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Ancient paintings of strange, humanlike figures,
rocks engraved thousands of years ago
with images of flying machines,
and stone carvings
of what appear to be astronauts.
For more than a decade,
Ancient Aliens has traveled the globe
to examine some of the most extraordinary
and mysterious rock art ever discovered.
Now, we're investigating the Top Ten Alien Petroglyphs
that just may hold the proof that Earth has been visited
by extraterrestrials.
On Ancient Aliens, we have investigated
some of the most mysterious carvings
and paintings ever discovered.
Our ancestors spent countless hours
leaving strange images and symbols on stone
to create a record of what they experienced.
And at one site in Nevada,
the rock art is not only some of the oldest in the world
but predates any known civilization in North America.
At number ten on our countdown
of the Top Ten Alien Petroglyphs:
The Rock Art of Winnemucca Lake.
In the dried-up bed
of what was once Winnemucca Lake
are several limestone boulders that are covered
with what appear to be ancient carvings.
In Nevada are some of the most remarkable
petroglyphs found on Earth.
They're called the Winnemucca Petroglyphs.
They are extremely large,
extremely deep-cut,
beautiful pans of leaves, zigzags, spirals
and other motifs.
It's a remarkable site.
So far, researchers have been unable
to determine what the abstract patterns mean.
But what's even more mysterious
is the fact that the local Paiute people
say the petroglyphs were not created by their ancestors
but by a race of giants.
The Paiutes said that initially
they did not create petroglyphs,
that an ancient race, uh, called the Si-Te-Cah did.
The Si-Te-Cah was a race of giants
that was said to have been white-complected,
having red hair, and well over seven foot tall.
The Paiutes explained that these giants
lived on the lake in Pyramid Lake, on floating cities.
In 2013, samples of the limestone were taken
to the University of Colorado at Boulder
where scientists performed a series of radiocarbon tests
on sediment within the petroglyphs
to determine their age.
The results were astonishing.
They revealed the carvings were etched
between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago,
making them the oldest petroglyphs
ever found in North America.
And what's so special about these is their extreme age
because no one was supposed to be living
in North America at that time.
This is before the Clovis,
this is before the first settlers
in North America, so who could have done this?
Could the petroglyphs at Winnemucca Lake
really have been created by an ancient race of giants?
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes
and suggest that the origins of these mysterious beings
was even recorded into the stone.
When we look at petroglyphs with their incredible spirals,
the doorways, the strange beings that are featured,
the stories that are told,
it suggests that they all have an origin
with extraterrestrials themselves.
If you travel 800 miles southeast from Winnemucca Lake,
you will come to a remarkable site in Arizona.
It's a place where the Navajo people carved thousands
of petroglyphs into rock walls and cliffs centuries ago.
The images tell a story of their encounters
with celestial visitors called "the star people."
Number nine on our list: Rock Art Ranch.
Ancient astronaut theorists
Giorgio Tsoukalos and William Henry
have traveled to Rock Art Ranch to investigate
one of North America's most extensive
collections of petroglyphs.
This is sensational.
Joining them is esteemed Navajo Tribal Ranger
Jon Dover.
Rock Art Ranch's 5,000 acres
are home to nearly 3,000 ancient petroglyphs,
and on nearly every panel are figures that the Navajo
identify as star people.
Tell me, Jon, petroglyphs are regarded as
picture books that tell a story all at once.
That's right, and also en-enmeshed
- in all this are religious symbols. - Mm-hmm.
Things that tell you something
- about how they worshipped, pictures of gods. - Mm-hmm.
- And when you say gods... - Gods, right.
...what, in-in your culture, what does that mean?
It could be anything from somebody coming to them
and meeting with them and imparting knowledge.
And in the case of the Navajo,
that's what the Yeibichai represent.
In the case of the Hopis,
the Kachinas represent those gods...
- Right. - ...that came to Earth
to give them knowledge.
And could one make the argument
that these may have been visitations
by flesh and blood extraterrestrials
- in ancient times? - Oh, definitely.
From what we understand,
there's many different races
of alien that are coming t-to this world.
Jon guides Giorgio and William
to another site at Rock Art Ranch
with even more strange petroglyphs.
