NARRATOR: Ancient monuments
precisely aligned to celestial events.
History written in stone honoring otherworldly rulers.
And a calendar accurately predicting shifts in the Earth's
axis every 26,000 years.
Did the Maya of Central America really create one of the most
advanced civilizations of ancient times?
Or did their intelligence originate from somewhere else,
perhaps out of this world?
MARK VAN STONE: They didn't have metal.
They didn't have electricity.
But what they did have is advanced mythology, advanced
language and advanced religious culture.
JON C. LOHSE: They understood astronomy to an incredible degree,
more so than any societies at the time.
PHILIP COPPENS: The Mayans were absolutely convinced that
timing was crucial because the gods were going to come back.
DAVID CHILDRESS: Lord Pakal's sarcophagus was his spaceship.
He's the original rocket man.
NARRATOR: Millions of people around the world believe we
have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings.
What if it were true?
Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history?
And if so, did they plot the success and demise of the
ancient Maya civilization?
Sync and corrections by bellows www.addic7ed.com
NARRATOR: Southern Mexico.
Surrounded by dense forests in the foothills of the Tumbala
Mountains lie the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Palenque.
Established as early as 1800 BC, Palenque was one of the key
population centers of the ancient Maya civilization that
dominated present-day Central America for nearly 2,000 years.
Without metal tools, the wheel or pack animals, the Maya built
cities like Palenque across a vast region with incredible
architectural precision.
EDWIN BARNHART: There are a number of texts around the
Maya world that mention four cities in association with four directions.
Palenque is recognized in these texts as the Western capital of
the Maya world.
The southern one was Copan, the eastern one was Tikal, and the
northernmost one was Calakmul.
VAN STONE: What I find the most impressive about them is
that they were able to build a civilization out of the jungle.
Jungles have really thin topsoil, and for them to be able
to support a huge population, which is 20 or 30 times what the
population is in that area today, is amazing.
NARRATOR: Regarded by scholars as one of the most
sophisticated and complex civilizations in the ancient
world, Maya triumphs included numerous scientific achievements
in agriculture, engineering and astronomy.
VAN STONE: They didn't have a lot of things that we think of
as the hallmarks of advancement, but what they did have is
advanced mythology, advanced language and advanced religious culture.
CHILDRESS: The site of Palenque is still a vast
unexcavated site.
They think that only ten percent of this city has so far been
excavated by archaeologists.
The aqueduct system here at Palenque was very sophisticated,
and the Mayans were actually able to have water pressure by
siphoning water channels off of the main river.
All the Mayan cities had ball courts in them where they'd play
this celestial game where the players would knock a rubber
ball through a stone or wooden hoop.
It's thought that this is a representation of alignments of the sun.
COPPENS: When you start looking at all the various
cultures, whether it is the ancient Babylonians, the ancient
Egyptians or the Mayans, we now know that the people who were
by far the most advanced was the Mayans.
NARRATOR: According to mainstream historians, by the
ninth century, the great Maya cities were abandoned, and the
Maya people had vanished.
But why?
Many blame the disappearance of the Maya on war, overpopulation
and drought.
(thunderclap)
But might the Maya have left behind clues to suggest that
their origin and destiny had been plotted by otherworldly forces?
1952.
Archaeologist Alberto Lhuillier discovers the Pyramid Tomb of
King Pakal who ruled over the ancient Mayan city of Palenque
from 615 to 683.
During his nearly 70-year reign, Pakal transformed Palenque,
creating some of the most significant inscriptions and
monuments of the ancient Maya civilization.
GERARDO ALDANA: The city of Palenque was sacked by
the ruler of Calakmul.
So this was really tragic for the city itself.
And it sets the stage for Hanab Pakal himself, who becomes king
at a very early age, and then takes this city that's been
destroyed, and now brings it up to what becomes one of the most
important cities of the late classic period.
CHILDRESS: This is the famous Temple of the Inscriptions
behind me, perhaps the most famous pyramid in all of the Mayan world.
