In Search of Aliens (2014) s01e09 Episode Script
The Mystery of Nazca
[GIORGIO TSOUKALOS.]
I'm in Peru to investigate one of the most mysterious sites on planet Earth, Nazca.
Here, carved into the vast desert floor, are hundreds of ancient geoglyphs, shallow lines in the ground depicting animals, humanlike figures and strange geometric designs that defy conventional explanations.
And many of these glyphs are so enormous that they can only be seen from the sky.
The mysteries of Nazca have remained unsolved for hundreds of years, but I'm here to investigate if what we have here could provide evidence of alien visitation.
My name is Giorgio Tsoukalos.
I explore the world that exists between reality and speculation, the known and the unknown.
What we've been taught by mainstream scholars is not the whole picture.
But I'm convinced that every day we are one step closer to the truth.
Although archaeologists believe that the Nazca Lines were created sometime between 500 BC and 500 AD, the earliest known references to them can be found in a book written in 1553 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de Leon, who mistook them for trail markers.
But it wasn't until the 1930s, after the invention of the airplane, that explorers flew over Nazca and discovered a network of hundreds of geoglyphs covering an area of over 200 square miles.
Many believe that the Nazca Lines were formed by removing the reddish-colored pebbles that make up the desert surface and exposing the lighter soil underneath.
Luckily, because this desert sees very little rainfall, he Nazca Lines are still in amazing condition.
But who made them? And why? To begin my search, I've arranged to meet with my good friend and colleague, David Childress.
[DAVID CHILDRESS.]
Giorgio! David.
Good to see you.
How are you? You good? Hey, buddy.
Yeah, I'm great.
The plane's ready.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
David is one of the most well-known proponents of the ancient astronaut theory and has written many books on unexplained mysteries of the universe.
(engine rumbling) Even though we've both flown over this area before, David and I are always excited to see these glyphs the way they were clearly meant to be seen from the sky.
And with so many glyphs here, there is always the possibility of discovering something new.
Nothing.
Yeah.
Some researchers have proposed that it would have been almost impossible for an ancient people to construct these complex images and shapes without a concise knowledge of geometry.
(Giorgio laughs) [DAVID.]
So, I keep wondering, really, if this isn't a signal, uh, to the Anunnaki.
[GIORGIO.]
Right.
And this is a big signal for them.
It's like a beacon.
[GIORGIO.]
One of the most mind-blowing of all the glyphs is known as El Astronauto or the Spaceman.
This strange figure appears to be pointing to the sky or perhaps waving to visitors from above and inviting them to land here.
Of course, ancient petroglyphs that appear to be depicting astronauts is nothing new.
In Nine Mile Canyon, Utah, for example, you can find one called the Family Panel that appears to depict an entire family of astronauts.
And in July 2014, 10,000-year-old rock paintings were discovered in India that depict figures so strange-looking that even archaeologists described them as, and I quote, "wearing space suits.
" But equally mystifying is the monkey glyph.
David and I asked our pilots to take us over the strange flat-topped mountain that some refer to as Mount Palpa.
Unlike many other mountains in the area, Mount Palpa looks as if the entire peak has been neatly sliced off.
And we're talking probably a million tons of earth that has completely disappeared.
There's not even any rubble nearby to indicate that, if this was done deliberately, how an ancient people could have accomplished such an incredible engineering feat.
The last site we wanted to see from the air was the Sun-Star and Cross glyph.
[DAVID.]
Assuming that these people are just some kind of primitive desert people, I mean, they had to be a very advanced civilization.
[GIORGIO.]
This massive geometric design was carved into a hillside and contains a series of intricate geometric patterns.
But how could the ancient Nazca people have made this without, at the very least, viewing their incredible designs from above the Earth? It's just one of the many unanswered questions about Nazca that absolutely fascinates me.
[DAVID.]
Oh, I'm still shaken up from that ride.
It's just as exciting as-as the first time, really.
It really is because today for the first time I saw perfect circles inside some of the lines, which I had never seen before.
So I really think it also has to do with the-the time of day you're flying because of the-the angle of the sunlight and things like this.
And you're always amazed by just the sheer number of-of lines and trapezoids everywhere.
It's this giant geometry etching on the desert th-that's baffling.
You-you can't figure out what it's about.
It really is.
And, you know, the perfection with which the lines exist, the things that look like these wide bands, it's as if they were stamped into the ground.
I mean, very bizarre.
And I-I think the most interesting is what you showed me.
- The star.
- The star thing.
The star glyph.
Uh, it's just there.
There is this, uh this ditch in the terrain where, the builders, they didn't mind that it's on top of this mountain.
It's very hilly, and it's perfect, though.
So it'd be good to go and investigate that as closely as we can.
Right.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
[GIORGIO.]
After leaving the airport, David and I drove for less than an hour to see the Sun-Star and Cross glyph up close, from the ground.
Local historians Luis Quiroz and Manuel Cáceres acted as our guides, and as they brought us right up to the enormous glyph, I felt like I was being transported to the moon.
What really strikes me every time I'm in Nazca is the absolute desolation of this entire area.
I mean, why would anyone create these intricate designs here, in a remote, barren desert? [DAVID.]
It's just it's strange.
It looks so different from the ground than from the air.
I mean I mean, anybody who says that th-this can be appreciated in its full form the way we're standing right now, they're out to lunch.
Clearly, to do this, y-you need planning for this.
You need to have something in writing and be like, "All right, let's create this.
" But then to see the finished product is only from up there.
Luis and Manuel told us that the people who inhabited this area from approximately 800 BC to 100 BC are known as the Paracas and that they were here long before the ancestors of the people living in Nazca today.
They're also convinced that the area has been a hot spot of UFO activity, even to this day.
Here and around Nazca and Paracas, do you sometimes see UFOs or some light, luz, light in the sky? He doesn't know what it is.
Can they be intelligently controlled by extraterrestrials? [GIORGIO.]
I'm with David Childress at the Sun-Star and Cross glyph in Nazca, Peru.
