22x03 - Islands of the Gods

[bunniefuu]

[Narrator]
Massive stone temples

believed to have been
constructed by giants.

A mysterious megalithic city

that rises out of the ocean.

And a colossal pyramid

thought to predate
the Great Flood of the Bible.

♪ ♪

All around the world,
we see the magnificent ruins

of cultures that existed
thousands of years ago.

And even today, archaeologists
still don't know

how sites like
the pyramids of Giza,

the temple at Baalbek,

and even Stonehenge were built.

For ancient astronaut theorists
like me,

these places
are even more compelling

because the local mythology
claims that

they were constructed
with otherworldly assistance.

Perhaps one of the best examples
of extraterrestrial engineering

can be found atop a vast plateau
in the Andes Mountains,

where dozens
of megalithic blocks

appear to have been carved
with laser-like precision.

[Narrator]
The Inca Empire, Peru. 1549.

High in the Andes Mountains,

Spanish explorer
Pedro Cieza de León

is searching for
the Inca capital of Qullasuyu.

Just south of Lake Titicaca,

at an elevation
of nearly 13,000 feet,

he comes upon
extraordinary ruins

covering roughly two and a half
square miles.

It is the ancient
settlement of Tiwanaku.

De León spends many months
investigating the site,

and writes in his chronicles
that Tiwanaku

contains impressive stone walls,

idols of human figures,

and great doorways.

He also writes about an area

south of the main
archaeological site

called Puma Punku,
or "gate of the puma."

It features stone blocks
so enormous

he does not understand how
they could be moved by humans.

And they are carved
with a precision that,

according to de León,
could not be accomplished

with the tools
available to the Inca.

[Tsoukalos]
Pedro Cieza de León says

that the local population,
which was Inca, told him

that this place
was not built by the Incas,

but it was built
hundreds of years before.

If the Inca themselves
have said

that it was not the Inca,

well then,
who were the pre-Incas?

And there we are confronted

with a gigantic question mark.

[Narrator] What the giant blocks
formed is completely unknown,

and nearly five centuries
after its discovery by de León,

Puma Punku remains
as mysterious as ever.

[Barnhart]
It's out in this

really open, high plains.

Most of the stones
in Puma Punku are huge.

The biggest is 130 tons.

There's another one
that's 85 tons.

Even the small ones
are multi-ton.

So these are huge.

The platform Illitica
is in the center of Puma Punku,

and it's, in fact,
the foundation.

So it consists of enormous slabs
of red sandstone

that were brought from a quarry

eight miles to the west
over two mountain ranges.

So, how that was accomplished,
I have no idea.

[Caroline Whitehill]
Another really fascinating

aspect of the Puma Punku site

is the distribution
of these blocks.

Some of them are still upright,
in the position

that they were originally
constructed in.

Most of them are strewn about.

It looks like
you're in a child's playroom

and blocks have just been
knocked over from

some sort of a structure
that was built.

[Hugh Newman] It looks like
it's been destroyed

by a kind of tsunami
or something.

It's got mud
piled up everywhere,

giant stones sticking out of it
at crazy angles.

[Narrator]
It remains unknown

whether the structures
of Puma Punku

were destroyed by a cataclysm

or if the construction project
was simply abandoned

before it was finished.

But the roughly


that can be found
at the site today

reveal that the builders
possessed astounding

stoneworking abilities.

[Barnhart] Puma Punku
has these megalithic blocks

that are perfectly cut,

that all of their angles

are completely right angles.

There's these ones in particular
called H-blocks

that look like a big capital H.

They have kind of, uh,
fade lines going in

where they carved
the same shape

in a couple of different layers,

deeper and deeper into
the stone. And its precision

is really mind-boggling.

[Travis Taylor]
There are grooves that are cut

with perfect 90-degree angles.

It looks like
they were so precise

that they were done
with modern-day

milling machine tools.

[David Childress]
There's stones there, too,

that have a lot of drill holes

and saw cuts
and things like that in them.

[Taylor]
It's an

amazing piece of engineering
that is beyond its time.

[Tsoukalos]
Predominantly, we have

two types of stone
at Puma Punku,

and that is red sandstone

and gray andesite.

