Ancient Aliens - The Top Ten Mysterious Sites

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Ancient Aliens is counting down the world’s top ten most mysterious sites, from the towering Moai statues of Easter Island to the enormous megalithic blocks of Stonehenge to the precision cut stones of Puma Punku. Could these extraordinary places provide evidence of extraterrestrial visitation?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

An island of giant statues, a vast plateau covered in enormous geoglyphs, a megalithic settlement that dates back more than 12,000 years. On ancient aliens, we've tracked across deserts, hacked through jungles, flown to remote islands, and climbed rugged mountains in order to investigate extraordinary sites that seem to defy any conventional explanation. We're going to look back at what I consider to be the top 10 ancient sites we visited, and you can decide for yourself, do these places hold the proof that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials.

There is a doorway in the universe. Beyond it is the promise of truth. It demands we question everything we have ever been taught. The evidence is all around us. The future is right before our eyes. We are not alone. We have never been alone. Here is ancient astronaut theorist, Giorgio Suclos. When I think of all the mysterious sites we've investigated on ancient aliens,

it's really tough to narrow them down to the top ten, and even tougher to rank them. Each of these sites offers compelling evidence that extraterrestrials visited our ancestors, And at one particular site in Peru, that evidence is imprinted right on the vast desert floor. And what makes it even more incredible is that you can only see it from high above the earth. At number 10 on my list of top 10 mysterious sites, the NASCAR lines. Southern Peru, 1927. While hiking in the foothills of the arid Nazca desert, archaeologist Torbio, Maha'iorea, SESPE discovers what appears to be a large network of ancient roads carved into the

earth. Years later, as airplane travel to the region becomes more frequent, aerial flyovers reveal nearly 100 other designs in the nearby landscape. Nick Redfern is the author of The Real Men in Black. The NASCAR lines consist of these massive drawings or carvings, if you like, on the ground. Everything from geometric symbols, lions, to animals, even fish, birds. But the intriguing thing about them is, you know, number one, they're massive, and they can really only be seen properly from the sky. According to mainstream archaeologists,

these mysterious earth drawings were created by the Nazca, an ancient people that flourished in the region between the first century and 8th century AD. But what was their purpose? Here is Eric von Danikin, author of Chariots of the Gods. Archaeology has still no answer. In my opinion, it has something to do with the extraterrestriest. Our ancestors made these gigantic signs in the ground because they want to signalize to the beings up there.

We are here. Come down here. If you leave NASCA and travel due west some 2,400 miles out into the Pacific Ocean, you'll eventually reach one of the most remote islands on Earth. It was discovered by Dutch explorer Jacob Rogaveen on Easter Sunday 1722, and he was amazed by the gigantic stone statues he found all over the island. They've become one of archaeology's greatest riddles. Mysterious site number nine, Easter Island.

April 5th, 1722. Dutch explorer Jacob Rogaveen and his crew are 2,400 miles off the coast of Chile, when they spot a small landmass completely isolated in the Pacific Ocean. As they draw closer, they are surprised to find that the remote island is inhabited. But even more unexpected are the giant stone figures staring out at them from the shore. Paul Bon, PhD, is the author of Geoglyphs, Mysteries of the Ancient World. The statues on Easter Island, which we called Moai, are one of the great archaeological wonders of the world. We know they carved something like a thousand of them over a period of probably roughly about 500 years,

weighing tens of tons. No other culture in the world has ever done this, are certainly not on this scale. In many ways, we still don't know exactly how they did it. The moai were found to have been carved from the volcanic bedrock at the center of the island. But exactly how the native people managed to move such enormous statues out to Easter Island's shoreline, in some cases more than 11 miles from the quarry, has been the subject of endless debate. There have been many theories over the years as to how they were moved. The first theories thought that they must have been dragged horizontally. on sledges or rollers or something of that kind.

It was tried again recently for a TV film, and again they moved it a few meters, but it really doesn't prove anything. You're talking about several hundred statues, and it would depend on the size and weight of the statue, the number of people you had available to help, the distance you were going to go, the kind of terrain. So basically we don't really know.