We just learned from our local guides, Luis and Manuel, that it's not just ancient astronaut theorists who believe that extraterrestrials may have been responsible for the remarkable glyphs found at Nazca, but many of the native people who live here today believe it, too.
So he is suggesting that it was some type of an energy that the ancients observed and then they imitated it.
[DAVID.]
And why are they doing that? I mean, are they trying to imitate some extraterrestrials? That's what Luis was saying.
Yeah, that's what Luis was saying.
He was saying it was an energy.
Once again, Luis tells us there is a connection between the lines in Nazca, Paracas and contact with ancient visitors from the sky.
Unexplained lights and objects in the sky have been reported at numerous ancient archaeological sites, including Stonehenge in England, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and Puma Punku in Bolivia.
Now, according to the ancient astronaut theory, these sites were points of extraterrestrial contact in the remote past, and these sightings prove that they still are even today.
So it was very interesting to me when both Luis and Manuel told us that they have seen strange lights right here at Nazca.
[GIORGIO.]
After examining the Sun-Star and Cross glyph, David and I went to check out another of Peru's great mysteries, the Band of Holes, an ancient site on the Cajamarquilla Plain, about 100 miles from the Nazca Lines.
Here, thousands of holes of varying dimensions and depths have been dug into the earth in an interesting pattern, running north and south for almost two miles along a mountain range.
But what makes the Band of Holes incredible is that, like the Nazca Lines, the holes can only be appreciated in their entirety from high above the ground.
(whirring) You know, this definitely gives you a, um a better perspective of-of everything.
I mean, it's it's very It's beautiful.
Really cool stuff.
[DAVID.]
Yeah, it's-it's a perfect day for all this.
All right.
They kind of look like tombs, but I guess they're not.
[GIORGIO.]
They weren't.
So But-but seriously, man, what goes through your mind right now? It's weird.
[DAVID.]
Yeah, it's cool that we can get this perspective.
It gets more baffling when you're here and-and when you think, too, of all the effort by whoever, human beings, to-to make all this.
That's also what's astounding is that somebody is going through a lot of work.
And-and what for? I mean, why are they doing this? [GIORGIO.]
When you see this Band of Holes from the sky, it truly defies explanation.
And to find out how the locals explain this phenomenon, David and I met up with Juan Navarro, the curator of the nearby Paracas History Museum.
- 5,200 holes.
That's crazy.
- Yeah.
[GIORGIO.]
This band here is three kilometers long, which is a lot.
According to local legend, the Band of Holes was formed to represent a giant snake.
It's interesting to hear that the locals believe that the Band of Holes was made to resemble a serpent god.
In fact, 2,600 miles to the north on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, the ancient Maya people worshipped a flying serpent god called Kukulkan, a deity who was also known to the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl.
And all over Asia, ancient Chinese and Japanese legends abound with stories about flying serpents and fire-breathing dragons.
But when I hear legends about giant flying reptiles that breathe fire and smoke, I think that what was really being described here was some sort of extraterrestrial craft, one which was misinterpreted by early humans as some sort of flying reptile.
Juan then told us about an event that deeply affected him as a young man.
Con luz.
With lights.
In the daytime or in the nighttime? [GIORGIO.]
It was fascinating to hear Juan's firsthand account of a UFO sighting right here at Nazca.
But as we prepared to follow the Band of Holes up the mountain, we came upon an even bigger surprise.
[DAVID.]
All right, so here's a hole full of full of bones.
[GIORGIO.]
Human bones, skulls, and evidence of ancient tombs.
Juan said that these were remains of the Inca a pre-Colombian empire that was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century.
But I wonder if these bones may have been the remains of human sacrifice part of a ritual in honor of the so-called flying serpents.
[DAVID.]
So this is this mass grave of-of Incas from Inca time, time, so this is, like, 500 years old, these bones here.
[GIORGIO.]
I mean, it's really wild, and all these different skulls and they all seem to be broken up, as well.
This is very, very strange.
Yeah, I Man.
[GIORGIO.]
David and I measured some of the holes, which appeared to be uniform in size and depth, although at other locations the holes reportedly vary.
Seeing this phenomenon both from the drone camera and up close from the ground is absolutely astounding, but I'm still unsure what it all means.
This right here I mean I've known about this Band of Holes for 25 years now and I've looked at the pictures.
I thought it was rather interesting but here we are, and Dude, I've got to tell you, I've got zero.
Zero.
I It's just It's baffling.
The whole thing is inexplicable.
It makes me think how the old saying of truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense, but the-the truth here is that it doesn't make any sense.
It's really weird and, uh, it's gorgeous, but what is it? I can't think of any good explanation for this whole thing at all, uh, none whatsoever.
[GIORGIO.]
After visiting Peru's Band of Holes, David Childress and I traveled 26 miles west to the Paracas History Museum.
We were curious to learn why so many of the native people who may have lived here when the Nazca Lines and the Band of Holes were created had large, elongated skulls.
According to mainstream historians, many ancient people around the world deliberately bound the skulls of infants shortly after birth and would lengthen them by slowly pressing the skull between wooden boards.
But why? And what's even more strange about the skulls at the Paracas History Museum is the fact that some of them are missing a key feature found in all normal human skulls the sagittal suture.
Okay, yeah yeah.
Wow, that's weird.
You can see some sutures in the back here.
But there's none in the front.
It doesn't have the-the side plates fusing together.
It's This is strange.
[GIORGIO.]
The sagittal suture is a fibrous, jagged joint that contributes to the elasticity of the skull.
In a normal infant, the bones of the skull are unfused, while in older adults they fuse together.
But there's not even a remnant of a suture.
I mean, there is nothing here if you look.
I just saw a similar skull during my recent visit to the islands of Malta, but that one had never been subjected to any serious scientific examination.
So we asked Juan if the skulls here had ever undergone DNA testing or any other analysis.
And if so, what were the results? [DAVID.]
So we have DNA tests that are showing that these are not American Indians.
It's almost like they're Vikings or something.
