All language subtitles for Ancient Aliens S22E06 Mysterious Monuments

[Narrator] Enormous
granite sarcophagi

that weigh more than 70 tons,

mysterious monoliths
inspired by flying crafts,

and massive sphere-shaped stones
that defy explanation.

♪ ♪

I've always said,

you know something is important
if it is built out of stone.

Why? Because it could
potentially last

for not just centuries
but millennia,

and that's exactly what we see

in remarkable ancient
constructions

that have withstood
the test of time,

but in addition to
the stone structures

we see around the world, there
are also mysterious monuments,

strange objects,

and secret spaces that
defy explanation,

like in the case of
a stone settlement

that predates history
as we know it.

[Narrator] Abu Shahrayn, Iraq.

6,000 years ago this ancient
mound was the site of Eridu,

the oldest city of
the Sumerian empire.

According to mainstream
archaeologists,

this is the cradle
of civilization.

[Felicia Beardsley] Many
archaeologists will say

civilization began
in Mesopotamia

some 6,000 years ago.

It is built on small bands
of hunter-gatherers

who adopt agriculture.

The population starts to grow,
and we begin to recognize,

we need to organize

our communities.

You start seeing these
step-sided pyramids,

where the religious practitioner

might conduct his rites
or rituals and so on,

and we have an urban
planning environment.

That also means we've got
a lot of engineering going on,

we have a lot of science,
a lot of mathematics.

It has all of those elements
we would call a civilization.

[Narrator] Many researchers
around the world believe

there is evidence to suggest

civilization existed on Earth
long before the Sumerians,

and one key source
is the writing

of the Sumerians themselves.

Ancient cuneiform tablets
list kings

who ruled tens of thousands
of years ago...

...and they tell
of an earlier age

when humans lived
among powerful beings

that came down from the sky
called the Anunnaki.

[Andrew Collins] The Anunnaki
were the builder gods

behind the creation

of the civilizations
of Sumer and Babylon.

They provided humanity with
the rudiments of civilization.

They gave humanity
animal husbandry

but also agriculture
for the first time.

[Narrator] The Sumerians
also wrote

that the Anunnaki were
responsible for bringing

a devastating cataclysm
upon the Earth...

[thunder cracks]

...eerily similar to the story
that would later appear

in the Hebrew Bible
as the Great Flood.

While nearly identical stories
of a great deluge

can be found in
the ancient texts

of many religions and cultures,

mainstream archaeologists
had argued

that there was no evidence
of any civilization

existing more than
6,000 years ago

to support the idea that such
a cataclysm actually took place.

But in the early 1990s,

Klaus Schmidt of the German
Archaeological Institute

began excavations
at the ancient site

of Göbekli Tepe
in Southeast Turkey,

and what he unearthed
changed everything.

[Paul Bahn] Once Klaus Schmidt

started excavating Göbekli Tepe,
it just blew everybody away

because we'd never before known
or imagined even

that people 12,000 years ago

could produce such spectacular
monumental structures

as he found at Göbekli Tepe.

[Tsoukalos] It is the first
archaeological site in the world

that proves its age,
dating as far back

as 12,000 years,
around 10,000 BC.

The discovery and the
official acceptance

of Göbekli Tepe's dating

has changed the history
of archaeology.

[Robert Schoch] This is
indications

of a major civilization

at that remote time,

a time when the standard
historians all along have said,

"Well, no, civilization
didn't occur at that time.

They were just simple hunter
and gatherers.

They were primitive people."

But we now have evidence
to the contrary.

[Bahn] It really did send
shock waves

through the whole world
of early prehistory

because we have never,

ever seen anything like this

from anywhere in the world

at that time, 12,000 years ago.

[Narrator] Göbekli Tepe's

nearly two dozen
enormous T-shaped pillars,

some weighing more than 20 tons,

feature numerous carvings

that include depictions
of animals, human hands,

and intricately designed
symbols.

Archaeologists estimate
that it would have taken

a team of 50 men an entire week

to move just one of
the monolithic pillars

from the limestone quarry

to the top of the hill
where they stand today

and over 300 hours
to carve the bas-reliefs.

