Episode Guide

Alien Transports

This episode asks whether ancient accounts of flying chariots, magical carpets, and fire-breathing dragons might actually describe extraterrestrial vehicles witnessed by people who lacked the vocabulary to explain advanced technology. Ancient astronaut theorists examine several cases, including Ezekiel's vision of a fiery chariot with "wheels within wheels" in the Hebrew Bible, Ethiopian texts claiming King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba traveled on flying carpets, and Chinese myths of the god Huang Di emerging from a fire-breathing dragon. The Saqqara Bird—a wooden object discovered in an Egyptian tomb from the third century B.C.—serves as physical evidence: aerodynamics expert Simon Sanderson's 2006 tests revealed it possesses the wing design of a modern glider and could produce four times its weight in lift, though it lacks a rear stabilizing rudder that theorists suggest may have broken off over time.

Mysterious Structures

This episode examines megalithic structures around the world—from the 3,000 standing stones at Carnac, France, to the precision-cut blocks at Puma Punku in Peru and the 12,000-year-old circular enclosures at Göbekli Tepe—and asks whether ancient humans could have moved and shaped these massive stones without advanced technology. Ancient astronaut theorists including Giorgio Tsoukalos and Erich von Däniken argue that some blocks exceed the capabilities of primitive tools and even modern machinery, while geometric patterns at sites like Carnac suggest intentional design visible only from above. The episode points to alleged Pythagorean triangles in the Carnac alignments—patterns that predate Pythagoras himself by over 2,000 years—and invokes a 1930s Florida structure called Coral Castle, where anti-gravity devices were purportedly used to move 30-ton coral blocks, as a possible parallel to ancient construction methods.

Mysterious Devices

This episode explores artifacts and structures that Ancient Astronaut theorists suggest demonstrate advanced technology in the ancient world, far beyond what conventional timelines allow. At the Giza Necropolis, researchers focus on the Great Pyramid's so-called airshafts, particularly a blocked passage in the Queen's Chamber discovered in 1872. When robotic cameras penetrated a sealed door in 2011, they revealed copper fittings with possible corrosion patterns and red floor markings that engineer Christopher Dunn interprets as electrical symbols. The episode presents the argument that the Great Pyramid functioned not as a tomb but as a power plant, pointing to its extreme precision and the absence of bodies in several intact pyramid burial chambers. Other artifacts examined include the Antikythera mechanism (described as more complex than a Swiss watch), alleged ancient batteries, and the Ark of the Covenant, which theorists like Giorgio Tsoukalos suggest may have been a weapon based on biblical descriptions of fire and roaring sounds.

Faces of the Gods

This episode explores whether ancient descriptions of unusual beings—giants, winged angels, and humanoids with elongated skulls—might represent encounters with extraterrestrial visitors rather than pure mythology. Central to the argument are elongated skulls discovered at Cahuachi, Peru, the ancient religious capital of the Nazca people, first unearthed by anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka in 1910. Ancient Astronaut theorists, including Giorgio Tsoukalos, propose these skulls reflect attempts to mimic "flesh-and-blood space travelers" who once walked among humans. The episode connects this practice to modern depictions of alien "Greys"—spindly humanoids with disproportionately large heads and almond-shaped eyes—suggesting ancient peoples witnessed such beings and deliberately deformed their children's skulls to resemble them. The theorists argue this painful ritual was too extreme to honor merely imagined deities, pointing instead to physical contact with otherworldly visitors.

The Reptilians

This episode investigates whether global myths about reptilian beings could represent actual extraterrestrial contact rather than pure mythology. Central to the argument is the 1988 Bishopville, South Carolina case, where teenager Christopher Davis reported a seven-foot creature with green skin and three fingers attacking his car near Scape Ore Swamp—a sighting he passed a police-administered polygraph test about, and one corroborated by other witnesses in the area. Ancient astronaut theorists argue that similar "Reptilian" encounters connect to widespread serpent deity traditions: Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan in Mesoamerica, the Nagas of Indian tradition said to dwell underground in Patala, dragon-descended emperors in China and Japan, and reptilian figures in the Bible, Quran, and Nag Hammadi codices. The episode suggests these geographically dispersed legends point toward a "lost reptilian race" that ancient humans genuinely encountered.

The Tesla Experiment

This episode explores whether Nikola Tesla's revolutionary inventions—from alternating current to wireless energy transmission—might have resulted from extraterrestrial contact rather than pure genius. Ancient astronaut theorists including David Wilcock and David Childress point to Tesla's own claims of receiving communications from intelligent beings on other planets, his descriptions of inventions appearing fully formed in his mind, and the FBI's confiscation of his notebooks from room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker within hours of his death in 1943. Marc Seifer and others highlight Tesla's seemingly prophetic technological visions, from wireless power to technologies that wouldn't be realized for decades, asking whether he served as a "human receiver" channeling alien knowledge to advance civilization.

The God Particle

This episode explores whether the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson—the so-called "God Particle"—at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, might vindicate ancient descriptions of cosmic creation that theorists suggest came from extraterrestrial sources. Ancient astronaut proponents argue that many ancient religions and mythologies describe the universe's origins in ways strikingly similar to modern physics, proposing that this knowledge was given to early humans by otherworldly visitors. The episode suggests the Higgs boson discovery, which explains how particles acquire mass and offers insight into the universe's beginning, could bridge science and religion—and perhaps reveal that ancient accounts of creation were not primitive myth but advanced physics transmitted by alien teachers.

Alien Encounters

This episode examines whether UFO sightings at pivotal moments in human history—from ancient divine encounters to modern nuclear disasters—suggest extraterrestrial intervention in human affairs. Ancient astronaut theorists, including those interviewed for the episode, point to eyewitness accounts of UFOs hovering over both the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan and the 1986 Chernobyl facility in Ukraine during their respective meltdowns. Witnesses at both sites reported seeing unidentified objects and, in some accounts, beams of light directed at the reactors, leading theorists to propose that extraterrestrials actively prevented catastrophic nuclear explosions. The episode extends this framework backward through history, suggesting that ancient accounts of divine intervention—from Sumerian creation myths to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments to the angel Gabriel appearing to Muhammad—may actually document encounters with technologically advanced aliens guiding human civilization according to a deliberate, long-term plan.

Aliens and Superheroes

This episode explores whether ancient myths about superhuman beings—from Zeus and Thor to Hanuman—might be cultural memories of extraterrestrial visitors rather than pure fiction. Ancient Astronaut Theorists point to the Dikteon Cave on Crete, where 4,000-year-old religious offerings correspond to the era when Zeus supposedly lived, as potential evidence that the Greeks worshipped beings they actually encountered. The episode's central premise hinges on a pattern identified by historian Joseph Campbell: cultures across every continent, even those with no contact, developed strikingly similar hero narratives featuring super-strength, flight, and other extraordinary abilities. Theorists like those featured argue that what ancient peoples described as "magic" was actually advanced technology, and that these parallel myths suggest shared extraterrestrial teachers visited early civilizations worldwide, ultimately inspiring today's superhero stories from Wonder Woman to Superman.

The Forbidden Zones

Explores restricted areas that may hide alien evidence.