Perhaps coming over the northern passage, above Canada if the if the ice cap had receded, and they could come over and then down the west coast of the Americas or-or somehow across the Pacific.
[GIORGIO.]
Yeah, how they reached the Americas is a mystery.
The DNA analysis was only done from the hair samples, not from bone samples.
Okay, that's what they did do was the DNA of the hair.
What other skulls have these weird holes in them, and, you know, let alone their shape? He says that one of the archaeologists that came here to look at this thing has suggested that it is actually a different race.
It's its own race.
It's very, very fascinating.
So, I mean, what if, David, we are looking at extraterrestrials here? Seriously.
It's the first time that I've actually come in close contact with so many.
This is very, very bizarre.
It's possible that some of these skulls are actually of extraterrestrials.
And DNA testing would, in theory, show that.
And it wouldn't matter how these skulls were obtained if DNA showed that they were not humans.
I-I don't even understand why this place is not teeming with scientists right now.
I mean, that just right there would just say a lot.
Well, it would it would change the history of mankind.
The collection of artifacts in the Paracas History Museum is absolutely astounding, and seeing these skulls has turned my investigation upside down.
But what does it all mean? Could there really be a connection between the Nazca Lines, the Band of Holes, and these incredible elongated skulls? [GIORGIO.]
One of the biggest mysteries of Nazca is what might have attracted an extraterrestrial species to this barren desert in the first place.
Perhaps a clue can be found by taking a closer look at the nearby mountains in Palpa, which look as if the tops of the natural peaks have been sliced off.
So if this is the result of some ancient excavations, then I would like to find out how ancient people allegedly armed with only primitive tools removed millions of tons of rock and earth without leaving any trace.
For this reason, I've come to Pyrite quarry in Riverside, California to meet with owner Buck Houck, who over the course of his career has moved millions of tons of rock.
Buck, thank you very much for inviting me over here to your mining operation.
I was just in Nazca at Mount Palpa, and I wanted to actually show you a picture to see what you would have to say about how something like this could be accomplished.
See how this top right here seems as if it's been sheared off? Sure.
Yeah.
What would we use to do something like this? A lot of people.
Tremendous amounts of man-hours to accomplish something like that.
And the idea that there is no rubble around the area would that indicate that some type of a mining operation possibly went on there? [BUCK.]
With no rubble, it would be difficult to tell how that occurred, but, obviously, something went in there and took off the top of that mountain.
Just the surveying to obtain that elevation at that time frame is mind-boggling.
[GIORGIO.]
According to Buck, excavating the mountaintops of Nazca would have been impossible without extensive surveying, and would involve the construction of access roads to reach those mountaintops and haul away the debris.
And from the air, there are no visible roads leading to the peaks.
In your expert opinion, what would be entailed in order to do something like this? Well, something like that would be a major project by today's standards on a on a massive scale.
It would take a tremendous amount of drilling and blasting, and millions and millions of tons of moving material with loaders and excavators and dozers and manpower.
And so, we're talking heavy machinery.
Absolutely.
The heaviest there is.
We're not talking wooden rollers.
No, not at all.
So, the idea that an ancient culture did this purely by hand in your opinion, is that even something that's feasible? I can't even imagine how they would have ever done that without the equipment and the technologies that we have today.
[GIORGIO.]
As far as I'm concerned, there is little question that ancient people using primitive tools could not have removed the mountaintop at Palpa.
Somebody surveyed and decided at what level to cut, so all the high areas filled the low areas perfectly, leaving that flat table.
And to do that without being able to get above it, or outside of it looking into it, and without using satellites and GPS is beyond my comprehension.
And what's amazing, too, is that there are these ditches and terrain.
Right.
[GIORGIO.]
That it didn't seem to have any effect on the operation.
None.
They had to have some sort of survey method from an elevated position to determine it.
[GIORGIO.]
What Buck is telling me is amazing.
If he is correct, then some type of flying craft surveyed Mount Palpa from above, and then directed the removal of millions of tons of earth.
So, maybe Nazca was a massive mining operation, complete with a landing zone, huge earth removal machines and incredibly sophisticated technology.
If you were to shear off this mountaintop right here, how long do you think it would take, in your opinion? Uh, to take off a mountain like that at 800,000 tons a year, it would take 20 to 30 years to lower that mountain.
- 20 to 30 years? - Yeah.
- With modern equipment.
- With modern technology.
Heaviest equipment you could buy, the most skilled employees you can find, the best of everything, it would take 20 to 30 years.
You just blew my mind, because it's figures like that that put everything into perspective.
Buck, thank you very much for your time.
- Thank you.
My pleasure.
- I learned a lot.
After meeting with Buck, I'm more convinced than ever that Nazca was the site of some incredible extraterrestrial activity.
But I'm still trying to figure out what the ancient astronauts were looking for.
And what do all the strange geoglyphs mean? My investigations must continue! I decided to head off to Switzerland and pay a visit to my good friend and mentor, Erich von Daniken, the author of Chariots of the Gods, and the man behind what's now known as the ancient astronaut theory.
Erich was one of the first people to suggest that there could be a connection between Nazca and extraterrestrial visitors, so I can't wait to compare notes.
Erich, I just returned from Nazca, and, as always, it was absolutely fantastic.
Yeah.
[GIORGIO.]
Breathtaking when you take off on that little plane, and then this picture book just unfolds underneath your eyes.
It's really amazing.
It's the old story.
Thousands of years ago, definitely extraterrestrials were here.
My suggestion was, at some time, we had something like a mother spaceship in orbit.
A mother spaceship, after maybe two or 300 years of traveling they need some sort of energy.
(rumbling) So, they observed our planet from the orbit.
Then they found the plane of Nazca, and there, they find energy.
Still, today, we find uranium there and gold.
[GIORGIO.]
According to Erich's theory, Nazca was the location of an ancient mining colony where alien visitors came to excavate gold and other natural resources.
This theory coincides with legends concerning the Anunnaki, which suggest that alien visitors came to Earth tens of thousands of years ago, and created early humans as slaves in order to mine gold.
