Ancient Aliens

Ancient monuments

precisely aligned to celestial events.

History written in stone honoring otherworldly rulers.

And a calendar accurately predicting shifts in the Earth's

axis every 26,000 years.

Did the Maya of Central America really create one of the most

advanced civilizations of ancient times?

Or did their intelligence originate from somewhere else,

perhaps out of this world?

They didn't have metal.

They didn't have electricity.

But what they did have is advanced mythology, advanced

language and advanced religious culture.

They understood astronomy to an incredible degree,

more so than any societies at the time.

The Mayans were absolutely convinced that

timing was crucial because the gods were going to come back.

Lord Pakal's sarcophagus was his spaceship.

He's the original rocket man.

Millions of people around the world believe we

have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings.

What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history?

And if so, did they plot the success and demise of the

ancient Maya civilization?

Southern Mexico.

Surrounded by dense forests in the foothills of the Tumbala

Mountains lie the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Palenque.

Established as early as 1800 BC, Palenque was one of the key

population centers of the ancient Maya civilization that

dominated present-day Central America for nearly 2,000 years.

Without metal tools, the wheel or pack animals, the Maya built

cities like Palenque across a vast region with incredible

architectural precision.

There are a number of texts around the

Maya world that mention four cities in association with four directions.

Palenque is recognized in these texts as the Western capital of

the Maya world.

The southern one was Copan, the eastern one was Tikal, and the

northernmost one was Calakmul.

What I find the most impressive about them is

that they were able to build a civilization out of the jungle.

Jungles have really thin topsoil, and for them to be able

to support a huge population, which is 20 or 30 times what the

population is in that area today, is amazing.

Regarded by scholars as one of the most

sophisticated and complex civilizations in the ancient

world, Maya triumphs included numerous scientific achievements

in agriculture, engineering and astronomy.

They didn't have a lot of things that we think of

as the hallmarks of advancement, but what they did have is

advanced mythology, advanced language and advanced religious culture.

The site of Palenque is still a vast

unexcavated site.

They think that only ten percent of this city has so far been

excavated by archaeologists.

The aqueduct system here at Palenque was very sophisticated,

and the Mayans were actually able to have water pressure by

siphoning water channels off of the main river.

All the Mayan cities had ball courts in them where they'd play

this celestial game where the players would knock a rubber

ball through a stone or wooden hoop.

It's thought that this is a representation of alignments of the sun.

When you start looking at all the various

cultures, whether it is the ancient Babylonians, the ancient

Egyptians or the Mayans, we now know that the people who were

by far the most advanced was the Mayans.

According to mainstream historians, by the

ninth century, the great Maya cities were abandoned, and the

Maya people had vanished.

But why?

Many blame the disappearance of the Maya on war, overpopulation

and drought.

But might the Maya have left behind clues to suggest that

their origin and destiny had been plotted by otherworldly forces?

1952.

Archaeologist Alberto Lhuillier discovers the Pyramid Tomb of

King Pakal who ruled over the ancient Mayan city of Palenque

from 615 to 683.

During his nearly 70-year reign, Pakal transformed Palenque,

creating some of the most significant inscriptions and

monuments of the ancient Maya civilization.

The city of Palenque was sacked by

the ruler of Calakmul.

So this was really tragic for the city itself.

And it sets the stage for Hanab Pakal himself, who becomes king

at a very early age, and then takes this city that's been

destroyed, and now brings it up to what becomes one of the most

important cities of the late classic period.

This is the famous Temple of the Inscriptions

behind me, perhaps the most famous pyramid in all of the Mayan world.

It was in 1948 that the French... Mexican archeologist, Alberto

Lhuillier began his excavations at the top of the Temple of Inscriptions.

What he found there was the famous staircase leading down

into the depths of the pyramid.

But the staircase was completely filled in with rubble of small

stones and dirt.

