"NARRATOR:" "A mighty empire ruled by the descendants of gods." "A remote island where stone giants walked the Earth." "And a fertile garden where modern man was born." "Are the legends behind these ancient locations really based on fact?" "If so, why did they exist?" "And why have the answers been lost for centuries?" "GEORGE NOORY:" "How in the heck did they make these?" "How did they move them?" "Nobody has the answer." "DAVID CHILDRESS:" "It may well be that the Garden of Eden today is underwater." "GIORGIO TSOUKALOS:" "These cultures were connected by flying machines operated by extraterrestrials." "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 might we find proof by searching for our planet's mysterious lost worlds?" "NARRATOR:" "Central America." "In a fertile valley between the" "Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean" "Sea, in what is now Honduras, lie the monumental ruins of Copán." "This archaeological site is believed to have been the cultural and political center of the once mighty Maya civilization that thrived between 2000 BC and 800 AD." "PAYSON SHEETS:" "People have called Copán the Paris of" "Mesoamerica because it was such a place for the arts and humanities." "The sculpture is beautiful." "The architecture is just magnificent." "NARRATOR:" "It is believed that, at one time, Copán was inhabited by as many as 20,000 people and covered an area of ten square miles." "But in the ninth century, this incredible Mayan city was abandoned, and its people vanished." "When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century, they found only a few farming hamlets." "But why?" "DAVID CHEETHAM:" "They decimated their environment." "Warfare became endemic." "And it ended." "And people left." "They walked away." "PHILIP COPPENS:" "To some extent, the idea that the Mayans became a lost culture is a yes and a no." "We know that they stopped building, but at the very heart of the Mayan is a belief... it's a religion... which continues to beat until this very day, saying, "Please pay attention to us because we have" "this vast body of knowledge we want to share with the world."" "NARRATOR:" "At Copán, the Maya had built a complex of monuments, temples and plazas, as well as sculptured stone pillars depicting ancient kings." "The Maya were also one of the earliest ancient civilizations to create a written language." "ADRIAN GILBERT:" "In the last 20, 30 years, there's been a huge advance in the decoding of their hieroglyphs." "This is something that's happened in our generation, and it's still ongoing." "NARRATOR:" "Might a closer look at the Mayan stone carvings and their hieroglyphs provide proof of contact with extraterrestrials at Copán?" "According to ancient astronaut theorists, the answer is yes." "TSOUKALOS:" "Some of the large statues at Copán are infinitely fascinating to me because the gear that they're wearing is very reminiscent of something technological." "One of the figures has a box with tubes coming out and buttons and just very weird things." "These statues look like some type of a being wearing an astronaut suit." "And, in my opinion, that means that we were visited by some type of extraterrestrials who were very similar in appearance to us, because according to the ancient texts, we were created in their image." "NARRATOR:" "Researchers working in Copán have also found stone sculptures called stelae, which have provoked controversy since the site was discovered in 1576." "And various interpretations of the carvings suggest the" "Maya may have had knowledge of a world far beyond their own continent." "CHILDRESS:" "This is one of the curious dragon sculptures here at Copán, of which there are many." "In fact, these very Oriental statues would look right at place in China or some other" "Oriental country." "Some archaeologists believe that there are elephants on either side of this Copán ruler." "So why would there be, here at" "Copán, such Asian motifs as elephants and dragons in a place in Central America that is so far away from China and" "Southeast Asia?" "Is there some kind of extraterrestrial connection between the Mayans and the" "Chinese, and an origin for both that comes from the stars?" "NARRATOR:" "How could the early" "Maya of Central America have had knowledge possessed by people living in Asia... on the other side of the Pacific Ocean?" "TSOUKALOS:" "One of the basic premises of the ancient astronaut theory suggests that there was contact between ancient cultures way before we give them credit." "These ancient cultures were, in fact, connected by flying machines, and those flying machines were usually operated by extraterrestrials." "And especially in the Mayan carvings, we find many references of the gods descending from the sky in flying serpents." "Now, do flying serpents actually exist?" "Of course not." "But it is a beautiful and very poetic description of something that is rooted in technology." "NARRATOR:" "Do the many strange carvings found at Copán really provide proof of contact between the Maya and otherworldly beings?" "And if so, might that contact have produced offspring that could also be traced to an extraterrestrial source?" "On the west side of the main temple at Copán stands a 63-step structure known