NARRATOR:
Teotihuacan, Mexico. Dating back to at least
the first century AD, this ancient complex was once the largest city
in Mesoamerica with a population of 125,000. One of the most sacred
temples at the site is the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent, an enormous step pyramid dedicated to the god
Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl,
the feathered serpent, goes all the way
back to Olmec times, to the BCE period. But the first place that we
really see Quetzalcoatl is in Teotihuacan, the city just north
of modern Mexico City. They build a actual pyramid,
a temple of Quetzalcoatl, right around 250 AD. So, it's probably Teotihuacan who really put forward the idea and the identity
of Quetzalcoatl as a deity for the rest of Mesoamerica. Quetzalcoatl was
a creator god. He was associated
with the planet Venus. He brought the rain.
He brought water. He brought civilization.
He brought the arts. This was the creator divinity
for the Aztec culture. It was a flying serpent.
It was a dragon. Quetzalcoatl brought peace,
harmony and high wisdom and very high level
of intelligence and teaching
to this particular land. He was often depicted
as a human being as well, that he arrived
on a raft of serpents and settled on these lands. ED BARNHART:
Quetzalcoatl also shows up in the post-classic Maya city
of Chichen Itza. But they give him a Mayan name. They call him Kukulkan,
which is basically "The holy feathered serpent"
in Maya. NARRATOR:
The ancient Mayan city
of Chichen Itza lies roughly 900 miles
east of Teotihuacan, and at its center stands
another massive step pyramid, this one dedicated to the Mayan version of
the flying serpent Kukulkan. In Chichen Itza, there we have
the pyramid of Kukulkan, and every year
on the 23rd of March, you see, when the sun
is going up, some lights and shadows, lights and shadows
like triangles climbing down the stairway, exactly the stairway
where his head is on. And on the 21st of September
you see the opposite. Kukulkan disappears, and it's only made by light
and shadow of the natural sun. So still today
the message is clear-- god Kukulkan has descended
to the humans. He teached them
for a certain period, and then
he disappeared again. So right there we have
living mythology in a structure
that shows this deity descending from the sky
in stone. You wonder if perhaps
a craft landed here and this light-shadow effect of a serpent making its way
descending down the staircase, and then emerging
through a serpent head is a recollection
of that original event. NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the Pyramid of Kukulkan was not built to honor
a mythical dragon god but to commemorate the arrival of an extraterrestrial
spacecraft? Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes, and suggest this isn't the only
dragon-themed structure that marks a location
of alien contact. The landscape of
this small Greek island is spotted with 25 mysterious
megalithic structures called dragon houses. TSOUKALOS:
The main dragon house
is at the very top of one of the tallest
mountains on the island called Mount Ochi. Mount Ochi comes
from the word "Ochevare" which means
to descend and to drive. And so this is interesting
because, according to legend, the reason
why the dragon house exists at the top
of Mount Ochi is because Zeus allegedly
descended from the heavens on top of that mountain. NARRATOR:
According to local legend, these stone structures
were built by a giant dragon to venerate the god Zeus. In ancient Greece, the word
"dragon" was not only used to describe a flying monster but also gods
and other figures that had human-like form but possessed
superhuman powers. Now, when you put
all this together, this sounds like
the dragon house is a meeting place
of Heaven and Earth. In UFO vernacular,
that would be a landing spot. TSOUKALOS:
In my opinion, the dragon was the craft
out of which, then, the creator people,
or the teachers, emerged. Our ancestors, basically, they saw a crew coming
out of an airplane. NARRATOR:
According to ancient
astronaut theorists, some of the structures
themselves serve as evidence that this was a place
of extraterrestrial contact. The dragon house
on top of Mt. Ochi contains megalithic blocks
weighing up to ten tons and sits at an elevation
of almost 5,000 feet. TSOUKALOS:
Archaeologists
have a hard time explaining why
it was even built there because we are talking of this gigantic
megalithic structure with a ceiling
that contains blocks that are up to ten feet long, two feet thick, at an altitude of 5,000 feet. How was that done? In my opinion, this was
an extraterrestrial visitation where Zeus may have
descended in his craft and built a day camp. Celestial beings coming down
to Earth, gods descending from the sky, can
these events only be found in the ancient
legends of the Zuni? Do similar accounts
exist in other cultures and other religions
across the world? And if so, what is
the explanation? GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: We
