things like farming.

This particular group

does sustainable farming
very, very well,

and they credit these star
beings with teaching them that.

[Narrator] Similarly,
the Ticuna of Brazil,

Colombia, and Peru

hold annual ceremonies to honor
the "people of the sky,"

who gave their culture
the knowledge

to build a civilization.

[Barnhart] The Ticuna people
honor those spirits to this day

through ceremonies in which
they have very elaborate

body paint that tells the story
of those original people

who came down, and those people
went back up into the sky.

Throughout the Amazon,
we find incredible

Indigenous tales
of sky gods, star beings,

that came into the area
to deliver knowledge

and then ultimately left,

and perhaps
with a promise to return.

I think one of the reasons
why many of these cultures

have these annual festivals
is in order

to remember these things
as a commemoration

of a real event,
a physical event

that happened hundreds,
if not thousands of years ago.

[Narrator] As far
as ancient astronaut theorists

are concerned,

Indigenous peoples
throughout the Amazon

share similar traditions
because their ancestors

encountered the same
extraterrestrial visitors.

But is there
any physical evidence

that this could be true?

For decades,
archaeologists proposed

that only small,
isolated settlements

had ever existed
in the Amazon rainforest.

But in the 21st century,
new technology

has proven this notion
to be entirely wrong.

[Narrator reads on-screen text]

The National Institute
for Cultural Heritage funds

an extensive survey
of the ancient Upano Valley

using lidar to penetrate
the jungle canopy

and create precise 3D mapping
of the forest floor.

Nine years later, in 2024,

archaeologists published
the astonishing results,

which reveal a staggering
115 square miles

of sophisticated settlements

that may have formed
an entire lost civilization.

We have at least 6,000
different structures

that have been found in total.

We have major, major structures

comparable to
the Giza Plateau in size.

[David Cheetham] There is
estimated 30,000 people

in this setting
maybe as early as 500 BC.

And you have agriculture
and settlement and urbanism,

all in a symbiotic
sort of relationship.

[David Childress] In the
Upano Valley,

we also have
over 120 square miles

of canals and grids
and causeways.

And this is a flood-prone area
of the Amazon.

And so, when they built all
these earthworks,

they were designed, you know,
to, uh, mitigate this flooding.

So, that's
hydraulic engineering.

[Collins] It was suggested
in the past

that nothing could've built up

from a cultural perspective
in the Amazon area,

but now we know that lidar

is slowly revealing
civilizations that

we didn't even know existed
until the last 20 years,

and that's quite incredible.

[Narrator] Around the same time

that these
astonishing discoveries

were being made
in Ecuador's Upano Valley,

other lidar surveys
began taking place

throughout the Amazon region,

and uncovered additional
evidence of lost civilizations.

[Barnhart] In the Amazon part
of Peru,

they have now found--
thanks to lidar--

over 415 discrete sites,

and these are big sites.

They're not just
little campsites.

They have architecture
and they have roads.

[Collins] The Llanos de Moxos is
a region of the Bolivian Amazon

that has recently revealed,
through lidar,

pyramid platforms,

plazas, earthworks,

agricultural areas
that show that there was

a structured society
that completely went missing.

They're speculating that there
were eight to ten million people

living in that region,
in the Amazonian basin.

They had a technological
know-how that far exceeds

any expectations,
and quite frankly, far exceeds

what we see of the Indigenous
peoples now or recently.

[Henry] These discoveries
are a complete obliteration

of our previous view
of the Amazonian people.

So, we have to ask the question,
where did these people

get this extraordinary
knowledge from?

We know almost nothing
about these people,

however, the myths and legends
of the entire area

speak of these sky beings
that the ancient Amazonians

told came down
out of the heavens

and brought
this knowledge to them.

[Narrator] Could the
recent discovery

that vast cities existed

in the Amazon rainforest
centuries ago

indicate that the stories of
the Indigenous people are true?

Were their ancestors able to
thrive in this harsh environment

not only by their own ingenuity
but also because they received

assistance from
otherworldly visitors?

Perhaps further clues
can be found

by examining
a mysterious ceremony

held in Brazil
centered around a figure who,

according to local tradition,
emerged from a flying craft

wearing a space suit.

[Narrator reads on-screen text]

Along the banks
of the Xingu River

lives an Indigenous tribe
that has occupied this region

for centuries

and had no contact
with the outside world

until the 1950s.

Known as the Kayapo,
they continue to maintain

their ancient traditions passed
down through the generations.

The Kayapo people have some
really interesting traditions

that relate to their cosmology.

