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mysteries |
Ancient Astronauts |
Other Information |
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There are intriguing signs that earth was visited by
intelligent extraterrestrial life thousands of years ago.
Picture the scene: a giant UFO hovers over the desert. Laser beams extend from under the craft and manoeuvre huge stone slabs into position as astonished nomads look on. Later, when the craft has left, three huge pyramids remain in the sand. And for generations, the confused and amazed tribes-people recount the events in their legends and sacred texts describing the alien craft as fiery messages from the gods, and their pilots as angels in golden chariots. According to some, this scene could really have been enacted some 5,000 years ago at Giza, the site of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, and at different times elsewhere in the world - at Stonehenge in England, on Easter Island and in South America. Precisely why an advanced civilisation would help the indigenous people to build these vast structures is a mystery, but theories for their use range from cosmic transmitters to gateways to the stars. Some enthusiasts of the ancient astronaut theory even go so far as to suggest that the human race itself was seeded by alien visitors. These visitors, it is claimed, arrived on the planet hundreds of thousands of years ago and gave evolution a nudge - as depicted in the opening scenes of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. Alien Ancestors These ideas are not new. The concept of advanced civilizations from the stars influencing human progress has been around since at least Victorian times when members of the Theosophy Society, an occult group, imagined an alternative history for the human race. But the concept first made global headlines in the 1970's with the work of Swiss author, Erich von Daniken. Von Daniken has written a series of highly successful books, beginning with Chariots of the Gods in 1969, in which he presented evidence for alien visitations in ancient times. Uniform Images Although much of von Daniken’s work has since been discredited, some Ufologists believe that at the core of his findings is a nugget of truth - that advanced beings indeed visited earth and left their mark here at the dawn of civilization. But, what is the evidence? At the centre of von Daniken’s theory and the ideas of all enthusiasts of the ancient-astronauts theory is the remarkable consistency of the images and icons of ancient peoples. There is also a uniformity to their legends and the characteristics of their gods that - believers insist - could not be put down to chance. They point to a similarity of accounts from sources as diverse as the Ancient Egyptians, the Maya and the Ancient Chinese, all of whom had no contact with each other. One of the best descriptions of what some enthusiasts believe to be alien visitors is to be found in the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian text. Ancient Texts At several points in the text, the authors describe what are called Virmanas, a word meaning ‘flying machines’. In the text, the Virmanas are sometimes described as flying vehicles used for military purposes and are often piloted by Indian gods. One of these is called the Agneya weapon and it appears in one particularly striking passage: ‘A blazing missile possessed of the radiance of smokeless fire was discharged. A thick gloom suddenly encompassed the hosts. All points of the compass were suddenly enveloped in darkness. Evil bearing winds began to blow. Clouds reared into the higher air, showering blood. The very elements seemed confused. The sun appeared to spin round. The world, scorched by the heat of that weapon, seemed to be in a fever’. At first glance, this could easily be interpreted as a nuclear weapon exploding, which, because we have only recently known about such weapons, has led enthusiasts to conclude that the Virmanas must be of extraterrestrial origin. Supporting Evidence However, this passage - like so much f the lore behind ancient-astronaut theories - is entirely open to interpretation. It is also possible that this account could have originally described a natural phenomenon such as a volcanic eruption, and the tale has been adulterated by numerous reinterpretations. But, claim the enthusiasts, there is plenty of other evidence. According to some supporters of the ancient-astronaut theory, primitive man seems to have been obsessed with space-suited figures. Drawings of what look like astronauts are to be found in cave dwellings in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Far East and Australia. To support this evidence, claimants have researched what they believe to be ancient landing sites for UFO’s. The best known example is the Plain of Nazca in Peru, which i only fully identifiable as an overall structure from aerial photo’s. Orthodox archaeologists insist that the Nazca markings are Inca roads, but this hard to reconcile with the fact that these roads lead nowhere. These markings also include some very odd configurations - nothing like roads - which the more determined enthusiasts have suggested could be ‘parking bays’ for aircraft or space vehicles. The biggest problem with the concept of alien visitation, ancient or modern, is the conundrum of how the aliens could travel the vast interstellar distances to get here. Even supporters of the alien visitation theory accept that the nearest home for another civilisation must be at least 4.2 light years away (the nearest star to our sun). Scientific Puzzle Such vast distances mean that, even if a civilisation discovered a way to travel close to the speed of light, it would take them over eight years for a round trip - hardly practical for a casual visit. One suggestion is that advanced beings have developed ways to bend the laws of physics that put an upper speed limit on interstellar travel. A more plausible theory is that an advanced civilization - travelling relatively slowly - passed this way thousands of years ago en route to colonising other worlds. Perhaps if aliens did visit the pharaohs or the Maya, they hopped of their mothership for a short time and left some indelible marks on human history. |
Sources: The X Factor |