Today, gold is a valuable element used in everything, from medicine to nanotechnology to electronics.
And in space travel, it is used, for example, to shield spacecraft from intense heat.
And, believe it or not, there are significant amounts of gold and other precious metals found in Nazca.
[ERICH.]
They simply sent some sort like a rover, like we do it on Mars.
And this rover was working simply by blowing stones and little sand away.
Then they make their chemical analysis, they disappeared again.
And one or two natives has observed this rover.
And now the natives start to make lines.
After some generations, one of the priests suggests, well, we must show them that we have offerings for them.
For example, fishes, or spiders, or monkeys, or flowers.
And now, in the middle of the line, they start to make gigantic figures, but they're such size that they can be seen only from the air.
[GIORGIO.]
Eric's theory is that the ancient people made these glyphs to signal what they could offer their gods.
But this still doesn't help to explain the strange Band of Holes.
I remember that in one of your earlier books, you gave a suggestion of how this Band of Holes might have been used.
Seen from the air, you see this Band of Holes definitely.
You see it going down the hill, going through the valley.
Why have they done this? What is the purpose? For what idea? Of course, you see it only from the air, and it has something to do with mathematics, because there are always eight holes in a line, not 11 and sometimes 13.
It's always eight holes in a line.
So, somebody was calculating, and in my eyes, it had to do something with binary code.
[GIORGIO.]
According to Erich's theory, the Band of Holes was probably some type of human-to-alien communications system, where early humans would build fires in the stone-lined holes following a precise numeric code as a means of sending signals to alien ships flying overhead.
But one thing continues to mystify me, and that's the Sun-Star and Cross glyph.
With its precise geometric lines and intricate design, the glyph looks nothing like the others found at Nazca.
But is it some sort of sacred geometry? Ingenious artwork? Or could it be some type of mathematical puzzle? We actually walked to this geoglyph right here.
And what is your opinion about this thing right here? Uh, to me, it looks like a sort of sign.
You see, you have a central circle and then you have triangles around.
It's a mathematical message that nobody has solved.
We have found gigantic signs in the ground worldwide, not only Nazca, including lines, including big wheels of such dimension that you can see them only from the air.
These people thousands of years ago had no contact to each other.
So why have they come up with the same silly idea? Thank you, always, for your knowledge.
Giorgio Tsoukalos, you know a lot about ancient aliens.
Probably you are the one leading figure living on this planet.
Nah, come on.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Erich.
[GIORGIO.]
There is one last place I need to go before I conclude my investigation.
And I'm beginning to think that the geometric designs of the Sun-Star and Cross glyph may provide an important clue in solving the mystery of Nazca.
From everything I've seen so far, I'm more and more convinced that Nazca is a site where extraterrestrials came in order to mine for raw minerals in the remote past.
But I still can't figure out what the connection is between these long, straight lines, which look like some sort of runway, and the various geoglyphs, especially the one known as the Sun-Star and Cross glyph.
To help me find the answer, I've arranged to meet with Dr.
Michael Dennin, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California at Irvine.
Michael, I just returned from Nazca, and every time I'm just blown away by what you see because the mainstream usually only thinks that it's all about the figures, like the-the birds and the monkeys and things like that.
But there are other things, too.
The giant lines.
And this time, I actually had the great privilege to go and visit this geoglyph right here, which, to me, looks like this geometric formation.
What do you think when you see something like this? Well, these sort of figures I find really amazing.
Because I love geometry.
And here you have, as you pointed out, a great geometric figure, with the circles and the squares working together.
You know, so the first geometric figures and the easiest to make.
But then you think about making them on such a large scale and what would inspire a group of people to want to make such large geometric figures.
[GIORGIO.]
These pictures were taken from a small prop plane that we took.
But when you're down there on the ground, you can't really appreciate the whole formation unless you're up in the air.
And that is fascinating.
In sciences, that's one of the big things we have to be able to do, is form these abstract models, think abstractly.
So it's really cool when you see large figures like this, no matter what was the original source.
The person or people doing these were able to imagine that they were doing something that could be seen on a different scale than they were doing it.
[GIORGIO.]
Hearing Professor Dennin talk about creating something to be seen on a different scale got me thinking about crop circles, which are also designed to be viewed from the sky.
Now, some crop circles have clearly been exposed as manmade hoaxes, but others are so precise and appeared so suddenly that they continue to defy explanation.
So could there be a connection? And if so, what were the extraterrestrial visitors trying to communicate? Perhaps something happened at Nazca that the natives witnessed, and after whoever it was who visited disappeared, what if they wanted to create a message or a beacon? So, I mean, it's a valid question.
So, when you look at this figure in terms of is it just random or is there a message encoded, I think it's certainly not just random.
You definitely see patterns here, and patterns definitely imply some type of communication.
So when I say there's a message being communicated, it's not as simple as you translate it into a simple English message.
Um, it could be a more abstract message than that.
But there is definitely a mathematical structure being communicated, and that certainly is a message of a type.
Thank you very much for taking the time to look at these photos and give me your ideas of how geometry that might have a correlation to astronomy and things like this.
I wanted to give you one of these.
This here is a pre-Columbian funerary object.
Thousands of these objects have been found that clearly represent animals, but about a dozen look like this.
Excellent.
Thank you.
- So, Michael, thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
Appreciate it.
After conducting my research, I am more convinced than ever that the various lines, glyphs and symbols at Nazca may actually be evidence of communication between ancient humans and extraterrestrials.
I think that highly advanced space travelers could have come to this region looking for gold and other raw materials tens of thousands of years ago.
The native population thought that these strange visitors were gods and began to worship them.
After the extraterrestrials left, the ancient humans might have wanted to communicate with them, so they began to create gigantic figures in the ground.
Perhaps these were done as some kind of offering or as an expression of thanks.
And the Sun-Star and Cross glyph? I'm wondering if that wasn't meant to be an elaborate geometric puzzle left behind by the alien visitors, and, when solved, it might let them know that we have sufficiently evolved to merit their return.
Of course, all of this is only a theory.