The men can often be seen
wearing a vibrant headdress

covered in feathers
representing the universe.

And they wear long ropes
in their hair, which symbolize

the ropes their ancestors used
when they arrived from the sky.

[Narrator] Kayapo legend says
that, long ago, their ancestors

lived far away in the place
where the Sun rises,

until one day, they climbed
down to Earth on ropes

through a hole in the sky.

After arriving in the Amazon,
the ancient people witnessed

an otherworldly being
descend from the heavens

who they called Bep-Kororoti.

[Henry] To this day,
the Kayapo people will reenact

a ceremony where young boys
will dress up

as Bep-Kororoti and reenact what
the ancients were encountering

Bep-Kororoti was a knowledge
bearer, a culture bearer,

who delivered laws,
who delivered knowledge

about agriculture,
about navigation, and then left

in a thunderous rise
into the heavens.

[Barnhart] The myth
about Bep-Kororoti

among these folks
is that he came down

from the heavens to give
humanity all sorts of gifts

of how to do agriculture
and hunting and things.

He came down in a very strong,
fancy-looking suit,

and he had a very warrior ethos.

Bep-Kororoti means
"being who came from the stars."

Now, according to the Kayapo,

Bep-Kororoti descended
from the sky in a fireball,

emerged in this bulky suit
out of this vehicle,

and he spoke their language
and said,

"Don't be afraid.
I'm here to teach you."

He was their first teacher.

He looks very similar to, like,
a type of a modern-day astronaut

with, you know,
the pressurized suit.

The story of Bep-Kororoti
is one of the smoking guns

of the ancient astronaut theory

because it could be interpreted
as a direct contact story

with an extraterrestrial

whom our ancestors
misinterpreted

as having divine powers

because they misunderstood,
well, the technology.

[Narrator] Could
the Kayapo story

of Bep-Kororoti reveal
that the Brazilian rainforest

was a place of extraterrestrial
contact in the distant past?

As with other parts
of the Amazon,

recent lidar surveys have
revealed lost ancient structures

along the same Xingu River
where the Kayapo live.

[Schoch] What we're finding

is that the Amazon
was not as it is today.

Especially thousands
of years in the past.

The Indigenous people
were incredibly sophisticated.

It's really tantalizing.

And what I would say now is,
we're just really

hitting the tip
of the proverbial iceberg

as far as
what was going on there.

How sophisticated were they?

[Childress] We've discovered,
through lidar,

roads, mounds, and pyramids.

And with all of this landscape
engineering and modification,

you have to wonder,

where did they learn
this sophistication?

Where did they get
the knowledge to do this?

When you look
at the Kayapo stories,

it would seem that it has to do
with extraterrestrial activity.

[Narrator] As far as
ancient astronaut theorists

are concerned,
the lidar findings in Brazil

help to corroborate
the Kayapo story

that says their ancestors

encountered
an extraterrestrial visitor.

And they suggest further
evidence of otherworldly contact

can be found
in the stories of other

Indigenous Brazilian peoples.

1,200 miles west
of the Kayapo settlements,

the 652-mile-long Vaupés River

winds through dense rainforest

along the border
of Brazil and Colombia.

Along this river

are the many communities
of the Tukano people.

[Newman] The Tukano are almost

entirely isolated
from the outside world.

But their society is made up
of 17 different groups

that speak
16 different languages.

But what is interesting is
that the separate ethnic groups

are strongly interconnected
through their shared mythology.

According to their legends,
their ancestors witnessed

otherworldly beings
descending from the sky

in canoes of light
or radiant discs.

The canoes are interesting
because they're described

as being serpent-like,

and they would travel through
the kind of sacred rivers

seeding different cultures
as it moved through.

[Barnhart] When we're talking
to Amazonian tribes

and they're describing

their worldview to us,

the translation is kind of lost
in translation.

So they'll talk about things
that are made of light,

but it's not necessarily
a light source.

It glows as if
it's from another place.

So that's what the Tukano
canoes are envisioned as.

They have a glow. They have
a spectral light about them.

[Tsoukalos] Now, we all know
that canoes do not fly,

so why do we have stories
of flying canoes?

Once again, according to
the ancient astronaut theory,

we have an ancient description
of modern-day technology.

These descriptions of these
ancient aerial vehicles

were-were not derived
out of fantasy

but because our ancestors
witnessed these flying machines.

[Narrator] Do the stories
of the Tukano and the Kayapo

provide further evidence
that extraterrestrials

made contact with ancient
civilizations in the Amazon?

Could the recently discovered
ruins hidden underneath

the dense jungle hold evidence

of interactions
with otherworldly beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and they suggest that
an alien presence in the Amazon

was not only experienced
centuries ago,

it's continuing even today.

