Ancient Aliens s20e20 Episode Script

1
High in the Andes Mountains,
more than 150
massive stone blocks
lie scattered on the ground.
Puma Punku is one
of the most enigmatic places
on planet Earth.
Some of the stone blocks
are over a hundred tons.
The ancient blocks are carved
with incredible precision.
It's an amazing piece
of engineering
that is beyond its time.
But the origins
and purpose of Puma Punku
remain completely unknown.
Mainstream archaeology says
that this site is
1,500 years old,
but anyone you talk to
in that community
will tell you
it's much, much older.
Could new advancements
in technology
finally help to solve
a centuries-old puzzle
and offer proof
of alien intervention on Earth?
The locals say, "It was not us
who made these platforms."
"It was the gods.
The gods who descended
from the sky."
There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is
the promise of truth.
It demands
we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is
right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
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 Tiahuanaco.
De León spends many months
investigating the site
and writes in his chronicles
that Tiahuanaco 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.
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.
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.
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
multiton.
So these are huge.
The Plataforma Lítica 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.
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.
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.
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
150 megalithic blocks
that can be found
at the site today
reveal that
the builders possessed
astounding
stoneworking abilities.
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.
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.
There's stones there, too,
that have a lot of drill holes
and saw cuts
and things like that in them.
It's an amazing piece
of engineering
that is beyond its time.
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.
So, to me it's possible
that our ancestors figured out
a way to vitrify stone.
And we have evidence here
of some type of a heat tool.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Tiahuanaco
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.
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.
The mystery of Puma Punku
has persisted for centuries.
But now, thanks
to new archaeological research
and cutting-edge technology,
experts believe
they may finally be able
to accurately reconstruct
the ancient megalithic site
and, in the process,
perhaps answer some
of the long-standing questions
about Puma Punku's age,
how it was built,
and its potential
extraterrestrial origins.
Western Bolivia, 1995.
Archaeologist Alexei Vranich
is preparing to excavate
an ancient structure
at the site of Tiahuanaco
for his PhD thesis.
When the project
runs into complications,
a local archaeological team
invites him to instead
visit the ruins of Puma Punku.
The Puma Punku
is located at Tiahuanaco
just a little bit south
of the village.
It's one of the more
dramatic landscapes you can find
at 13,000 feet above sea level.
And you simply don't expect
to find something so impressive
in such a desolate landscape.
I remember seeing it, and I had
no idea what I was looking at.
It was a confusing mess,
and I had never seen
anything like it.
Upon seeing Puma Punku,
Vranich decided to make the site
the new focus
of his excavation project.
I lived in the village
with the Aymara Indians,
and these are local people that
have been there for centuries,
and they worked directly
with me,
so I got to know
the culture very well.
They're excellent excavators.
But they also held it
in high esteem
within their cosmological world.
When you speak
to the elders of the Aymara,
they will tell you that this
was actually built by the gods,
that these were gods
that came down.
Jorge Delgado,
an Inca by birth and heritage,
says that in
the Native tradition,
the gods connected
with Puma Punku
are known as the Space Brothers.
ways how we can
become one with the stones.
The first known photograph
of Puma Punku was taken in 1893,
and the site has transformed
dramatically since that time.
In fact,
the entire area of Tiahuanaco
is like a giant puzzle with
many pieces missing or moved.
Half of Tiahuanaco town
was built with Puma Punku stone
and with Tiahuanaco stone
from the ancient sites.
I mean, there is one block
at a gas station.
The cathedral,
or the Church of Tiahuanaco
a third of it is Puma Punku
Tiahuanaco rock.
It puts a giant damper
on trying to figure out
what did Puma Punku look like
in its heyday?
Even the Bolivian government
has been responsible
for altering the landscape.
In the 1950s,
the Bolivian government
decided that they wanted
to have ruins
similar to what Peru had
for Machu Picchu
or Mexico had for Teotihuácan.
So, it was a very
progressive agenda
to give the Bolivian people
a pre-Columbian identity.
But the result for archaeology
was a bit of a disaster.