For proof, I will need to gather more evidence, keep an open mind and travel the world in search of aliens.
I'm in Peru to investigate one of the most mysterious sites on planet Earth, Nazca.
Here, carved into the vast desert floor, are hundreds of ancient geoglyphs, shallow lines in the ground depicting animals, humanlike figures and strange geometric designs that defy conventional explanations.
And many of these glyphs are so enormous that they can only be seen from the sky.
The mysteries of Nazca have remained unsolved for hundreds of years, but I'm here to investigate if what we have here could provide evidence of alien visitation.
My name is Giorgio Tsoukalos.
I explore the world that exists between reality and speculation, the known and the unknown.
What we've been taught by mainstream scholars is not the whole picture.
But I'm convinced that every day we are one step closer to the truth.
Although archaeologists believe that the Nazca Lines were created sometime between 500 BC and 500 AD, the earliest known references to them can be found in a book written in 1553 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de Leon, who mistook them for trail markers.
But it wasn't until the 1930s, after the invention of the airplane, that explorers flew over Nazca and discovered a network of hundreds of geoglyphs covering an area of over 200 square miles.
Many believe that the Nazca Lines were formed by removing the reddish-colored pebbles that make up the desert surface and exposing the lighter soil underneath.
Luckily, because this desert sees very little rainfall, he Nazca Lines are still in amazing condition.
But who made them? And why? To begin my search, I've arranged to meet with my good friend and colleague, David Childress.
[DAVID CHILDRESS.]
Giorgio! David.
Good to see you.
How are you? You good? Hey, buddy.
Yeah, I'm great.
The plane's ready.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
David is one of the most well-known proponents of the ancient astronaut theory and has written many books on unexplained mysteries of the universe.
(engine rumbling) Even though we've both flown over this area before, David and I are always excited to see these glyphs the way they were clearly meant to be seen from the sky.
And with so many glyphs here, there is always the possibility of discovering something new.
Nothing.
Yeah.
Some researchers have proposed that it would have been almost impossible for an ancient people to construct these complex images and shapes without a concise knowledge of geometry.
(Giorgio laughs) [DAVID.]
So, I keep wondering, really, if this isn't a signal, uh, to the Anunnaki.
[GIORGIO.]
Right.
And this is a big signal for them.
It's like a beacon.
[GIORGIO.]
One of the most mind-blowing of all the glyphs is known as El Astronauto or the Spaceman.
This strange figure appears to be pointing to the sky or perhaps waving to visitors from above and inviting them to land here.
Of course, ancient petroglyphs that appear to be depicting astronauts is nothing new.
In Nine Mile Canyon, Utah, for example, you can find one called the Family Panel that appears to depict an entire family of astronauts.
And in July 2014, 10,000-year-old rock paintings were discovered in India that depict figures so strange-looking that even archaeologists described them as, and I quote, "wearing space suits.
" But equally mystifying is the monkey glyph.
David and I asked our pilots to take us over the strange flat-topped mountain that some refer to as Mount Palpa.
Unlike many other mountains in the area, Mount Palpa looks as if the entire peak has been neatly sliced off.
And we're talking probably a million tons of earth that has completely disappeared.
There's not even any rubble nearby to indicate that, if this was done deliberately, how an ancient people could have accomplished such an incredible engineering feat.
The last site we wanted to see from the air was the Sun-Star and Cross glyph.
[DAVID.]
Assuming that these people are just some kind of primitive desert people, I mean, they had to be a very advanced civilization.
[GIORGIO.]
This massive geometric design was carved into a hillside and contains a series of intricate geometric patterns.
But how could the ancient Nazca people have made this without, at the very least, viewing their incredible designs from above the Earth? It's just one of the many unanswered questions about Nazca that absolutely fascinates me.
[DAVID.]
Oh, I'm still shaken up from that ride.
It's just as exciting as-as the first time, really.
It really is because today for the first time I saw perfect circles inside some of the lines, which I had never seen before.
So I really think it also has to do with the-the time of day you're flying because of the-the angle of the sunlight and things like this.
And you're always amazed by just the sheer number of-of lines and trapezoids everywhere.
It's this giant geometry etching on the desert th-that's baffling.
You-you can't figure out what it's about.
It really is.
And, you know, the perfection with which the lines exist, the things that look like these wide bands, it's as if they were stamped into the ground.
I mean, very bizarre.
And I-I think the most interesting is what you showed me.
- The star.
- The star thing.
The star glyph.
Uh, it's just there.
There is this, uh this ditch in the terrain where, the builders, they didn't mind that it's on top of this mountain.
It's very hilly, and it's perfect, though.
So it'd be good to go and investigate that as closely as we can.
Right.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
[GIORGIO.]
After leaving the airport, David and I drove for less than an hour to see the Sun-Star and Cross glyph up close, from the ground.
Local historians Luis Quiroz and Manuel Cáceres acted as our guides, and as they brought us right up to the enormous glyph, I felt like I was being transported to the moon.
What really strikes me every time I'm in Nazca is the absolute desolation of this entire area.
I mean, why would anyone create these intricate designs here, in a remote, barren desert? [DAVID.]
It's just it's strange.
It looks so different from the ground than from the air.
I mean I mean, anybody who says that th-this can be appreciated in its full form the way we're standing right now, they're out to lunch.
Clearly, to do this, y-you need planning for this.
You need to have something in writing and be like, "All right, let's create this.
" But then to see the finished product is only from up there.
Luis and Manuel told us that the people who inhabited this area from approximately 800 BC to 100 BC are known as the Paracas and that they were here long before the ancestors of the people living in Nazca today.
They're also convinced that the area has been a hot spot of UFO activity, even to this day.
Here and around Nazca and Paracas, do you sometimes see UFOs or some light, luz, light in the sky? He doesn't know what it is.
Can they be intelligently controlled by extraterrestrials? [GIORGIO.]
I'm with David Childress at the Sun-Star and Cross glyph in Nazca, Peru.