have to remind ourselves that our ancestors were
highly intelligent, however, their technological
frame of reference was different than our
technological frame of reference. So they didn't
have the vocabulary with which to describe or with
which to name certain things that they saw. So what did they do? They used words that they were
familiar with in their time. And so they try to describe
whatever they witnessed to the best of their abilities
with their vocabulary. NARRATOR: Ancient China also
shared some of the same beliefs that can be found in Egyptian,
Native American, and Dogon legends, that deities
arrived from the stars. According to Chinese mythology
dating back to 3,000 BC, when the god named
Huangdi was born, there was a radiance
from the great star, Chi. Huangdi would later
emerge from the belly of a fire-breathing dragon to
become China's first emperor. The origins of the
Han Chinese people start with a story of a great
god looking down with empathy. Here were people in poverty,
in a beautiful, rich country. The landscape, profound, but
the people were suffering. He took pity and
decided to come down. [music playing] GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: Huangdi
arrived on planet Earth in a flying dragon. He had the power of flight. Huangdi could be
anywhere within minutes, and he usually accomplished
this by hopping on his dragon and flying somewhere. Now, this divine
energy becomes human, and is a great leader,
the Yellow Emperor who rules and unites the
people, and there is a period of great prosperity
until his work is done. NARRATOR: Huangdi brought
order to the chaos, creating China's first empire. He is seen as a cultural
hero, and is credited with the invention of
the compass, acupuncture, and the standardization
of Chinese writing. One of his greatest legacies
is the Great Wall of China. JONATHAN YOUNG: When
the land is prosperous, he decides it's time to go. And the great yellow
dragon comes back, and he gets back into
the belly of the dragon and flies off forever. Now, were these dragons truly
dragons in a biological nature? Or were they misinterpreted
types of machines? Because as we all know,
dragons are always correlated with spewing
fire and a lot of smoke. Whenever we see a
modern rocket take off, there's all this smoke and
sometimes the smoke is yellow and sometimes it's red. So it's very bizarre how
we have these correlations between the ancient times
and modern times today. Mythology is the
effort to grasp what we can't grasp, to
understand what is beyond us. In the Eastern teachings,
the dragons very often carry people, sometimes
on their back, sometimes inside their bellies. So if we think of them
as a poet's effort to explain a vehicle
that was strange to them, well those sound
like flying saucers. So it might just be a
problem of translation, because after all,
it's just a word. It's trying to describe
something that's very difficult to grasp. Just outside the city
of Siem Reap lies Angkor Wat, the world's
largest religious structure, with each side measuring
nearly a mile long. Mainstream archaeologists
believe the temple complex was likely constructed
around the 12th century AD, but according
to Cambodian legend, it is far older-- built in 600 BC by a half-human
half-divine architect who traveled between Earth
and the realm of the gods. TSOUKALOS:
Angkor Wat was built by none other
than Preah Pisnokar. His mother is not
of this world. She wants to bring him
to where she comes from. And so she takes her son to what's called
Indra's Heaven. According to mythologies, the center part of Angkor Wat is a one-to-one replica of whatever was seen
out there. NARRATOR:
According to some experts, the layout of Angkor Wat reveals another intriguing
connection to the cosmos. In 1996, author and researcher
John Grigsby discovered
that the temple complex appears to align with certain
stars in the night sky. John Grigsby made
a brilliant discovery. He noticed that the entire
Angkor Wat complex is a mirror image
of the Draco constellation. In Latin, the word
Draco means dragon. TSOUKALOS:
If you were to take a constellation map of Draco and superimpose it
onto a map of Angkor Wat, there are multiple structures
at Angkor Wat that line up exactly to the main stars
of the constellation of Draco. So you have to wonder
what the connection is. And the answer to that,
in my opinion, is that if you would like
to show a local population where you are from... you have them build something in the constellation
of where you are from. To me, those are calling cards where our teachers
long ago came from. NARRATOR:
Is it possible that the story of Angkor Wat's
celestial origins is true and that it was
purposely designed to line up
with the stars of Draco because this was the ancestral
home of Preah Pisnokar? Ancient astronaut
theorists point to the temple's many depictions
of dragon-like creatures as further evidence that it has
a profound connection to the Draco constellation. DOMINIC STEAVU:
In south Asian traditions, nagas occupy