They have found tools
made of copper

and of iron and bronze
at Puma Punku.

And with those tools, you can
absolutely cut the sandstone.

However, you cannot
cut the gray andesite blocks

with bronze or with copper
or with iron.

What's interesting, too, is that
the stone blocks that we find

at Puma Punku--
the surface is as if

you're touching glass.

It is perfection.

[Narrator]
In 1903, Arthur Posnansky,

an Austrian
engineer, explorer

and amateur archaeologist,

traveled to Puma Punku,
which, by that time,

was located in western Bolivia.

Posnansky began the most
thorough study of the site

ever conducted.

[Foerster]
Arthur Posnansky was born

in Vienna, Austria
in the 19th century,

and in his early 20s
he moved to South America.

But very soon after that he
became fascinated by Puma Punku,

and spent almost
the rest of his life

studying and researching
that location.

[Tsoukalos]
Arthur Posnansky lived

and researched at Puma Punku

from 1904

until 1945.

He was there for 41 years,

and he absolutely fell in love

not only with
the landscapes there,

but also with that culture

that put a spell on him,

and it was his biggest
siren call.

When speaking with
the Aymara elders,

they speak very, very fondly
of the archaeologist Posnansky,

because he respected them
and he respected their culture.

And he talked to them about what
they knew about these sites.

And one of the places
that they're in agreement

is that the site is much older
than it's believed to be

by mainstream archaeologists.

[Narrator]
Mainstream scholars believe

the site was
originally constructed

about 1,500 years ago,
but Posnansky proposed

that Puma Punku
was much, much older.

By examining the structures
and what he believed

was their original alignment
with the stars,

he dated the ruins to 15,000 BC.

[Taylor]
Arthur Posnansky suggests that

Puma Punku would
line up with stellar objects

about 17,000 years ago.

The local indigenous people--
the Aymara--

uh, they actually

have a mythology that Puma Punku

has been around for maybe
as much as 17,000 years.

[Narrator]
The Aymara people have occupied

the area of modern-day Peru
and Bolivia

for at least 800 years,

and lived alongside the Inca

when Pedro Cieza de León
arrived at Tiwanaku

in the 16th century.

Both the Inca and Aymara
told de León

and other Spanish chroniclers

not only that Puma Punku was
built long before their time,

but also that it was
the work of the gods.

[Erich von Däniken]
The locals said,

"It was not us who made this.

It was the gods
who did it in one night.

The gods who descended
from the sky."

So, normally,
every culture says,

"Oh, yes, we did it.
We-we had the knowledge.

We were strong enough."
In that case--

Puma Punku-- the locals say

"It was not us
who made these platforms.

It was the gods."

Which gods?
Extraterrestrials.

In the middle
of the Mediterranean Sea,

the tiny island nation of Malta

is home to some
of the best examples

of what
ancient astronaut theorists

consider to be
extraterrestrial engineering.

The megaliths of Malta are some
of the oldest in the world,

and many weigh
more than 50 tons.

But what's even more intriguing
are the local legends

that claim that these sites
were built by beings

who came from the stars.

[Narrator]
The Republic of Malta.

Situated across
the island nation's

122 square miles

sit the remains
of seven megalithic sites.

These include
the two temples of Ggantija...

...and Skorba.

These marvels of ancient
construction were all built

with the same type
of Maltese limestone

which was extracted
from local quarries.

[Schoch] The fact that
they were moving around

these multi-ton blocks,
building these temples

and actually,
when you look at them,

moving the blocks within
very, very narrow confines...

Okay, it's one thing
to move a block

out in the open
that's multi-ton,

but to then place it
systematically

and very carefully
next to another one,

next to another one,
next to another one,

to form these beautiful
temple structures--

that's a real engineering feat.

[Narrator] While there are some
researchers who believe

that Malta's megalithic temples

could be as much as


mainstream scholars believe
they were created

no earlier than 3600 BC,

during what is known
as the Neolithic Age.

And they also theorize
that the massive structures

were built by a human culture
that used

only primitive stone tools.

[Tsoukalos] Archaeology
suggests, at the time,

we barely invented the wheel.