They moved around a lot of stone
and did a lot
of questionable reconstructions.
While performing excavations
at the ancient site,
Dr. Vranich decided to embark on
his own reconstruction project
in hopes of answering some
of Puma Punku's many mysteries.
Dr. Vranich's reconstruction
would be computer-generated,
and the first step
was to precisely measure
every stone block.
I used a lot of interesting
and new technologies
from laser scanners
to photogrammetry.
But the best method
ended up being tape measure,
pen and paper.
And I used the notes
from scholars
from over a century ago,
from the 1840s to the 1890s.
And then, recently,
an architect from UC Berkeley
did a lot of the drawings
of these stones,
and that became the basis
for the reconstruction.
Once Dr. Vranich
completed the arduous task
of documenting the measurements
of every known stone block
and slab at Puma Punku,
he 3D-printed them at UCLA,
where he was working
as a research associate
and visiting
assistant professor.
With help from his students,
he began putting together
the puzzle pieces.
We had a lot of pieces,
and we had no idea how
to go about putting it together.
There was a couple of rules
that have been found
on how some of these stones,
or how some
of the ornaments, fit.
Certain types of windows
or niches are always found
in certain patterns
or in certain combinations.
We continued to play
with this model
probably for over a year.
And we were almost
at our wits end going,
"We're not gonna be able
to put this together,"
when we finally had
a moment of insight.
We were able to put together
two different pieces that formed
what one wall of the temple
would have looked like.
Dr. Vranich and his students
had discovered
what he calls
the Tiahuanaco Rosetta Stone.
That allowed us
to find the other pieces
and fit them together.
And once we had that,
we realized we actually had
a miniature version
of the Puma Punku
down to almost exact size,
0.57 in scale.
That was one of those
aha moments
that almost surprises you.
For an archaeologist,
it's one of those moments
that you live for.
Once Dr. Vranich
and his students
established how the pieces
fit together,
they were able to do a complete
reconstruction of Puma Punku.
Puma Punku it's two
different things, in a way.
One of them
is the entire temple complex,
which is almost
half a kilometer long.
There's the main platform,
there's a plaza in front of it,
there's a couple
of different walls.
So, it's a substantial building.
But surrounding
the inner courtyard,
you would have had
these buildings
that we're reconstructing
right now.
So, we're reconstructing
the main religious
and ritual focus
of this larger temple complex.
The Puma Punku
probably had formed
part of the religious ideology
that Tiahuanaco
was an important place on Earth
where all the forces
of the heavens
and the underworld
were mediated to create
a fertile and safe Earth.
Dr. Vranich has assembled
the most complete model
of Puma Punku ever constructed.
But just how accurate is it?
And could it provide
the key to solving
the centuries-old mystery
of Puma Punku?
Over the past 20 years,
archaeologist Dr. Alexei Vranich
has taken detailed measurements
of every existing
megalithic block at Puma Punku
and had them 3D-printed.
By working with his model,
he has developed a theory
on how the ancient site
was originally constructed.
On March 5, 2024,
he invited Giorgio Tsoukalos
and aerospace engineer
Dr. Travis Taylor
to a workspace in Los Angeles
to share the results
of his research.
Tell me what this template is
that's on the tabletop here.
This represents
the sandstone foundation
for this building
of the Puma Punku.
And to print it out
was simply too cumbersome,
so we put it out on paper.
Put that in scale for me.
How-how far
- is this piece of paper?
- So, this one's about
- maybe 70 meters long by about 12 meters wide.
- Oh, okay. Okay.
- And
- And consisting of how many platform?
So, we have 17 different pieces
of sandstone that would have
completed a very flat surface.
And there's an excellent chance
it probably would have extended
another 12 meters this way.
When I saw the model in person,
I was like,
"I cannot believe my eyes."
It almost looked
like a very long
and rectangular building
with multiple structures
lining up a long avenue.
Alexei, clearly,
this is a passion for you.
My-my question is,
if I were to compare
all the cuts and everything
to the actual one,
how closely would they compare?
