NARRATOR: Megalithic structures
in the middle of the ocean. Legends state that stones were
actually flown from one part of the island to another. NARRATOR: Terrifying creatures. There are stories about
giants killing people and taking over things. NARRATOR: And mysterious
events on the open sea. How can an island
just disappear? NARRATOR: Are the stories
of lost civilizations and unreachable paradises simply
the product of imaginative seafarers? Or could there be
remote locations all over the world
that are secret bases for extraterrestrials? There have been sightings
on the Isle of Man going back centuries of what are described
as fiery wheels in the sky. They're in the
middle of the ocean. There's just nothing that's
supposed to be there, and yet there is activity
being reported there. 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, might we find
proof by exploring the world's forbidden islands? [theme music] March 1963, 75 miles off
the coast of Puerto Rico, while training in
anti-submarine maneuvers, the United States Navy's fleet
led by the USS Wasp aircraft carrier detects an
unknown sonar target moving in the nearby waters. For four days, the fleet
tracked the unknown object, recording its speed at more
than 150 knots, or 170 miles per hour. There is nothing in any naval
inventory anywhere in the world that can approach anything
remotely that speed, not then, not now. Moreover, the object descended
to a depth of something like 27,000 feet. Again, another impossibility. The pressures down there
are vastly too much. It would crush any vessel
that went down that deep. At that time, the technology
that we had, the best that we could do underwater was about
45 knots and a maximum depth of about 3,000 feet. For the last 100,
200 years, there have been many, many
accounts of objects that have been seen underwater. But exactly what they
are, we still do not know. There's been a tremendous
surge of UFO sightings in Puerto Rico since
the early 1990s. And for many of the
Puerto Rican witnesses, they're absolutely
convinced that there's some sort of massive
futuristic installation deep below Puerto Rico
under the ocean bed. NARRATOR: Is it possible
that aliens have bases here on Earth hidden deep underwater
and off the coasts of islands? Could this explain why so
many islands around the world have stories of unexplained
sightings of objects both overhead and
beneath the sea? Isolated islands would be
a perfect location for, say, extraterrestrial beings to
make their base of operations. Radar could spot any kind of
craft in orbit very quickly. However, if you had your base
underwater near an island, a lot more difficult
to be discovered. Islands are
essentially mountains that are mostly underwater. What they are in essence
is energetic upwellings of the energy of the Earth
pushing higher, and higher, and higher. Logically, these
types of locations would be very attractive to
visitors from another world, especially visitors that would
be looking for an ideal place to set up a base, or a landing
spot, or simply a place where they could draw some
of the Earth's energy. NARRATOR: The Aleutian Islands
just off the Alaskan coast, this chain of more
than 100 small islands extends west for 1,100 miles,
separating the Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Here, in the summer of
1945, 14 crew members of the United States
Army transport Delarof reported seeing what they
believed to be a large UFO emerge from the waters
near the island of Adak. It's reported
that a round object that appeared dark against
the setting sun at the time actually rose up
vertically into the air, and then circled the boat
two or possibly three times, and was visible for about
seven or eight minutes before it vanished. Something that comes
out of the water, circles around it, and then
takes off like that, that's well beyond anything
we're supposed to have. And they're in the
middle of the ocean. That's the important
thing to remember here. There's just nothing, nothing
that's supposed to be there. And yet there's activity
being reported there. NARRATOR: UFO sightings
around the Aleutian Islands continue to this day. But why? Is it perhaps more
than mere coincidence that the native people
known as the Aleuts believe this is the exact spot
where their ancestors first descended from the skies? The Aleuts believe they
descended from a creature that had come from the sky. Dog actually had fallen
to the island of Umnak and had had two pups with paws. But the children that came from
those two were perfect humans. So by way of this
descent from the heavens and by way of animal form,
we get the Aleutian people. I find it intriguing that
the Aleuts' origin story has something to do with them
having arrived from the sky, essentially saying that
they have been seeded. To the fact that to this
day that area of the world is considered a hot spot
for UFOs is not coincidence. There have been
rumors that there is an underground alien or UFO