It was in 1948 that the French... Mexican archeologist, Alberto
Lhuillier began his excavations at the top of the Temple of Inscriptions.
What he found there was the famous staircase leading down
into the depths of the pyramid.
But the staircase was completely filled in with rubble of small
stones and dirt.
It took him four years to slowly excavate, step by step, down the
pyramid, until he finally came to the tomb of Lord Pakal and
the giant sarcophagus and lid that the pyramid were built around.
NARRATOR: Arguably the most remarkable Mayan artifact ever
found... the stone Sarcophagus Lid of King Pakal... has produced
considerable controversy.
Mainstream scholars believe the depiction is of King Pakal on a
journey to the underworld.
But ancient astronaut theorists believe the king is portrayed
seated at the controls of a spacecraft, and have dubbed him
"the Palenque astronaut."
CHILDRESS: He appears to be going into space.
He's the original rocket man... there manipulating his
spacecraft, going into space.
GIORGIO TSOUKALOS: We have maintained for a very long time
that the depiction here is of King Pakal sitting in some type
of a spacecraft, because he is at an angle... like modern-day
astronauts upon liftoff.
He's manipulating some controls right here.
He has some type of breathing apparatus or some type of a
telescope in front of his face.
His feet are on some type of a pedal, and down here, you have
something that looks like an exhaust with flames.
NARRATOR: In 2011 the strange carving on King Pakal's
sarcophagus lid was translated into a 3-D replica by model
maker Paul Francis.
PAUL FRANCIS: When I saw this, I instantly said, "There's
a guy in a space capsule."
You know, it doesn't need to be spelled out for me, I don't have
to find anything.
It was already there.
It was carved many, many years ago.
TSOUKALOS: I think this is absolutely extraordinary because
this is definitely one of the most compelling pieces in the
ancient astronaut theory, and to finally see Pakal as a 3-D
sculpture, to me, is a dream come true.
For the longest time we have said that what is on this Pakal
lid is not something symbolic.
It was something that the artist saw or was told about, and then
he or she tried to recreate this on a slab.
I love the craftsmanship.
I love how you, you know, at the bottom of the Palenque slab, you
see something like the flames... FRANCIS: It looks like, it
looks like fire, and...
TSOUKALOS: Exactly.
FRANCIS: I had to do a little interpretive.
- I put engine bells on instead of the flame. - Of course.
FRANCIS: But that's the thruster stage.
TSOUKALOS: I also love the detail that you have underneath
his right foot where his foot is resting on a pedestal, and that
is exactly what we can see on the Palenque slab.
And how his hands are manipulating some controls, and
also this kind of breathing apparatus that's going on in
front of his nose.
FRANCIS: The breathing apparatus is actually a very neat piece.
It's called the giver of life.
The soul transfers through this, and a giver of life to me would be air.
I mean, we breathe air.
This is a guy who needs this mask to survive.
TSOUKALOS: Because where is he?
FRANCIS: Outer space.
NARRATOR: Could the carving on the sarcophagus lid of King
Pakal really provide confirmation of the complicity
between Maya rulers and extraterrestrial forces, as
ancient astronaut theorists believe?
Perhaps further evidence can be found etched in stone throughout
Mesoamerica.
NARRATOR: The Palace of Palenque.
Discovered in the late 18th century by Spanish explorers,
this royal compound is the largest and most complex of
those found in the ancient city.
Researchers believe a four-story tower in the middle of the
palace was built so Mayan kings and priests could observe the
celestial movement of the sun and stars.
CHILDRESS: This is the main palace here at Palenque, and one
of the unusual features is its observatory, a huge tower to
watch the stars.
Also throughout the palace are these unusual T-shaped windows
and they've baffled archaeologists for centuries.
It's thought that perhaps they represent the wind god,
but it's also possible that these
T-shaped windows are pointing to the sky.
What was it that the rulers of Palenque were looking for?
