Humanity’s Greatest Unexplained Mysteries | Ancient Aliens

NARRATOR: The Giza Plateau, Egypt.

Here, in the desert just outside Cairo,

stands the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

[bell tolls]

4,500 years ago, it was the tallest and most impressive

man-made structure on Earth.

[dramatic music]

But exactly how and why the pyramid was constructed

remains a mystery.

[bell tolls]

WILLIAM HENRY: The Great Pyramid is the most

wondrous place on Earth.

And, when you're standing in front of it,

you are confronted with the greatest mystery of all time.

[rising music]

Who built this place?

How could it have been constructed?

Why is it still standing?

And then, when you go inside it, you

have the feeling like you are in the hands of

an extraordinary intelligence.

We've got a structure that is 480 feet high.

It covers 13 acres with 2 and 1/2 million blocks of stone.

[upbeat music]

The heaviest stones weigh 70 tons.

They quarried thousands of tons of granite, 500 miles away.

It's an amazing structure.

[flute trills]

To me, the most intriguing thing

is the scale of the project.

You know, if you want to build a tomb, fair enough.

But why go 146 meters high?

Why use 2 and 1/2 million blocks of stones

with a mass of 6 million tons?

[dramatic music]

NARRATOR: Mainstream archaeologists

theorize that the Great Pyramid was built

sometime around 2,500 BC as the burial

tomb of the pharaoh Khufu.

But this claim has yet to be proven.

And the debate among various researchers

over for who or for what purpose the structure was built

continues.

WILLIAM HENRY: We're told that the Great Pyramid

was a tomb for the pharaoh.

But there's never been a body found inside the Great Pyramid.

[burst]

We have found pyramids, in the 1950s,

by respected Egyptologists, whereby the tomb was sealed,

whereby the sarcophagus was intact.

And inside there was no body.

There was no corpse.

There wasn't even a coffin.

And so this notion that we really think that grave robbers

somehow were responsible for everything

can no longer be maintained.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN: There has to be a reason for them

to be there.

And they are a tremendous expenditure of resources.

And, if not for a revered leader,

they had to have had some benefit for the civilization

that built them.

It's a whole controversy.

Nobody knows why our ancestors constructed pyramids.

[dramatic music]

NARRATOR: But, if the Pyramids of Giza

were not intended to house the remains of dead pharaohs, then

why were these towering monuments built?

Could there be a connection between the Pyramid of Khufu

and other pyramids around the world,

one that has been lost to time?

Or is it possible that the builders of these engineering

marvels had an otherworldly inspiration,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

Both the Mayans and the Egyptians

have legends that the gods came down and gave them

instructions to build pyramids.

For instance, with the Egyptians,

the famous god Ptah is known as the architect of the universe.

And it was he who allegedly designed the entire pyramid

complex at Giza.

[dramatic music]

Imhotep, the person who was responsible for the first

pyramid, actually said that he received

this information from the gods.

Not so much that god appeared to him and told him,

but that he was able to access this information

from a different realm and, from there,

began the pyramid-building process.

[dramatic music]

NARRATOR: Central America.

[music playing]

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.

NARRATOR: 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.

Ernest 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.

GERARDO ALDANA: 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 balam, 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.

NARRATOR: According to interpretations

of the Hieroglyphic Stairway, the glyphs

chronicle not only the history but also the origin

of the ancient Maya rulers.

GERARDO ALDANA: 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 the--

a closeup of a sculpture of Uaxaclajuun

Ub'aah K'awiil, 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 semidivinity of our king

and his power to intercede between us and the heavens.

NARRATOR: 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.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: 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.

NARRATOR: Qasr El Yahud, Israel.

Here, tens of thousands of Christians

make their way to what is believed

to be the site of Christ's baptism in the River Jordan.

It was also here that according to scripture,

God revealed himself as being made up

of three divine persons.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise known as the Holy Trinity.

ROBERT MULLINS: In the story of "Jesus' Baptism,"

Jesus is standing in the Jordan River and we're told that

the heavens open up.

And the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descends upon Jesus.

And the voice of God booms out of heaven and says,

this is my son whom I love and in whom I am well pleased.

So in that scene, all three parts of the trinity

are represented their father, son, and Holy Spirit.