[Narrator reads on-screen text]

Local police stations
and newsrooms

are flooded by a series
of extraordinary reports

of mysterious flying objects.

The reports continue
for several weeks,

and on November 17th,
the newspaper O Liberal

published the account
of a seven-year-old boy

who was attacked
by an orb of light.

[Henry] The villagers
reported these

glowing orbs of light
that were shooting

what appeared to be
laser beams at them.

They called them "chupa-chupas"
because they were painful

when they hit the skin,
and the people thought that

they were sucking their energy
or their blood out of them.

[Narrator] The very next day,
November 18th,

local newspaper
O Estado do Pará

ran a story that the orbs
had been terrorizing

neighborhoods across the region.

[Tsoukalos] Usually,

UFO incidents,

you know, happen
to a single person

or to two people,
and often people wonder,

"Well, you know,
was the story made up?"

But if you have an event
that was witnessed

and experienced by a group
of people, and sometimes

by people not even
in the same group,

well, then you really
have to start listening.

And in the case
of the 1977 account,

something really strange

affected a lot of people.

[Narrator] Then,
on November 19th,

newspaper A Província do Pará

featured interviews
with four women

who claimed they were attacked
by the phenomena.

[Narrator] The reports
continued for months,

and the event
came to be considered

one of Brazil's
most famous UFO incidents.

It got to the point
where the villagers

wouldn't go out at night.

Fishermen wouldn't go out
into the seas at night.

They were terrified
by what they were experiencing.

[Narrator] As sightings
increased, the mayor of Colares

asked the Brazilian Air Force

to help put an end
to the violent encounters.

[Narrator] Known as
Operation Prato--

or Operation Saucer in English--

the Brazilian Air Force

studied the phenomena
for almost six months.

Then the investigation
was abruptly canceled

by military higher-ups,

who claimed they were concerned
about sparking a public panic.

This operation was rapidly
shut down after the military

came in and took photos,
after they took surveys.

And they completely locked down
any reference to this story.

What actually
did they find there?

Was it something so terrifying

that they couldn't reveal it
to the people,

or was it direct evidence

of extraterrestrial contact?

[Narrator] In the years since
Operation Saucer was shut down,

independent researchers have
been searching for the evidence

collected by the Air Force.

[Narrator] Could the research
and photographic evidence

collected by Operation Saucer

be in the possession
of the United States?

While the source of the 1977
incident remains a mystery,

it is not the only account

of disturbing UFO activity
in the region.

Hundreds of similar accounts
can be found

throughout the 20th century,

many investigated
by local authorities.

One such case occurred
in April of 1980,

when a Peruvian
Air Force lieutenant

encountered
an unidentified aircraft

during a routine flight
over a military base.

[Narrator] As far as
ufologists are concerned,

the Amazon has proven
to be a UFO hot spot.

But could these modern-day
sightings be connected

to ancient stories of visitors
who came down from the sky?

[Childress] It would seem that
there's been UFO activity

in the Amazon
for thousands of years.

The Amazon itself
is such a vast area,

and it's mainly
water and jungle,

but this would be a good place

to, you know, have, say,
an extraterrestrial base.

[Narrator] As far as
ancient astronaut theorists

are concerned,
the incidents in Peru and Brazil

could reveal
that an alien presence

has persisted
in the Amazon for centuries.

And while it has been
more than 40 years

since the Colares incident,

reports continue
of unexplainable

and shocking alien activity.

[Narrator] Northern Brazil.

In July 2024,
Brazilian documentary filmmaker

Rony Vernet traveled
deep into the rainforest

to investigate
a series of recent encounters

between local villagers
and mysterious orbs of light.

[Henry] People reported
that these orbs of light

would fly through walls that
would enter into their homes,

and when they were shot
with these laser beams,

they experienced
dizziness, fatigue,

apparent radiation sickness,
burns.

[Narrator] Vernet,
a computer scientist by trade,

took a particular interest
in these reports

because of his own encounters

with strange lights
in the sky over Brazil.

[Narrator] Vernet documented
his trip to the Yawanawá village

in a film titled
Phenomena in the Amazon,

which featured
numerous eyewitness accounts

of strange events in the sky.

-[speaking foreign language]
-[translator] People had been

watching it
for about three days.

I went out to see
if I could see it, and I did.

It was standing there,
and really low.

And then we started saying,
"It is here. Here it goes."

And it moved over there
and passed.

Then it went up a little more

and then it went
in that direction.