as the" "Hieroglyphic Stairway." "It contains more than 1,200 stones carved with symbols that record the history of the kings of Copán." "CHILDRESS:" "This Hieroglyphic" "Stairway is the longest Mayan inscription in the world." "It emphasizes the divine right of the 16 rulers of the Copán dynasty to rule their subjects... a power given to them by the gods." "SHEETS:" "The Hieroglyphic" "Stairway mentions the various rulers of Copán and talks about them in a semidivine sense." "So they're human, they're mortal, but they are much more than that." "They are royal." "They have a spirit in their blood, and Maya called it Xuit" "Lel." "A Xuit Lel is in the blood and is the most powerful thing to get access to the supernatural." "So a king's Xuit Lel, when shed in a bloodletting ceremony and burned with copal incense, goes up into the heavens and takes a message to the deities, and they did things for the Maya." "NARRATOR:" "Could the Maya rulers really have been the descendants of extraterrestrials, as ancient astronaut theorists believe?" "Perhaps conclusive evidence can be found in what is widely believed to be the most advanced celestial calendar system of ancient times." "VON DANIKEN:" "The Mayas had the most precise calendar of all the people in antiquity, even the Babylonians, the Sumerians." "They did not only observe our planetary system, they observed" "Orion, they observed Sirius and other far away systems." "LOHSE:" "One of the things that sets the Maya apart was their ability to monitor the passage of astronomical events and to track the movements of constellations to predict eclipses." "They really developed some of this knowledge and skill to a pretty high degree." "CHEETHAM:" "It's remarkable." "No telescopes, no metal, yet the ability to predict time and events in time, in a way that was really unprecedented in the world." "NARRATOR:" "But why did the" "Maya create such precise maps of the cosmos?" "According to ancient astronaut theorists, the Mayans' knowledge of the stars, in fact, came to them from the stars, brought by extraterrestrial beings." "COPPENS:" "When it comes to the ancient Maya, their creation mythology invokes these legends which say that somewhere just south of Orion's belt is this place where life originated from and came to planet Earth," "112 BC, when the ancient" "Mayans said the gods came to Earth." "VON DANIKEN:" "Their teachers were the gods, and the gods were the extraterrestrials." "NARRATOR:" "If beings from another star system really came to Earth in the ancient past, did they create the foundations of Mayan civilization and breed with its rulers?" "Might they have also visited other areas of our planet?" "Perhaps further evidence can be found at a desolate mountain kingdom known to ancient priests from the East as the magi." "NARRATOR:" "Southeastern" "Turkey." "7,000 feet high, atop a barren mountain called Nemrud Dagi, lie the ruins of the lost Kingdom of" "Commagene." "Here, in 62 BC, a mysterious royal sanctuary was built by" "King Antiochus I." "Colossal statues were created of lions and eagles, and Persian and Greek gods, as well as two massive sculptures of the king himself." "GILBERT:" "Now, what Antiochus was trying to do was to produce a synthesis, a new version of the old religions." "And what he basically did was to take the Persian gods and put them into Greek dress." "So you've got a synthesis happening of the Persian gods with their Greek equivalents." "SANDERS:" "The reason he built a colossal statue of himself among the gods was," "I guess, a presumption on his part that he would indeed ascend to heaven and eventually be among them." "NARRATOR:" "The conical peak was the highest point in the kingdom of King Antiochus." "Measuring 150 feet high and 500 feet wide, it is man-made with countless small limestone rocks, and was said to be the location of the king's royal tomb." "Researchers believe the memorial was originally built as two large plazas." "The one on the east side was used to celebrate the birthday of King Antiochus." "The one on the west side was used to commemorate the day in" "62 BC when Antiochus became the leader of a secret society." "GILBERT:" "I think it's meant to symbolize Mount Olympus, the home of the gods." "'Cause you've got the gods seated round it and then you've got a peak above them." "I think this is all very symbolic." "It's a stage for carrying out certain rituals and performances." "SANDERS:" "And he also shows himself in the relief stelae shaking hands to all the gods, as if the gods recognize him as one of their own and are welcoming him into Heaven." "NARRATOR:" "Mysteriously, both the site and the kingdom were abandoned in the first century AD." "And, so far, the king's legendary burial chamber has never been found." "But another question still remains: just why did King" "Antiochus build this mysterious and massive monumental sanctuary?" "According to researchers, evidence found at Nemrud Dagi suggests the king had a profound interest in, and understanding of, star sciences." "GILBERT:" "One example of the advanced knowledge of astronomy that they had is actually the lion horoscope, which gives us a very precise date." "We know that the position of the stars on the lion's body fits with the