base in the Aleutian Islands. The question is, could a
base really exist there? And the answer is, yeah. There's plenty of places,
knolls, atolls, volcanoes, where, if hollowed out,
they would pretty much make ideal bases for UFOs to use
to come and go as they please and to investigate that area. NARRATOR: Could there
really be a connection between the high
number of UFO sightings and the Aleuts' origin story? Ancient astronaut
theorists say, yes. And as evidence, they
point to the fact that similar legends exist on
other remote islands, islands that have also had
reports of UFOs. 5,000 miles to the east
of the Aleutian Islands, nestled in the Irish sea
lies the Isle of Man. According to legend,
the Isle of Man was founded by a mystical race
of Celts, the Tuatha de Danann, who possessed magical powers. Banished from heaven for their
sorcery and advanced knowledge, they descended on Ireland
in a cloud of mist. It's said that at the end of
their time, they just vanished, left behind their
ghosts, quite literally. And these are remembered in
the folklore of the Isle of Man as the little people. NARRATOR: The
so-called little people are believed by the locals
to be able to put humans under a magical spell, a spell
in which all awareness of space and time is lost. Kidnapping human beings is
one of the chief activities of the little people. And the whole point
of these stories is that the humans tend to
come back from the other realm, often finding that hundreds
of years have passed. And this sounds really,
really similar to what people experience sometimes during
alien abduction events, where a ship will show up, the
very small aliens will come out. They'll find
themselves paralyzed. They'll have missing
time experiences. There's reason to believe that
the little people may have, in fact, been extraterrestrials,
the same greys as we describe them, that perform the same
types of magical enchantment on people that
they abduct today. NARRATOR: Could the legends
of the little people and the ancestral
Tuatha de Danann actually be describing
otherworldly beings that came to Earth in the distant past? And if so, might these legends
be connected to modern day UFO sightings over the Isle of Man? Locals claim that these UFO
sightings have been reported for centuries. And for ancient
astronaut theorists, the most compelling
sighting of all is a 2,500 year-old report of
a fiery wheel with three spokes descending from the heavens. According to legend
on the Isle of Man, some fishermen were washed
ashore during a terrible storm. Suddenly, this three-spoked
craft came out of the clouds, terrifying them. There have been sightings
on the Isle of Man going back centuries of what are
described as wheels, or fiery wheels in the sky. Now, these
descriptions are almost identical to the description
of the wheel of Ezekiel in the Bible. NARRATOR: According
to Ezekiel Chapter 1, the prophet saw a
flying object described as four wheels within
a wheel, an account that ancient astronaut
theorists say is not of an angel but of an extraterrestrial
spacecraft. Biblical scholars
have very much struggled with the description
of Ezekiel's wheel, seeing wheels within
wheels, the idea that a cherub was standing
next to each wheel. It's very clear that he's
describing some type of device. Ezekiel describes wheels
within a wheel and eyes of different animals. And they are all gleaming
like bronze and metal. So what is really
described here? It reads much more like an
encounter with some type of an extraterrestrial craft
that was misinterpreted as some type of a divine event. So you have to think,
really, that Isle of Man was some kind of
island that was chosen by the extraterrestrials. This was one of their bases. They would land
their UFOs there. And in fact, legends about
UFOs and extraterrestrials continue on the island,
even to this day. NARRATOR: Could these
islands actually contain alien base camps, as
ancient astronaut theorists contend? And might these
powerful locations reveal important
knowledge for mankind? Perhaps clues can be found
in another mysterious Pacific Island chain 9,200
miles to the southeast, an area rumored to be
inhabited by giants. The Solomon Islands. 800 miles East of
Papua New Guinea, this group of nearly 1,000 isles
covers 11,000 square miles. Though first discovered in
1568 by Spanish explorers, many people identify this
area with World War II, due to the fierce fighting that
occurred between the Japanese and Americans on the largest
island here, Guadalcanal. In a campaign that
lasted over six months, a total of 41 warships were
sunk, and over 30,000 men died either in battle
or from disease. The Americans
and Japanese, they left behind a lot of
the remnants of the war. Ships that were
sank, for instance. And then on land, you
have leftovers of tanks, and a lot of
ammunitions as well. There was a place close to where
I went to school called Hell's Point, and it's full