We just learned from our local guides, Luis and Manuel, that it's not just ancient astronaut theorists who believe that extraterrestrials may have been responsible for the remarkable glyphs found at Nazca, but many of the native people who live here today believe it, too.
So he is suggesting that it was some type of an energy that the ancients observed and then they imitated it.
[DAVID.]
And why are they doing that? I mean, are they trying to imitate some extraterrestrials? That's what Luis was saying.
Yeah, that's what Luis was saying.
He was saying it was an energy.
Once again, Luis tells us there is a connection between the lines in Nazca, Paracas and contact with ancient visitors from the sky.
Unexplained lights and objects in the sky have been reported at numerous ancient archaeological sites, including Stonehenge in England, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, and Puma Punku in Bolivia.
Now, according to the ancient astronaut theory, these sites were points of extraterrestrial contact in the remote past, and these sightings prove that they still are even today.
So it was very interesting to me when both Luis and Manuel told us that they have seen strange lights right here at Nazca.
[GIORGIO.]
After examining the Sun-Star and Cross glyph, David and I went to check out another of Peru's great mysteries, the Band of Holes, an ancient site on the Cajamarquilla Plain, about 100 miles from the Nazca Lines.
Here, thousands of holes of varying dimensions and depths have been dug into the earth in an interesting pattern, running north and south for almost two miles along a mountain range.
But what makes the Band of Holes incredible is that, like the Nazca Lines, the holes can only be appreciated in their entirety from high above the ground.
(whirring) You know, this definitely gives you a, um a better perspective of-of everything.
I mean, it's it's very It's beautiful.
Really cool stuff.
[DAVID.]
Yeah, it's-it's a perfect day for all this.
All right.
They kind of look like tombs, but I guess they're not.
[GIORGIO.]
They weren't.
So But-but seriously, man, what goes through your mind right now? It's weird.
[DAVID.]
Yeah, it's cool that we can get this perspective.
It gets more baffling when you're here and-and when you think, too, of all the effort by whoever, human beings, to-to make all this.
That's also what's astounding is that somebody is going through a lot of work.
And-and what for? I mean, why are they doing this? [GIORGIO.]
When you see this Band of Holes from the sky, it truly defies explanation.
And to find out how the locals explain this phenomenon, David and I met up with Juan Navarro, the curator of the nearby Paracas History Museum.
- 5,200 holes.
That's crazy.
- Yeah.
[GIORGIO.]
This band here is three kilometers long, which is a lot.
According to local legend, the Band of Holes was formed to represent a giant snake.
It's interesting to hear that the locals believe that the Band of Holes was made to resemble a serpent god.
In fact, 2,600 miles to the north on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, the ancient Maya people worshipped a flying serpent god called Kukulkan, a deity who was also known to the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl.
And all over Asia, ancient Chinese and Japanese legends abound with stories about flying serpents and fire-breathing dragons.
But when I hear legends about giant flying reptiles that breathe fire and smoke, I think that what was really being described here was some sort of extraterrestrial craft, one which was misinterpreted by early humans as some sort of flying reptile.
Juan then told us about an event that deeply affected him as a young man.
Con luz.
With lights.
In the daytime or in the nighttime? [GIORGIO.]
It was fascinating to hear Juan's firsthand account of a UFO sighting right here at Nazca.
But as we prepared to follow the Band of Holes up the mountain, we came upon an even bigger surprise.
[DAVID.]
All right, so here's a hole full of full of bones.
[GIORGIO.]
Human bones, skulls, and evidence of ancient tombs.
Juan said that these were remains of the Inca a pre-Colombian empire that was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century.
But I wonder if these bones may have been the remains of human sacrifice part of a ritual in honor of the so-called flying serpents.
[DAVID.]
So this is this mass grave of-of Incas from Inca time, time, so this is, like, 500 years old, these bones here.
[GIORGIO.]
I mean, it's really wild, and all these different skulls and they all seem to be broken up, as well.
This is very, very strange.
Yeah, I Man.
[GIORGIO.]
David and I measured some of the holes, which appeared to be uniform in size and depth, although at other locations the holes reportedly vary.
Seeing this phenomenon both from the drone camera and up close from the ground is absolutely astounding, but I'm still unsure what it all means.
This right here I mean I've known about this Band of Holes for 25 years now and I've looked at the pictures.
I thought it was rather interesting but here we are, and Dude, I've got to tell you, I've got zero.
Zero.
I It's just It's baffling.
The whole thing is inexplicable.
It makes me think how the old saying of truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense, but the-the truth here is that it doesn't make any sense.
It's really weird and, uh, it's gorgeous, but what is it? I can't think of any good explanation for this whole thing at all, uh, none whatsoever.
[GIORGIO.]
After visiting Peru's Band of Holes, David Childress and I traveled 26 miles west to the Paracas History Museum.
We were curious to learn why so many of the native people who may have lived here when the Nazca Lines and the Band of Holes were created had large, elongated skulls.
According to mainstream historians, many ancient people around the world deliberately bound the skulls of infants shortly after birth and would lengthen them by slowly pressing the skull between wooden boards.
But why? And what's even more strange about the skulls at the Paracas History Museum is the fact that some of them are missing a key feature found in all normal human skulls the sagittal suture.
Okay, yeah yeah.
Wow, that's weird.
You can see some sutures in the back here.
But there's none in the front.
It doesn't have the-the side plates fusing together.
It's This is strange.
[GIORGIO.]
The sagittal suture is a fibrous, jagged joint that contributes to the elasticity of the skull.
In a normal infant, the bones of the skull are unfused, while in older adults they fuse together.
But there's not even a remnant of a suture.
I mean, there is nothing here if you look.
I just saw a similar skull during my recent visit to the islands of Malta, but that one had never been subjected to any serious scientific examination.
So we asked Juan if the skulls here had ever undergone DNA testing or any other analysis.
And if so, what were the results? [DAVID.]
So we have DNA tests that are showing that these are not American Indians.
It's almost like they're Vikings or something.
Perhaps coming over the northern passage, above Canada if the if the ice cap had receded, and they could come over and then down the west coast of the Americas or-or somehow across the Pacific.