- No, they wouldn't.
- Really?
I wanted to know
what these blocks looked like
when they were made,
not how they were damaged
or worn over the years.
I needed to know, "How were
these things meant to fit?"
So, you-you would suggest, then,
that these blocks
are what they actually
looked like when they were made.
Exactly.
Well, that's amazing. I mean,
the first time I was there,
uh, was in 1995,
and in 1995,
one of the most
fascinating blocks I've seen
is this guy right here.
This stone
- This is what you were looking at, correct?
- Yes. Mm-hmm.
So, it's a stone
it's a window within a window
- within a window.
- Yes.
Wow.
You have to have done
ground-penetrating radar,
uh, and other
sensor measurements out there.
Is there more to it
underneath the surface
that we're not seeing here?
We actually did
one of the most extensive
ground-penetrating radar surveys
for the entire continent.
And then UNESCO went by
and did a drone survey,
uh, and it picked up every
tiny bump across the surface.
And, yeah,
they definitely showed
that the Puma Punku
is quite large
and there's a lot more
of these stones.
Do you have any conclusion
what any of this means?
This is a temple,
it's a ceremonial place.
That-That's clearly evident.
Alexei, looking
at all the parts here, uh,
I could probably come up
with a billion combinations.
So, how certain are you
that this
is the right combination?
Or that there's iterations
of it, versions of it,
or something
completely different
that this
could've possibly been?
You know what,
I-I'm fairly confident
about the general form
and the location
of certain things,
that's for sure.
While working
with his 3D printed model,
Dr. Vranich made
an extraordinary discovery
about the purpose
of the intricately carved blocks
at Puma Punku.
Come over here.
We just printed this one out.
If this is the way
it should have gone,
with here, and then it would
have had a little bit on top.
From this point,
it doesn't seem like much.
But come around this side.
Now look through the door
and what do you see?
- Bring yourself down.
- So like this?
Oh! Yeah!
And you know when
you'll have the two mirrors
parallel to each other
and you look
and it's like an infinity
mirror, as they call it.
- Yes.
- It's kind of that effect.
Like you're looking to infinity.
It's forced perception.
It's a door within a door
within a door within a door.
What direction is this facing?
So this is facing, uh, west.
Oh, so it would see a sunset?
Yes, yes.
It would be
very interesting to note
what time of year does the sun
actually set perfectly
such that it illuminates
the very center
of that infinity door?
It won't line up
exactly right now,
but you could project
that backwards in time,
and it would tell us when
the sun lined up on that spot.
You could use this
to date this room.
Right.
Determined to solve
the mystery of Puma Punku,
Dr. Vranich has released his 3D
printing diagrams to the public
and has challenged
other researchers
to reconstruct
the ancient site as well.
There's a lot of pieces
that I haven't
been able to place,
so that's why I placed all
of this information online
along with
the basic instructions.
I would love for people to
download this, print them out.
My model is good for the moment,
but it's the basic model.
We can add
a lot of things to it.
What Alexei has done
is absolutely fantastic.
Now anyone can take
all the pieces there
and see if they can
put them together in a way
that makes sense to them.
And sooner or later,
someone is going to figure out
what all these pieces built,
what they were,
why were they there.
Now that accurate
measurements of Puma Punku
are available online,
could this mark the beginning
of a new era of discovery?
Perhaps further clues
can be found
by examining
another model of Puma Punku
that reveals that the site
bears striking similarities
to some of the most
ancient constructions on Earth.
3D data visualization expert
Scott McAvoy
runs the university library's
digital media lab.
He is also known
for his CGI reconstructions
of ISIS-destroyed sites
in the ancient
Syrian city of Palmyra.
Archaeological reconstruction
is a way to put
a lot of different data together
in a way that we
can draw connections
between ourselves and the way
things were in the past.
If a picture is worth
a thousand words,
a 3D model
must be worth a million.
Puma Punku is a perfect target
for this work.
It's dripping with mystery
and it's very enticing.