- Wow. - Look at this.
- I mean, look at the hollow body with the star inside. - Mm-hmm.
One hand pointing to the sky, the other down to Earth.
And just beneath that,
look at... that is a Grey alien.
That triangular head.
- Very strange. - That is.
You have all kinds of different types of figures,
different representations of gods.
Right. I mean, what we have to fill in with our imagination
is that these beings off the wall, 3D,
- walking amongst the people. - Yeah.
Look at all the different types of beings here.
And then all the way across there,
y-you've still got even more variety.
I mean, this is almost like
a meeting place of all these different worlds
and different beings.
So, you know, you have giants,
you have little people.
And the giants and the little people
are talked about in th-the other world
that they came from before they came to this world.
And seeing creatures here having,
- for example, three fingers. - Mm-hmm.
You know, as far as I know,
uh, except for a couple of reptiles,
there aren't any three-fingered creatures.
- No. - You know? So, and especially nothing humanoid.
- Right. - So, again, our ancestors
had impeccable powers of observation.
- That's right. - That's all they did all day.
- They-they observed. - Mm-hmm.
And so your estimation, then, too,
is that this was not a bunch of kids,
you know, on a Saturday night not knowing what to do.
Absolutely not.
These, these were people that came here with a purpose.
And the purpose was to put
their history on the wall
showing where they came from,
where they were going.
Do the petroglyphs at Rock Art Ranch
present a historical record
of extraterrestrial visitation
in the distant past?
For Jon and many who share the traditional beliefs
of their ancestors,
the answer is a resounding yes.
I believe that these visitations have been documented
in pictographs and petroglyphs.
They're not art, actually, for art's sake.
The petroglyphs have been done this way
for basically thousands of years.
And that tells me
that there were a lot of different types of beings
that were interacting
with early Natives,
much more than we even, uh, think.
Some of the most incredible rock art I have ever seen
can be found on one of the most remote islands on Earth.
And in my opinion
what the people who carved it were depicting
was actually misunderstood alien technology.
Coming in at number eight
on our countdown of the Top Ten Alien Petroglyphs:
The Birdmen of Easter Island.
This remote landmass in the South Pacific
is famous for the colossal stone statues,
called moai, that dot its coast.
But on the southwestern tip of the island
are a serious of equally mysterious petroglyphs
that represent one of Easter Island's oldest creation myths...
the legend of Tangata manu,
or the birdmen.
According to the Rapa Nui,
the Indigenous people of Easter Island,
when the great creator god looked in the mirror,
he saw a bird over his shoulder
and thought the image was good.
And so he created a creature
that was a combination of bird and human.
But the creator god was still lonely.
So he created humans.
But the humans worshipped the birdman
because that was the great god's first creation.
One of the central focuses of the rituals,
the annual rituals at Easter Island,
was that of Tangata manu, the birdman.
And the birdman is a universal symbol
that we find in many parts of the globe
that relates to ancestry
associated with figures,
characters in feather coats who were seen
to be able to go between this world and the next.
The birdman motif is found in Egypt
with Horus the savior figure
and Thoth the god of divine magic and alchemy.
We find birdmen in among the Maya with Quetzalcoatl,
the feathered serpent, a birdman.
We also find birdmen in Cahokia, Illinois.
When we look at the birdman legend,
it always has a cosmic connection,
that these are humanoid figures
that also have a celestial dimension to them.
They can fly, they can ascend,
therefore they're referred to as birdmen.
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the most intriguing depiction of birdmen
can be found by examining the stories
of the Sumerian civilization
that emerged 5,000 years ago
and the beings they called the Anunnaki.
The term Anunnaki means "those who from the heavens came."
And our ancestors thought
they were being visited by these divine magical beings.
In the ancient Sumerian texts,
they were described as bringing knowledge and science.
They were often depicted as bird-type people.
So we have to ask ourselves, are these birdmen
actually representatives of the Anunnaki
who are extraterrestrials
who appeared all over the world in prehistory?
For ancient astronaut theorists like me,
many of the mysterious images created by our ancestors
provide compelling clues
that suggest extraterrestrials visited Earth
thousands of years ago.
However, at one site in Northern California,
the carvings aren't just records of the distant past
but depict UFOs that are still seen today.