NARRATOR: The tower at the Palace of Palenque is just one
of many celestial observatories built throughout the ancient
Maya territories.
LOHSE: Their practical system of astronomy was an
observational one, and so the design and construction of a lot
of buildings was intended to, to create these sight lines, to
create these vantages for observation to see and mark
important astronomical events.
COPPENS: We see that temples were aligned to specific moments
in time, and the equinoxes and the solstices are the most
important moments in time, so wherever we look, we see how
this knowledge of astronomy is incorporated into these
monuments.
DAVID CHEETHAM: Plazas were great places where people stood
and paid reverence to particular times of the year.
These were places that were aligned from time immemorial...
hundreds and hundreds of years... to make these specific
observations.
NARRATOR: But what... or perhaps who... were the Maya
looking for in the sky?
According to ancient astronaut theorists, the answer can be
found carved in stone.
TSOUKALOS: In Quiriguá, Guatemala, there is a national
park featuring zoo morphs.
Zoo morphs are these giant boulders that were carved into
different shapes.
Some of them depict crocodiles, some of them depict turtles.
But at the same time, the carvings are very reminiscent of
something technological in nature.
In fact, there is one boulder that we can see where this guy
is essentially sitting inside some type of cockpit.
Is it possible that this is nothing else but an artist's
rendering of something that they didn't understand because their
technological frame of reference was less advanced than our
technological frame of reference we have today?
NARRATOR: In the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco, near
the Gulf of Mexico, lie the ruins of a ceremonial center
called La Venta.
Here in 1862, oil riggers discovered four very large stone
heads in the Olmec area of Mesoamerica.
Since then, archaeologists have unearthed 13 more similar
sculptures that were carved as early as 850 BC.
Known as the colossal heads, scholars believe they depict the
Olmecs... an ancient civilization that many consider to be the
ancestors of the Maya.
LOHSE: One of the most striking aspects of Olmec art
and archeology are these colossal head sculptures, and
one of the hypotheses that's been put out to explain these is
that they were portraits of important rulers, kings,
shamans, important people in their society.
NARRATOR: But ancient astronaut theorists contend the
mysterious stone statues are proof of extraterrestrial
intervention in the distant past.
PETER FIEBAG (translated): Huge stone heads were found in
the Olmec area, which were beautifully made but then
ritually buried.
One asks, what is that?
Are these heads of rulers or priests, or were they maybe
aliens that they wanted to portray because they had unusual
facial features?
CHILDRESS: These guys are often wearing strange helmets,
and they look to be foreigners.
They appear to be from Africa and the Middle East and other
areas like that.
So what are they doing here in Central America?
You have this curious mix of different racial groups.
Are they coming with the sky gods?
Perhaps they, too, are the alien ETs.
TSOUKALOS: There is one statue that we can find that
clearly shows an Olmec wearing some type of a flight suit.
To me, this depicts nothing else but someone from Africa having
visited Central America in a type of a flight suit and with
some type of craft.
You've got the legs here like in a modern-day astronaut suit, and
there's also some type of a life
support pack that's on his chest.
There are six wings
and the head is clearly enclosed by a
skullcap similar to modern-day astronauts.
So what we have here, in my opinion, is nothing else but
depictions of physical extraterrestrial encounters
hundreds... and yes, even thousands... of years ago.
CHILDRESS: There is considerable evidence linking
the Mayans and the Olmecs to extraterrestrial beings.
You have it in La Venta, many of the Olmecs wearing curious masks.
Also at Tikal, they're wearing what look like space masks with
respirators.
You've got also flying beings who are hovering above certain
objects and things like that in the Mayan world.
These are the birdmen, the people who can fly.
NARRATOR: But do the stone sculptures really provide proof
that the Maya had early contact with star travelers, as ancient
astronaut theorists contend?
And might further evidence reveal a shocking truth, that
some ancient Maya rulers were themselves of otherworldly origin?
NARRATOR: Central America.