We barely had tools,

there was no known language

and we had no writing.

Well, let's step back for
a moment and think about this.

From an evolutionary
and technology, uh, perspective,

that makes no sense because

you begin with simple,

you continue bigger, bigger
and then biggest.

But you start small.

What we have in the case of the
Maltese structures

is that the biggest
are the oldest.

So that makes zero sense

from a logical perspective

because there was
no evolution in technology.

The archaeologists--
they agree with this.

[Jason Osequeda]
To construct similar temple

after similar temple,

um, with the same material,

without evidence of writing,

shows a high degree
of communication.

And we find terra-cotta models,

in fact, of temples, and

archaeologists
have suggested, perhaps,

that this is
an early architect's rendering.

This is more evidence
of the high level

of thought and ability
that went into

the construction
of these temples.

[Narrator] No written records
have ever been discovered

to explain who built the
megalithic temples in Malta.

However, local traditions
of the Maltese people

have offered
a stunning possibility.

They claim that
the massive structures

were built
by a race of giant beings

who came to Earth
from the stars.

[Jonathan Young]
There's a story

that a meteorite came down
from the heavens

and turned into a goddess,
a giant

named Sansuna.

And the locals, of course,
were terrified of this giant.

But at a place called Ggantija
she started building a temple

and moved stones much larger
than any human could ever move,

and assembled this structure
that was so massive

it remains to this day,

still a place of mystery,

still a giant's construction.

[William Henry] When you
see these cyclopean stones,

some of them weighing as much
as 50 tons, you can appreciate

why we have the story
of this giantess, Sansuna.

[Narrator]
The local legends of Sansuna

may sound incredible to some.

However, in the 17th century,

a Maltese nobleman
named Gian Francesco Abela

claimed to have found forensic
evidence that these legends

may have been based in fact.

In the early 1600s,
Gian Francesco Abela

was living
on the island of Malta,

and he actually wrote
about the fact that giants

were involved in the
construction of these sites.

And one of the reasons
he wrote this is because

he said he found bones, skulls
and even giant teeth

all across the island

and there were other reports of
them coming forth at this time.

[Narrator] In order to
investigate the local legends

connecting giant
extraterrestrial beings

to the massive structures
on Malta,

in 2022,

ancient astronaut theorist
Giorgio Tsoukalos

traveled to Malta's
oldest megalithic structures,

the temples of Ggantija
on the island of Gozo.

There, he met
with Frans Van Avendonk...

I'm Giorgio.
Pleasure to meet you.

...an expert in Maltese history

who has lived on the island
since 1991.

- Look at this, I mean...
- Gigantic.

It is gigantic.

"Ggantija" means
"the giant goddess,"

and it makes sense why,

because right now,
I feel like an ant.

We are so small, and especially
when you're right next to it.

[Van Avendonk]
It's very impressive.

[Tsoukalos]
And, uh, in my opinion,

still a massive question mark.

[Van Avendonk] There are still
questions, yeah, definitely.

What can you tell us
about the dating?

Well, when it was excavated--
because we don't

talk about discovery,
it was always visible--

people thought it was
a Phoenician temple.

- Okay.
- Much later, they realized

it must have been prehistoric,
so it was put

in the 2000s, before Christ.

Then it moves back to the 3000s.
Now we're saying 3600, at least.

Technology has improved,

different ways
of looking at things,

so therefore,
they're getting older.

They were built much earlier

than we thought before.

[Narrator]
When viewed from above,

the two adjacent temples
of Ggantija

are designed with large apses
resembling a cloverleaf.

Each housed an altar,
and artifacts suggest

a wooden roof
covered the entire temple.

Many of the stone blocks
stand 20 feet tall,

and some weigh
in excess of 50 tons.

Is it possible that we've lost
some type of masonry knowledge?

Because you could create it
using smaller stones.

Clearly, this required planning.

- It required logistics.
- Yes.

[Tsoukalos]
In my opinion, master builders

were at work here,

and mainstream archaeologists
are suggesting that

whoever built this
did not have any writing.

Well, not only
would it require writing,

but you have to have
calculations.