Now he has applied the data
collected by Dr. Alexei Vranich
to create a digital
3D wireframe of Puma Punku.
- Hey, Scott.
- Hey. Good to see you again.
Good to see you.
On March 28, 2024,
Scott invited archaeologist
Dr. Ed Barnhart,
who has conducted his own
on-the-ground investigations
of Puma Punku
to review his model
and discuss his findings.
I've been to Puma Punku
three different times.
I have wandered this thing
and looking at it
from different angles,
feeling stupid
that I can't figure out
how any of these things
go together.
Well, that's where
technology can really help us.
- Let me show you what we got.
- Okay.
So, this is the positions
of the stones from 1893.
The stones had been moved
so many times in recent years
and even in the past
before this photo was taken.
We're trying
to get a better sense
of where they might have laid.
This is a puzzle with probably
40% of its pieces missing.
I think it was calculated,
like, ten percent of the pieces
are maybe here.
- Oh, my gosh, really?
- Yeah. We're missing a lot.
This is only 150 bricks.
You know,
if we put these up by volume,
I think
it's going to make up, like,
half of the front facade.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Yeah.
Here we're starting with the
satellite image of Puma Punku.
And then we overlay,
um, Alexei's map.
So here we have a basic 3D model
of the platform around it,
the plaza on the outside.
And we see that this temple
is at the entrance
to this sunken courtyard.
That is fascinating.
From the incisions
on the foundation here,
I feel pretty comfortable
extruding the walls.
You know, raising
these up to the height
of the doorway and trying
to fill in that space.
Okay. That does make sense.
So, there seems to be
an implied symmetry here.
There seems to be a pattern.
This side reflects this side.
So we're moving forward
based on that.
Wow.
That makes logical sense to me
because the other parts
of Tiahuanaco we can see
all adhere to a basic symmetry.
Well, you know, there's so many
more pieces here that
I wasn't even able
to find a place for,
especially
these tub stones here.
You know, one of the real clues
is these little guys right here,
these, where we believe
metal, kind of I-bars,
would keep them clasped.
There's another one there.
Those are exactly
the kind of pieces
that I'm focused on
to say like, "Okay,
this puzzle piece
has to fit with this one."
Yeah, these are great.
The type of connection
Dr. Barnhart is referring to
is commonly called
a keystone cut.
On the blocks at Puma Punku
are what we call keystone cuts.
And these keystone cuts
are notches, like a T-notch,
set on the edge of a block
that match a T-notch
on another edge of a block.
And then molten metal was poured
into those notches
as a fastener.
These keystone cuts
are fascinating
because they're found
not just at Puma Punku
and Tiahuanaco in Bolivia.
They're found in Peru.
They're found in Egypt.
They're found in Greece.
And they even found at
Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
So, does this prove
that there was, like,
a worldwide
technological civilization
that shared this knowledge?
From the ancient
astronaut perspective,
our ancestors all went
to the same masonry school.
Meaning, the same
extraterrestrial teachers
visited at Puma Punku
and the same teachers
visited at Angkor Wat.
Is it possible that Puma Punku
was visited
by otherworldly beings
in the distant past?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,
and suggest Puma Punku
presents evidence
that could push back
the entire timeline
of human civilization.
Muncie, Indiana.
April 9th, 2024.
At Ball State University,
Giorgio Tsoukalos
is meeting with Professor
of Electronic Art John Fillwalk,
who used the data gathered
by Dr. Alexei Vranich
to develop his own model
of Puma Punku.
So, here's what
we've been working on.
Oh, wow. This is great.
Look at all this.
This was probably
the most challenging
reconstruction we've ever done.
So, how then did you come up
with that particular structure?
The first thing, really,
we tried to do
was reconstruct the foundation
because that really informed
sort of the growth
of the building out of that.
And a lot of the blocks are
very specific to certain spots.
Oh, wow.
Then we create a motif
that expands around
the structures.
You know, to me,
it seems very mystical.
The patterning of the doorways
within doorways within doorways
I mean, it really suggests
an idea of a transition.