Number seven on our countdown:
The Petroglyphs at Lava Beds National Monument.
60 miles northeast of Mount Shasta,
at Lava Beds National Monument,
are thousands of petroglyphs.
These large geometric carvings
were created as much as 6,000 years ago
by ancestors of the Modoc tribe.
Lava Beds has probably over 5,000
different petroglyphs.
And a lot of these were done down in caves.
A lot of the rock art you find in Lava Beds
is very different and unusual
from rock art you find in other places of America.
One of the most striking images you find in Lava Beds
is an image of Mount Shasta carved into a cliffside,
and inside of it is a depiction of some kind of being.
According to the Modoc,
this figure represents their creator, known as Skell.
The local people
believe that in ancient times,
the great Sky Chief Skell
came down from the sky
to live in Shasta
and has been there ever since and protects it.
Is it possible this petroglyph
represents an otherworldly being
that the Modoc people encountered centuries ago?
Ancient astronaut theorists say yes
and suggest further evidence can be found
by examining the bizarre stories
that have been associated with Mount Shasta for centuries.
I was driving back from, uh, Klamath Falls.
It was, eh, around 7:00 in the evening in the summertime.
All of a sudden I seen the whole mountain
toward Yreka side open up.
And then this big ship came
and hovered for a minute and then went right in.
And the next thing you know, the mountain closed,
and I was like, "What is going on?"
Almost everyone who lives there
has-has seen something unusual.
One of the most remarkable UFO sightings I've heard of,
it took place in 2008.
Witnesses in the town of McCloud
saw a UFO that looked like a giant glowing jellyfish
move over the town and then fly off into the distance.
For many hundreds of years, Mount Shasta
has been known for mysterious lights.
They seem to just manifest out of the mountain.
So, what is it that might be responsible
for causing this activity?
I believe that places like Mount Shasta
are in many ways Earth portals.
They are places of connection
between this world and somewhere else altogether.
Is it possible that the mysterious winged figure
at Lava Beds National Monument
is connected to the UFO sightings
that continue to be reported around Mount Shasta?
The petroglyph that shows
something coming out of the mountain,
that's basically what, what I seen right here
when it happened to me.
That's what I seen.
And I-I guess maybe I had to see it, too,
before I could believe.
In 2014, a mysterious cave painting
was found in India that I believe
contains some of the best evidence yet
that our ancestors encountered extraterrestrial beings.
Number six on our countdown:
Charama Rock.
Central India, July 2014.
While exploring caves in the region of Charama,
Indian archaeologist J.R. Bhagat
makes a stunning discovery.
He finds an incredibly well-preserved
10,000-year-old cave painting
that depicts several large humanoid figures.
Very recently, in the Charama region of India,
there was a cave that was discovered with
paintings that appear to show creatures
with kind of distorted-looking faces,
no noses, no mouths.
They seem to be holding weapons.
Archaeologists said that some of them
appeared to be wearing space suits.
The Times of India actually proposed the idea,
what if what we have depicted here
are some type of extraterrestrials
or at least some type of flying craft?
Because it's the basis
for much of the Hindu pantheon of gods.
Ancient Hindu texts feature stories
about intelligent beings existing on other planets,
like the Mahabharata,
which tells of the gods coming to Earth in flying machines.
In the Mahabharata,
there they write that one day,
gigantic cities surrounded the Earth.
They did not have a word for "spaceship" at that time.
They say "cities."
And they make clear difference
that these cities were in the firmament,
not in heaven.
And small vehicles came down
from these cities on the firmament.
The old Indians called these vehicles "vimanas."
And out of the vimanas, the teachers came out.
No doubt they were visited
by extraterrestrials.
Might the figures in the cave paintings
of Charama be depictions of extraterrestrials
witnessed by our ancestors
as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?
Perhaps the answer can be found
in the local legends of a mysterious race of beings
known as the Rohela.
The locals told them stories of space beings,
Rohelas they called them.
Tiny beings that landed in craft
and would abduct one or two humans at a time
never to return.
What's incredible about this is
that this is not ancient astronaut theorists
looking at this art and saying, "Hey, this looks like
"it could be some sort of a space being
or extraterrestrial."