an important place. They are considered to be
very powerful creatures. They are shape shifters. And nagas share a number
of interesting similarities with Chinese dragons
more specifically, so both of them are givers
of knowledge and of wisdom. HENRY: In the same way
that Kukulkan seems to represent some sort
of a craft to the Mayans, we find the same thing
with the naga at Angkor Wat. They could represent
a craft that is utilized to transport people
from Earth to Draco. NARRATOR:
Is it possible that dragon traditions
throughout the globe originated with visitors
coming to Earth from a planet somewhere
within the Draco constellation? Curiously, Angkor Wat is not the only ancient site
that aligns with Draco. On the other side
of the world, in Ohio, a Native American serpent
effigy known as Serpent Mound was positioned
to point to Draco. And in ancient Egypt, all pyramids were positioned to have an entrance passage
geometrically aligned so that Draco's primary
star, Alpha Draconis... would be visible at night. It's interesting to think
that the constellation Draco may have something to do
with these dragon myths, with all of these
separate cultures around the world that are
seemingly unconnected. Whatever these
flying dragons are, perhaps they came
from a planet that was from
the star system Draco. HENRY:
Virtually every culture
has a legend about dragons or dragon beings
that came from the sky. And what we're uncovering now
is the revelation that these beings
came from the sky because they're
of extraterrestrial origins. Is it possible that today we're subconsciously tapping
into hidden knowledge, something that has
always been there and is part of, like,
the thought sphere of humanity? Xinzheng, China. It was here that Huangdi, a
mythical ancient leader, known as the Yellow Emperor, is
believed to have reigned throughout the 27th century BC. Viewed by many as the
father of Chinese culture, the Yellow Emperor
has been credited with creating traditional
Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture, and
introducing advancements, like wooden houses, the bow
and arrow, bronze coins, and a written language. JUDY CHUNGWA: The Yellow Emperor
is, according to most Chinese, a legendary figure. He is a cultural hero,
as well as a ruler. But at the same time,
he is also believed to be actually the founder
of Chinese civilization. In fact, just about everything
that you would think as the basic elements
of civilization is somehow associated
with the Yellow Emperor. NARRATOR: According
to some researchers, the Yellow Emperor, like
other ancient rulers, possessed other worldly power,
and they believe the proof can be found by looking at
the celestial origins of this mysterious leader. Like the Egyptians,
the ancient Chinese believed their emperors received
their powers and abilities from the heavens. The Chinese emperor is
actually called son of heaven. What that means is that
the emperor earns his right to rule people because he
received certain guidance from heaven to rule. Heaven is always sending
down these messages, telling the emperor when is
the best time to harvest, when is the best
time to sow seeds, when to actually wage a war. So it's very important for the
emperor then to read the signs. GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: According
to ancient Chinese legends, the Yellow Emperor was
floating through space. He saw that the people of
Earth were sad and poor. But he saw potential. So in order to help the people,
he descended from the sky and taught those people
different scientific disciplines. JONATHAN YOUNG: When the
Yellow Emperor comes down to bring comfort, order, and
leadership to his people. So there is a direct connection
between the divine realms and the beginnings of our
personality, our identity, our nation. NARRATOR: According to legend,
after ruling for 100 years, the Yellow Emperor
made preparations to leave his earthly kingdom. GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: After
Huangdi's work was done on planet Earth, he
returned to the stars, and he did this by doing
something very specific. He installed a cauldron,
and the moment he installed that thing, according
to the ancient legends, the heavens opened. JONATHAN YOUNG: A yellow dragon
comes down from the heavens, and he rides the dragon
out into the stars and becomes stars himself. NARRATOR: Mysterious
cauldrons, flying dragons, could these fantastic
notions really have played a part in the fate
of China's Yellow Emperor? Or is there another perhaps
more plausible explanation? Are we really just
talking about folklore here, or did something actually
happened in real life? And of course, the answer is
that something was witnessed by our ancestors
that they could best describe with the vocabulary
that was available to them at the time. JASON MARTELL: When we look at
the story of the Yellow Emperor ascending into
heaven, this to me sounds like a description of
some type of UFO encounter. It's very possible that the
Yellow Emperor was actually traveling on a UFO.