It points, to me,
toward another reality,
maybe the afterlife,
to honor ancestors.
John Fillwalk's reconstruction,
much like the model built
by Dr. Alexei Vranich,
contains doorways
within doorways,
which he believes
points to the site
having served
a ceremonial function.
But the question remains:
for who?
In 1945,
after studying Puma Punku
for more than four decades,
archaeologist Arthur Posnansky
published his findings
in a book titled
Tihuanacu:
The Cradle of American Man.
And in it, he proposed
that the structures found
throughout the Tiahuanaco site
including Puma Punku
were built
roughly 17,000 years ago.
The reason why he did that
is because
of astronomical facts
that he found at Tiahuanaco.
These astronomical markers only
line up properly
around 15,000 BC.
Modern archaeologists have been
getting dates
that are more like 500 AD.
But the dating is difficult.
Even today,
archaeologists are not
in agreement of the dates
of Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku.
Posnansky based his dating
on features at a site located
less than one mile
northeast of Puma Punku
called Kalasasaya.
John Fillwalk digitally
recreated this ancient site
with its
central sunken courtyard
and many monoliths
in order to look
for celestial alignments
that might corroborate
Posnansky's dating.
We're looking at Kalasasaya.
And Kalasasaya does have
a beautiful equinox alignment.
You'll see
the sun just sits there
- right on top of the, the stone.
- Okay.
That's gorgeous.
Oh, how cool is that?
So, we worked with NASA's
JPL Horizons group
to provide data on any kind
of visible celestial body
- looking at 15,000 BC.
- And what did you find?
So, there were some interesting
alignments, I have to say.
At Kalasasaya.
Because there's all
the verticals that point around.
And so we investigated that
from the center monument
looking outward towards
those posts
as almost like in Stonehenge
-where you look and you can see,
-Right.
you know, solstice or equinox
and that kind of thing.
That would essentially indicate
that Posnansky's calculations
in this particular case
were correct.
I mean, I think that's possible.
There are alignments.
- Wow. Okay.
- Yeah.
- There are.
- That date back 15,000 BC. I mean,
you know, all of this
would essentially rewrite
South American history,
and this is something to be
- excited about.
- Yeah.
If the Kalasasaya
structure at Tiahuanaco
can be dated to 15,000 BC,
is it possible that Puma Punku
is that old as well?
There's no logic
as to why modern archaeologists
put one fence around Puma Punku
and another around Tiahuanaco.
They're both the same location.
It's clear they were
both built at the same time
by the same builders
in the very, very distant past.
Some researchers also believe
that the remote location
of Puma Punku
would make more sense if it had
been built 17,000 years ago,
because at that time,
it may have overlooked
Lake Titicaca.
If you look at
the geomorphology, if you look
at the sediments that have
been deposited around the site,
you can see that the lake was
at one point much, much larger.
Lake Titicaca today
is many miles away
from Puma Punku,
but in the past it is believed
that this was actually
much closer to Puma Punku.
- So, we're looking at Lake
Titicaca right now, - Correct.
so where is, in this image,
where is Puma Punku located?
Yeah, so, right,
so at the tail end
of the lake, here on the south,
kind of east corner, if you come
out here into the plains,
it's a little bit offset
into that area, that flat area.
Okay, and the idea
is that long ago,
Lake Titicaca was much,
much larger,
and so that Puma Punku
and Tiahuanaco
may have been a harbor or a port
to Lake Titicaca.
Certainly would make sense,
and water
is such a dominant feature
at the site, as you know,
-with the canal structures
-Right.
- and drainage systems and all of that.
- Mm-hmm.
So, that connection to water,
obviously, is really important.
According to some experts,
Puma Punku's proximity
to Lake Titicaca
in the distant past
might also explain
why the site appears to have
experienced a cataclysmic event.
I think what was
responsible was a massive
explosion of the volcano
of Cerro Khapía
between 12,800
and 11,600 years ago.
Right next to that volcano
is the deepest part of the lake,
which is 800 to 900 feet deep.