What makes it a mathematical conundrum

is how can you be one and three?

So it is a mystery and some people don't even question it

because it is a matter of faith.

And so made in that image, we could make the argument

that there's a trinity within each and every one of us.

NARRATOR: Could the triune nature of God

as described in the New Testament

also exist in all of mankind.

And if so, does this suggest that the power of three

might somehow connect humanity with divine

or as some would believe extraterrestrial forces.

Ancient astronaut theorists believe

the answers can be found not only in the Bible,

but encoded within the genetic blueprint of the human body.

Huntington, New York 1966.

Scientists announce one of the greatest breakthroughs

of modern science.

They have successfully deciphered the genetic code.

After years of research, they discover

that the universal structure of DNA

consists of a series of three molecule combinations known

as codons or triplets.

MICHAEL DENNIN: You had this DNA sequence and it codes

for ultimately the proteins in your body.

And the question was, how does it code for that?

Does each individual base pair represent something?

Is it two at a time that represents something?

Is it a sequence of 10?

And it turns out that it's very clear it comes in clusters

of three.

Essentially, the number three is the key to our DNA language.

And this was a revolutionary for its time

because the ancient alien theory has always suggested

that the ultimate proof of extraterrestrial tampering

in our past will not come in the form of a crashed spaceship

or some type of tools, but the actual proof will

come from within our own DNA.

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NARRATOR: January 2011, researchers survey and measure

the monolithic stones and H blocks scattered

around the archaeological site of Puma Punku hoping to solve

the mystery of what these structures were used for

and why.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: The evidence

that something extraordinary happened at Puma Punku

is in front of our very eyes, because at Puma Punku

we find evidence of stone cuts that we today could only

replicate if we use the most sophisticated of technologies.

BRIEN FOERSTER: That is part of the great mesentery of Puma

Punku.

It seems as though some kind of factory

was set up there to make these almost exactly the same.

It's almost like a LEGO system of interconnecting blocks,

and that is unique on this Earth.

ERICH VON DANIKEN: Many of the blocks

were prefabricated blocks.

Prefabricated blocks means planning.

You have to make a design.

Planning means writing.

Now, the archaeologists say that Puma Punku are the ruins

of temples made by the Aymara.

Aymara are the Highland Indians up there.

But the Aymara were Stone Age people.

They had not even writing.

So not planning, it's absolutely impossible.

Prefabricated blocks in Stone Age doesn't fit with Stone Age.

And the precision of the blocks is absolutely buffing.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In Danville, Illinois, toolmaker Chris Dunn

uses measurements taken at Puma Punku

to create a 1/8 scale model of an H block

to better understand how they may have originally

fit together.

So you actually went to Puma Punku to measure the H blocks.

What was your conclusion?

What did you find?

For me, it was important to find out what the measurements were.

What I found was that the internal cavities were not

parallel to each other.

And by internal cavities, you're

referring to these two parts right here, right?

Exactly.

These two surfaces right here, both top and bottom,

they are smaller at the front than they are at the back.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Essentially suggesting

a dovetail.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN: Creating a dovetail.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Why do you think a dovetail shape was

carved or used?

Really if we look at the way we have used dovetails,

we use them for mechanical purposes

to hold things together.

So essentially what I'm saying is that they were using these H

blocks for a mechanical purpose, probably

two whole hinges for a door.

NARRATOR: To test his theory, Dunn

created a door hinge that would connect to a small scale model

H block.

CHRISTOPHER DUNN: So if we put this together,

we put one in the bottom like so, one in the top part

like so, and then this piece fits in there,

put a hinge pin in it.

And now you have your hinge.

It's absolutely spectacular.

And of course, the most fascinating question

is, what tools were used 5,000 years ago?

Because something very sophisticated

was used and not chicken bones.

Not chicken bones, not carpet chisels, not stone chisels.

The tools that were used to create these

blocks that Puma Punku do not exist

in the archaeological record.

NARRATOR: According to Dunn, the H blocks

may have been used to mount hinges for a massive door,

perhaps for one of the largest temple

complexes in the ancient world.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: It's a spectacular discovery

that Chris Dunn made.