of live ammunitions. NARRATOR: But
Guadalcanal is also infamous for something else,
the countless local legends of giants. There are mysterious
legends all over the Solomons, actually. A lot of the stories
on Guadalcanal tend to talk about giants, the
relationship between people and giants. Giants are often portrayed
in different ways. Sometimes they are
benevolent giants. They help people. They look after the people. But there are stories
about giants killing people and taking over things. So giant is a major character
in a lot of the Guadalcanal stories. There are
religions and stories that go way back that suggest
the giants actually still live on the Solomon Islands. Some say they're kind of hairy,
beast, sasquatch-like beings. Others say they're
more humanoid. And some say they
even relate and mate with the human population. According to local
legends, those giants were able to travel the
entire length of the island without seeing the light
of day by utilizing subterranean tunnels. People talk about it, that
giants actually do exist. They existed in the past. Today, with all
kinds of developments that are taking place,
they shift further into the mountains. They really do exist. It's not just a mythology
to scare children. NARRATOR: According to
one report, in 1998, workers during a gold mining
operation witnessed what they believe is proof of the
existence of the giants of Guadalcanal when one of
their bulldozers broke down. The workers say they removed the
10-ton blade from the machine to make overnight repairs. And when they returned to the
dig site the next morning, they were shocked
by what they found. The blade itself had been
moved quite a distance. And they found footprints
of giants in the mud. So they could only assume
that these famous giants of the Solomon
Islands had been there and moved the bulldozer blade. NARRATOR: Could Guadalcanal
really be home to giants? If so, what are they, and
where did they come from? In the book "Solomon
Islands Mysteries" author Marius Boirayon, a retired
helicopter engineer who lived on the Solomon
Islands for many years interviewing locals, unveils
a groundbreaking theory. The Australian author
Boirayon believed that incidents of
the giants that he'd been told about by the natives
were related to UFO activity. And from what he
could put together, there was some kind of UFO
base deep in the mountains of Central Guadalcanal, and
it involved these giants. And at the same time, there
was some kind of underwater UFO base there as well. NARRATOR: Eyewitness
accounts of UFOs have been documented on the
Solomon Islands for years. And mysteriously, details reveal
that the UFOs seem to rise out of the surrounding ocean where
warships sank in World War II and vanish into a remote
mountain lake on the island. People often talk about seeing
light not only in the sky, but in the ocean as well, that
you see lights in the ocean. And then you see lights
flying past overhead as well, and sometimes crashing into the
ocean, like a plane crashing. There have been sightings
of flying saucers appearing over the wreckage flying
into and out of mountains and volcanoes in the area. So the whole area is
really pretty interesting. There have been reports
that objects, strange lights, actually rise up out of
the waters into the air and move about for a period
of time, and then disappear. And often this is either
witnessed from the beach or is experienced at
close hand by fishermen. And it is said that
sometimes these objects come so close that the fishermen can
actually feel the heat as they pass. There's a lot of local
people who had said, yes, for many years we've seen these
types of things happening. There are numerous accounts
of abductions, people who disappear after coming into
contact with these UFOs never to be seen again. NARRATOR: Could there be a
connection between the legends of the giants of Guadalcanal and
the numerous UFO sightings that have been reported
here over the years? And might this be evidence that
Guadalcanal really is the site of an underwater alien base? Some ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answers can be found by examining stories
of other strange creatures said to inhabit the island,
creatures like the adaro. The adaro are
frightening-looking creatures, half-fish, half-man. They were said to have come
from the sun by way of rainbows. They could be dangerous. They could shoot a poisonous
flying fish at you. So the notion of
some creature that was of danger and mythological
qualities coming from far away seems alive and well
in the Solomon Islands. Chua-chua is a story that a
lot of people on Guadalcanal know about, that these
are actually human beings, but at a certain time,
they take different forms. These are energies that can
shape shift into any form. These are not just
stories for entertainment or for scaring the children. These fears are great. You have to wonder if these
famous giants of the Solomon Islands and these weird beings