positions of stars of" "Leo given in a book of" "Eratosthenes, who was a Greek astronomer from Alexandria who wrote a book about the stars." "NARRATOR:" "The arrangement of stars on the lion horoscope represented the constellation of" "Leo as seen in the sky in July 62 BC, a configuration that wouldn't be visible again for" "25,000 years." "Further evidence of the exceptional knowledge of the stars was found in a nearby shaft that Antiochus built into the mountain." "GILBERT:" "The shaft runs into the mountainside there, at an angle of 35 degrees to the horizontal, and it's about" "150 meters long, and there's nothing at the bottom." "NARRATOR:" "Computer analysis reveals that on two days of the year, the sun's rays would illuminate the bottom of the shaft... once when in line with the constellation of Leo and once when in line with Orion." "GILBERT:" "Now, that is a very interesting point in the sky, because it's the path where the sun crosses over the Milky Way, our galaxy." "And that, to the ancient world, was known as the Gate of Heaven." "And there were two of these... one where they cross in the north and the other where they cross in the south." "There were two Gates to Heaven." "So we can understand that that gateway would be where the soul of the king is going back to heaven through Heaven's Gate." "NARRATOR:" "Given the fact that neither Antiochus's tomb or remains have been found, is it possible that the king actually journeyed to the stars through a heavenly gate, as ancient astronaut theorists contend?" "During his life, researchers believe Antiochus studied with a priestly sect of Eastern astrologers called the magi, who were thought to be able to predict and even manipulate events based on their knowledge of the stars." "JASON MARTELL:" "The magi were renowned priests from the far" "Near East who had advanced astronomical knowledge." "And it's well known that most of the astronomers from the Near" "East, specifically ancient Iraq," "Sumer, recorded series of events happening in the heavens over hundreds of thousands of years." "This information was kept on stone tablets, held very sacredly and only passed down to the high priests." "NARRATOR:" "According to the" "Gospel of Matthew in the" "New Testament, it was three of these magi who followed celestial signs and stars to the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem." "A coincidence?" "MARTELL:" "What's interesting about this story is that the" "Star of Bethlehem wasn't used as a navigation point." "It is clearly stated as it guided the wise men to the place of Christ." "A star cannot guide someone." "It can only be used as a navigation point." "So this brings up the idea that the star was possibly a UFO." "TSOUKALOS:" "Today, we think that the magi were magicians, and that is actually why we have the word "magic" today." "But when I hear about magical powers, that raises a flag, because magic, as such, does not exist." "So were these magi, in fact, in possession of some type of an extraterrestrial technology?" "Because, according to the ancient texts, it was the initiates of each culture who were in touch with extraterrestrials." "And it was the initiates who later became priests or magi." "NARRATOR:" "Is it possible that" "Antiochus was, in fact, a magi, one who learned celestial knowledge from extraterrestrial sources?" "If so, might the monumental sanctuary at Nemrud Dagi have been built as a place to contact star travelers?" "The answer may have been found among the ruins of Nemrud Dagi." "GILBERT:" "The head of" "Antiochus is placed on the statue which is appropriate for" "Mercury, and that's because" "Mercury is the planet of initiation for priests." "And he's one himself, so he models it on himself." "And people think this is him being boastful... sitting among the gods." "It's not." "It's actually a code to say that he's one with the priests." "NARRATOR:" "Eventually annexed by the Romans in the first century AD, King Antiochus and his court became scattered throughout the region." "Or were they?" "According to ancient astronaut theorists, they may have instead used a heavenly gate to depart through... to a distant realm." "An audacious idea?" "Perhaps." "And there are those who believe further evidence can be found in one of the driest areas of the world... in South America." "NARRATOR:" "Peru," "South America." "250 miles south of the capitol of Lima lies one of the driest places on Earth... a wasteland that once was home to an ancient civilization called Nazca." "Thriving between the 15th century BC and 500 AD, the" "Nazca were a deeply religious and spiritual people who built their ceremonial center in the temple city of Cahuachi." "OREFICI (translated):" "Cahuachi is the largest adobe ceremonial center in the world." "Therefore, we find groups of temples and pyramids of immense size." "Spirituality was the most important thing in Cahuachi." "The people of Nazca used the sacred spaces to elevate themselves in order to communicate with the deities." "BRIEN FOERSTER:" "The Nazca predominantly were a farming people, so Cahuachi was built at the prime, when they had all the food they needed and they had enough resources to be able to develop a highly evolved religious system." "NARRATOR:" "But