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 other
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 w*r,
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 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?
According to ancient astronaut
theorists, the answer can be
found carved in stone.
In Quiriguá, Guatemala,
there is a national park
featuring zoomorphs.
Zoomorphs are these giant
boulders that were carved into
different shapes.
Some of them depict
crocodiles, some of them
depict turtles, but at the
same time, the carvings are
very reminiscent of something
technological in nature.
In fact, there is
one boulder that we
can see where this guy is
essentially sitting inside
some type of cockpit.
Is it possible that this is
nothing else but an artist's
rendering of something
that they didn't understand
because their technological
frame of reference was less
advanced than our
technological frame
of reference we have today?
In the present-day Mexican
state of Tabasco, near
the Gulf of Mexico, lie the
ruins of a ceremonial center
called La Venta.
Here in 1862, oil riggers
discovered four very large
stone heads in the Olmec
area of Mesoamerica.
Since then, archaeologists
have unearthed 13 more similar
sculptures that were carved
as early as 850 BC.
Known as the colossal heads,
scholars believe they depict
the Olmecs--
an ancient civilization
that many consider to be
the ancestors of the Maya.
One of the most striking
aspects of Olmec an
and archaeology are these
colossal head sculptures,
and one of the hypotheses
that's been put out to explain
these is that they were
portraits of important rulers,
kings, shamans, important
people in their society.
But ancient astronaut
theorists contend the
mysterious stone statues are
proof of extraterrestrial
intervention in
the distant past.
Huge stone heads were found
in the Olmec area, which were
beautifully made but
then ritually buried.
One asks, what is that?
Are these heads of rulers or
priests, or were they maybe
aliens that they wanted to
portray because they had
unusual facial features?
These guys are often wearing
strange helmets, and they look
to be foreigners.
They appear to be from Africa
and the Middle East and other
areas like that.
So what are they doing here
in Central America?
You have this curious mix
of different racial groups.
Are they coming
with the sky gods?
Perhaps they, too,
are the alien ETs.
There is one statue that we
can find that clearly shows
an Olmec wearing some
type of a flight suit.
To me,
this depicts nothing else
but someone from Africa having
visited Central America
in a type of a flight suit
and with some type of craft.
You've got the legs here like
in a modern-day astronaut
suit, and there's also some
type of a life support pack
that's on his chest.
There are six wings and
the head is clearly enclosed by
a skullcap similar
to modern-day astronauts.
So what we have here,
in my opinion, is nothing else
but depictions of physical
extraterrestrial
encounters hundreds-
and yes, even thousands-
of years ago.
There is considerable
evidence linking the Mayans
and the Olmecs to
extraterrestrial beings.
You have it in La Venta--
many of the Olmecs
wearing curious masks.
Also at Tikal, they're wearing
what look like space masks
with respirators.
You've got also flying beings
who are hovering above certain
objects and things like
that in the Mayan world.
These are the birdmen,
the people who can fly.
But do the stone sculptures
really provide proof that
the Maya had early contact
with star travelers, as ancient
astronaut theorists contend?
And might further evidence
reveal a shocking truth,
that some ancient Maya
rulers were themselves
of otherworldly origin?
Central America.
Here, in western Honduras,
lie the impressive
ruins of the ancient
Maya city of Copan.
And though Copan's temples,
pyramids and monuments rank
among the most important of
any Mayan sites, researchers
looking to explain
the incredible achievements
of the Maya have been drawn
to a 72-step structure known as
the Hieroglyphic Stairway.
The Hieroglyphic Stairway
at Copan was constructed
in the early 700s AD with
the intent of writing out the
history of Copan at that time.
And so it was designed as
a public monument to the glory
and success of all the kings,
from Yax K'uk Mo', all the way
to the 13th one who
commissioned it to be built.
Carved into 1,200 stones
in the massive monument,
the ancient Maya symbols,
known as glyphs, make up what
historians believe is one
of the oldest and most
sophisticated
systems of writing.
But for centuries, the glyphs
found throughout Mesoamerica
were undecipherable.
Then, in 1880, German
librarian and anthropologist
Ernst Forstemann
cracked the code.
Ernst Forstemann was
a librarian at Dresden.
And in his desk he kept one
of the four Maya books,
the Dresden Codex.
He was a brilliant
mathematician and extremely
logical and had
enormous insights.
And at a time when we couldn't
read a single Maya hieroglyph,
he was able to figure out
the Maya calligraphy.
Maya hieroglyphic writing
is very robust, and that's
because it uses
really two components.
There are logographs.
Logographs are really pictures
that represent entire words.
So "Balaam," for example,
which is "jaguar," could be
written with just
the head of a jaguar.
On the other hand, we have
these things that we call
phonetic complements.
And these are glyphs-
they're images that
represent sounds.