[Roy Fisher] The structures seem
to reflect coordinated effort

among significant numbers
of people,

which is not how
we typically imagine

hunter-gatherer societies, which
are usually smaller in size.

[Narrator] For years
mainstream scholars maintained

that Göbekli Tepe was
a completely unique site,

and while highly impressive,

it was not large enough
to constitute

what would be considered
a civilization.

But then, in 2004,
author Andrew Collins

was shown photographs
of a location

that looked remarkably similar
to parts of Göbekli Tepe.

[Collins] I was visiting
Göbekli Tepe, and some children

came up to me and
showed me a picture

of this T-shaped standing stone
with this snake along the side.

And I thought, "I've
never seen this before.

Wh-Where is this?"

And it became clear that it was

some unexcavated site
in the Tektek Mountains,

which is about 25 miles

away from Göbekli Tepe,
and so I set out to find it,

and eventually I came
to this bare limestone hill,

and as I walked up towards it,
I could then see,

sticking out of the ground,

these heads of these
T-shaped pillars--

again, exactly as you see
at Göbekli Tepe--

and I realized that
somewhere beneath this soil

was something as grand
and spectacular as Göbekli Tepe.

[Narrator] For 15 years, only
a small group of researchers

were aware of the pillars
protruding from the earth

at the site known
as Karahan Tepe.

When it was finally excavated,

archaeologists were
shocked once again.

In 2019, digging begins.

And beneath the surface layers,

the archaeologists
start uncovering

dozens of these
T-shaped pillars.

[David Childress] You have about
200 of these T-shaped megaliths.

They're typically 13 feet high,
weigh about 11 tons.

You have other phallic stones,
you have

certain depictions of animals
and some human faces as well.

So we have, really, a-a
pretty extensive site.

[Narrator] The discovery of
the vast megalithic complex

made headlines around the world,

as it was estimated by experts
to have been inhabited

somewhere between 11,000
and 12,000 years ago,

just like Göbekli Tepe.

[Tsoukalos] Both Karahan Tepe
and Göbekli Tepe

are striking in beauty,

striking in how massive
and incredible

those megaliths are, and...

in my opinion they are related,

so it's also possible that
at some point a long time ago,

that entire region
was one gigantic city.

of the most mysterious
monuments on Earth,

many of which tower
over a hundred feet tall,

but deep within a forest
in Bosnia,

several unusual monoliths
have been discovered

that are not only massive,

they are almost perfect spheres.

[Narrator] Zavidovici,
Bosnia, 1999.

Archaeologist Dr. Sam Osmanagich
and a small team of researchers

are hiking along the Bosna River

when they come upon
an astonishing sight.

In the midst of the dense forest
are massive boulders

that do not appear to be
a part of the natural landscape.

We discovered six of them
intact, perfectly preserved

and perfectly spherical.

[Narrator] To Dr. Osmanagich,

the near-perfect shape
of the objects is compelling.

[Osmanagich speaks
foreign language]

And he begins to comb the region

in search of other
stone spheres.

[Osmanagich] We have been
researching

the stone spheres
in Bosnia for 25 years,

and we have discovered
20 different locations.

The stone spheres in Bosnia come
in four different materials--

granite, volcanic stone,
sandstone and limestone--

and different sizes also.

In most cases they
are over one ton.

[Narrator] After his initial
discovery of the stone spheres,

Dr. Osmanagich expanded
his search,

and in 2016 he spotted the
most enormous stone sphere

he had ever seen hidden
in the forest floor.

[Osmanagich] We could see
that the small part

of the sphere was sticking out.

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] How the Bosnian
stone spheres were created

remains a mystery.

Some geologists suggest they
were shaped through erosion,

but others believe the spheres
are simply too perfect

to have been formed naturally.

There is a process called

spherical, or spheroidal,
weathering

that is very, very common.

We see them on the landscape
in Arizona everywhere.

Called hoodoos.

You can see 'em
out in Alabama Hills.