the Nazca people and their culture mysteriously vanished some" "1,200 years ago, though not before etching a series of enormous geoglyphs... or ground drawings... into the nearby desert floor." "OREFICI (translated):" "The" "Nazca Lines were an important element of their religious worship and their ceremonies." "They would walk through these lines during their ceremonies, breaking ceramics and offering important elements to the deities from their own culture." "NARRATOR:" "The great geoglyphs are composed of dozens of spirals, triangles and trapezoids, as well as miles of zigzagging lines." "FOERSTER:" "This whole flat area, which covers several square miles, is covered in stones made of iron oxide, either red or black, and that's what gives it the darkish, brownish red appearance." "But right underneath the surface is clay, which is white, and all" "I have to do is that." "The contrast between the clay and the iron oxide gives a" "Nazca Line." "NARRATOR:" "Acre-sized drawings depict a hummingbird, a spider, a killer whale and a human figure with owllike eyes." "FOERSTER:" "They would have had to have had observation from the sky in order to guide the workforce on the ground as to how to draw complicated figures such as the spider and the hummingbird." "NARRATOR:" "Preserved for centuries by the lack of wind and rain, the lines are best seen from the air, and were first spotted by aviators in the 1930s." "But why did the Nazca create patterns that could only be properly seen from a great height?" "JORGE LUIS DELGADO MAMANI:" "The obvious answer is because you can see only from the sky." "Many of our ancestors would talk about the star people." "All the sacred sites... we consider it is for whom?" "For the star people." "CHILDRESS:" "At Nazca and other areas in Peru, there are legends of sky people and gods coming down from the sky." "NARRATOR:" "But might the so-called star people referred to in the Nazca legends really have been extraterrestrial beings, as ancient astronaut theorists believe?" "VON DANIKEN:" "In the beginning, there was just one line made by some robot or some extraterrestrial spaceship, some space shuttle, because they were looking for raw material for energy." "TSOUKALOS:" "After a while, the local population would see all those tracks on the ground, and they would say that these tracks were just left behind by these divine beings, by the gods, and then they would wonder, "And" "what can we do for those gods to return?"" "NARRATOR:" "According to ancient astronaut theory, the earliest of the Nazca Lines were made in imitation of the trails left by the first space visitors." "Later generations added more elaborate lines, and then shapes and figures, all in an attempt to signal the star gods to return." "But they never did." "OREFICI (translated):" "And this caused the population to doubt the deities, because it was mainly a psychological problem they had with their deities that brought about the abandonment and collapse of the" "Nazca culture." "NARRATOR:" "But could there be other evidence of alien contact with the ancient people of Peru that is even more astounding than the Nazca Lines?" "CHILDRESS:" "Some of the skulls that we find today, because it's a very dry desert and they're well preserved, are some of the most astonishing, elongated skulls that you'll ever see." "And they look like extraterrestrials." "NARRATOR:" "According to Nazca legends, the gods had elongated heads, much like the distended skulls of the controversial" "Egyptian pharaoh King" "Tutankhamen and his sister" "Meretaten." "FORRESTER:" "I honestly believe that the largest of the elongated skulls represent hybrid human beings dating back thousands of years, who lived here very peacefully and could very well be the ancestors of the Inca." "And that could be the reason why the Inca suddenly were these people of incredible sophistication who came from seemingly nowhere." "It's possible that they're descendants from star beings." "CHILDRESS:" "Were they trying to imitate people they had already seen, gods from outer space?" "NARRATOR:" "Is it possible the ancient Nazca altered their bodies and their lands in order to communicate with or emulate something their ancestors may have witnessed, something out of this world?" "Perhaps further clues to mankind's extraterrestrial connection can be found in the most remote place on planet" "Earth: in the South Pacific." "NARRATOR:" "The South" "Pacific Ocean." "2,300 miles west of South" "America, in one of the most remote places on Earth, giant stone figures stand with their backs to the sea." "Called moai by the native inhabitants, they are the silent sentinels of Easter island." "STEVENSON:" "The moais are scattered throughout the island, and they're positioned on top of platforms, for the most part." "A moai is a stone sculpture of a deceased ancestor." "They were once living individuals who ruled the society or led the society." "They were chiefs." "And then, upon their death, we believe that they've become represented in stone." "NARRATOR:" "Nearly 900 moai were carved between the 12th and 18th centuries." "Hewn with stone tools from volcanic rock, the tallest stands a towering 33 feet high and weighs a staggering 75 tons." "STEVENSON:" "They were