Here, in western Honduras, lie the impressive ruins of the
ancient Maya city of Copan.
And though Copan's temples, pyramids and monuments rank
among the most important of any Mayan sites, researchers looking
to explain the incredible achievements of the Maya have
been drawn to a 72-step structure known as the
Hieroglyphic Stairway.
PAYSON SHEETS: The Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan
was constructed in the early 700s AD,
with the intent of writing out the history of Copan at that time.
And so it was designed as a public monument to the glory and
success of all the kings, from Yax K'uk Mo', all the way to the
13th one who commissioned it to be built.
NARRATOR: Carved into 1,200 stones in the massive monument,
the ancient Maya symbols, known as glyphs, make up what
historians believe is one of the oldest and most sophisticated
systems of writing.
But for centuries, the glyphs found throughout Mesoamerica
were undecipherable.
Then, in 1880, German librarian and anthropologist Ernst
Forstemann cracked the code.
VAN STONE: Ernst Forstemann was a librarian at Dresden.
And in his desk he kept one of the four Maya books, the Dresden Codex.
He was a brilliant mathematician and extremely logical and had
enormous insights.
And at a time when we couldn't read a single Maya hieroglyph,
he was able to figure out the Maya calligraphy.
ALDANA: Maya hieroglyphic writing is very robust, and
that's because it uses really two components.
There are logo graphs.
Logo graphs are really pictures that represent entire words.
So "Balaam," for example, which is "jaguar," could be written
with just the head of a jaguar.
On the other hand, we have these things that we call phonetic
complements.
And these are glyphs... they're images that represent sounds.
NARRATOR: According to interpretations of the
Hieroglyphic Stairway, the glyphs chronicle not only the
history but also the origin of the ancient Maya rulers.
ALDANA: The hieroglyphs are really attached to what was
important to royalty at the time, and that was lineage and
the genealogies of the kings.
They went out of their way to demonstrate how they were
connected to their ancestors and the gods of their ancestors, to
establish their right to rule.
SHEETS: This is a picture I took of the, of a close-up of a
sculpture of Uaxac Lahun Ubac C'awil, the 13th ruler of Copan.
And he's depicted here on the front, in all of his finery.
And then the sculptor put a hieroglyphic passage on the side.
We don't think commoners could read, but all the elites could
and the king could.
So, he or another elite individual could come here and
impress people by saying this demonstrates the semi-divinity
of our king and his power to
intercede between us and the heavens.
NARRATOR: But just what was the real source of power and
authority behind the Maya priests and kings?
Do the hieroglyphs reveal an otherworldly truth to their
origin, as the Maya themselves maintain?
Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer is yes.
TSOUKALOS: What we have to think about today is, where did
the origin of the priesthood come from?
And the origin is nothing else but that they... the initial
cabal of priests... they were all in contact with
extraterrestrials, and that's why they were revered.
Our ancestors thought they were gods because they didn't
understand the nuts-and-bolts aspects behind those visits.
But when it all comes down to it, it was all a huge
misunderstanding and a way to keep the common people in place.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: In the beginning, the first ruler were
gods... real descendants from the sky, extraterrestrials.
But later, the priests and the rulers took the names of their ancestors' god.
So they made a secret and a kind of conspiracy around them,
because the normal people should give them offerings, should give
them gold, metal, all kinds of gifts, etc. , as they did
some centuries before for the real gods.
So it was a kind of conspiracy
among the priests and among the kings.
COPPENS: Mayan hieroglyphs specifically say that the Mayans
were absolutely convinced about the existence of otherworldly
beings, and that they actually believed that these beings
manifested themselves regularly at preordained moments of time.
NARRATOR: Perhaps further evidence of the Mayan belief in
the existence of extraterrestrial beings may be
found in their daily rituals of human sacrifice.
Scholars believe that blood offerings were seen as an act of
devotion to the Maya rulers, who were assumed to be descendants of the gods.
VAN STONE: We know that the Maya practiced blood sacrifice,
because they were still doing it when the Spanish came.