were in fact extraterrestrials that were there to protect
these secret bases. NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the stories of giants, sea monsters, and other strange
beings on Guadalcanal are really accounts of
extraterrestrials who appear as frightening creatures in
order to scare off anyone who might discover their
secret alien bases? The Solomon Islands
is right on what we call the Ring of Fire. A lot of volcanic
activity, a lot of tectonic and geo-activity. So there's a lot
of energy there. One theory would simply be that
if these other beings, whatever they are, wanted access to
a good source of energy, that might be a very
good place to go. NARRATOR: Could the stories from
the Aleutian Islands, the Isle of Man, and the Solomon
Islands be evidence that there are alien bases
located beneath our seas? Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes, and point to an island on the other side of the
world that has archaeologists mystified even to this day. The island of Pohnpei. More than 2,500 miles
southwest of Hawaii, completely isolated
in the Pacific Ocean, this Micronesian landmass is
home to just 34,000 people, mainly farmers and fishermen. But there is one area
of the island that is completely uninhabited,
the lost city of Nan Madol. The Native Islanders believe
this ancient site is cursed. And it is also home
to some of the most mysterious archaeological
ruins in the world. Built on a coral reef just off
the eastern coast of Pohnpei and sprawling more
than 200 acres, Nan Madol consists of 92
smaller made islands connected by canals. According to historians, this
ancient city, often called the Venice of the Pacific, was
the capital of the Saudeleur Dynasty that ruled from
about 500 to 1628 AD. This ancient city
housed the Saudeleurs, the kings of that time. So it has their houses. It has feasting areas. It has tombs. So there's a whole number of
areas that each of these islets supported. NARRATOR: Most archaeologists
agree that construction of these artificial
islands began sometime in the 13th century. Each has been formed with
columnar basalt, a black rock that forms when basaltic
lava from a volcano cools in the form of columns. There are a number of columnar
basalt outflows across Pohnpei itself, and we know of several
of these outcrops that were used to mine the
basalt. They were then transported to the
area of Nan Madol and then placed to create
these small islets. NARRATOR: But how did the native
people living here 800 years ago manage to build 92 islets
out of giant basalt columns? Researchers estimate that each
stone log used to construct the megalithic structures
weighs between five to 50 tons, stacked to form walls as high as
25 feet tall and 17 feet thick. Archaeologists believe that
it was an undertaking that most likely would have
required all 25,000 island inhabitants to complete. Around the ruins of Nan
Madol are many canals, which researches and
archaeologists say were the routes taken by boats
to move these basalt columns across and around the
island to construct the huge megalithic site. NARRATOR: Mainstream
scholars insist native people built Nan
Madol using ropes, rollers, and rafts. But attempts to prove
this theory have failed. So if you add up
all of the stone logs, you have a weight of
750,000 or so metric tons. That's a lot. If you were to move
maybe 2,000 tons a year, you might be able to get it
built over about 3 centuries. We're talking about a major,
massive effort here, the kind of effort that you would
see in the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. NARRATOR: But could there be
another explanation for how these ancient people were able
to move such massive rocks miles across the island
and into place in the ocean without the help of
modern machinery? According to local legends,
the ancient builders used a much more profound
method of construction, an advanced
anti-gravitational technology that ancient astronaut
theorists believe may explain many of the world's
mysterious megalithic sites. Some legends state that the
stones were actually flown from one part of the
island to another, were levitated some way to
get them up to such high areas of the main construction. This is very reminiscent
of what researchers call auditive levitation, which
was a technique of raising heavy stones by matching the
sound frequency of matter, rendering it weightless
and moving it into place. The people themselves
who still to this day lived there in Pohnpei say that
this place was not built by us. It's been here
before we arrived. And they themselves
say that basalt blocks were moved as if by ghost hand. That is why the natives call Nan
Madol also the City of Ghosts. NARRATOR: Although no written
records on the island's history exist, its spoken
myths and legends have survived
through generations. According to the
natives, Nan Madol has been plagued by a
curse for centuries, and anyone who explores