This is what the locals are saying.
In the early 20th century, archaeologists discovered
some very mysterious cave art in the Sahara Desert,
and the experts who studied it
found it to be out of this world.
Number five on our list:
The Tassili Astronauts.
Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria.
Located on a vast plateau of the Saharan Desert
lies an incredible collection of prehistoric cave art.
The ancient paintings cover an area
of 28,000 square miles
and are believed to be 12,000 years old.
The scenes that you see at Tassili n'Ajjer
are totally bizarre.
They're showing a Sahara that was once fertile
with giraffes and antelope and other animals
we find only in Central Africa really.
And combined with them are these bizarre pictures
of what even the archaeologists have called
the Martians and the spacemen.
The petroglyphs that we find there are incredible.
They look like modern-day astronauts
with suits, with helmets, with visors.
And even the ethnologists who found those rock paintings
actually called it "the astronaut."
It's called the Tassili astronaut.
Might the figures
painted throughout Tassili n'Ajjer
be depictions of otherworldly beings,
as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?
Perhaps the answer can be found in the oral history
of a mysterious West African tribe
known as the Dogon.
There's a really incredible story
of the Dogon that describe
an ancestor spirit called Nommo
that descended from the sky
in a loud, noisy whirlwind
that made the earth shake when it landed.
And their knowledge of everything
was given to them by that being
that descended from the sky.
In the 1930s, when French anthropologists
were first discussing the Nommo with these Dogon priests,
the Dogon priests said that the Nommo
were coming from the star system of Sirius.
Well, the French anthropologists were amazed at that
and were confused as well.
According to the Dogon,
the Nommo didn't come from Sirius A...
a star that is clearly visible in the evening sky...
but from its tiny companion.
A dying star called Sirius B that can only be seen
with advanced, high-powered telescopes.
Here, we have this ancient tribe that says that,
well, no, Sirius is not a single star at all
but actually a double-starred system,
and how could they have known it,
given the fact that it requires telescopes
to see the double star?
Well, one theory is, maybe the aliens
gave them this knowledge.
It can't be ruled out.
That's one possibility
because they got it right on the dot.
The Dogon have always been focused upon
in the sense that they have this story,
this information about their ancestors
who somehow had this contact
with this nonhuman intelligence.
Now, the question is, how did they attain this?
It really might come from the Sahara Desert,
from specifically culture pockets like Tassili n'Ajjer
and that the Dogon are descendants from these people.
Is it possible that the beings
described by the Dogon are the same figures
depicted in the cave paintings of Tassili n'Ajjer?
I think the power of observation of our ancestors
was as powerful and as accurate as it is today.
And to attribute that motif
simply to only coincidence,
in my opinion, does not hold water.
So one has to wonder, are these extraterrestrials?
When it comes to mysterious petroglyphs,
one of the most extraordinary examples
we've investigated can be found in the Italian Alps.
In 2019, William Henry got to study
this remarkable piece firsthand.
Number four on our countdown
of the Top Ten Alien Petroglyphs:
The Spaceman of Val Camonica.
Val Camonica, Italy.
June 13, 2019.
Ancient astronaut theorist William Henry
has traveled to this UNESCO World Heritage Site
to investigate the area's mysterious petroglyphs.
Hi, I'm William. Nice to meet you. Pleasure.
Joining him is Luca Giarelli,
the head of the Val Camonica
Historical and Anthropological Society.
This place is massive.
I'm ready, let's go.
I'm here at Val Camonica because it is a treasure trove
of images from the ancient world
that have been well documented and studied by scholars.
They don't agree on the meaning of the images,
but some of them are very open-minded
to the ancient astronaut theory.
Luca leads William to an area
with a panel of ancient petroglyphs
that appear strikingly familiar to modern eyes.
Wow.
Oh, look at that.
- Spaceman, exactly. Look at the helmet. - Astronaut.
Right.
It's like he's glowing.
The Camunian rose.
Wow.
Archaeologists call this mysterious object
the Camunian rose because of its flowerlike shape.
While its exact meaning is lost to history,
some believe it to be a religious symbol
or a representation of the movement of the stars.
But ancient astronaut theorists suggest
it might also depict something else...
the vessel that brought these helmeted figures
to Val Camonica.