We have images on wall paintings, on vases and in
sculptures that show people letting their own blood and
sacrificing other people.
CHILDRESS: The Mayans had a complex pantheon, which involved
gods from the sky, and the rulers were supposed to be
descendants of these gods.
And they believed that these gods demanded sacrifices of
them, and that their blood, the blood of their kings, was the
ideal sacrifice for the gods.
Later, the Mayans began to take captives, particularly other
royal captives, and execute them, using their blood as the
gift to the gods.
ADRIAN GILBERT: The ancient Maya were particularly worried
that jaguar gods had come to Earth from somewhere else and
had instructed them, and in return they had to make
sacrifices to the jaguar gods.
In particular, heart sacrifices.
COPPENS: We see hundreds, if not thousands, of people being
dragged up the pyramids and really sacrificed.
Definitely there is this absolute belief that the Mayans
needed the intervention of the gods, and they believed that
somehow sacrificing human beings was gonna bring back the gods.
GEORGE NOORY: It's very possible that this civilization,
as cultured as they seem to have been, were also pretty barbaric.
And this could have been their way of trying to
offer the gods something.
TSOUKALOS: Blood sacrifice was nothing else but an act of
desperation to bring about the return of the extraterrestrials,
because one thing is crystal clear: In every single ancient
culture, there is a promise of a return in the future of those gods.
Blood sacrifice was something that we humans did ourselves
because we didn't understand that what we dealt with was
nothing else but flesh and blood space travelers instead of real
or actual gods.
NARRATOR: But why did the Maya believe they were
connected to the gods by blood?
Might there have been evidence within their DNA that could link
the lineage of Maya kings to otherworldly beings, as ancient
astronaut theorists believe?
And if so, is it possible that otherworldly visitors may have
stayed behind and assumed the role of Maya kings?
Perhaps the answer can be found, not by examining the ancient
remains of the Maya, but by studying their creation myths.
NARRATOR: Chicago, Illinois.
Housed here, in the Newberry Library, is the Mayan manuscript
known as the Popol Vuh.
Literally translated as "the book of the people," it is a
collection of Maya oral histories passed on through the ages.
Written in the mid-16th century, this incredible book encompasses
a range of subjects including those involving Mayan creation myths.
INGA CALVIN: The Popol Vuh talks about the creation of the universe.
It talks about the fact that in the beginning all was darkness.
There was a primordial sea.
And then these creators, male and female, spoke the word,
and with the word, the Earth was
created and animals were created.
VAN STONE: It's sort of like the combination of the book of
Genesis and the book of Chronicles in the Bible.
It's a story of battles between the gods, and then it connects
the creation of the world with the present day through the
kings of the K'iche.
It's really the only complete Maya creation myth that we have.
COPPENS: What they were saying was that a framework was
created... that certain deities manifested themselves physically
and made decisions as to what was going to happen.
In the case of the Mayans, this was a choice as to where the
Mayans were going to live, as well as the selection of certain sacred sites.
NARRATOR: Throughout the ancient world, there have been
numerous similar myths of otherworldly beings coming to
Earth and interacting with some of the earliest humans.
Most mainstream historians believe these stories represent
only religious and spiritual beliefs.
But is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,
that the Popol Vuh, as well as other ancient creation tales,
represents actual evidence of contact with extraterrestrials
in the distant past?
According to the translations of hieroglyphs found at numerous
ancient Mayan cities, Kukulkan, or the great feathered serpent,
was the god who brought knowledge to the Maya.
LOGAN HAWKES: When we talk about the Mayan gods, we know
that the most important god to them was the plumed serpent, or
Kukulkan.
We see his image all across the Mayan world.
We see it on great carved images on stone.
Kukulkan is often depicted as a plumed serpent, some would say
a dragon or a snake with wings.
That leads some to believe that Kukulkan may have descended
from the sky.
VON DANIKEN: Now, the Maya were living in the jungle.