the ruins will perish. The local Islanders believe
that the city of Nan Madol is cursed, and they say
they see lights moving throughout the city at night. And they believe that if
they spend the night there, they'll die. NARRATOR: When the Europeans
came to colonize Micronesia in the early 20th century,
they were advised of Nan Madol and its alleged spell. In April of 1907, the
German governor Victor Berg disregarded these
warnings, and not only explored the island
ruins but even opened a tomb of the ancient rulers. Locals say Governor Berg was
haunted by strange sounds that night, and the next
morning mysteriously died. A local legend said that
if you messed with this site in any way, it was cursed,
and in fact, there would a terrible price to pay for it. And it appears that Victor
Berg lost his life because of this curse. NARRATOR: Official records
indicate the governor died April 30, 1987, due to
sunstroke and heat exhaustion while surveying the ruins. But the natives maintain that
his untimely death was a result of the curse, and proof that
otherworldly powers guard the mystical island city. Might the local legends of
supernatural forces at work on the islands actually be true? And if so, just who
or what is haunting these mysterious islands? Ancient astronaut theorists
claim the strongest evidence that an advanced race
of extraterrestrials helped to build Nan Madol is not
the megalithic rock structures but what may lie beneath them. Nan Madol is a huge city,
and most of it is above water, but parts of it are underwater. And the islanders say that
there is a second city there, called Kahnihmweiso. And this is the
city of the gods. And it's in even deeper water. You have to wonder
if there isn't some kind of underwater
UFO base even today. NARRATOR: If the local
legends are true, could Nan Madol
really be the remnants of an ancient alien
base, one that exists not only above ground but
also extends down into the sea? And might this explain
why the natives of Pohnpei have left this part of the
island uninhabited for nearly 400 years? There are those who believe
the answers can be found by examining islands that
have suddenly and mysteriously vanished. The Pacific Ocean, October 2012. Scientists aboard a research
between Australia and New Caledonia set a course for
19 degrees south latitude and 160 degrees east longitude,
the location of Sandy Island. But when they arrive, they
make a shocking discovery. The island is not there. Digital scientific databases
have shown Sandy Island to be 15 miles long
and three miles wide, approximately the
size of Manhattan. Small islands sometimes
disappear due to rising ocean levels, but the researchers
find no evidence of a sunken landmass, just
ocean waters 4,600 feet deep. Sandy island is a
island of great mystery. It literally disappeared. According to early
eyewitness accounts, including those by
Captain Cook in the 1700s, this island clearly existed. And it makes you wonder, how
can an island just disappear? Was it there to begin with? Absolutely it was. There's eyewitness
accounts of it. NARRATOR: Captain James Cook
was the first to establish Sandy Island on a map back in 1774. And in fact, the island
still appeared even on modern satellite
maps up until 2013, when it was finally removed
based on the findings of the University of Sydney. But how could an island that has
appeared on maps for over 230 years suddenly disappear? There are a number of accounts
within folklore and legend of mythical islands. For instance, the
Antilles and others which appeared on
ancient maps, and yet which don't exist today. So did they once exist? Do they exist only
at certain times? We could be dealing
with a phenomena whereby these islands disappear
at certain times and then reappear. Although is that
something that's natural? Is it something to
do with geology? Or is it something to do with
something more supernatural? This is obviously a mystery
which remains to be solved. NARRATOR: When the
University of Sydney findings were first revealed,
many scientists insisted that the researchers
must have been looking in the wrong place,
pointing to the fact that satellites had recorded
temperatures in this location consistent with the
presence of land. Scientists would later
claim that this anomaly was due to errors in the data sets. But how could the temperature
data, the satellite images, and numerous other maps dating
back to the 18th century all be in error? It's possible that these
islands actually do exist, but they're somehow
being cloaked by whoever might be using the islands. For instance, extraterrestrial
visitors could very easily create a light-bending type
of device, which could make it appear that an island
that was once there is no longer there. There are other
stories of islands that appear and disappear,
and that sometimes there's a mist around them. There are stories like this
around the Samoan Islands. So you have to wonder if
extraterrestrials have some kind of super
