Erich Daniken - Chariots of the Gods

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To the north of Damascus lies the terrace of Baalbek—a platform built of stone blocks, some of which have sides over 65 ft long and weigh nearly 2,000 tons. Until now archaeologists have not been able to give a convincing explanation why, how and by whom the terrace of Baalbek was built. However, the Russian Professor Agrest considers it possible that the terrace is the remains of a gigantic airfield.

If we meekly accept the neat package of knowledge that the Egyptologists serve to us, ancient Egypt appears suddenly and without transition with a fantastic ready-made civilisation. Great cities and enormous temples, colossal statues with tremendous expressive power, splendid streets flanked by magnificent sculptures, perfect drainage systems, luxurious tombs carved out of the rock, pyramids of overwhelming size—these and many other wonderful things shot out of the ground, so to speak. Genuine miracles in a country that is suddenly capable of such achievements without recognisable prehistory!

Fertile agricultural land only exists in the Nile delta and on small strips to the left and right of the river. Yet experts now estimate the number of inhabitants at the time of the building of the Great Pyramid at 50 million. (A figure, incidentally, that flagrantly contradicts the 20 million considered to be the total population of the world in 3000 B.C.!)

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One of the maps found in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, in the library of Admiral Piri Reis early in the eighteenth century It shows the Americas and West Africa Antartica, mapped at the bottom, conforms very closely to the land mass under the ice, as revealed by echo-sounding gear In recorded history it has never been free of ice.

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Cartographers projected the Pin Reis map on to a grid using the reference points shown on the map It then appeared virtually identical with this United States Air Force map of the world on an equidistant projection based on Cairo.

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The earth taken from Apollo 8 shows close similarity to the Piri Reis map The curious elongated shape of the Americas is particularly striking.

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On the Plain of Nazca in Peru appear these strange markings

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A view of the plain showing that the markings (Inca roads, say the archaeologists) lead nowhere.

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The markings in greater detail.

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Another of the strange markings on the Plain of Nazca. This is very reminiscent of the aircraft parking bays on a modern airport.

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This huge 820-ft. figure above the Bay of Pisco points to the Plain of Nazca. Could this be an aerial direction indicator rather than a symbol of religious significance?

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This is the ancient Mayan Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque in Mexico.

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Inside on the wall of one of the small chambers is this relief engraving. There is not enough space to take a full front view photograph, but there is enough detail to check the artist's drawing reproduced on the next page.

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This drawing was made in the Temple. Could primitive imagination have produced anything so remarkably similar to a modern astronaut in his rocket? Those strange markings at the foot of the drawing can only be an indication of the flames and gases coming from the propulsion unit.

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American astronauts today take up the same position, their hands on controls, their eyes checking instruments.

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On July 21 st, 1969 a London bookmaker paid out £10,000 Only five years earlier he gave odds of a thousand to one that man would not land on the moon before 1970 A fortnight later the Americans released photographs taken 2,000 miles away from Mars Space travel had moved out of the realms of science fiction.

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After centuries under the sea this object does not look very important It was found by Greek divers off Antikythera in 1900 Above, right Long and patient cleaning revealed that it was a mass of interlocking cogs and was a planetarium The machine gives the year of construction as 82 BC This drawing reconstructs part of the machine.

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Easter Island is known as the 'navel of the world' by the islanders The huge statues on this tiny fragment of rock are extraordinary Even more extraordinary is the fact that this totally isolated island had its own script, which is still undeciphered.

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This ancient iron pillar does not rust It cannot be accurately dated, but it is hundreds of years old.

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This Babylonian tablet records past and future eclipses.

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Here are three curious things from Assyria and one from Iraq.

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The "god Shamasi" It is from the third millennium BC and shows stars and figures with peculiar headgear Why should ancient gods be associated with the stars'?

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The second tablet is from the early first millennium BC. The object in the centre is described as a sacred tree It could just as reasonably be interpreted as a symbolic representation of the construction of an atom, with an astronaut in a fiery chariot above We have a figure within a winged circle and below the circle a representation.

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Next we have an Assyrian crystal lens from the seventh century BC To grind such a lens requires a highly sophisticated mathematical formula Where did the Assyrians get such knowledge'? Finally, these very ancient fragments, now in the Baghdad Museum, have been identified as the remains of an electric battery.

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The next five photographs are from South America, a continent teeming with ruins and unexplained puzzles.

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This is part of a huge monolithic block weighing an estimated 20,000 tons It can be found at Sacsayhuaman in Peru What was its purpose? What titanic forces turned it upside down?

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And what did these great steps lead to? A throne for giants perhaps?

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Rock vitrification requires very high temperatures. What caused it in Peru?

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Part of the huge terrace walls at Sacsayhuaman. Just look at the incredible accuracy of the jointing. How could primitive people handle these huge blocks?

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A mummy from the Second Dynasty.

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Part of a very finely woven piece of cloth. Where did the Egyptians get such complex techniques so early?

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With wood rollers and manpower it would have taken at least 600 years to handle the 2 1/2 million stone blocks in the great pyramid of Cheops.

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As in Peru, we are faced with fantastically accurate jointing of huge blocks of stone.

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This temple at Copan in Honduras is constructed according to the Mayan calendar with a fixed number of steps completed every 52 years.

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There is no recorded history of Tiahuanaco On the Gate of the Sun, above, carved out of a single 10-ton block, is the representation of a flying god flanked by forty-eight mysterious figures Legend tells of a golden space ship which came from the stars.

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On the great idol, is found information about astronomical phenomena covering an immense span of time.