The Maya knew that the snake could not fly, but this snake,
this serpent, could fly.
The oldest Maya histories tell that Kukulkan was the teacher of young Maya.
He had chosen eight boys in the age between seven and 12, and
he'd teach these eight boys in mathematics, in astronomy, in
all kind of science.
And later, Kukulkan disappeared with the promise that he will
return in the faraway future.
These boys had become the first priests and the first teachers
again for the Maya.
HUGH NEWMAN: Some of the legends state that he appeared
along the Gulf Coast on a raft of serpents, and he spread his
high knowledge through that part of the country.
Even today in some of the Mayan cultures, he's revered as this
great god that brought all these teachings and civilization to
their part of the world.
And yet, no one knows who he was or where he came from.
NARRATOR: Strangely, depictions of a winged serpent
god can be found all around the ancient world.
In India, the epic text of the Mahabharata details the ancient
account of sky beings known as Nagas.
Dating as far back as 2500 BC, the half-human and half-serpent
entities look nearly identical to the Mayan Kukulkan.
And ancient Chinese mythology from the fifth millennium BC
describe flying dragons that are eerily similar to the
serpent god depicted in Mesoamerica.
ANDREW COLLINS: To the peoples that preceded the Inca
in Peru, similar ideas were put upon characters like
Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, who was this wisdom
bringer, sometimes said to have come down from the sky world.
And once again, bringing the rudiments of civilization to the
peoples of Central America.
HAWKES: There is a common thread among many ancient
cultures of the Americas when it comes to plumed serpent god.
The Cherokee, for example, believe that time... their
calendar... is based upon a rattlesnake that they can see in
the night sky, perhaps a constellation.
So, the idea of a serpent or a snake or a dragon is common
among many ancient cultures, and not just the Maya or the
Mesoamericans.
COPPENS: The snake is the giver of wisdom in so many
cultures, and it gives the tools of civilization... working with
metals, working with other instruments, certain knowledge,
certain aspects of life... and that it really gives this
knowledge to certain people, and that he places these people
in a position whereby, from their social position, they're
able to give this to the rest of their culture.
TSOUKALOS: All these cultures were far apart from each other,
sometimes by thousands and thousands of miles.
So, how is it possible that all these societies came up with not
similar, but identical stories?
Was it really flying snakes or gods that were snakes?
Of course not.
It was misunderstood technology.
Some types of vehicles were witnessed that descended from
the sky out of which people came... astronauts... that
instructed people of different cultures in different societies
in certain scientific disciplines.
This is not coincidence.
This is evidence for ancient alien encounters in the remote past.
There is no other way.
NARRATOR: Can the ancient creation myths and legends of
flying serpent gods really be interpreted as factual accounts
of extraterrestrial visitors, as ancient astronaut theorists contend?
And if so, might such celestial travelers have given the Maya
both the tools and the knowledge to help advance their civilization?
Perhaps further evidence can be found by looking at the Mayans'
very profound connection to the stars.
NARRATOR: In the Mexican state of the Yucatan lie the
ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza.
Here, in the tenth century, the Maya built what has become known
as the El Caracol observatory.
BARNHART: It has four doors on the bottom that can be used
as observation points, and had a number of windows up on
top, but most of those have fallen.
We only have two and a half of those left.
But looking at those, we can see that they're definitely looking
at the sun, probably at the moon.
There are hints that they could have been using them for
stars and planets.
VAN STONE: They were tracking in particular Venus, the phases
of the moon, eclipses.
We know that because we have books that record these things.
NARRATOR: Most researchers agree that from 250 to 900 AD,
the Mayans were the most advanced astronomers of their time.
But why were they observing the cosmos so intently?
And what might they have been looking for?
CALVIN: The Maya were very sophisticated in terms of what
they watched in the heavens and in the calendars that they kept track of.
The ability to understand that Venus as morning star and Venus
as evening star are the same star was very rarely done in the
history of humankind.
They were oftentimes seen as two different entities.