And after about
20 minutes passed,

it lit up again,
went out, and then is gone.

[Narrator] For Vernet, the most
alarming stories he documented

were those in which witnesses

reported feeling paralyzed
during an encounter.

[speaking foreign language]

[translator] I saw
this orange ball like this,

at a height of about 30,
40 meters

illuminating a yard there.

Until then, we didn't have
this understanding.

I was going to try to shoot it,

but I was paralyzed
and I couldn't move.

And that orange light
disappeared from my sight.

[Narrator] What could explain

these mysterious sightings
in the Amazon?

To find out, Vernet enlisted
the help of the locals

to set up several 4K cameras
throughout the village.

One night,
as he monitored the footage,

he noticed something
extraordinary.

[Narrator] Just as intriguing
as the orbs' erratic movement

is where they were observed
coming from.

According to Vernet,
the UFO seemed to emerge

from deep in the jungle.

[Narrator] When Vernet
approached the local people

about what he saw,

they said that not only have
they witnessed similar phenomena

for hundreds of years
but they also believe

these lights are coming
from a portal in the forest.

[Narrator] Could
the Amazon rainforest

contain portals to other worlds?

According to
ancient astronaut theorists,

it's a distinct possibility.

[Henry] The Amazon basin is
a site of immense fascination.

These orbs of light
that fly through the trees,

that dive into the rivers
match up with other orbs

seen around the world,
suggesting that perhaps

the Amazon
is a place of contact.

It's a hideout
for some of these beings

that we still have
no awareness of.

[Narrator] Is an
otherworldly presence

hidden within the dense
rainforest of Brazil?

And perhaps even portals
to other parts

of the cosmos
or alternate dimensions?

Curiously,
in the very same region

where Rony Vernet
recorded strange orbs of light,

archaeologists have uncovered
a much older mystery--

massive ancient earthworks
that can only be seen

from the sky.

[Narrator] Acre, Brazil,
the 1980s.

As logging companies
begin to cut down trees

in the Amazon rainforest,

enormous areas
of the forest floor

are exposed for the first time.

And at one clearing,
a massive series of circles

and squares carved
into the landscape is revealed.

Known as Jacó Sá,
these earthworks, or geoglyphs,

are over 900 feet wide.

These are several hundred meters
in diameter.

Which is an incredible,
incredible task to undertake.

It would have been the task
of the whole village

to carve and to dig
and to separate

these earthworks, create mounds.

And these geoglyphs
are possibly 2,000 years old.

So, quite, quite old.

[Cheetham] In this area,
there's over 450 of these.

Sometimes they're squares,
sometimes rectangles,

sometimes squares
with circles in the middle,

and the actual function of these
things remains, uh, unknown.

[Narrator] Archaeologists have
determined that the earthworks

served no practical purpose,
such as corralling animals.

And according to
ancient astronaut theorists,

the mysterious
geometric figures displayed

in some of these
massive geoglyphs

appear to contain
a coded message.

[Whitehill] These are perfect
squares and perfect circles.

It speaks to a level
of engineering excellence,

and it speaks to a level
of intention.

That one is a square, and one
is a circle inside of a square.

Is one an entrance,
and one is an exit?

[Henry] The squaring
of the circle is,

throughout cultures
around the world, a symbol

of the unity
of heaven and earth,

which is an incredibly
abstract concept

for them to be modeling
in this geoglyph.

[Narrator] The geoglyphs
are located

in the same region
of the Brazilian rainforest

where the Indigenous
Yawanawá people have reported

mysterious orbs of light.

And a recent study proposes
that these earthworks

were designed
with an otherworldly purpose.

In 2017, researchers
at the University of São Paulo

and the University of Helsinki
suggested that the geoglyphs

of the Amazon served as doorways

through which ancient shamans

would communicate
with other realms.

[Barnhart] In the Amazon,
shamans are considered

intermediaries between
the physical world of us humans

and the spirit world.

The spirit world is really
what's pulling our strings,

but we don't see it.

It's an invisible world.

The shamans are the link
between this world and that.

[Collins] There's no question

that shamanism is

one of the most ancient,
enduring mechanisms

in the Amazon for communication
with the other world.

This type of communication is
something that's been going on

for a very, very long time,
as much as 10,000 years

and arguably
even earlier than that.

[Newman] The shaman would
actually use geoglyphs

as a place to kind of go
into meditation

to communicate
with ancestors and spirits

and even otherworldly beings,
according to their traditions.

[Barnhart] The modern Amazonians
don't mess

with these geoglyphs.

They honor them.
They protect them.

They don't farm on them.
They don't build in them again.