Luca, that-that looks like a spaceship.
It's like you look up in the sky,
and you would see this kind of twirling, spinning ship
in the sky.
It seems to me, just looking at it,
they are trying to talk about beings
coming from other worlds, maybe to this place.
Tell me about that five-pointed star.
Mm-hmm.
Sometimes the-the stars mean energy,
like energy from the stars would come to this place,
or star beings would come to this place.
Yeah...
Mm-hmm.
Okay, so this is like a newspaper then.
It says, this was in the sky
above us at some point, and this spaceman
came down and maybe met the Camunian people.
According to ancient stories,
the nearby city of Turin
was founded by a character from Greek mythology
called Phaethon,
who came to Earth from the stars.
Legend states that Turin was founded by the god Phaethon,
who is a son of the sun god Helios,
and in the myth of Phaethon we learn the story
of how he descended to Earth in a fiery chariot...
...perhaps crashing into Mount Musinè.
This also led to something fortuitous
because he brought gifts to this place,
he had great skills, was a metallurgist,
and taught this to the local people.
When we look at myths such as the myth of Phaethon,
here is really the story of a UFO
landing on a mountain
and interacting with the locals.
When we look behind this myth of Phaethon,
perhaps this is what we're also seeing at Val Camonica.
I think, given the connection with the spacemen
that are etched into the rock,
we have to be open to the possibility
that what the ancient artist is trying to portray
is something that he actually saw in the sky,
something coming out of the heavens.
For ancient astronaut theorists,
the Spaceman of Val Camonica
and the legends that surround it
are evidence that our ancestors
were visited by extraterrestrial beings.
But an even more compelling depiction
of these possible visitors
can be found on the opposite side of the world
in the rock art of Australia.
Number three on our countdown: The Wandjina.
Northwestern Australia.
Here, in a rugged desert region known as Kimberley,
are dozens of caves that are covered
in paintings of mysterious figures called the Wandjina.
If you look at these Wandjina figures in the cave art,
they have big, white faces.
They have really no mouth to speak of.
They have very large, black eyes,
and there's a field around their heads.
To the Aboriginal people
who have lived in Australia for thousands of years,
the Wandjina are important figures
in their creation myths.
The Aboriginals have all kinds of ancient stories
of Wandjina figures, of great heroes
and sky gods who manipulated the continent,
created the rivers and mountains,
and fought amongst each other and then they left.
We all have stories of people in crafts
coming from the stars, going to the stars, and so on.
In order to keep them, pass them down to next generation
we carved them, we painted them. We sung them.
We danced them in stories
to guarantee that they passed down.
So when the visitors left, we didn't forget about them.
And we never forget about
the things that they passed down to us
and the knowledge they passed down.
In many ways, these Wandjina figures
look exactly like Grey aliens.
And you have to wonder, then,
if the cave art is depicting extraterrestrials.
The Wandjina petroglyphs
are actual physical representations
of what the First Nation people of Australia
actually witnessed.
So this to me is an incredible treasure trove
for the ancient astronaut theory.
Of all the mysterious petroglyphs
we've examined on Ancient Aliens,
some of the most astounding can be found
in the American Southwest.
The region is chock-full of carvings
that show strange humanoid figures
who came down from the sky.
At number two on our countdown:
The Rock Art of Utah.
Nine Mile Canyon, Eastern Utah.
Often described as "the world's longest art gallery,"
the red sandstone cliffs that border this 46-mile-long canyon
are covered with more than 10,000 petroglyphs.
Many depict hunting scenes
and contain images of animals found in the region.
But one mysterious panel
seems oddly out of place.
One of the most important galleries
is referred to as the Family Panel.
What's interesting about this one
is that it shows these apparently luminous
humanoid-type beings
that appear to have space suits on,
a helmet, even antennae.
The Navajos themselves claim
that these petroglyphs were from
people who were before the flood,
before this cataclysm had come to the Earth.
And they maintain that these images
were many thousands of years old.
Just 70 miles south of Nine Mile Canyon,
in Sego Canyon, another panel of petroglyphs
shows nearly identical figures.
They look like spacemen.