The idea that they could predict the cycles of the heavens
reflects their sophistication.
VAN STONE: The Maya were one of the only ancient people that
invented a mathematical system that we use, which is called
place value and zero.
And using place value and zero allows you to make enormous
calculations, numbers that are very, very large.
(beeping)
They could probably calculate things thousands of years into the past.
NARRATOR: Did the Maya develop such mastery of
astronomy and mathematics on their own?
Or is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists believe,
that the elite rulers of the Maya had received help from
star travelers?
VON DANIKEN: The Maya, for example, had the knowledge of
the planet Venus surrounding our solar system in such a
precise way that within 6,000 years, the difference was a few hours.
Now, the Mayas itself did not live for 6,000 years.
So they had no time... 6,000 years... to observe if their
calculation concerning the Venus rotation is correct or not,
because they had their information from their gods.
COPPENS: The Mayans could not possibly have developed these
systems on their own because it would take thousands, some of
them tens of thousands of years of observation.
So it is clear that they were given to them by aliens out
there who have made contact with the Mayan people.
NARRATOR: Perhaps the most intriguing astronomical
accomplishment of the Maya concerns their understanding of
the slow change in the Earth's rotational axis in space.
Called precession, it's a process that takes more than
26,000 years to complete.
But how could the Maya have tracked events over such an
extreme time span?
Is it possible that, like modern scientists, the Maya had
been using knowledge of the Earth's movement in space to track time?
And if so, for what purpose?
LOHSE: The Maya developed these timekeeping skills by
monitoring the movements and predicting the movements of not
just the sun, but the moon, Venus, in some cases Jupiter,
Mars, Saturn and some of the constellations.
NARRATOR: Though most people consider the Egyptians as the
ultimate pyramid builders, ten times as many pyramids were
constructed in Mesoamerica than in Egypt.
But why did the Maya build so many of their monumental
structures in absolute precise alignment with solar, lunar and
stellar events?
COLLINS: Well, it seems as if they were paranoid that if they
did not do this, something bad would happen.
(rumbling)
They were on the fifth epoch, and each of these earlier epochs
they believed had ended in catastrophe.
And it seemed as if they had to synchronize their rituals, their
events, their games, their activities with these specific
celestial events, because if they didn't, something bad would
happen, and the epoch would end prematurely.
COPPENS: The Mayans were absolutely convinced that timing
was crucial, because the stars were revealing when the gods
were going to come back, and obviously, that meant the gods
were coming from the stars.
NARRATOR: But where, or from whom, did the ancient Maya learn
to accurately track time by tracing the celestial movements
of our solar system and the universe beyond?
Could the ancient Maya have actually conspired with
extraterrestrial visitors to plan not only the future, and
even the very end of our world?
Perhaps a further examination of the infamous
Mayan calendar and its so-called doomsday prophecy is required.
NEWMAN: There are several legends in the Mayan world which
suggest that this end date of the Mayan calendar in December,
2012 is actually an apocalypse day.
The Popol Vuh discusses it as a possible destruction of the planet.
The Tortuguero Monument, which is a site near Palenque...
it's the only inscription in stone that mentions the 2012 end date
of the calendar.
And that talks about nine gods descending to Earth.
But no one really knows exactly what that means.
Some people suggest that may cause a cataclysm.
Others suggest it may be a whole dawn of a new age where we
actually move into a more conscious way of life.
CHILDRESS: If the truth is that the Mayans were in contact
with extraterrestrial beings, and now their calendar is ending
on December 21, 2012, this might be the return of the gods
themselves, of the extraterrestrials coming back to
Earth to the Mayans, as they promised.
NARRATOR: Given the sophistication of the Mayan
calendar, is it really possible that the Maya could have
accurately predicted the exact date of some sort of
Earth-changing event?
Might such an event usher in a new era of human enlightenment?
Or might it mark the end of mankind in the form of a
cataclysmic doomsday?
Perhaps only time will tell.