It took him four years to slowly excavate, step by step, down the

pyramid, until he finally came to the tomb of Lord Pakal and

the giant sarcophagus and lid that the pyramid were built around.

Arguably the most remarkable Mayan artifact ever

found... the stone Sarcophagus Lid of King Pakal... has produced

considerable controversy.

Mainstream scholars believe the depiction is of King Pakal on a

journey to the underworld.

But ancient astronaut theorists believe the king is portrayed

seated at the controls of a spacecraft, and have dubbed him

"the Palenque astronaut."

He appears to be going into space.

He's the original rocket man... there manipulating his

spacecraft, going into space.

We have maintained for a very long time

that the depiction here is of King Pakal sitting in some type

of a spacecraft, because he is at an angle... like modern-day

astronauts upon liftoff.

He's manipulating some controls right here.

He has some type of breathing apparatus or some type of a

telescope in front of his face.

His feet are on some type of a pedal, and down here, you have

something that looks like an exhaust with flames.

In 2011 the strange carving on King Pakal's

sarcophagus lid was translated into a 3-D replica by model

maker Paul Francis.

When I saw this, I instantly said, "There's

a guy in a space capsule."

You know, it doesn't need to be spelled out for me, I don't have

to find anything.

It was already there.

It was carved many, many years ago.

I think this is absolutely extraordinary because

this is definitely one of the most compelling pieces in the

ancient astronaut theory, and to finally see Pakal as a 3-D

sculpture, to me, is a dream come true.

For the longest time we have said that what is on this Pakal

lid is not something symbolic.

It was something that the artist saw or was told about, and then

he or she tried to recreate this on a slab.

I love the craftsmanship.

I love how you, you know, at the bottom of the Palenque slab, you

see something like the flames... It looks like, it

looks like fire, and...

Exactly.

I had to do a little interpretive.

- I put engine bells on instead of the flame. - Of course.

But that's the thruster stage.

I also love the detail that you have underneath

his right foot where his foot is resting on a pedestal, and that

is exactly what we can see on the Palenque slab.

And how his hands are manipulating some controls, and

also this kind of breathing apparatus that's going on in

front of his nose.

The breathing apparatus is actually a very neat piece.

It's called the giver of life.

The soul transfers through this, and a giver of life to me would be air.

I mean, we breathe air.

This is a guy who needs this mask to survive.

Because where is he?

Outer space.

Could the carving on the sarcophagus lid of King

Pakal really provide confirmation of the complicity

between Maya rulers and extraterrestrial forces, as

ancient astronaut theorists believe?

Perhaps further evidence can be found etched in stone throughout

Mesoamerica.

The Palace of Palenque.

Discovered in the late 18th century by Spanish explorers,

this royal compound is the largest and most complex of

those found in the ancient city.

Researchers believe a four-story tower in the middle of the

palace was built so Mayan kings and priests could observe the

celestial movement of the sun and stars.

This is the main palace here at Palenque, and one

of the unusual features is its observatory, a huge tower to

watch the stars.

Also throughout the palace are these unusual T-shaped windows

and they've baffled archaeologists for centuries.

It's thought that perhaps they represent the wind god,

but it's also possible that these

T-shaped windows are pointing to the sky.

What was it that the rulers of Palenque were looking for?

The tower at the Palace of Palenque is just one

of many celestial observatories built throughout the ancient

Maya territories.

Their practical system of astronomy was an

observational one, and so the design and construction of a lot

of buildings was intended to, to create these sight lines, to

create these vantages for observation to see and mark

important astronomical events.

We see that temples were aligned to specific moments

in time, and the equinoxes and the solstices are the most

important moments in time, so wherever we look, we see how

this knowledge of astronomy is incorporated into these

monuments.

Plazas were great places where people stood

and paid reverence to particular times of the year.

These were places that were aligned from time immemorial...

hundreds and hundreds of years... to make these specific

observations.

But what... or perhaps who... were the Maya

looking for in the sky?