Ancient Astronauts Introduction Not far from the sea, in the Andes mountains of Peru, lies the Palpa Valley near the city of Nazca. A small area of level ground about a mile wide and nearly forty miles long sits in the middle of this valley. Should you fly overhead, you will see big lines laid out on this dusty plain. Some of the lines run parallel, some intersect while others seem to enclose geometric shapes. The archaeologists who discovered the lines, concluded that they were Inca roads. Roads which go nowhere. Erich Von Daniken, in his book "Chariots of the Gods" claims that they were runways for ancient astronauts. The ancient Mayans posessed an astonishing knowledge of mathematics and celestial mechanics. They were aware of the fact that the earth was round and had estimated the length of an earth year at 365.242 days. There are many mysteries of ancient peoples which continue to amaze modern investigators. This section deals with some of these ancient mysteries. PERU Palpa Valley Near the city of Nazca in the Andes Mountains, lies the Palpa Valley. In flying over this narrow valley, it is plain to see that there are giant lines laid out on the plain. Archaeologists investigating the area discovered these lines and decided that they were Inca roads. The logic of this analysis breaks down in two major areas. In the first place, the roads go nowhere. Of what use are roads that go for a few miles in a barren, desolate valley? In the second place, the Inca peoples did not have the wheel. (There is some dissention on this point within the scientific community. The fact is that they may have had a wheel, but no practical use for it.) Even if they had the wheel, they did not possess a beast of burden for use as a draft animal. The Llama was the most powerful animal that the Incas had and it is not strong enough to be used for pulling carts or wagons. If these lines are not roads, then what are they? Erich Von Daniken believes that they are the remnants of a landing field used by ancients astronauts for Earth-to-Orbit travel. The main problem that has been found with this explanation is that the lines are laid out in a confusing criss-cross pattern. What pilot would attempt to land on such a field? The truth of the matter is that we simply to not have an adequate explanation for these particular lines. PERU Tres Cruces Tree of Life High on red sandhill cliffs overlooking the Bay of Paracas near Pisco, Peru is a 602 foot design. It is visible some 12 miles from the coast and is in the shape of a large trident known as the Tree of Life. Its purpose is unknown, although there is some speculation that it may be a pointer. It points toward the Plain of Nazca, but why would anyone want to build such an enormous pointer? And, if it is not a pointer, what was it carved for? The answer may lie in religion. Many ancient peoples drew designs to honor their God or Gods. Is it not possible that these peoples, knowing that their God lived in heaven high above, decided to make their artwork enormous so that it could be seen from heaven? PERU Sacsahuaman The fortress of Sacsahuaman which is near the present day city of Cuzco, is a marvel of ancient engineering. Many of the stone blocks used in the construction of this fortress weigh more than 100 tons. The walls which form the terraces on the side of the mountains are more than 1500 feet long and 54 feet wide. These blocks have been carved from even larger pieces of rock which have been transported from a distant quarry. How did these ancient peoples accomplish this feat of engineering? It must have taken decades to finish the construction using an enormous amount of labor. Researchers such as Erich Von Daniken believe that these ancient peoples had help from extraterrestrial visitors in the building of their fortress. The physical evidence of the construction is right in front of our eyes, however, the answer to the puzzle eludes us. PERU Plain of Nazca Near the city of Nazca lies a barren, desolate plain upon which are carved a number of enormous drawings. Many are more that 150 yards in size. They are of everyday animals and objects such as a bird, spider, fish and other designs. These carvings are so large so as to be unrecognizable from the ground. They can only be made out distinctly from the air. This observation has led many researchers to assume that this means that they were drawn to be seen by men or possibly extraterrestrials flying overhead in machines. If aliens did visit the earth in antiquity, they would certainly have been impressed with this artwork. However, there may be a more earthly possibility. Lets imagine that the Nazca peoples revered a God, perhaps more than one. They (as most other ancient peoples) believed that God resided in heaven which is high overhead. Perhaps they were making these drawings enormous so that they would be easily seen from heaven. PERU The Great Idol of Tiahuanaco In an ancient building in the ancient city of Tiahuanaco, Peru is a stone idol weighing approximately 20 tons which is carved from a single block of red sandstone. This fact alone is enough to make one wonder about the means that the pre-Inca indians used to create such a masterpiece, however, there is an even more intriguing mystery which surrounds this carving. The temple in which the idol was housed was constructed with the primitive techniques and tools available to its builders. It looks as though it belongs in this ancient city. The Idol, however is carved as precisely and delicately as today's fine crystal. It is covered with hundreds of carefully carved symbols. The accuracy and precision of the idol's work- manship stands in stark contrast to the primitive building in which it resides. Further, the symbols themselves are a source of amazement. In a book entitled "The Great Idol of Tiahuanaco", H.S. Bellamy & P. Allen postulate that the symbols embody a mass of astronomical data about the earth and the heavens 27,000 years ago. They believe that a book titled "Theory of Satellites" by Hoerbiger which was published in 1927, five years prior to the discovery of the idol, details a series of events which are encoded in the symbols on the idol. According to theory, a large satellite was captured by the earth's gravity field and, as it spun in, its mass and velocity caused the rotation of the earth to slow as well as its orbital velocity around the sun. Bellamy and Allen believe that the idol records that the object was making 425 orbits around the earth per year and that one earth year lasted only 288 days. Do the symbols on the idol actually lead one to this conclusion? If they do, where did a primitive people get the astronomical knowledge needed to understand this? And finally, why is an idol which is carved in such a precise manner be housed in a far more primitve building? Some believe that extraterrestrial intervention is the only possible answer. TURKEY The Maps of Admiral Piri Reis In the early 1700s, a series of ancient maps which had belonged to Turkish Navy Admiral Piri Reis were discovered in the Topkapi Palace. The maps were given to an American cartographer named Arlington H. Mallerey for analysis. At first glance, the amount of land mass and relative positions of the major continents seemd to be correct, however, it was noted that the continent outlines did not conform to a standard flat map. With the assistance of a cartographer from the U.S. navy Hydrographic Bureau, Mallerey was able to determine that the maps were a representation of the world as viewed from a point in space above Cairo, Egypt. Not only were the outlines of the continents correctly distorted by the curvature of the earth, but the placement of mountain ranges and other geographical features was just as accurate. Further, the Piri Reis maps show mountain ranges on the Antarctic continent that were not known until 1952 when echo sounding maps were produced for the first time. These mountains have been covered with ice throughout recorded history. How were the maps made? Were they produced from photographs taken from orbit thousands of years ago? This may remain a mystery forever. Send Your Ufo Storys & Comments to: dannybrown@easynet.co.uk.