According to interpretations
of the Hieroglyphic Stairway,
the glyphs chronicle not
only the history but also
the origin of the
ancient Maya rulers.
The hieroglyphs are really
attached to what was important
to royalty at the time,
and that was lineage
and the genealogies
of the kings.
They went out of their way
to demonstrate how they were
connected to their ancestors
and the gods of their
ancestors, to establish
their right to rule.
This is a picture I took
of a close-up
of a sculpture of Uaxac
Lahun Ubac C'awil, the 13th
ruler of Copan.
And he's depicted here on
the front, in all of his finery.
And then the sculptor put
a hieroglyphic passage
on the side.
We don't think commoners could
read, but all the elites could
and the king could.
So, he or another elite
individual could come here
and impress people by saying
this demonstrates
the semi-divinity of
our king and his power
to intercede between us
and the heavens.
But just what was the real
source of power and authority
behind the Maya
priests and kings?
Do the hieroglyphs reveal
an otherworldly truth to their
origin, as the Maya
themselves maintain?
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answer is yes.
What we have to think about
today is, where did the origin
of the priesthood come from?
And the origin is nothing
else but that they--
the initial cabal of priests-
they were all in contact with
extraterrestrials, and that's
why they were revered.
Our ancestors thought they
were gods because they didn't
understand the nuts-and-bolts
aspects behind those visits.
But when it all comes down
to it, it was all a huge
misunderstanding and a way
to keep the common
people in place.
In the beginning,
the first ruler were gods-
real descendants from the sky,
extraterrestrials.
But later, the priests and the
rulers took the names of their
ancestors' god.
So they made a secret
and a kind of conspiracy
around them, because the
normal people should give them
offerings, should give them
gold, metal, all kinds
of gifts, etc., as they
did some centuries before
for the real gods.
So it was a kind of conspiracy
among the priests and among
the kings.
Mayan hieroglyphs specifically
say that the Mayans were
absolutely convinced about
the existence of otherworldly
beings, and that they actually
believed that these beings
manifested themselves
regularly at preordained
moments of time.
Perhaps further evidence
of the Mayan belief
in the existence of
extraterrestrial beings may be
found in their daily rituals
of human sacrifice.
Scholars believe that blood
offerings were seen as an act
of devotion to the Maya
rulers, who were assumed to be
descendants of the gods.
We know that the Maya
practiced blood sacrifice,
because they were still doing
it when the Spanish came.
We have images on wall
paintings, on vases
and in sculptures that show
people letting their own blood
and sacrificing other people.
The Mayans had a complex
pantheon, which involved gods
from the sky, and the rulers
were supposed to be
descendants of these gods.
And they believed that
these gods demanded
sacrifices of them,
and that their blood,
the blood of their kings,
was the ideal sacrifice
for the gods.
Later, the Mayans began to
take captives, particularly
other royal captives,
and execute them, using their
blood as the gift to the gods.
The ancient Maya were
particularly worried that
Jaguar gods had come to Earth
from somewhere else and had
instructed them, and in return
they had to make sacrifices to
the jaguar gods.
In particular,
heart sacrifices.
We see hundreds, if not
thousands, of people being
dragged up the pyramids
and really sacrificed.
Definitely there is this
absolute belief that the
Mayans needed the intervention
of the gods, and they believed
that somehow sacrificing
human beings was gonna bring
back the gods.
It's very possible that this
civilization, as cultured as
they seem to have been,
were also pretty barbaric.
And this could have been their
way of trying to offer
the gods something.
Blood sacrifice was nothing
else but an act of desperation
to bring about the return
of the extraterrestrials,
because one thing is crystal
clear: In every single ancient
culture, there is a promise
of a return in the future
of those gods.
Blood sacrifice was something
that we humans did ourselves
because we didn't understand
that what we dealt with was
nothing else but flesh and
blood space travelers instead
of real or actual gods.
But why did the Maya believe
they were connected to
the gods by blood?
Might there have been evidence
within their DNA that could
link the lineage of Maya
kings to otherworldly beings,
as ancient astronaut
theorists believe'?
And if so, is it possible that
otherworldly visitors may have
stayed behind and assumed
the role of Maya kings?
Perhaps the answer can be
found, not by examining the
ancient remains of the Maya,
but by studying their
creation myths.
Chicago, Illinois.
Housed here, in the Newberry
Library, is the Mayan
manuscript known as
the Popol Vuh.
Literally translated as "the
book of the people," it is
a collection of Maya
oral histories passed
on through the ages.
Written in the mid-16th
century, this incredible book
encompasses a range of
subjects including those
involving Mayan
creation myths.
The Popol Vuh talks about
the creation of the universe.
It talks about the fact
that in the beginning all
was darkness.
There was a primordial sea.
And then these creators,
male and female, spoke
the word, and with the word,
the Earth was created
and animals were created.