probably even more unique-looking in the past." "They may have been painted." "And they also had large white coral eyes with obsidian pupils." "So it's a very effective way of kind of telling people, not verbally but symbolically, that someone's watching you and you should toe the line." "You should do what you're supposed to do." "NARRATOR:" "The people who created the moai called themselves the Rapa Nui, and mainstream historians believe their Polynesian ancestors came to the island in canoes from across the vast" "Pacific Ocean between 700 and 1100 AD." "But over several centuries, for reasons that are still unclear, what was once an island paradise withered into a treeless desert, stalked by famine, violence and some say cannibalism." "When the first Europeans arrived in 1722, the Rapa Nui culture had already been nearly wiped out... and few could imagine how such primitive people could have created the moai." "NOORY:" "How in the heck did they make these?" "Where did they come from?" "And how did they move them?" "Nobody has the answer." "NARRATOR:" "Modern scientists have tried, and so far have failed, to duplicate the feats of the ancient Rapa Nui." "In 1987, anthropologist Charles" "Love used rollers to move a nine-ton moai replica at Western" "Wyoming Community College." "Ready?" "On three." "One, two, three." "Come on, Rick." "Come on." "Good." "Thank you." "Whoa." "Only able to budge it about half an inch." "NARRATOR:" "Other researchers have tried pulling moai with sleds." "But there is a unique problem with the idea of moving moai with sleds or rollers." "LOVE:" "When you go to Easter island, you don't get the impression they had enough wood to have rollers." "And in fact, in the 1700s, the first four expeditions to Easter island never really saw a tree." "And so that's the real mystery of Easter island." "How can you move a multi-ton statue if you have no trees for rollers?" "NARRATOR:" "According to the oral history of the Rapa Nui, the moai were moved in a very unusual way." "LOVE:" "They all reply basically the same thing." "The moai walked to the ahu, and that's the only explanation that they give." "NARRATOR:" "But who or what had the power to make multi-ton moai appear to walk to their ahu, or stone platforms?" "In 1919, British archaeologist" "Katherine Routledge, who lived on Easter island for a year, recorded the legends and testimony of an old woman who said the moai were moved with a mystical energy called mana." "And according to the oral histories of the Rapa Nui, mana came from the gods." "TSOUKALOS:" "Mana was a direct gift of the gods given to the" "Easter islanders." "Was this mana really a type of magical force?" "Of course not." "It was some type of misunderstood technology, some type of a device, an extraterrestrial tool with which you could move those massive" "Easter island heads rather easily." "NARRATOR:" "Did early inhabitants of Easter island really know how to unlock the secrets of gravity using mana?" "And if so, where might such power over the physical world have come from?" "Researchers believe there are clues hidden within mysterious written texts called rongorongo, inscribed on pieces of wood, discovered on the island in the 19th century." "LOVE:" "This is a rongorongo board." "And it's a replica of ones of old." "About 25 of them are known." "We have had about six or eight different attempts at translating these things, with six or eight different results." "CHILDRESS:" "You have to ask yourself: how could the Easter islanders have invented their own writing without some other cultural influence coming there?" "Would it have been ancient seafarers coming to Easter island or perhaps even space visitors?" "NARRATOR:" "Further evidence of early contact with otherworldly beings can be found in numerous strange stone carvings... called petroglyphs." "LOVE:" "What we see in the petroglyph art of the island are these figures of bird men, these tangata manus, carved in bas relief on the rocks on the very edge of the precipice." "NARRATOR:" "In the myths of" "Easter island's Rapa Nui, the bird man represents Makemake, the chief god and creator of humanity." "COPPENS:" "Did at some point in the past a creature come, which was bird man who flew in from somewhere." "Did he arrive on this island and did he indeed live very much like a pariah?" "Did he die or did he take off again, and is this what the locals keep this legend of this creature who came to them alive through myth, legend and ritual." "NARRATOR:" "Walking stone giants, petroglyphs of flying beings... might the ancient inhabitants of Easter island have been familiar with antigravity levitation and spaceflight?" "If so, might these astounding abilities... forever lost to time, have been made possible by extraterrestrial visitors?" "Perhaps more evidence can be found in the most famous and alluring of all lost worlds... the Garden of Eden." "NARRATOR:" "The Middle East." "For centuries, archaeologists, theologians and scholars have debated the location... and even the existence of the ultimate of all lost worlds... the biblical "Garden of Eden."" "it was here, according to the" "Hebrew Book of Genesis, that a paradise once existed... a paradise where the first human beings, Adam and Eve, were