They see them as part
of the group of spirits

that the shamans
are connecting to.

[Narrator] Could it be
that the giant earthworks

discovered in the Amazon

were made to communicate
with celestial beings?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest the geoglyphs
were not only made

for shamanic rituals but also
to directly signal visitors

looking down on the Earth
from high above.

[Henry] When you think about
the creation of these geoglyphs,

we're talking about people that
are devoted to leaving a message

that can only be seen
from the sky.

[Childress] We find geoglyphs
all over the world.

In Kazakhstan,
in the Atacama Desert,

the American Southwest.

The famous lines and figures
on the Nazca plain in Peru.

And now we have
this area of the Amazon

that's got geoglyphs in it.

So are they trying to contact

sky gods, extraterrestrials?

[Tsoukalos] Why were they built?

And in my opinion,
it's to signal somebody, as in,

"Hey, we are down here,
come and visit."

Or essentially, "Come back."

[Collins] It's beyond
coincidence

that you have here
these geoglyphs

exactly where
all of these glowing orbs

were encountered by the
Indigenous peoples to this day.

We obviously don't know,
but what we can say is that

we are dealing with entities
from somewhere else.

[Narrator] Could it be
that there is a connection

between the ancient geoglyphs
found in Acre, Brazil

and the orbs of light witnessed
in the very same region today?

Might this be evidence
of an extraterrestrial presence

that has persisted in the Amazon
for thousands of years?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest that,
with new exploration

taking place in the rainforest,

many long-held secrets
may soon be revealed.

[Narrator] The Alto Mayo
landscape, Peru.

This region
of the Amazon rainforest

spans almost 3,000 square miles,

an area roughly the size
of Delaware.

In 2022, a team of scientists
from Conservation International

surveyed the area,
and discovered

27 new species of animals,
plants, and insects.

It's amazing just how many
new species were discovered

over a area
of 3,000 square miles

over just such a short period
of 38 days.

And you just have to wonder
how many more new species

are out there just waiting
to be discovered.

[Skinner] We're finding
such an amazing amount each day

and each year.

We know more now in probably

the last ten, 20 years
than we have in the last 100.

[Narrator] The discovery
of new species

is just one more indication

that the Amazon hides many
secrets still to be uncovered.

And ancient astronaut theorists
believe that,

as we continue to plumb
the depths of the jungle,

we will one day find
the ultimate proof

of an extraterrestrial presence
on this planet.

[Henry] The Amazon
is a perfect hiding place.

It's a treasure house of ancient
civilizations and secrets

that have long been hidden
by the canopy of the jungle.

[Childress] You know,
when we think of the vastness

of the Amazon
and the huge rivers

and forests that are there,

this is a pretty good place
to hide.

I mean, even today,
many parts of the Amazon

are just so incredibly remote,

and they're unexplored.

[Narrator] According
to ancient astronaut theorists,

the notion of an alien presence
in the Amazon

is not mere speculation
but a reality that is

well-documented by the stories

and traditions
of the Indigenous people.

[Newman] What's so interesting
is that

discoveries have been found
in the whole Amazon region

which were quite astonishing,
in my opinion.

And it really does show a level
of sociopolitical organization

really reaching
a whole other level.

There's also traditions

throughout the Amazon of gods

or sky beings
who would descend to Earth.

They would bring social order,
provide ritual knowledge

and other such things
to these societies.

So there's this
interesting connection

between these myths and stories
that come out of the Amazon

and what we're finding here
under the jungle canopy.

[Tsoukalos] What's fascinating
is, there are examples

from different tribes
of the Amazon that talk about

a celestial visitor
imparting knowledge

or building the first schools.

And they have these remembrance
festivals one time each year

so people don't forget.

[Henry] When we put all the
pieces together in the Amazon--

the geometric earthworks,

the sky beings that
the ancient Amazonians told

came down out of the heavens,

when we look
at what lidar has revealed

in terms of understanding
of the complexity

of these ancient civilizations--

what we're finally realizing
is that the Amazon basin

was a place of contact
in the ancient world,

and perhaps it's going to reveal

the greatest understanding
of extraterrestrial contact

anywhere in the world.

[Narrator] Is it possible
the Amazon rainforest

hides evidence
of otherworldly activity

that we are only just
beginning to unearth?

Could the shared mythology
of the Amazon peoples

that describe powerful beings
descending from the sky be true?

And if so, does there continue

to be an alien presence
in the region to this very day?

Perhaps as we continue
to explore the dense jungle,

we will uncover
not only ancient settlements

but the ultimate evidence

of our extraterrestrial origins.

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