It's sort of like
the combination of the book
of Genesis and the book of
Chronicles in the Bible.
It's a story of battles
between the gods, and then it
connects the creation of
the world with the present day
through the kings
of the K'iche.
It's really the only
complete Maya creation myth
that we have.
What they were saying was
that a framework was created-
that certain deities
manifested themselves
physically and made
decisions as to what was going
to happen.
In the case of the Mayans,
this was a choice as to where
the Mayans were going to live,
as well as the selection
of certain sacred sites.
Throughout the ancient world,
there have been numerous
similar myths of otherworldly
beings coming to Earth
and interacting with some
of the earliest humans.
Most mainstream historians
believe these stories
represent only religious
and spiritual beliefs.
But is it possible, as ancient
astronaut theorists believe,
that the Popol Vuh, as well as
other ancient creation tales,
represents actual evidence of
contact with extraterrestrials
in the distant past?
According to the translations
of hieroglyphs found
at numerous ancient Mayan
cities, Kukulkan, or the great
feathered serpent, was the
god who brought knowledge
to the Maya.
When we talk about the Mayan
gods, we know that the most
important god to them was the
plumed serpent, or Kukulkan.
We see his image all
across the Mayan world.
We see it on great
carved images on stone.
Kukulkan is often depicted as
a plumed serpent, some would
say a dragon or
a snake with wings.
That leads some to believe
that Kukulkan may have
descended from the sky.
Now, the Maya were
living in the jungle.
The Maya knew that the snake
could not fly, but this snake,
this serpent, could fly.
The oldest Maya histories tell
that Kukulkan was the teacher
of young Maya.
He had chosen eight boys in
the age between seven and 12,
and he'd teach these
eight boys in mathematics,
in astronomy, in
all kind of science.
And later, Kukulkan
disappeared with the promise
that he will return in
the faraway future.
These boys had become the
first priests and the first
teachers again for the Maya.
Some of the legends state that
he appeared along the Gulf
Coast on a raft of serpents,
and he spread his high
knowledge through that
part of the country.
Even today in some of the
Mayan cultures, he's revered
as this great god that
brought all these teachings
and civilization to
their pan of the world.
And yet,
no one knows who he was or
where he came from.
Strangely, depictions of
a winged serpent god can be
found all around
the ancient world.
In India, the epic text of
the Mahabharata details
the ancient account of sky
beings known as Nagas.
Dating as far back as 2500 BC,
the half-human
and half-serpent entities
look nearly identical to
the Mayan Kukulkan.
And ancient Chinese mythology
from the fifth millennium BC
describe flying dragons that
are eerily similar to
the serpent god depicted
in Mesoamerica.
To the peoples that preceded
the Inca in Peru, similar
ideas were put upon
characters like Quetzalcoatl,
the feathered serpent, who was
this wisdom bringer, sometimes
said to have come down
from the sky world.
And once again, bringing
the rudiments of civilization to
the peoples of
Central America.
There is a common thread
among many ancient cultures
of the Americas when it
comes to plumed serpent god.
The Cherokee, for example,
believe that time--
their calendar-
is based upon a rattlesnake
that they can see in the night
sky, perhaps a constellation.
So, the idea of a serpent or
a snake or a dragon is common
among many ancient cultures,
and not just the Maya or
the Mesoamericans.
The snake is the giver of
wisdom in so many cultures,
and it gives the tools
of civilization-
working with metals, working
with other instruments,
certain knowledge, certain
aspects of life. and that it
really gives this knowledge
to certain people, and that he
places these people in
a position whereby, from their
social position, they're
able to give this to the rest
of their culture.
All these cultures were
far apart from each other,
sometimes by thousands
and thousands of miles.
So, how is it possible that
all these societies came up
with not similar,
but identical stories?
Was it really flying snakes
or gods that were snakes?
Of course not.
It was
misunderstood technology.
Some types of vehicles were
witnessed that descended from
the sky out of
which people came-
astronauts-
that instructed people
of different cultures
in different
societies in certain
scientific disciplines.
This is not coincidence.
This is evidence for ancient
alien encounters
in the remote past.
There is no other way.
Can the ancient creation myths
and legends of flying serpent
gods really be interpreted
as factual accounts
of extraterrestrial visitors,
as ancient astronaut
theorists contend?
And if so, might such
celestial travelers have given
the Maya both the tools and
the knowledge to help advance
their civilization?
Perhaps further evidence
can be found by looking
at the Mayans' very profound
connection to the stars.
In the Mexican state of
the Yucatan lie the ruins
of the ancient Mayan
city of Chichen ltza.
Here, in the tenth century,
the Maya built what has become
known as the El Caracol
observatory.
It has four doors on
the bottom that can be used as
observation points, and it had
a number of windows up on top,
but most of those have fallen.