- And leadership.
- Doesn't last... Exactly.

With the evidence of how old
or when it was built,

who built it
and how it was built...

- Mm-hmm.
- Might be there,

but we haven't found it yet.

I can imagine that
people saw this

and thought,
"This must have been

- the work of a giant."
- Right.

[Osequeda]
Throughout the Mediterranean,

you see an association
with giants

constructing megaliths. For
instance, in Mycenaean Greece,

there's a structure
called the Lion's Gate.

Aristotle mentioned that

this construction style
was called cyclopean masonry

because of the large stones.

The ancient Greeks figured that
only a giant called Cyclops

could have had the strength
to move these.

The same sort of
cyclopean masonry is present

in the Maltese temples as well.

[Tsoukalos]
These stories of giants

have been an integral part

of our entire human history

since the beginning of time.

So, is it possible

that the reason why we have
these stories of these giants

is because, at one point,
they actually existed?

And the answer to that is yes.

Not every example
of extraterrestrial engineering

are gigantic structures.

Sometimes, they're so small

they can fit
in the palm of your hand.

Like in the case
of a fascinating discovery

under the ruins
of Teotihuacan in Mexico,

where archaeologists found

mysterious golden spheres.

[Narrator] Teotihuacan, Mexico.

This ancient pyramid site
was once home

to a mysterious civilization
dating back

to the first century AD--

a time long before the Aztec
arrived in this region.

Since the early 1990s,

archaeologists have been
exploring the dozens

of subterranean rooms, tunnels

and pathways that lie below
this eight square mile complex.

They've been doing a lot
of excavations to understand

the nature and the relationship
of the different pyramids.

And they're exploring underneath

the Temple of the Feathered
Serpent.

And so they've made
some really nice maps

of the pathways and such
that are underneath the temple

and exposed caverns in areas
that they didn't know existed.

[Narrator]
In May of 2013,

researchers working beneath the
Temple of the Feathered Serpent

employed a small robot
called Tlaloc II-TC

to explore the recently
uncovered area.

Inside one chamber,
archaeologists made

a curious discovery.

They found more than a hundred
gold-colored metallic spheres.

[Andrew Collins]
These tiny ba*ls

are probably anything between

an inch to about
five inches in diameter.

And what we can say is that

when they were actually
put in place,

uh, probably about


you would have had
this incredible

shining gallery of lights
as you went down it.

[Whitehill] They appear gold,
but when you look at them

under chemical inspection,
it appears that

that gold color
is mineral pyrite.

The Mexican archaeologists

are completely perplexed.
They haven't seen

anything like this before.

They haven't seen
anything like this

in their explorations
of the other temples.

So there's lots of-of questions
to be answered, still.

[Narrator]
Archaeologists retrieved

several spheres
from the chamber,

and when they analyzed them,
they were amazed

by what they found.

[Barnhart] The sparkly spheres
that were found in Teotihuacan

really are an enigma.

As far as how they were made,
men definitely made them.

We have looked at those spheres
and they are clay.

They are like sunbaked clay
that was then

rolled in pyrite dust.

That's why they have that
kind of yellow color.

Why they did it... I don't know.

[Henry] Nobody knows
the purpose of them,

why they were made
or even who made them,

but the fact that they're there

tells us they are
of-of utmost importance

to what went on at the temple.

[Narrator]
The golden spheres found under

the Temple
of the Feathered Serpent

are a mystery
to archaeologists,

but some believe
they may be representations

of celestial bodies
observed in the night sky.

But ancient astronaut theorists
suggest the mysterious spheres

could have served
a more profound purpose,

and point to
another discovery made in 1906.

[Collins] At Teotihuacan,
huge mica sheets have been found

beneath a layer
of stone flooring

that were 90 feet

square and they were placed
directly on top of each other,

and yet you couldn't see them.

So, they clearly weren't
decorative or aesthetic,

they were clearly
functional in their use.

So, what were they doing there?

[Tsoukalos] We use mica today
in spacefaring technology.

It's a heat shield

for high-- very, very high--
temperatures.

What is it doing at Teotihuacan?

What's also fascinating
is that throughout Teotihuacan

you see burn marks on the walls.