Out in Owens Valley
there's a lot of examples

of this sort of
sphere weathering,

but rarely are they
perfect spheres,

and so it could be that
some of these stones

started out mostly spheroidal

and then were worked
into a more perfect sphere.

The one in particular
that I'm thinking of, Bosnia,

that's been, um,
in the headlines lately

has evidence of heat-treating
to help facilitate polishing.

[McGowan] These are not
just round stones.

They are 96% perfect

in their spherical form.

That's not something that's
created by the earth.

[Narrator] The near-perfect
measurements

of the stone spheres
convinced Dr. Osmanagich

that they were carved
by artificial means.

And in 2016 he sparked
controversy when he announced

that he believed they originated
with some unknown civilization.

[Osmanagich] Who made them?

We don't have precise answer,
but we know that they were made

by ancient builders.

Why? Granite never

comes in spherical shape
in nature.

[Narrator] If the stone spheres
are not naturally formed,

as Dr. Osmanagich suggests,
when were they made?

Many of the spheres
are impossible

to scientifically date,
but based on the layers of soil

where the largest stone sphere
was discovered,

Dr. Osmanagich believes
it is up to 100,000 years old.

We don't have
very specific time,

but what we do know--
extremely old.

How do we know that?

The Bosnian stone spheres--

the biggest one
is discovered below.

The tree-- 50 years.

Dark soil-- hundred years.

Light soil-- couple
of hundred years.

We have light clay--
almost thousand years.

We have dark clay,
we have gray clay--

tens of thousands of years.

And finally we have
sandstone plate--

100,000-plus years.

[Narrator] Is it possible
that the stone spheres in Bosnia

were created by some
unknown culture

tens of thousands of years ago?

And if so, how?

[Osmanagich] According to
the mainstream archaeologists,

until a couple of
thousands of years back,

the only tools
were copper tools.

Copper is soft material.

You cannot use copper tools
to shape granite stones.

Of course this is us,
21st century civilization.

What did they use?

[Narrator] To try and understand
how these artifacts were shaped,

Dr. Osmanagich had several
samples taken from the spheres

analyzed in a lab

at the University
of Belgrade in Serbia.

We realized that there
is a difference

between their physical
and chemical properties

and natural stone materials.

[McGowan] There is
a chemical component

that was found
within the spheres,

and this chemical has not been
able to be identified.

[Narrator] If the giant stone
spheres in Bosnia were created

by an ancient civilization,
what purpose did they serve?

The precise engineering
of the monoliths

and the fact that many
are made of granite

has convinced Dr. Osmanagich

that the stone spheres'
true purpose was to transmit

Earth energy that
occurs in the region.

It seems that they had
multilayer purpose.

According to the new science
BioGeometry,

three most powerful
geometrical shapes,

when it comes to
the energy, are:

four-sided pyramid,

conical shape,

and the third one is the sphere.

Those three geometrical shapes
amplify the energies.

[McGowan] Dr. Semir Osmanagic
talks

about the use of these spheres
as, potentially,

small power supplies,

and this makes sense
when you look at them

in context with the
rest of Bosnia.

When you're sitting
in this creek bed

surrounded by these spheres,

it's hard to describe,
but it does feel powerful.

It feels like it is
generating energy.

20 miles south of the
Great Pyramids of Giza

lies an astonishing structure
called the Serapeum.

Built underground,
the Serapeum is larger

than two football fields,

but the most extraordinary part
of this subterranean complex

are two dozen giant stone boxes

that appear to have been created
with advanced technology.

[Narrator] Saqqâra, Egypt.

Inside the mysterious
subterranean structure

known as the Serapeum
are 24 massive boxes

that are carved from
exceptionally hard stone

like granite, basalt,
and diorite.

[Ramy Romany] Each sarcophagus
was over 70 tons.

70 tons is not a weight
that 200 people can carry.

It is an impossible weight
to move anywhere,

let alone a hundred feet
under the ground

and then 700 feet
into a tiny corridor

and then inside a
little chamber.