We only have two and
a half of those left.
But looking at those, we can
see that they're definitely
looking at the sun,
probably at the moon.
There are hints that they
could have been using them
for stars and planets.
They were tracking in
particular Venus, the phases
of the moon, eclipses.
We know that because we
have books that record
these things.
Most researchers agree that
from 250 to 900 AD, the Mayans
were the most advanced
astronomers of their time.
But why were they observing
the cosmos so intently?
And what might they
have been looking for?
The Maya were very
sophisticated in terms of what
they watched in the heavens
and in the calendars that they
kept track of.
The ability to understand
that Venus as morning star
and Venus as evening star are
the same star was very rarely
done in the history
of humankind.
They were oftentimes seen
as two different entities.
The idea that they
could predict the cycles
of the heavens reflects
their sophistication.
The Maya were one of the only
ancient people that invented
a mathematical system that we
use, which is called place
value and zero.
And using place value and zero
allows you to make enormous
calculations, numbers that
are very, very large.
They could probably calculate
things thousands of years
into the past.
Did the Maya develop
such mastery of astronomy
and mathematics on their own?
Or is it possible, as ancient
astronaut theorists believe,
that the elite rulers of
the Maya had received help from
star travelers?
The Maya, for example, had the
knowledge of the planet Venus
surrounding our solar system
in such a precise way that
within 6,000 years,
the difference was
a few hours.
Now, the Maya itself did
not live for 6,000 years.
So they had no time-
6,000 years-
to observe if their
calculation concerning the
Venus rotation is correct or
not, because they had their
information from their gods.
The Mayans could not possibly
have developed these systems
on their own because it would
take thousands, some of them
tens of thousands of
years of observation.
So it is clear that they were
given to them by aliens out
there who have made contact
with the Mayan people.
Perhaps the most intriguing
astronomical accomplishment
of the Maya concerns their
understanding of the slow
change in the Earth's
rotational axis in space.
Called precession, it's
a process that takes more than
26,000 years to complete.
But how could the Maya have
tracked events over such
an extreme time span?
Is it possible that,
like modern scientists,
the Maya had been using
knowledge of the Earth's
movement in space
to track time?
And if so, for what purpose?
The Maya developed these
timekeeping skills by
monitoring the movements
and predicting the movements
of not just the sun, but
the moon, Venus, in some cases
Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and
some of the constellations.
Though most people consider
the Egyptians as the ultimate
pyramid builders, ten times as
many pyramids were constructed
in Mesoamerica than in Egypt.
But why did the Maya build
so many of their monumental
structures in absolute precise
alignment with solar, lunar
and stellar events?
Well, it seems as if they were
paranoid that if they did not
do this, something
bad would happen.
They were on the fifth epoch,
and each of these earlier
epochs they believed had
ended in catastrophe.
And it seemed as if they had
to synchronize their rituals,
their events, their games,
their activities with these
specific celestial events,
because if they didn't,
something bad would happen,
and the epoch would
end prematurely.
The Mayans were absolutely
convinced that timing was
crucial, because the stars
were revealing when the gods
were going to come back,
and obviously, that meant
the gods were coming
from the stars.
But where, or from whom,
did the ancient Maya learn to
accurately track time by
tracing the celestial
movements of our solar system
and the universe beyond?
Could the ancient Maya
have actually conspired
with extraterrestrial visitors
to plan the future
and even the very
end of our world?
Perhaps a further examination
of the infamous Mayan calendar
and its so-called doomsday
prophecy is required.
There are several legends in
the Mayan world which suggest
that this end date of the
Mayan calendar in December
2012 is actually
an apocalypse day.
The Popol Vuh discusses it
as a possible destruction
of the planet.
The Tortuguero Monument,
which is a site
near Palenque-
it's the only inscription in
stone that mentions the 2012
end date of the calendar.
And that talks about nine
gods descending to Earth.
But no one really knows
exactly what that means.
Some people suggest that
may cause a cataclysm.
Others suggest it may be
a whole dawn of a new age where
we actually move into
a more conscious way of life.
If the truth is that
the Mayans were in contact
with extraterrestrial beings,
and now their calendar is
ending on December 21, 2012,
this might be the return
of the gods themselves, of the
extraterrestrials coming back
to Earth to the Mayans,
as they promised.
Given the sophistication of
the Mayan calendar, is it
really possible that the
Maya could have accurately
predicted the exact date
of some sort
of Earth-changing event?
Might such an event usher in
a new era of
human enlightenment?
Or might it mark the end
of mankind in the form
of a cataclysmic doomsday?
Perhaps only time will tell.
04x01 - The Mayan Conspiracy
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Explores the pseudoscientific hypothesis of ancient astronauts in a non-critical, documentary format.
Explores the pseudoscientific hypothesis of ancient astronauts in a non-critical, documentary format.