SIGNIFICANT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES [11d]
Bolivia, South America. Here lie the ruins of Puma Punku, a mysterious temple complex located in the ancient city of Tiahuanaco. It is believed to have been built about 2,000 years ago. The year he published his bestselling book Chariots of the Gods?, author Erich von Däniken made a pilgrimage to this archaeological site for more proof of his controversial theory that extraterrestrial beings had visited Earth in the distant past.
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“Puma Punku is in the highland of Bolivia. You stand there and you are absolutely shocked. There are gigantic platforms laying around. At that time, in 1968, there was no archaeological work done up there.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
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“When Erich von Däniken arrived at Puma Punku, here he found evidence, clearly, of lost high technology. We see laser-perfection drilled holes, stone that has been somehow liquefied, or almost kind of made vitrified, and stuck together. This is not possible without the use of high technology.” – Jason Martell |
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“Erich was able to see these “H” blocks. They’re big granite blocks all articulated and cut as if they were pre-manufactured, and in such a way that they would fit together and create these giant walls. It was such a high-tech kind of construction that it boggled everyone’s mind.” – David Childress (Author, Technology of the Gods) |
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“So what we have in Puma Punku is the traditional what I would say Erich von Däniken tackling archaeology. There is, within the methodology of how these stones were constructed, a certain degree of difficulty which our ancestors simply never attained in the surrounding landscape of Tiahuanaco. Stone carvers basically told him that it was almost impossible or extremely difficult to create these artifacts, and that specifically why they would be doing it is something which really defies explanation.” – Philip Coppens |
Another aspect of Puma Punku that captivated von Däniken was the legend of its creation, as put forward by the indigenous people of the region.
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“The population living there are called the Aymara. And the Aymara themselves say that they had no involvement in building Puma Punku. In fact, when you ask them who built Puma Punku, they will point to the sky and they will say, “Los Dioses.” The gods.” – Giorgio A. Tsoukalos |
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“In Puma Punku they say, “The gods constructed the place in one night.” This makes sense. You have an extraterrestrial crew, they come down to Earth. So, they construct with their tools just something which we would call today a basic camp. They behaved themselves like archaeologists would do: they learn. They teach a little to humans, they learn their language One day they disappeared, their job is over. They take all their instruments back to the mother spaceship, and left are only a few ruins of the basic camp.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
Was Puma Punku really a base camp for extraterrestrials that visited Earth in the distant past? And were the magnificent stones that make up the ruins made with the help of advanced building methods? For Erich von Däniken the answer was clearly “yes,” and it compelled him to continue his search nearly 3,000 miles away at the ruins of another ancient city.
Chichén Itzá, Mexico. Located on the Yucatán Peninsula are the ruins of an ancient Mayan city that thrived from 750 to 1200 AD. It was here, in 1969, that Erich von Däniken had an amazing realization involving the city’s central pyramid of El Castillo.
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“I was standing before this great pyramid. I understood nothing. I took every possible literature from Central American archaeologists to learn what’s this all about. And then I learned again, they are talking of visitors from outside. Of course they call them gods.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
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“According to the ancient Mayan myths, their main deity was Quetzalcoatl or Kukulkan, Gukumatz. All those different names for the exact same deity, which was described to be a winged or a flying serpent, or a flying snake. Whatever it was that they saw up in the sky could best be described as a flying snake.” – Giorgio A. Tsoukalos |
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“When we’re looking across the world, Chichén Itzá is a very important location. It is one of those places where it is said that the gods descended to and decreed a fate of mankind. And there is one specific pyramid, El Castillo, the castle, where you see an intricate light show happening on specifically the equinoxes, March 21 and September 21.” – Philip Coppens |
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“In the early morning you see the sun rising up, and while the sun goes up, you see on the stairway, light and shadow, triangles of light and shadow. They are produced because of the nine platforms. The light and shadow triangles slowly go down the step to the pyramid until the sun is up there. The message is absolutely clear. God Kukulkan visited the earth and disappeared again with the promise to return in a faraway future. So, they have given this whole information of the return of the gods into their temple.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
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“And I think this is one of the great things which Erich has done, not just in the story of Chichén Itzá, but of so many other aspects on other places in this world as well. Whereby he focuses on certain details and says, look, this is important. This is a detail which is extremely difficult to create. This is something which traditional archaeology tends to overlook.” – Philip Coppens |
By making a connection between the ancient Mayas’ knowledge of astronomy and their precise architecture, Erich von Däniken was convinced that there was much more to his Ancient Alien hypothesis than he had imagined. For further proof he looked to another Mayan temple. One that housed what some say was the first Ancient Astronaut, Lord Pakal.
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“At the ancient Mayan city of Palenque was a tomb that was discovered in the 1950s. And inside this tomb was a lid on the sarcophagus for Lord Pakal. And that lid is, is very highly decorated with a picture of Lord Pakal. And in that picture he’s doing some really unusual things.” – David Childress (Author, Technology of the Gods) |
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“You see a man bending forward, almost like a racing motorcyclist. He has his nose on some kind of oxygen mask. He uses his upper hand to manipulate the knob. You see his lower hand, he manipulates some controls. He’s sitting on a kind of chair. In a sort of a capsule.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
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“When Erich looked at that lid, he saw a Mayan king in a rocket ship. And that guy was returning to the stars, going back into space. It was an exciting interpretation. And it was one of the main things in Chariots of the Gods?. And when other people looked at that lid and saw his explanation, they had to agree with him.” – David Childress (Author, Technology of the Gods) |
Could Erich von Däniken be correct? Was Lord Pakal really an extraterrestrial who visited Earth in the distant past? One who perhaps shared highly advanced knowledge with mankind? After publishing his second book, Gods from Outer Space, in 1970, Erich von Däniken now found himself caught in the crosshairs of a bitter fight between traditional science and conventional religion, which denounced the notion that life existed on other planets. It was a battle the author seemed ill-equipped to fight alone.
Previous: Von Däniken’s Spiritual Journey | Next: Ancient Astronaut Theorists
References:
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[1b] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: Season 5, vol 2. [DVD Back Cover]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™.
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[11a] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.10 – The Von Däniken Legacy. [DVD Footage: Introduction]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [11b] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.10 – The Von Däniken Legacy. [DVD Footage: Chariots of the Gods?]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [11c] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.10 – The Von Däniken Legacy. [DVD Footage: Von Däniken’s Spiritual Journey]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [11d] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.10 – The Von Däniken Legacy. [DVD Footage: Significant Archaeological Sites]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [11e] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.10 – The Von Däniken Legacy. [DVD Footage: Ancient Astronaut Theorists]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [11f] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.10 – The Von Däniken Legacy. [DVD Footage: Ask the Questions]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. |
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