[Colin Reader] If you think
of a pyramid or a temple,

it's in the open air.

If you're hauling
a big block of stone

or an obelisk,

you've got space
to get teams of people.

You can get draft animals on it.

But the thing that
really startles me--

they didn't have the space
to get huge teams of men

to start moving them,

and they couldn't get animals
down there

for any practical intent.

[Narrator] Just as baffling
as how the ancient Egyptians

managed to move
these giant boxes

is how they were able
to carve them

with such incredible precision.

Machinists have gone
in there with tools

to measure just how
precisely carved they were.

We're talking, in some cases,
to the thousandths of an inch,

right angles which are
incredibly perfect.

[Tsoukalos] Now, you need
sophisticated technology

for this because in some cases
we're talking about basalt.

Basalt is harder than granite,

and according to what we know,

the ancient Egyptians only had
bronze and copper tools.

It is wishful thinking
to suggest

that you can cut basalt
with copper.

You just can't do it.

But the surface is as if
you're touching glass,

so, to me, it's possible
that the ancient Egyptians

figured out a way
to vitrify stone.

[Narrator] What compelled
the ancient Egyptians

to place 24 enormous and
precisely crafted stone boxes

deep beneath the earth?

Based on inscriptions found
within the underground chamber,

Egyptologists determined
that the Serapeum was built

to be the burial place
of the sacred Apis bull.

[Salima Ikram] The ancient
Egyptians believed

that animals and gods had
special relationships

and each deity was associated
with one particular animal.

The Apis bull is related
to the Egyptian god Ptah,

who was a major creator god.

He was the god of Memphis,
the capital city.

He was the god of all craftsmen.

The Apis bull was one of
the most sacred animals

in all of ancient Egypt.

But here is the thing.

When August Mariette opened
the sarcophagus,

they were empty, there
was nothing in there.

[Childress] What Egyptologists
will speculate is that

somehow the Serapeum
was looted in antiquity

and the mummified bulls were
removed from the sarcophagi.

But who would want
a mummified bull?

[Narrator] Were the giant stone
containers in the Serapeum

simply designed to hold
the remains of an Apis bull?

Some researchers believe
that these massive objects

served an entirely
different purpose.

[Schoch] Most of these boxes
have no inscriptions on them,

but there's one in particular
that has a lot

of hieroglyphics all over it.

Those inscriptions
are incredibly crude

compared to the finesse,
the precision

of the actual stone boxes,

so this leads me, and
I'm not alone in this,

to suggest that these boxes

go back to a much earlier period

and they were being reused
and reappropriated

at a much later time.

It's thought by some researchers
that the Serapeum was used

at a later date for the
mummified Apis bulls,

but the Serapeum itself
predates this

and its original purpose
was for something else.

So what was the Serapeum for?

[Narrator] While the purpose
of the stone boxes continues

to perplex researchers,

some believe clues can be found
by examining the contents

of another box found
in the Serapeum,

one not made of stone but wood.

[Narrator reads on-screen text]

[Narrator] After discovering
24 massive stone sarcophagi

within the Serapeum,
Auguste Mariette

comes upon a much smaller coffin
made of wood.

There is a body inside it,

and at first glance
it appears human.

He came across
a very unique burial.

It looked human.

And yet, when the
bones were examined,

they were actually found
to be those of a bull.

[Ikram] Mariette found
no head of a bull

but just bits of bone of a bull
wrapped up and then

sort of a mask of a
human being on it.

[Narrator] Egyptologists
assumed that the mask

must belong to the builder
of the Serapeum

and determined
the face it depicts

is that of a prince who lived
in the 13th century BC

named Khaemweset.

[Ikram] People think that
the person who built

the Serapeum was
Prince Khaemweset.

Khaemweset was the fourth son
of King Ramses II.

He was in charge of
the temple of Ptah

and also, therefore, the
temple of the Apis bull

in the capital city of Memphis.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
also discovered evidence

that the only two bulls
found in the Serapeum

were put there
by Prince Khaemweset

around 1200 BC.