Alex Guera-Tera, is an archaeologist and author of Rongo Rongo. According with the oral tradition and the legends, the people use the mana of the ariki to make them white walk. The ariki were the god kings of the communities. The mana is a special energy or power that some ariki and important people of the different tribes used to have. So one has to wonder if men have,

if mana was some type of extraterrestrial technology that allowed these stones to be levitated into place. Some have suggested that sound technology was used in order to move some of these rocks, because scientists have proposed that levitation technology can be achieved with one thing, sound frequencies. David Childress, author of Technology,

of the gods. This mana is an energy that no one understands today. Is it some kind of extraterrestrial energy? We just don't know. You know, what's really curious is that so many of the world's most massive megalists are found on islands, where in ancient times, resources and manpower were extremely limited. And on one island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, you'll find some of the oldest and most enormous structures anywhere on earth.

Number eight in our countdown of mysterious sites, the islands of Malta. The Maltese Islands lie in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Italy. Scholars believe the first inhabitants migrated here from the nearby island of Sicily in 5,200 BC. Today, stone structures on two of the islands, Malta and Gozo, considered by archaeologists to be among the greatest achievements by ancient builders anywhere in the world.

This is Linda Enoch's, founder of Mediterranean Institute for Ancient Civilizations. There are engineering features in these temples that are just astonishing. We're talking about walls enclosing space, paved walkways, they were ceilings at one time, much more complex than anything else that was appearing on earth for a very long time. In 2014, Georgiosuclos traveled to Malta to get an up-close look at its incredible megalithic structures. At the temple of Hajar-eem, he met with Dr. Anthony Bonanno, a professor of archaeology and classical literature. What does Hajar-Im actually mean?

Stones of worship or standing stones. Like this one, right? Check this. us out. This is huge. Wow. Three meters high by six meters, fifty wide, and about another meter thick. That makes about 20 odd tons. Minimum. Minimum, yeah. This is incredible. So this is one of the largest freestanding stones. I mean, you know, when I see stuff like this, that's when I wonder, you know, how... How do they carry it? How did they quarry it in this case? Yes, they must have and put upright.

While visitors to these islands are immediately struck by the massive megaliths, one of Malta's most incredible structures remained hidden for centuries. In 1902, construction workers accidentally discovered one of Malta's most curious features, a mysterious underground sanctuary dating to 2,500 BC. Called the Hypogeum, the subterranean structure was revealed to be three levels deep, all hewn from solid stone. Here is geologist Jeff Williams. How could people from that far back, how could they know how to construct such a thing?

If you look at some of the chambers, it looks like it's actually been carved with some type of a laser. So I don't know exactly how it was done, but I do know that they had a technology that far exceeds what we have today as far as stone cutting. If you look at the way some of these walls have been cut, There had to have been a type of plan or construction plan beforehand. And one has to wonder if that engineering knowledge was imparted upon the builders, which were our ancestors, by extraterrestrials. Could the incredible stonework found at the Hypogeum have been achieved using extraterrestrial technology? Curiously, the first archaeological investigations performed at the site,

in 1907 turned up more than 7,000 skeletons. And according to a National Geographic magazine article from May 1920, many were found to have unusually long skulls. In 2014, I had the great privilege of looking at five of these elongated skulls. And they were very interesting because one of those skulls that I looked at had a missing sagittal suture. The sagittal suture connects to the sides and roof of the cranium.

This suture is open when a person is born and closes around the age of 35. As you can see, even from the inside, there's no sign of the middle suture. Right. Completely fused. That's fascinating. Even if you have a suture that ossifies or fuses together, you still have a fine line. that you can discover or detect. And with the one skull that I was able to look at in Malta,

that suture was completely missing. Enormous megalithic structures built more than 5,000 years ago. A mysterious underground sanctuary, hidden for centuries. Ancient skulls of abnormal size and shape. As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned, The evidence all points to one conclusion, that the islands of Malta were once home to extraterrestrial beings. There aren't many places on Earth that can turn modern archaeology on its head, like the next mysterious site on our countdown. It's a place that mainstream science says can't possibly exist.

But not only does it exist, it may even provide evidence of the great flood described in the Bible. Number seven in our countdown of the top 10 mysterious sites, Gobeckli Tepe. San Leerfa Turkey, October 1994. While plowing his field, Shepherd Savak Yield is, spots a strangely shaped stone protruding from the ground. After brushing away the dirt, he realizes that it may be part of a much larger object. Hugh Newman is the co-o-oing. author of Megalith Studies in Stone.