This lends a whole new meaning to the H blocks at Puma Punku,

because possibly they held something in place.

The question is, what?

Perhaps the most famous or infamous of all the world's

mysterious places is the Bermuda Triangle.

For decades, this stretch of ocean, covering over 500,000

square miles, located between Miami, Puerto Rico,

and Bermuda, has baffled scientists,

experienced sailors, and even military investigators.

Planes disappearing, various kinds of strange lights

being seen, a whole bunch of weirdness, all conglomerating

into this very tight corner of the Atlantic.

Ships that have shown up absolutely empty.

No sign of any struggle, yet the crew has just vanished.

GIAN QUASAR: This is something that's very real.

They exist in records.

And now that they're all gone, in fair weather,

that is not supernatural phenomenon to me.

That is something unexplained.

NARRATOR: What caused ships and planes

to disappear without a trace?

Why has aeronautical and navigational equipment

stopped working or changed course by itself?

Historical shipping records show that the mysteries

of the Bermuda Triangle are much older than many people realize.

Ever since the earliest days of oceanic exploration,

sailors have witnessed strange sights.

JASON MARTELL: Really, the awareness

of the Bermuda Triangle started with Christopher Columbus being

such an esoteric navigator and a well-respected sailor.

His log traversing to the New World is very accurate.

And it turns out, just as Columbus

got into the area known as the Bermuda Triangle,

he recorded having compass malfunctions.

The following night, he saw a large fireball hit the ocean.

He saw strange lights.

He saw strange wet phenomena happening there.

So it's definitely a case that the story of the Bermuda

Triangle is not just some modern awesome urban myth

at the threshold of the 21st century.

It is as old as there are accounts

of people going into that area.

NARRATOR: About 450 years after Columbus, on December 5, 1945,

the US military experienced the Bermuda Triangle's

most perplexing mystery.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, five US Navy torpedo bombers

flew from a Naval base in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

on a routine training exercise.

But not long into the two-hour mission,

all five planes were suddenly gone.

The mystery was compounded when the navy sent out a rescue

plane, and it too disappeared.

Six planes, all flown by skilled pilots,

had vanished into oblivion.

That struck everybody as very odd.

This was now the modern era.

We have radar.

We have radio.

Still, five aircraft vanished.

Now, the question is where have all of them gone.

It really is as if they have been snapped out of our reality

into something else.

And of course what that something else is,

that's the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

NARRATOR: Over the years, few have

lived to tell of any strange anomalies that have occurred

to them in the Bermuda Triangle.

But American pilot Bruce Gernon is an exception.

In 1970, Gernon, his father, and a business associate

were flying from the Bahamas to Florida when Gernon reported

seeing a strange cloud directly out in front of their plane.

Then, as he approached, Gernon claims the cloud formed

a donut-shaped hole or vortex.

BRUCE GERNON: That tunnel was huge at first,

but then it started getting smaller, rapidly.

But when I penetrated into the tunnel,

an incredible thing happened.

These lines instantly formed.

It was like looking down a rifle barrel,

because the lines were swirling, slowly, counterclockwise.

I had encountered some intense electricity.

There were, like, flashes going on and off.

And all I could see was this strange, grayish-yellowish fog.

I call it electronic fog.

I noticed that my instruments were malfunctioning.

And at the same time, I'm feeling

this unbelievable sensation.

NARRATOR: Gernon says when he finally exited the tunnel,

he radioed Miami Air traffic control,

but they couldn't find his plane on their radar screen.

BRUCE GERNON: And then about three minutes later,

the radar controller came back on the radio.

And he's all excited.

He had identified me over Miami.

And I couldn't believe it, because I had only

been flying for 33 minutes.

It should have been more like an hour and three minutes.

NARRATOR: Could such a discrepancy in

time and location really happen?

And could extraterrestrials be using this kind of gateway

to travel to Earth?

According to Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity,

it is possible.

JASON MARTELL: Through Einstein's principles

of being able to bend space using a gravitational pull,

it's very possible that extraterrestrial craft could

somehow get a higher charge of energy

from these locations like the Bermuda Triangle, which allow

them to do a burst of energy, if you will, a warp speed,

and harness some type of extra particles or energies

from these locations to get them where they're trying to go.