[Romany] He has a couple
of sarcophagi down there

that he had put Apis
bull mummies in them,

and he wrote that
on a little tablet

next to that specific chamber

that he added to the place
and he added to the Serapeum.

[Childress] This was a typical
thing in ancient Egypt

because many of the monuments
in Egypt were

thousands of years old,
even for them,

so the idea that the Serapeum
is actually much older

than even we think it is
is a pretty valid theory.

Two of the largest monoliths
on the planet

can be found in Japan,

and perhaps even more compelling

than the size of these
mysterious monuments

are the local legends that say

they were created to honor
otherworldly beings

who traveled in flying craft.

[Narrator] One of the greatest
mysteries of the ancient world

is why enormous stone structures

appear on nearly
every continent.

And at one time
megalithic monuments

could be found throughout
the islands of Japan.

[Jonathan Clements] Not many
people know this,

but ancient Japan was strewn

with megaliths and henges.

The ancient peoples of Japan

had these stone monuments
all over the place.

During the samurai era,
which was war all the time,

most of them were ripped up
and used to make castle walls

and castle foundations.

Some survived 'cause
they're so weird.

[Narrator] Perhaps
the most curious

and awe-inspiring
of Japan's megaliths

is Ishi-no-Hoden,

a giant stone monument
near Osaka

carved out of the bedrock

and believed to date
back 16,000 years.

The Ishi-no-Hoden megalith is

sometimes called the
heavenly floating rock.

It's huge, probably
around 500 tons.

It's about a 20-foot square cube

that has been built
in such a strange way

that underneath it,

there's a base that holds it up
above the ground,

so it appears for all the world
to be hovering in the air.

It is said to commemorate a god
that once came to Earth

in a huge cubic-shaped object

and landed somewhere
in that area.

[Tsoukalos] In Japanese
mythologies and legends,

it says that long ago,

physical gods were
amongst our ancestors

that had the capability
of flying or of flight.

So 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 to signify flight.

[Narrator] Curiously,
Ishi-no-Hoden

is not the only
Japanese megalith

that appears to document

an ancient extraterrestrial
visitation.

[Dominic Steavu] The
Masuda-no-Iwafune,

which translates to "the
stone ship of Masuda,"

is another megalithic structure.

This is an even larger
granite, uh, megalith--

30 feet across and about
20 feet, uh, in width

and, uh, 15 or so in height--

that has a central depression,
or trough.

[Phillips] This monolith is said
to have marked the Earth side

of a so-called floating bridge

that connected Earth
to the heavens.

Now, what is a floating bridge?

It's described as something
that the gods descend in.

[Steavu] There is a story
in Shinto annals

about the bridge that unites

the earthly realm
with the heavenly realm

collapsing and falling
onto the Earth.

So these megaliths,
according to some,

are the remnants or the
building blocks of this

celestial bridge that
has since collapsed.

This floating bridge
sounds exactly like

the bridge Bifröst
of the Nordic tradition,

upon which the gods would
come and go from the Earth

into the heavenly realms,
or Asgard.

This suggests that
the same people

are descending to these
various cultures.

[Narrator] Might
the Ishi-no-Hoden

and Masuda-no-Iwafune megaliths

have an extraterrestrial
connection?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes

and suggest the most intriguing
of Japan's megalithic structures

can be found beneath the sea.

On the western tip of the
Japanese archipelago

lies the tiny island
of Yonaguni.

In 1986,

scuba divers exploring
just off the coast

make a shocking discovery.

60 feet beneath
the ocean surface,

they find a massive
rectangular structure

roughly 328 feet long

and 196 feet wide.

It has since become known
as the Yonaguni Monument.

[Phillips] The Yonaguni
Monument is huge,

and it looks for all the world
like an artificial construction.

There are steps,

there are what appear
to be columns

and all sorts of
geometric formations

that seem to have been
artificial constructions.

Professor Masaaki Kimura
spent ten years

examining the structure
with divers

and the most sophisticated
equipment at the time,

and he was convinced
beyond any doubt

that it was an
artificial formation.