It wasn't until German archaeologist Klaus Schmitt visited the site and began digging. They realized what was really at this site. William Henry is an author and investigative mythologist. What he discovered was mind-blowing. After discovering the first T-shaped pillar buried at the site, he soon found more of these massive structures. Klaus Schmidt had the sediment layers of the site radiocarbon dated. The results indicated that the stone structures could be as much as 12,000 years old, more than

5,000 years older than mankind's first known civilization in Mesopotamia. Some researchers propose the megalithic structures provide evidence that an advanced civilization existed on Earth many thousands of years ago. that was assisted by other worldly visitors, before falling victim to a deadly cataclysm. There is evidence of a great cataclysm that took place around 12,900 years ago. It's called the Young Godryas Impact Event, where comets and air bursts impacted the land and the ice sheets causing massive flooding. Quebec Letepe dates to the time of the Younger Dryas events that were taken place

over a few thousand year period. Quebecli-Tépe could be the smoking gun of a lost civilization, because it confirms that at the time of the last Ice Age, there was high culture existing in the world. This is something that had been speculated for many years. If you think Quebec-Tepé is one of the most mysterious sites on Earth, there is another that I think is even more baffling. It's a series of massive stones in northern France,

that have been arranged in a very deliberate and perplexing geometric pattern. Even modern archaeology can't explain their purpose. At number six on our countdown of the top ten mysterious sites, the standing stones of Karnak. On the northwest coast of France, just south of Brittany, lies one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. At the seaside village of Karnak, Over 3,000 megalithic stones are placed in rows over two miles long.

The Karnak stones were hewn from local rock formations and erected between 4,500 to 2,500 BC at the end of the Stone Age. They are the largest collection of standing stones in the world. Archaeologists are baffled by the many megalists of Karnak here. It's clearly a man-eastern man. massive construction project with blocks of granite weighing 50 to 100 to even up to 350 tons. Although mainstream archaeologists speculate that the Karnak stones are most likely tomb markers, ancient astronaut theorists believe these stones are intentionally laid out in a unique geometric formation.

Here is geologist Robert Schock, Ph.D. from Boston University. The Karnak stones were laid out incredibly precisely using standard units of measurement that show very sophisticated mathematics. It's been suggested that they were using the Pythagorean theorem thousands of years ago. It may allude us now exactly what they were trying to accomplish, but it seems like they were encoding some kind of information. The Pythagorean theorem wasn't established until 2,000 years after the last Karnak stones were erected.

So how could the builders have possessed this knowledge? And why were the stones arranged in such precise geometrical patterns? The Karnak stones are a perfect marker for any kind of aerial vehicle looking down on the earth. The extraterrestedists told our ancestors Do this, move stones, put it exactly in this pattern we order you. It was on purpose. The idea was that generations in the far future must start to ask questions. That's the situation we have today.

Could the Karnak stones contain a mathematical message left by extraterrestrials? Ancient astronaut theorists say, yes, and suggest further evidence can be found by examining a famous megalore. Pacific site to the north. Only halfway through our countdown of my top 10 most mysterious sites that we've investigated on ancient aliens. And the next side of my list is one that some believe has the power to heal, while others say it was once a portal through space and time. But what's most amazing to me is that ancient people arranged these stones to be an exact replica of our solar system.

Number five, Stonehenge. Wilcher, England. The Neolithic monument, known as Stonehenge, has dominated the landscape here for no less than 5,000 years. The iconic stone circle consists of vertical standing stones, towering 13 feet tall, and weighing 25 tons each, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, and surrounding a smaller ring of stone. in the center. Stonehenge is unlike any stone circle anywhere on the planet. It's perfectly circular, it has lintels above it.

It's designed with precision-engineered astronomical alignments. How could the ancient Stone Age people of Britain move these stones into place? However Stonehenge was constructed, it involved moving much more than just the blocks that stand today. According to researchers, this is just 25% of the original monument, the center of a much larger structure that was surrounded by multiple concentric circles. Constructed over a period of more than a thousand years. Here is John Martineau, editor of Megalith Studies in Stone. So Stonehenge is very interesting in that it evolves over a very long period of time. and the first thing that goes up at Stonehenge is not there anymore.

It's the 56 holes that today are known as the Albury Circle that used to be filled with 56 stones in a big stone circle just inside the Henge. Stonehenge is a replica of our solar system on Earth. Each circle corresponds with one of our planets inside our solar system, including Pluto. So now we have a structure that's at least 4,000 years old. And our ancestors knew about Pluto without telescopes.

Someone told them about Pluto and all of our planets in our solar system. And that is the message because in Neolithic time, there is no way that they knew about this. As amazing as Stonehenge looks today, remember what's still standing is only a fraction of the original structure, but 2,400 miles to the south is an even more extraordinary ancient site that remains almost perfectly intact. The number four site on my countdown, Egypt's Giza Plateau.