So I think the debris
that came from the volcano
created a tsunami
that lifted up the soil
and sediment at the bottom
of the shallow part of the lake
and literally buried Puma Punku
and parts of Tiahuanaco.
There is a possibility
that Dr. Posnansky's
calculations are correct.
And Puma Punku may date back
as far as 15,000 years BC.
And if that is the case,
that is one of those times
where, in many cultures
around the world,
including the ancient Egyptians,
are referring to a golden age
when the so-called gods
mingled amongst humankind.
So, was this an early memory
of first contact?
Could it be
that Puma Punku was built
more than 17,000 years ago
and has a connection
to otherworldly visitors?
Perhaps further clues
can be found
by examining
a gigantic stone gateway
that might be
the final piece of the puzzle.
When investigating
the ruins of Puma Punku
for insights
about its mysterious origins,
ancient astronaut theorists
believe
some of the most
compelling clues
can be found by examining
a giant stone doorway
that stands less
than a mile away
in central Tiahuanaco.
Called the Gate of the Sun,
it is ten feet tall,
13 feet wide
and was carved from
a single piece of andesite stone
that weighs more than ten tons.
Perhaps one of the most
iconic works of Tiahuanaco
is the Gate of the Sun.
It was found nearby
and ultimately moved
to its present location.
And they think
that it could well have been,
actually, the entrance
or gateway to Puma Punku.
It features
the Inca god Viracocha,
who's the god of creation,
who's portrayed
as a sort of a humanoid figure
with rays coming off his head.
Interestingly, the god Viracocha
is holding two staffs.
And this is the most
ancient version of Viracocha.
And so to find that there
is really quite astonishing.
It's said
that Viracocha himself,
the great god of the Andes,
was actually the person
who instigated the construction
of Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku.
So what's particularly
fascinating about
the Gate of the Sun is that
on either side of Viracocha
are these figures on each side,
and they are birdmen.
Viracocha is flanked
with 48 winged beings.
Now, why would these beings
have wings attached to them?
Well, because our ancestors
try to signify flight.
What I think is depicted
on the Gate of the Sun is a type
of a celestial pantheon,
suggesting that whoever came
and imparted knowledge
at Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku
were beings that had
a celestial connection,
meaning they came from the sky.
Could it be
that the figures carved
on the Gate of the Sun are
depictions of extraterrestrials
who arrived in Puma Punku
in the distant past?
If Puma Punku was
some sort of temple complex
as Alexei Vranich, Scott McAvoy
and John Fillwalk
have all envisioned
was it built to connect
with these beings?
For now, there remain
more questions than answers.
But many researchers believe
that solving the mystery
of Puma Punku could lead to
even more profound revelations.
Puma Punku will be a mystery
for a lot of people
for a long time.
And there are
a lot of aspects and facets
of that society
we don't know about.
Archaeologists will be able to
work there for many generations.
We can continue to excavate,
uh, and do
more advanced analysis
to try to find out
a little bit more
about Puma Punku
and Tiahuanaco society.
Puma Punku is unique
in terms of its construction,
its astonishing level
of accuracy.
Flat surfaces almost laser flat.
So it makes it one
of the most enigmatic
and fascinating
ancient locations on the planet.
The level of technology
required to create
Puma Punku would defy
21st century technologies.
So, how that was accomplished,
I have no idea.
Even to this day,
with all the recreations,
nobody really
has figured out yet
what that place looked like
when it was finished.
What was Puma Punku made for?
Your guess is as good as mine.
But we may have a eureka moment
where, together,
we will unlock the great mystery
of Puma Punku.
Since Spanish
explorers first came upon
Puma Punku
nearly five centuries ago,
the ruins have remained
one of the ancient world's
greatest mysteries.
Like the pyramids that stand
on Egypt's Giza Plateau,
the enormous Moai statues
of Easter Island,
and the monoliths of Stonehenge,
might Puma Punku
point to a history
that is much different
than we've imagined?
Perhaps modern technology
will soon reveal Puma Punku's
long held secrets and the truth
about our alien ancestors.