[Tsoukalos] Yonaguni
boggles the mind

because at some point

that was a land bridge
that existed

when the water levels
were lower,

and that means we're talking
around the last ice age,

which was 10,000 or so BC.

Now, that means that back then

a culture must have existed

to carve Yonaguni
the way it appears today.

For ancient astronaut theorists,

the mythology found
throughout ancient cultures

of sky gods visiting Earth
to instruct humans

could be evidence
of our ancestors

witnessing misunderstood
extraterrestrial technology.

For example, a
3,000-year-old stone carving

found in Mesoamerica

looks so much like
a pilot in a cockpit

that this mysterious monument
is often called

the La Venta Astronaut.

[Narrator] Teotihuacán, Mexico.

At the southern end
of this ancient metropolis

stands the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent.

Its magnificent facade
is embellished

with numerous
ornate stone statues

of a snake head
ringed in feathers.

This visage depicts one of
the most prominent gods

worshipped throughout
Mesoamerica,

a being known to the Aztecs
as Quetzalcoatl.

[Barnhart] Quetzalcoatl was

undoubtedly one
of the major gods

for multiple civilizations
in Mesoamerica.

A particular characteristic
of the Quetzalcoatl

is the feathers on the
bottom of his body

that really denote the deity.

Quetzalcoatl is one of the,

if not the primary
Mesoamerican god.

He's a god of light,
a god of wisdom,

a god of healing,

and ultimately a peacemaker.

[Narrator] In their codices,
the Aztecs write about

Quetzalcoatl teaching
their ancestors

various disciplines
that were essential

to establishing their
vast civilization.

Quetzalcoatl descended
from the sky

in physical form and taught
the local populations

in different
scientific disciplines

like mathematics...

...agriculture, medicine,

writing, all these
different things.

It's interesting to see
that this is not the only place

where, in ancient mythology,
the same takes place.

Because there are other cultures
around the world that also refer

to teacher gods who
descended from the sky.

[Narrator] Throughout
the ancient world,

stories can be found
of powerful beings

who came from the stars

and shared wisdom
with early humans

to help jump-start civilization.

In Egypt, the god
Ptah shared knowledge

of technology and metalworking.

Prometheus taught
the ancient Greeks

how to wield fire.

And the world's
first civilization,

the Sumerians, wrote
that they were visited

by divine teachers
known as the Anunnaki.

[Amir Hussain] In the Sumerian
tradition,

one of the gods, Enlil,

teaches human beings
about agriculture,

teaches human beings how to plow
into the ground and plant seeds.

It's the gods who
show human beings

how to use technology, how
to create this technology.

[Tsoukalos] This idea that
there were teacher gods

a long time ago,

the ancient astronaut
theory suggests

that our ancestors were all
visited by the same teachers.

The same extraterrestrials.

[Narrator] Could Quetzalcoatl

represent an
extraterrestrial visitor

who helped to establish
civilization in Mesoamerica?

According to ancient
astronaut theorists,

support for this notion
can be found

not only in the Aztec codices

but also by examining a
number of curious depictions

of the Feathered Serpent god.

La Venta, Mexico.

1955.

American archaeologists
Philip Drucker and Robert Heizer

begin an excavation of
an Olmec pyramid mound.

North of the main pyramid,

they unearth a
mysterious carved stela

that they date to
around 1200 BC.

Now known as Monument 19,

it is believed by many
to be the oldest depiction

of Quetzalcoatl ever discovered.

[Barnhart] La Venta Monument 19

is such an interesting
and evocative piece of art

that it's gotten a ton of names.

One of them is the Rocket Man.

[Tsoukalos] It depicts
this weird scenery

of some guy enclosed
inside a snake,

and it's as if he's sitting
on some sort of a seat.

The guy's, you know,
wearing some sort of a suit

with a helmet,

and he is, you know, just
sitting inside this enclosure.

In my opinion, it's an example
of misunderstood technology.

Monument 19 is a representation

of Quetzalcoatl,
the teacher god,

inside of a flying craft.