So, at some point, Teotihuacan

underwent a gigantic fire.

Or was it something else?

Was it some type of a blast?

Was it some type of an exhaust?

[Narrator]
Curiously, mica

wasn't the only
unusual substance

found within
the ancient structure.

[Newman]
They actually found mercury

under some of the pyramids
as well.

So, what does this all mean?
Well, Mercury is used

in different
electrical components

and it conducts electricity.
So, can we suggest that

they were using this for some
advanced technological purpose?

[Childress] Mercury itself
is-is very special.

It's a metal, it's a liquid,
it's a electrical conductor.

Mercury can be used
for many, many devices,

all of which are high tech.

So, you have to wonder:
what is going on

here at Teotihuacan?

Do these small ba*ls

and the mica and the mercury

and other facets
of the pyramid--

are they all
working together to create

some kind of electrical device
that's doing something?

That would seem to be the case.

[Narrator] Does the discovery
at Teotihuacan

of both mica and mercury--

two substances with
high-tech applications--

indicate that an advanced
technology once existed

in this ancient
Mesoamerican city?

One that involved
the mysterious spheres

found under the Temple
of the Feathered Serpent?

We've often suggested
that ancient structures

may have been used as some type

of energy capacitor.

An aeronautics engineer
has suggested

that the Great Pyramid of Egypt
or the whole Giza complex

may have been some type
of a giant power plant.

Well, what if Egypt
is not the only place

where they had
something like this?

How do you explain
an ancient structure

where the walls are built
from 20-foot-long basalt columns

stacked more than 30 feet high,

all in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean?

For ancient astronaut theorists,
this place, called Nan Madol,

is a perfect example
of extraterrestrial engineering.

[Narrator] Pohnpei, Micronesia.

Located roughly 2,500 miles
northeast of Australia

lie the ruins of Nan Madol.

This 11-square-mile complex

was built out of more than


with some blocks
weighing upwards of 50 tons.

In 2019,

ancient astronaut theorists
Giorgio Tsoukalos

and David Childress, along with

Micronesia's national historic
preservation officer Gus Kohler,

traveled to Nan Madol
to investigate

this megalithic site.

Also joining them
was structural engineer

Dr. Henry Burton.

This thing-- it's-it's supposed
to be the biggest

of all the stones here.

Henry, do you think you can
calculate the weight of this?

Yeah, we can certainly estimate
it. Um, I have a measuring tape.

We can estimate the volume.
And we know the density.

- So that can give us the mass.
- All right, let's do that.

[Burton] Yeah, so,
this is about four meters.

All right, here's, uh,
the far... corner here.

[Narrator] Using the dimensions
and the density

of one of the basalt
stone blocks,

Dr. Burton
calculates its weight.

Two fifty.
Two meters, fifty.

[Burton] All right.
So, based on the measurements,

you're looking at a weight
of about 54 tons.

- Fifty-four tons? Then...
- Yeah.

So, 50 tons, give or take.

And you have
one, two, three, four

of those monoliths essentially
stacked on top of each other.

At a height of 40 feet.

[Childress] So, Gus,
what is, then, the oral history

of moving this stone
on the island?

Well, according
to the legends, uh,

the stones were flown up there.

[Narrator]
For generations,

the people of Pohnpei
have told the story

that Nan Madol was constructed
by strange visitors

through a process of levitation.

It is this legend
that has suggested

to ancient astronaut theorists
that Nan Madol

is not only an ancient
megalithic structure.

It is also
an extraterrestrial one.

So, we have,
in the oral traditions,

a story about two brothers.

[Narrator] According to legend,
the twin sorcerers

who created Nan Madol
were of giant proportions,

much like the legends of
Easter Island, where it is said

that giants magically floated

the stone Moai statues
into place.

Similar stories
involving levitation

are associated with
numerous other megalithic sites

like Stonehenge in England,

the Great Pyramid
in Giza, Egypt,

the Uxmal Pyramid
in the Yucatán Peninsula

and Puma Punku in Bolivia.

There are other stories
around the world

that say the exact same thing--

how gigantic stones

were moved into place
as if by magic.