[GIORGIO.]
Yeah, how they reached the Americas is a mystery.
The DNA analysis was only done from the hair samples, not from bone samples.
Okay, that's what they did do was the DNA of the hair.
What other skulls have these weird holes in them, and, you know, let alone their shape? He says that one of the archaeologists that came here to look at this thing has suggested that it is actually a different race.
It's its own race.
It's very, very fascinating.
So, I mean, what if, David, we are looking at extraterrestrials here? Seriously.
It's the first time that I've actually come in close contact with so many.
This is very, very bizarre.
It's possible that some of these skulls are actually of extraterrestrials.
And DNA testing would, in theory, show that.
And it wouldn't matter how these skulls were obtained if DNA showed that they were not humans.
I-I don't even understand why this place is not teeming with scientists right now.
I mean, that just right there would just say a lot.
Well, it would it would change the history of mankind.
The collection of artifacts in the Paracas History Museum is absolutely astounding, and seeing these skulls has turned my investigation upside down.
But what does it all mean? Could there really be a connection between the Nazca Lines, the Band of Holes, and these incredible elongated skulls? [GIORGIO.]
One of the biggest mysteries of Nazca is what might have attracted an extraterrestrial species to this barren desert in the first place.
Perhaps a clue can be found by taking a closer look at the nearby mountains in Palpa, which look as if the tops of the natural peaks have been sliced off.
So if this is the result of some ancient excavations, then I would like to find out how ancient people allegedly armed with only primitive tools removed millions of tons of rock and earth without leaving any trace.
For this reason, I've come to Pyrite quarry in Riverside, California to meet with owner Buck Houck, who over the course of his career has moved millions of tons of rock.
Buck, thank you very much for inviting me over here to your mining operation.
I was just in Nazca at Mount Palpa, and I wanted to actually show you a picture to see what you would have to say about how something like this could be accomplished.
See how this top right here seems as if it's been sheared off? Sure.
Yeah.
What would we use to do something like this? A lot of people.
Tremendous amounts of man-hours to accomplish something like that.
And the idea that there is no rubble around the area would that indicate that some type of a mining operation possibly went on there? [BUCK.]
With no rubble, it would be difficult to tell how that occurred, but, obviously, something went in there and took off the top of that mountain.
Just the surveying to obtain that elevation at that time frame is mind-boggling.
[GIORGIO.]
According to Buck, excavating the mountaintops of Nazca would have been impossible without extensive surveying, and would involve the construction of access roads to reach those mountaintops and haul away the debris.
And from the air, there are no visible roads leading to the peaks.
In your expert opinion, what would be entailed in order to do something like this? Well, something like that would be a major project by today's standards on a on a massive scale.
It would take a tremendous amount of drilling and blasting, and millions and millions of tons of moving material with loaders and excavators and dozers and manpower.
And so, we're talking heavy machinery.
Absolutely.
The heaviest there is.
We're not talking wooden rollers.
No, not at all.
So, the idea that an ancient culture did this purely by hand in your opinion, is that even something that's feasible? I can't even imagine how they would have ever done that without the equipment and the technologies that we have today.
[GIORGIO.]
As far as I'm concerned, there is little question that ancient people using primitive tools could not have removed the mountaintop at Palpa.
Somebody surveyed and decided at what level to cut, so all the high areas filled the low areas perfectly, leaving that flat table.
And to do that without being able to get above it, or outside of it looking into it, and without using satellites and GPS is beyond my comprehension.
And what's amazing, too, is that there are these ditches and terrain.
Right.
[GIORGIO.]
That it didn't seem to have any effect on the operation.
None.
They had to have some sort of survey method from an elevated position to determine it.
[GIORGIO.]
What Buck is telling me is amazing.
If he is correct, then some type of flying craft surveyed Mount Palpa from above, and then directed the removal of millions of tons of earth.
So, maybe Nazca was a massive mining operation, complete with a landing zone, huge earth removal machines and incredibly sophisticated technology.
If you were to shear off this mountaintop right here, how long do you think it would take, in your opinion? Uh, to take off a mountain like that at 800,000 tons a year, it would take 20 to 30 years to lower that mountain.
- 20 to 30 years? - Yeah.
- With modern equipment.
- With modern technology.
Heaviest equipment you could buy, the most skilled employees you can find, the best of everything, it would take 20 to 30 years.
You just blew my mind, because it's figures like that that put everything into perspective.
Buck, thank you very much for your time.
- Thank you.
My pleasure.
- I learned a lot.
After meeting with Buck, I'm more convinced than ever that Nazca was the site of some incredible extraterrestrial activity.
But I'm still trying to figure out what the ancient astronauts were looking for.
And what do all the strange geoglyphs mean? My investigations must continue! I decided to head off to Switzerland and pay a visit to my good friend and mentor, Erich von Daniken, the author of Chariots of the Gods, and the man behind what's now known as the ancient astronaut theory.
Erich was one of the first people to suggest that there could be a connection between Nazca and extraterrestrial visitors, so I can't wait to compare notes.
Erich, I just returned from Nazca, and, as always, it was absolutely fantastic.
Yeah.
[GIORGIO.]
Breathtaking when you take off on that little plane, and then this picture book just unfolds underneath your eyes.
It's really amazing.
It's the old story.
Thousands of years ago, definitely extraterrestrials were here.
My suggestion was, at some time, we had something like a mother spaceship in orbit.
A mother spaceship, after maybe two or 300 years of traveling they need some sort of energy.
(rumbling) So, they observed our planet from the orbit.
Then they found the plane of Nazca, and there, they find energy.
Still, today, we find uranium there and gold.
[GIORGIO.]
According to Erich's theory, Nazca was the location of an ancient mining colony where alien visitors came to excavate gold and other natural resources.
This theory coincides with legends concerning the Anunnaki, which suggest that alien visitors came to Earth tens of thousands of years ago, and created early humans as slaves in order to mine gold.
Today, gold is a valuable element used in everything, from medicine to nanotechnology to electronics.