[Narrator] Does Monument 19's
unique depiction

of Quetzalcoatl, not
as a feathered serpent

but as a humanlike figure

sitting within the body
of a serpent,

provide further evidence

that he was a real-life visitor
from another world?

Curiously, the Olmecs
weren't the only people

to depict Quetzalcoatl
in human form.

There are also Maya and Aztec
depictions of Quetzalcoatl

that show a human face

seeming to emerge from
the mouth of a serpent.

[Von Däniken] Now, according
to Central American tradition,

Quetzalcoatl is supposed
to have descended from a star.

He's represented as the
Feathered Serpent,

but also he's represented

in the human form
with the helmet.

There are many of these
representations of Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatl was definitely
an extraterrestrial.

High in the mountains of Peru

stands one of the most
mysterious monuments on Earth.

It's an ancient fortress

with walls built
from gigantic stones

that are joined so tightly,

it'd be difficult to
recreate them today.

But for some researchers,
the most compelling question

isn't how this structure
was created

but, rather, when.

[Narrator] Cusco, Peru.

Nestled in a high river valley
of the Andes Mountains,

among peaks towering
over 20,000 feet,

this once-great city
served as the capital

of the Inca Empire

from the 13th to
16th centuries AD.

In 1533, Spanish conquistadors
arrived in Cusco

and were astonished
by the incredible stonework

found at a site just north
of the city called Sacsayhuamán.

[Brien Foerster] Above the city
of Cusco, we find

the megalithic site and huge
ceremonial Inca complex

called Sacsayhuamán.

Its most prominent feature is
a zigzag wall of three levels.

Some of the stones there
weigh as much as 125 tons

and were moved from the quarry
at least three miles away.

[Tsoukalos] Sacsayhuamán

is one of the most beautiful
ancient structures

you will ever see in your life.

There are massive,
gigantic megalithic blocks,

and you find the most amazing
of masonry style

where you can't even fit
a dollar bill

in between the fittings
of any of the blocks.

[Narrator] Sacsayhuamán
served both as a fortress

and a ceremonial center.

A circular structure that lies
within the megalithic walls,

called Muyuq Marka,
was the base of a tower

where the Inca worshipped
the sun god Inti.

However, many experts suggest
that while the Inca

certainly utilized this
megalithic structure,

they were not the ones
to build it.

[Foerster] Standard belief
is that

the Inca constructed
Sacsayhuamán

less than a thousand years ago.

But some of the earliest
Spanish chronicles, it is said

that the Spanish were
completely astounded

by seeing this site, and
they asked the local Inca,

"Did you build it?" and
the Inca replied, "No.

This was here when we
arrived 500 years ago."

[Narrator] Many experts believe
Sacsayhuamán predates the Inca

by thousands of years

and that the Inca built on top
of what came before.

[Foerster] The Inca were

a Bronze Age civilization,

and the stones at Sacsayhuamán

are metamorphosed limestone,

which is much harder than bronze

and could not be cut or shaped
using bronze tools.

Inca built on top

'cause you can tell
a major difference

between megalithic construction,

where the stones fit
perfectly together,

and the Inca, which is stones
piled on top of stones

with mortar as filler.

[Narrator] But if Sacsayhuamán
really does predate the Inca,

as the Inca themselves claimed,

how could an even
earlier civilization

have possessed far
superior technology?

[Tsoukalos] The ancient Inca
talk about

celestial beings who descended
from the sky a long time ago

and imparted the first
knowledge of anything

toward people of Earth.

The ancient astronaut
theory suggests

it was human beings
who built Sacsayhuamán

but under the tutelage
of the extraterrestrials.

The remarkable engineering

of the stone walls
at Sacsayhuamán

is just one of many
fascinating enigmas

that the ancient
Peruvian site holds.

And as we've seen,
mysterious monuments

come in all shapes and sizes.

From colossal megaliths in Japan

and baffling stone spheres
in Bosnia

to giant stone boxes in Egypt,

what they all have
in common is that

they were created to last
for thousands of years,

perhaps to honor
or to immortalize

extraterrestrial contact
in the distant past.

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