And you have to ask yourself,
is there a connection?

Did all of our ancestors
receive the same knowledge

from the extraterrestrials?

And the answer to that
is a resounding yes.

[Childress] They don't know...

I think they don't know
where it came from.

And... But it's-it's not
from here, right?

So, yeah, 60% of the stones,

they don't know
where they came from.

That's incredible. That...

The 60% is essentially
still a mystery, yes?

Huh.

[Narrator] For decades,
mainstream archaeologists

have been frustrated by their
failure to identify the source

for much of the basalt used in
the construction of Nan Madol.

But recently,
a growing number of scientists

have become convinced
that it came from

a volcanic outcropping located


called Pwisehn Malek.

The unusual formation extends
over 400 feet into the air.

And, incredibly, the rock used
to construct Nan Madol

appears to have been extracted
from the least accessible

part of the mountain:
the very top.

But how?

According to
the oral history of Pohnpei,

the basalt was taken
by what the natives

referred to as a giant bird.

There's one story that says
that, at some point,

there were
these giant roosters

that lived
on top of that mountain.

And this rooster
took these basalt blocks

and flew them over
to Nan Madol.

Now, monster roosters
do not exist.

So, my mind always goes
to misunderstood technology.

Machines that were provided
by the extraterrestrials.

When it comes to
extraterrestrial engineering,

look no further
than the Great Pyramids of Giza.

For ancient astronaut theorists,
these colossal structures

are the perfect example of how

humans constructed
an extraordinary site

with the help
of otherworldly technology.

[Narrator] Jerusalem. 2016.

Researchers with the Israel
Antiquities Authority

studying the Dead Sea Scrolls
make a major discovery.

Using state-of-the-art
imaging technology,

they uncover a passage
of ancient text

previously unseen
by the naked eye.

These researchers have
discovered a new passage

in the Dead Sea Scrolls
that indicates

that Noah's Ark wasn't
in the shape of a ship at all,

but was in the shape
of a pyramid.

[Narrator] Curiously,
this is not the first time

that Noah's Ark has been
depicted as a pyramid.

In the 15th century, Italian
artist Lorenzo Ghiberti

created his masterpiece.

A series of ten panels

that depict scenes
from the Old Testament.

[Henry] The Italian sculptor
Lorenzo Ghiberti

was selected to create
the doors going into

the new Florence cathedral,
the Il Doumo.

These doors are called
the Gates of Paradise.

And something that is very
extraordinary about them

is that, in one instance,
he shows Noah's Ark as a pyramid

that resembles
the Great Pyramid of Giza.

[Childress] Was it possible that
Lorenzo, while he was working

for the Church,
learned about the true nature

of Noah's Ark and then
depicted it in his sculpture?

[Narrator]
According to historians,

the Pyramid of Djoser,
constructed in 2600 BC,

was the first pyramid
ever built in Egypt,

and the Great Pyramid
was built 100 years later.

But the dating
of the Great Pyramid

and the two smaller pyramids
that stand next to it

is a point of major contention,
with many researchers suggesting

they were built much earlier.

[Childress]
Egyptologists often assume

that the older pyramids are

less well-created and smaller,

such as Djoser's Pyramid.

And that, ultimately, their
building got better and better

until they finally
built the Great Pyramid

as their final
construction masterpiece.

But it may be
completely reversed of that,

and that the Great Pyramid,
which is by far the best

of all the pyramids, is actually
the oldest of the pyramids.

[von Däniken]
Two and a half thousand BC,

according to archaeology,
humans made the Great Pyramid.

Now, in old writing,
especially in the Book of Enoch,

and in the so-called

Hitat, which is
a book from Arabian writer,

they say the Great Pyramid
was constructed

before the Great Flood.

[Henry]
What if the Great Pyramid

existed, perhaps
even for millennia,

before the Djoser Pyramid?

Then the Egyptians come along,
discover it, and decide,

"Hey, maybe we can
make one of those, too."

And that's when they build
the Djoser Pyramid.

[Mark Carlotto] Perhaps the-the
most similar common motif

or style is the pyramidal shape

that seems to exist
throughout the world.

In Egypt, in Mesoamerica,
in China.