You have these strange creatures
that for all intents and purposes
seem to be floating up in the sky.
They appear to wear helmets.
Very strange.
So you have to ask, what was it
that inspired these unusual images?
Is it possible that they depict sky beings
who came down from the stars
to help the people, which is what
the Native legends say?
According to the traditions of the Navajo,
Fremont and Ute peoples
who have lived in this area for centuries,
these figures represent visitors
who descended from the sky.
In talking about star people,
all Native American tribes
have these, uh, traditional oral histories
that people came from the stars to visit them.
And it's universal, all across the United States
that these gods, as we call them today,
came to Earth and visited to provide knowledge.
The creation story,
if you understand it correctly, we are all from the cosmos.
Our ancestors were extraterrestrial.
The story is told to Indigenous people
for thousands of years through oral histories
and through the petroglyphs
and pictographs and the sacred sites
that continue to be part of
our Native cultural traditions.
The Native Americans
traditionally use a oral tradition.
Everything is spoken.
The oral traditions actually go back thousands of years.
It's just the way it was.
And we've maintained that tradition even to this day.
If in fact what we're seeing
are portraying visitors from the stars,
it would make sense why they're wearing these space suits.
Because they would conceivably need protection
from Earth's atmosphere and Earth's environment.
Do the petroglyphs at Nine Mile Canyon
and Sego Canyon
point to Utah being a place
of ancient alien visitation?
Native American people have been very clear
when they speak of celestial beings that imparted knowledge.
And so, if you compare that to the ancient astronaut theory,
that's exactly what it talks about,
that the knowledge was imparted
by beings who visited us.
While Utah has thousands of petroglyphs
that feature mysterious beings,
one stands apart.
It depicts a group of figures
meeting with what appears to be
an extraterrestrial.
Number one on our list:
The Holy Ghost Panel.
Horseshoe Canyon, Utah.
Located within Canyonlands National Park,
the sandstone walls of this five-mile-long ravine
feature some of the most remarkable petroglyphs
in the United States.
The intricate designs depict Native American shamans
and the otherworldly creatures
they claimed to communicate with.
Well, here we have a classic shaman,
with the hourglass figure,
feet pointed outward,
arms which have bird's feet at the end,
which signifies spirituality.
And it's got the horns with the fringes coming out.
But one section is of particular interest
to ancient astronaut theorists.
It's called the Ghost Panel.
When you see the Ghost Panel, you see
what are seven or eight
very tall figures in unusual garments.
They look like space suits.
They're wearing some long robes,
and it looks like they have helmets and things on.
They're quite large and very strange looking.
And certainly they look like some kind of spacemen
or extraterrestrials who have come down.
For researchers,
the most perplexing part of the painting
is a curious detail on the large central figure.
The central ghost-like figure, which is called the Holy Ghost.
If you look at the head of the Holy Ghost,
you'll see his two eyes in the front of his face.
But if you look to the left,
you'll see the side of his head.
This is a device which you do not see
in any prehistoric art,
and this motif is one of the reasons why I-I feel
that this represents a-an event.
Archaeologists suggest
the Ghost Panel was created 10,000 years ago.
Just who made these images remains a mystery.
But ancient astronaut theorists believe
clues can be found within ancient traditions.
The Navajo, they tell us that this rock art
was actually created by their ancestors
who lived there long, long ago
and in fact were the survivors of a flood.
The Navajo referred to themselves
as descendants of the Holy People.
And that these Holy People in fact helped them
emerge after a cataclysm.
The story of mysterious, humanoid beings
assisting Native peoples has been recounted
for centuries in the American Southwest.
Many researchers believe
these encounters were so significant
that they were carved in stone.
For hundreds of years,
the Native Americans who lived in that area
called the Ghost Panel
the Panel of the Star People.
Clearly, they are strangers
of some kind to these people.
And if that's what it was,
then we might assume that they
are depicting extraterrestrials.
The moment you lay eyes on the Holy Ghost Panel,
you know you're looking at something extraordinary.
And it's much more than a mere coincidence
that all around the world
our ancestors made carvings and paintings
of mysterious beings that they believe
came from the sky.
Could it be that these illustrations
are all telling the same story?
That we were visited in the distant past
by extraterrestrials.