actually created by God." "But could such a paradise, now shrouded in myth and legend, have actually been a real place?" "COPPENS:" "When we're looking at the Garden of Eden, we know that actually there is a physical description as to where it was." "It is said that four very specific rivers came from it or were near it." "So we can actually go in search of this." "MULLINS:" "Two of these rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, are well known, and actually run through what is Iraq today." "The other two rivers that are described are not very clear." "NARRATOR:" "Researchers now believe the third river, known as the Karun River, runs through" "Iran and joins the Euphrates just north of the Persian Gulf." "Then, in 2010, satellite imagery revealed a fossil river, or dry riverbed, called the Wadi Baton, that once flowed through northern Arabia and also joined with the Euphrates." "Could these two rivers have been the location of the Pishon and Gihon rivers... the lost rivers mentioned in the Bible... that point to the actual location of the Garden of Eden?" "JURIS ZARINS:" "When you read the account in Genesis, it says that the four rivers formed one river." "So very careful reading indicates that the two rivers, which are today in Iraq... the" "Tigris and Euphrates... and the one river, which is in Iran, the Karun, and the fossil river in Arabia, when you join them up, and form one river, it's at the approximate location" "of northern Persian Gulf." "NARRATOR:" "And according to the Bible, that one river flowed through the Garden of Eden." "ZARINS:" "And so, based upon" "Landsat images and a close reading of the Hebrew text, I think that the location of the" "Garden of Eden is under the waters of the Persian Gulf and not on land." "NARRATOR:" "Scientists believe that during the last ice age, the polar ice caps were two miles high and ocean levels were" "170 feet lower than they are today." "Recent studies suggest the area of the Persian Gulf would have been a dry, fertile plain the size of Great Britain, providing an ideal refuge to some of the earliest humans outside Africa nearly 75,000 years ago." "But as the ice caps melted over the course of thousands of years, the waters of what is now the Indian Ocean flooded the land and formed the Persian" "Gulf." "GRAHAM HANCOCK:" "During that long period, there were at least three episodes of very, very major flooding, when you would be looking at 30 or 40 foot rises in sea level, virtually overnight." "NARRATOR:" "Might a great flood... perhaps the one described in the biblical story of Noah's Ark, really be responsible for the disappearance of the so-called" ""Garden of Eden"?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe it is not only possible, but that the proof can be found by studying ancient Sumerian texts." "The earliest known civilization of Sumer dates to 5,000 BC, and their first settlement in southern Mesopotamia was called" "Eridu." "ZARINS:" "The ancient Sumerians have a wonderful story." "They believe that they had lived in an area that was probably to the south of what is today" "Sumer." "And the reason we know that is because they said they came out of the sea." "NARRATOR:" "Ancient cuneiform writings that have survived on clay tablets suggest the" "Sumerians had been brought to" "Eridu by their god Enki." "The cuneiform texts also describe an alien race named the" "Anunnaki who came to Earth and created the first modern human beings." "ZARINS: "Adam" in Sumerian, or a very early form of" "Sumerian, means "a small rural settlement."" ""Eve," however, isn't Sumerian." ""Eve" in Arabic and the Semitic languages means "one who gives birth."" "The word "Eden" is a pre-Sumerian word and it means" ""plain."" "NARRATOR:" "But, according to ancient astronaut theory, the" "Sumerian accounts may actually refer to a more ancient time, and to a distant fertile plain now lost under the waters of the" "Persian Gulf." "COPPENS:" "Now the question is this, was the Garden of Eden really some kind of laboratory where certain things were created by the ancient scientists of their day?" "Well, if mankind was created in a Garden of Eden, then clearly whoever was creating this wasn't a human being, it was somebody else." "TSOUKALOS:" "So is it possible that the Garden of Eden was located here on planet Earth?" "Yes, but was it a specific geographic location?" "I'm not sure." "Personally, I'm leaning more towards the idea that the Garden of Eden was some type of a closed environment somewhere in nature, but it definitely was some type of a laboratory from where modern man originated." "NARRATOR:" "Is it really possible that the first humans were created by extraterrestrial beings in what is referred to in the Bible as a "Garden of Eden"?" "If so, has the evidence existed all along, on the cuneiform tablets of the ancient" "Sumerians?" "Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer is a definite yes." "And there are those who believe that such an incredible notion is not only possible, but that the proof lies in the further investigation of lost civilizations and ancient worlds... an investigation that will not only uncover our past," "but reveal our future." "Captioning sponsored by" "AE TELEVISION NETWORKS"