Giant, earthen mounds
in the shape of pyramids.

Why pyramids?

[Narrator] Is it possible
that pyramids were built

by cultures all around the world

because they were trying to
recreate much older structures

that survived a great flood?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and some researchers
have even suggested

that those pyramids that were
built by pre-flood civilizations

represent a form
of lost technology.

In his 1998 book
The Giza Power Plant,

noted machinist and engineer
Christopher Dunn

proposed that the shape,
positions of chambers,

and proximity
to underground rivers

indicate the
Great Pyramids of Giza

functioned as power plants.

[Childress] I personally
think that the pyramids

were some kind of
energy generators, and

here we have the strange idea
that the Ark itself

wasn't a boat-type shaped thing,

but was actually a pyramid.

So, is it possible that whoever
built the pyramids of Egypt

was doing so to try
to preserve their technology?

One of the oldest structures
on Earth

is a megalithic site in Ireland
called Newgrange.

What's remarkable about
this ancient passage tomb

is not only its age
but the mythology

that says it was engineered
by an otherworldly being

to be a home for the gods.

[Narrator]
County Meath, Ireland.

Here, in the Boyne River Valley,

a large, circular mound
rises out of the earth--

the Newgrange Passage Tomb,

built around 3200 BC.

It was constructed with
over 200,000 tons of stone

quarried 75 miles away,

and contains one passageway

that leads
to a centralized chamber.

[Newman] Newgrange is one of
the most important sites

in all of Europe.

It was possibly a stone circle
with 36 or 37 stones.

Only 12 of these still remain.

And after that, a huge mound
made of stone and earth

was built within
the stone circle itself.

Within this,
we have a huge chamber,

which is a cruciform shape,
or a cross.

It's got some beautiful carvings
on the 97 curbstones

that go around the edge as well
as on the main entrance stone.

And within the chamber itself,

mainly zigzags and spirals

and, most notably,
a triple spiral

at the back of the main chamber
within the actual site itself.

[Narrator]
Newgrange was designed

to honor the winter solstice,

but according to a book
published in 2012

called
The Newgrange Sirius Mystery,

the entire mound was also built

to align with the star Sirius A
in the night sky.

[Newman] The declination
of Sirius is the same

as the winter solstice sunrise
moving across the sky,

and through the light box,
which is a rectangular area

just above the main entrance,
this is where

you witness not only
the sunlight coming through,

but also, later in the day,

Sirius light
coming through as well.

[Narrator] The Dogon of Mali
in West Africa

claimed that their gods came
to Earth from the star Sirius B.

Ancient astronaut theorists
connect these visitors

to gods with similar names
all over the world.

But they also point out
an intriguing connection

to Newgrange in Ireland.

In addition to being in line
with the star Sirius,

legend says that this megalith
was built by a Celtic god:

Dagda.

[Childress] The main god
that's associated with Newgrange

is called Dagda.
So here, once again,

we have this same word that
appears to mean something about

gods coming from Sirius.

[Narrator]
The god known as Dagda

was said to be the leader of
a group of otherworldly beings

called the Tuatha Dé Danann.

[Newman]
So, the Tuatha Dé Danann

were this renowned fairy race

that arrived, mysteriously,
in Ireland

many thousands of years ago.

The supreme deity
of the Tuatha Dé Danann

was Dagda. Dagda Mul.

And he was a renowned god.

He was said to have built
and lived inside Newgrange.

They had very advanced weaponry

and different types
of what sounds like machinery.

But also, they taught
the high arts of civilization

and they were said to be
almost like the shining ones

of the Biblical tradition.

It's almost like
a science fiction movie

when you start looking
at these ancient Irish myths.

Could Newgrange have once been

an alien outpost on Earth?

It's certainly an intriguing
possibility,

and just one
of the many examples

of diverse ancient constructions

that defy
our current understanding

of just how and why
they were made.

From the megalithic temples
of Malta

and the precisely cut stones
at Puma Punku

to the enigma that are
the Great Pyramids of Egypt,

these remarkable creations
present possible evidence

of the role
extraterrestrial engineering

may have played

in our ancestors' distant past.