In April 2018, ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Suclos, Egyptologist Rami Romani, and Archaeo-Eastroespe, Archaeo astronomer, Dr. Giulio Mali, traveled to Cairo to investigate what is perhaps the most impressive structure ever constructed on Earth, the Great Pyramid of Giza. This is wonderful. Incredible.

Every single block is bigger than this car. Yeah, it is insane. It really is. Are you ready for some climbing? I have goosebumps on my calves right now. Built from more than 2 million limestone blocks, each weighing thousands of pounds, the pyramid is aligned perfectly to the cardinal points of the compass, north, south, east, and west, suggesting that its builders possessed extraordinary geographical knowledge. According to mainstream Egyptologists, the Great Pyramid was built sometime around 2,500 BC, as the burial tomb of the Pharaoh Kufu. But this claim has yet to be proven.

Archaeologists and Egyptologists claim that they were tombs for the pharaohs, and yet no Egyptian pharaoh was ever found in a pyramid in Egypt. We have found the mummies of many Egyptian pharaohs, but they're found in vaults deep underground at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, hundreds of miles away from the pyramids. The pyramids, no real explanation of what their purpose was, But if the pyramids at Giza were not intended to house the remains of the dead pharaohs, then why were these towering monuments built?

In his 1998 book, The Giza Power Plant, noted machinist and engineer Christopher Dunn proposed that the shape, positions of chambers, and proximity to underground rivers indicate the pyramids of Giza functioned as ancient power plants. This incredible hypothesis, which has since been adopted by other scientists and researchers, may be impossible to ever prove. But ancient astronaut theorists believe new information about the Great Pyramid may soon be revealed. In March 2016, archaeologists examining the ancient structure with a new technology known as muography made a shocking discovery. A mysterious chamber inside the structure that is as large as the Statue of Liberty.

This new room is only at the beginning of it. I'm sure within the next months or at least two years, they will discover more rooms in the Great Pyramid. I personally think that the Great Pyramid in Egypt holds some sort of time capsule. Perhaps what lies within the Great Pyramid will reveal, not only incredible truths about ancient Egypt, but about the history of humankind. Could there be clues that revealed that Egypt was once home

to an extraterrestrial civilization? High in the mountains of Peru lies a city with monumental walls so tightly joined that modern engineers admit that they couldn't replicate it today, which begs the question, how did ancient people accomplish this without to help of modern technology and at an altitude of 12,000 feet. Number three on my countdown of the world's top 10 mysterious sites,

Saksai Huaman. Kusko, Peru. On the northern outskirts of what was once the capital city of the Inca, at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet looms the ancient fortress of Saxe Woman. Mainstream archaeologists suggest the Inca built this megalithic site in the 15th century AD. But many researchers now believe that the foundation of Saxe-Woman dates back centuries earlier.

Here is Graham Hancock, author of Underworld, the mysterious origins of civilization. My feeling is that we're looking at a two-phase construction site in many of the so-called Inca stone monuments, and that the Inca structures sit on top of much more ancient rock-cut structures and megalithic structures that we just don't know who build them. And this actually fits with the Inca's own view. Like many Inca sites, Soxey Woman features astonishing stonework, but not all of it credited to the Inca. According to conventional archaeology, the Kilke culture built the older sections of the site approximately 1,000 years ago.

But the ink of themselves believed the site was constructed by an earlier, unnamed race of people, led by a powerful God who descended from the skies. Here is Jason Martel, author of Knowledge Apocalypse. Throughout time, there has been witness to a god named Veracocha that visited the South American people and blessed them and gave them all types of technology. Some of his physical characteristics make him stand out from the indigenous population because he was not at all similar to the indigenous people. Viricocha was the primary deity of the Andes, going back many thousands of years.

He was thought to be the founder of all the ancient sites we see in Peru and Bolivia today. But did Viricocha actually exist? Could he have been, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest, a visitor from an alien world. If so, it might help to explain just how the ancient site was constructed. Jorge Luis Delgado is an Andean guide and author of Andean Awakening. It's amazing all these, the weight of the storms. It's difficult, definitely, for any human to move, even in groups.

