Ancient Aliens

Houston, you go for landing. Over.

Rodger at Tango for landing 3000 ft.

July 20th, 1969.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin,

became the first man to land on the moon.

It's one small step for man...

... One...

... giant leap for mankind.

Just like aliens, visiting from another world.

It have been stuff of science fiction.

Now...

everything that could be imagined,

seem possible.

If mankind could travel the skies and go to other planets,

Why couldn't beings from other planets,

visit the Earth?

A myths away of modern UFO sightings,

a new theory emerge.

That aliens...

... visited Earth in antiquety,

and were regarded as Gods.

But if that were true,

Wouldn't there be proof?

Perhaps... there was.

All we needed to do,

was open our eyes...

... and, our imaginations.

The proof perhaps, was all around us.

WHO WERE THEY?

WHY DID THEY COME?

WHAT DID THEY LEAVE BEHIND?

WHERE DID THEY GO?

WILL THEY RETURN?

ANCIENT ALIENS THE SERIES

CHARIOTS, GODS AND BEYOND

In May 2008, a startling proclamation was issued by the Vatican.

For the first time in It's two thousand years history,

the Catholic Church acknowledge the possibility,

that intelligent life, could exist on other planets.

and that a belief in extraterrestrials,

did not contradict a belief in God.

Which means of course that we are now entering an age...

... in which the universe is beginning to be conceived in diferent ways

from what it was before.

And if it's reality for us, why could not have been a reality

for other... beings in the universe who could have visited... our Earth,

and perhaps guided culture in ancient times.

But just was part, the sudden turn around in religious thought,

Could the Church have been influenced by recent scientific discoveries?

In 2002, the Mars oddissey spacecraft,

detected enormous reservours of ice, beneath the martian surface,

The presence of ice, and the posibility of water,

suggested that life can be sustained, or even generated, on another planet.

After decades of orbiting space shuttles and robotic rovers,

the idea of sending man back into space, to Mars and beyond,

ignited the imagination...

and brought that the notion, that mankind and alien beings,

had cross paths before.

In 1968, just one year before Neil Armstrong's epic space flight,

a book was published that forever changed the way many in the scientific,

religious and creative communities, would view their home planet.

Written by Swiss author Erik Von Däniken...

"Chariots of the Gods", attempted to prove that alien explorers,

have visited the Earth thousands of years ago.

When I was a young man, I was educated as a strict catholic in a boring school.

and then there, we have to make translations of parts of the bible.

Greek to Latin, Latin to German.

For example, the First Book of Moses:

"Before the Lord descends of the Holy Mountain,

Moses was ordered to construct a gate around the mountain,

otherwise the Israelites will be damished".

I was shocked. I said: "This is impossible,

My God, he will never use first a gate to protect himself,

or to protect the Israel". What are they talking about?

In other word... started.

I've started to read thousands of pages,

of the beginning of religions, of every mythology...

It's always the same story,

of course with different names, with different heroes,

"Somebody descends, from the sky, to the humans,

Could not understand it.

they believed that these are some gods".

I was shocked, I asked the question:

"Were primitive human influenced by extraterrestrials, not gods?"

And if, it always like I suggested, Where's the proof?

So you start trying to find at least indications,

thats what I have done now for at least 45 years.

Yet pictorial evidence, yet artifacts and archeology,

and you have what come all through all literature,

hundreds of indications, which you cannot deny anymore.

What it means is that we need new explanations for human origins.

that perhaps we are not alone in the universe,

and that human-like beings came to this planet

from some other planet,

elsewhere in the cosmos.

I think thats a very good idea of myself.

A really excited people was at a new way of looking at the past,

looking at ancient civilizations.

And it put this very modern space age spin to the whole thing.

"Chariots of the Gods" caused a sensation,

fuelled in a small part

by the popular response to books like Frank Herbert's "Dune"

Television shows like "Star Trek",

and fictious films like "2001: A Space Odyssey"

The time was right, because everybody was talking of posible space travel,

of posibility of extraterrestrials,

So it's all wonderful coming together, but it was not planned.

After a Swiss newspaper printed excerpts on a weekly basis,

More than 10,000 copies of the book was sold before ever hit in the market,

So it was a running best-seller stat in Switzerland first,

Then going over to Germany and then the rest of the world.

They have to print and print and print and print.

"Incredible"

In 1970, a feature length documentary was released to theathers.

Followed by dozens of best-selling books,

and growing legions of fans and supporters.

"Chariots of the Gods", was tremendously influental,

It somehow spoke to people, who want to believe.

When I was a boy,

"Chariots of the Gods" was one of books I first read,

I mean I ripped apart, I digest it I couldnt get enough of it.

I just fell in love with that book,

'cos it really open up all tons of new questions,

and Von Däniken was able to point at many anomalies in history,

that the mainstream archaeologists can't answer very well.

He had... was a revolutionary new idea.

That of "Gods" from outer space coming to the planet,

helping create civilization.

When I first read "Chariots of the Gods"

I couldn't put that book down, because it answer...

... a whole bunch of questions, that I had.

And it was a great combination of archeology and adventure.

It's just a wonderful way to see the world and pursue this ancient mysteries.

And it trully was I think the catalyst for what people like I do today,

and that is to talk about the mysteries, and the unusual and the paranormal.

He path a way for all about us to talk about these strange stories,

and that continues to grow

and it's gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger.

People want answers, to questions that they can't answer themselves.

But in despite of the book's enormeous popularity, of perhaps because of it,

Von Däniken's theories were scorn by scientists,

and * by the theologians.

Of course, it created a storm of controversy,

I was completely attacked, specially by the scientific news papers.

They said "Come on, he's just telling a story,

hes a lier or he's a fraud" or whatever.

There is no single piece of evidence that Von Däniken puts forward,

that cannot be attibuted to human ingenuity, technology and development.

Don't try to reduce the scriptures to a science book.

Or don't try to reduce the scriptures

to an explanation of a modern world of today.

I don't expect that the scientific community now

embraces and kisses me

"Oh wonderful, great you did!"

We have to live with critics, this is normal.

"Chariots of the Gods" was full of speculation,

I had 238 question marks.

Nobody wraith the question mark.

They only said: Mr. Von Däniken is saying...

I did not say, I asked the questions,

Would that be a posibility?

At in "Chariots of the Gods", I made clear difference between expeculations...

... and facts.

But as cotroversial, as many of Von Däniken theories are...

... believers point, to tangible evidence.

How for example, could a centuries-old map, chart a land-mass,

which has only recently been discovered?

With it indicate that the map

was made in a time

when Antartica was ice free.

which would be...

many millions of years ago.

And how could a primitive civilization,

know how to harness electricity?

or even build a computer?

this was * out to finding a jet airplane...

... in the tomb of King Tut.

And just who, with this mysterious designs,

only visible from high altitude, intended for?

Designs are made for somebody who flies,

Theres no way out of this.

Could Von Däniken's theory,

that ancient gods were really alien visitors,

contain any serious scientific merit?

The answer involves a search around the world.

and even, right before our eyes.

If alien beings from other planets,

have visited the Earth thousands of years ago.

how our ancient ancestors have tried to communicate with them?

And wouldnt there be some physical evidence of the time they spent here?

One answer may lie in the NAZCA desert of Peru.

There, at top an area plateau

thats stretches for nearly 50 miles.

Countless geometric patterns and figures decorates the landscape.

You fly over this desert and you see some lines.

The lines look like air stripes, they start abrut and end abruptly.

The longest of it, it's 33 kilometers,

right away, not one curve, just incredible.

and end, in one of this so called air stripes.

In the mixture of large lines and small lines