technology that allows them to cloak islands and make
them appear and disappear. It boggles the mind that such
a technology would exist, and yet it appears to be so. NARRATOR: Could
extraterrestrials really be using advanced
cloaking technology to hide Sandy Island? Some ancient astronaut
theorists believe there may be an even more
incredible explanation behind the disappearance
of Sandy Island. Things like Sandy Island,
that somehow was located and then when they went
to go look for it is gone, it's very possible that
these aren't islands but are some technological
device coming up to the surface, or landing for
a little while and going away. In ancient Greek mythology,
we have the stories of the asteriae, of
the falling stars that would fall into the water. But they wouldn't sink. They could, in fact,
travel from place to place. Floating islands, so to speak. So what if, in this particular
case, we have a similar story? Is that really
what is happening? NARRATOR: Is it possible that
these phantom islands that appear and disappear are really
elaborate alien outposts? And could the extraterrestrials
that use them still be here on Earth,
waiting to be discovered? Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes, and suggest that further
evidence can be found by examining another island
that mysteriously disappeared, an island that was said to be
home to otherworldly beings. The North Atlantic Ocean. 200 miles west of Ireland
lie open waters expanding as far as the eye can see. But according to 14th century
Mediterranean mapmakers, this exact spot marks the
location of an island known as Hy-Brasil. For more than 600 years,
sailors across the world have searched for this so-called
phantom island, believed to contain an
Eden-like paradise. Lore has it that the island
couldn't be seen except once every seven years, when it
could be seen but not reached. Hy-Brasil allegedly appeared
and disappeared behind the mists. It could never
definitively be found, although its putative
location is marked on some of these early maps. NARRATOR: Hy-Brasil
was first mapped by the Italian-Mallorcan
cartographer Angelino de Dalorto in 1325, who
described the island as being a strikingly round form. Over a century later, in 1497,
Italian explorer John Cabot also reported
reaching Hy-Brasil. And in 1674, Captain
John Nisbet of Ireland reportedly brought back silver
and gold from the island that he claimed to have received
from an old, mysterious man. Strangely, he and
his men also said that Hy-Brasil was inhabited
by what they called giant black rabbits. Other explorers of the time
returned from the island with similarly bizarre
stories and accounts of beautiful, glowing people. Hy-Brasil is imagined in
Irish lore to be the place that the Irish gods came from. On the island of Hy-Brasil,
the gods had a luxurious life. They were able to develop
an advanced civilization. NARRATOR: In 1684, one of the
first Irish historians, Roderic O'Flaherty, wrote
about Hy-Brasil in his book "A Chorographical
Description of West or H Iar Connaught". In it, he refers to the
island as enchanted, and writes that
it is a land kept hidden by the special
ordinance of God. Like a lot of other
mythologies such as Atlantis, Hy-Brasil was thought to be
the source of civilization, especially in Ireland and
England and other areas such as that. It's thought that Hy-Brasil
still exists under the sea, and that periodically, when
the conditions are right, it will surface. NARRATOR: According to
legend, the mysterious land was last seen in 1872 by author
TJ Westdrop and his crew, who saw the island appear
and then vanish. If Hy-Brasil is
an actual land, very possibly it could be that
at one time on planet Earth there was a superior technology,
a civilization that had progress that far surpassed
even our own today. And these people
originated from the stars. They are the people that the
human race descended from, and locations such as
Hy-Brasil is this homeland of these creatures. NARRATOR: Is it possible
that the mythical island of Hy-Brasil not only
exists but is actually a high-tech alien base? And if so, might there be others
located all over the world? You find so many accounts
of beings coming and going from the stars at
these locations. You find mysterious
disappearances. You find other supernatural
events taking place at these islands. And it makes you wonder if
they're in fact being used by advanced
extraterrestrial races as portals, as gateways,
even as stopover places, maybe even refueling
stations in a way, as places that are known
throughout the cosmos. NARRATOR: Might aliens
have been visiting these remote, relatively
uninhabited locations for thousands of
years, using them as secret hideouts,
landing spots, or energetic refueling stations? Could there be
extraterrestrial bases on hidden islands even now? And when the truth behind these
forbidden islands is revealed, will we finally
come face to face with our celestial ancestors?