And in space travel, it is used, for example, to shield spacecraft from intense heat.
And, believe it or not, there are significant amounts of gold and other precious metals found in Nazca.
[ERICH.]
They simply sent some sort like a rover, like we do it on Mars.
And this rover was working simply by blowing stones and little sand away.
Then they make their chemical analysis, they disappeared again.
And one or two natives has observed this rover.
And now the natives start to make lines.
After some generations, one of the priests suggests, well, we must show them that we have offerings for them.
For example, fishes, or spiders, or monkeys, or flowers.
And now, in the middle of the line, they start to make gigantic figures, but they're such size that they can be seen only from the air.
[GIORGIO.]
Eric's theory is that the ancient people made these glyphs to signal what they could offer their gods.
But this still doesn't help to explain the strange Band of Holes.
I remember that in one of your earlier books, you gave a suggestion of how this Band of Holes might have been used.
Seen from the air, you see this Band of Holes definitely.
You see it going down the hill, going through the valley.
Why have they done this? What is the purpose? For what idea? Of course, you see it only from the air, and it has something to do with mathematics, because there are always eight holes in a line, not 11 and sometimes 13.
It's always eight holes in a line.
So, somebody was calculating, and in my eyes, it had to do something with binary code.
[GIORGIO.]
According to Erich's theory, the Band of Holes was probably some type of human-to-alien communications system, where early humans would build fires in the stone-lined holes following a precise numeric code as a means of sending signals to alien ships flying overhead.
But one thing continues to mystify me, and that's the Sun-Star and Cross glyph.
With its precise geometric lines and intricate design, the glyph looks nothing like the others found at Nazca.
But is it some sort of sacred geometry? Ingenious artwork? Or could it be some type of mathematical puzzle? We actually walked to this geoglyph right here.
And what is your opinion about this thing right here? Uh, to me, it looks like a sort of sign.
You see, you have a central circle and then you have triangles around.
It's a mathematical message that nobody has solved.
We have found gigantic signs in the ground worldwide, not only Nazca, including lines, including big wheels of such dimension that you can see them only from the air.
These people thousands of years ago had no contact to each other.
So why have they come up with the same silly idea? Thank you, always, for your knowledge.
Giorgio Tsoukalos, you know a lot about ancient aliens.
Probably you are the one leading figure living on this planet.
Nah, come on.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Erich.
[GIORGIO.]
There is one last place I need to go before I conclude my investigation.
And I'm beginning to think that the geometric designs of the Sun-Star and Cross glyph may provide an important clue in solving the mystery of Nazca.
From everything I've seen so far, I'm more and more convinced that Nazca is a site where extraterrestrials came in order to mine for raw minerals in the remote past.
But I still can't figure out what the connection is between these long, straight lines, which look like some sort of runway, and the various geoglyphs, especially the one known as the Sun-Star and Cross glyph.
To help me find the answer, I've arranged to meet with Dr.
Michael Dennin, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California at Irvine.
Michael, I just returned from Nazca, and every time I'm just blown away by what you see because the mainstream usually only thinks that it's all about the figures, like the-the birds and the monkeys and things like that.
But there are other things, too.
The giant lines.
And this time, I actually had the great privilege to go and visit this geoglyph right here, which, to me, looks like this geometric formation.
What do you think when you see something like this? Well, these sort of figures I find really amazing.
Because I love geometry.
And here you have, as you pointed out, a great geometric figure, with the circles and the squares working together.
You know, so the first geometric figures and the easiest to make.
But then you think about making them on such a large scale and what would inspire a group of people to want to make such large geometric figures.
[GIORGIO.]
These pictures were taken from a small prop plane that we took.
But when you're down there on the ground, you can't really appreciate the whole formation unless you're up in the air.
And that is fascinating.
In sciences, that's one of the big things we have to be able to do, is form these abstract models, think abstractly.
So it's really cool when you see large figures like this, no matter what was the original source.
The person or people doing these were able to imagine that they were doing something that could be seen on a different scale than they were doing it.
[GIORGIO.]
Hearing Professor Dennin talk about creating something to be seen on a different scale got me thinking about crop circles, which are also designed to be viewed from the sky.
Now, some crop circles have clearly been exposed as manmade hoaxes, but others are so precise and appeared so suddenly that they continue to defy explanation.
So could there be a connection? And if so, what were the extraterrestrial visitors trying to communicate? Perhaps something happened at Nazca that the natives witnessed, and after whoever it was who visited disappeared, what if they wanted to create a message or a beacon? So, I mean, it's a valid question.
So, when you look at this figure in terms of is it just random or is there a message encoded, I think it's certainly not just random.
You definitely see patterns here, and patterns definitely imply some type of communication.
So when I say there's a message being communicated, it's not as simple as you translate it into a simple English message.
Um, it could be a more abstract message than that.
But there is definitely a mathematical structure being communicated, and that certainly is a message of a type.
Thank you very much for taking the time to look at these photos and give me your ideas of how geometry that might have a correlation to astronomy and things like this.
I wanted to give you one of these.
This here is a pre-Columbian funerary object.
Thousands of these objects have been found that clearly represent animals, but about a dozen look like this.
Excellent.
Thank you.
- So, Michael, thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
Appreciate it.
After conducting my research, I am more convinced than ever that the various lines, glyphs and symbols at Nazca may actually be evidence of communication between ancient humans and extraterrestrials.
I think that highly advanced space travelers could have come to this region looking for gold and other raw materials tens of thousands of years ago.
The native population thought that these strange visitors were gods and began to worship them.
After the extraterrestrials left, the ancient humans might have wanted to communicate with them, so they began to create gigantic figures in the ground.
Perhaps these were done as some kind of offering or as an expression of thanks.
And the Sun-Star and Cross glyph? I'm wondering if that wasn't meant to be an elaborate geometric puzzle left behind by the alien visitors, and, when solved, it might let them know that we have sufficiently evolved to merit their return.
Of course, all of this is only a theory.
For proof, I will need to gather more evidence, keep an open mind and travel the world in search of aliens.