And the other aspect is how it's put together. In some stones we will see still now there is like some marks that it seems that it was dissolved. The walls are put together with blocks of stone weighing 50 or 100 tons, cut and shaped like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle so that they lock together so tightly that you can't even get a sheet of paper between them. According to local legend, a bird was responsible for the seamless construction. Legends say the winged creature carried a powerful chemical in its beak, a substance capable of melting stone. Saxagwa man means the head of the falcon,

falcon's head, but maybe it was some falcons or maybe some bird people who could connect with the place. But is it possible, as ancient astronaut theorists suggest, that the mythical bird might actually have been a spacecraft piloted by alien visitors known to the locals as Space Brothers. I believe that it's a combination of the Space Brothers technology with other kind of possibilities. Nowadays we know different kind of tools.

We didn't have before this kind of tools. Or maybe we had more sophisticated. So the thing is that this, plays Saxe-Woman, it continues as a mystery. Many of the sites we featured on my countdown are famous because they were constructed with stone blocks of the most extraordinary size and weight. And no megalithic construction on Earth is more staggering than my number two most mysterious site, the ruins of Balbeck. Eastern Lebanon, the Beka Valley. Here,

at this archaeological site stands the ruins of Heliopolis, built in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great to honor Zeus. But beneath the Corinthian columns and remnants of both Greek and Roman architecture lie the ruins of a site that is much, much older. According to archaeologists, it dates back nearly 9,000 years, the ancient city of Balbeck, named after the early Canaan deity, Ball. This is archaeologist Hanan Sharaf. Baal is the god of life, the god of the sky, the god of the sun.

He was the god that was venerated on the site of Balbek during the Canaanite and the Phoenician times. Here is archaeologist Robert Mullins. And so because it was already sacred to the god Bail, then later the Greeks and the Romans, Romans then would build temples on this very same spot. Archaeological surveys have revealed that the enormous stone foundation that lies at the base of the site dates back thousands of years. Balbeck, as we know from the archaeological evidence, must have existed during theolithic period between

six to eight thousand years or even nine thousand years BC. But even more significant to ancient astronaut theorists is is their belief that the colossal stone platform may have been built using extraterrestrial technology. As evidence, researchers point to the gigantic megalithic stones incorporated into the foundation, each weighing between 800 to 1,600 tons, and perfectly fitted together. In Balbeck, stone blocks were transported, which have a weight of over 1,000, 500 tons and this not in a flat land, it's all mountain. We have absolutely no idea how such heavy loads could there be transported in the mountain. I have not even a speculation to this, but for

sure it does never fit into the prehistoric knowledge of our ancestors. Philip Coppins is the author of The Ancient Alien Question. This is the real mystery of Balbeck, how these stones came to be there, why they were placed there, and specifically how they were transported into place. Because some of the stones are of such magnitude that modern machinery is incapable of putting them there. But somehow our ancestors were able to do this. Bill Burns, PhD, is the co-author of The Day After Roswell. It is one of the oldest, oldest megalitic sites on the planet.

and it has these huge stones laid out in a precise geometrical shape at a time when the prehistoric people who would have lived there would have no concept of how to move stones of that nature. But if the moving, hoisting, and setting of such massive stones was so incredibly difficult, then who or what helped to place them there? And perhaps more importantly, why? We know that the ancients always went to power places and Balbeck clearly is one of them. It is a place where the gods were worshipped, where the gods were said to be present.

And so when it comes to Balbeck, this platform was built there for a reason. For what purpose it was used is a question we can't answer at this moment in time. But what we do know is that whatever was happening there had a great religious significance to them and was linked with worshipping deities. Deities which clearly are of an otherworldy origin. Hopefully at one point, archaeology will be so open-minded that they actually want to explore this further. We finally reached number one on my top ten countdown

of ancient aliens' most mysterious sights. Lying in ruins atop a vast plateau in the Andes Mountains at an altitude of over 12,000 feet, the megalithic stones found at this incredible location are among the largest on planet Earth. But even more important, is how they were cut with such exact precision. And to me, they provide the strongest evidence

that extraterrestrials visited our planet and changed the course of human history. My number one most mysterious site, Puma Punku. Bolivia, South America, Here lie the mysterious ancient ruins of Puma Punku. Spread across a desert desert. across a desert plateau are dozens of megalithic stone blocks cut with extreme precision, and some weighing more than 100 tons. These are the mysterious ruins of Puma Punco, nearly 13,000 feet in the Altaplano of Bolivia.

What you have here are massive blocks of granite, scattered like some kids' toy blocks, around the site. Archaeologists are baffled by what Puma Punku was, how it looked, and what the purpose of this enormous structure would have been. What sets Puma Punku apart from other ancient megalithic sites is the incredible stonework, which some researchers suggest is far too sophisticated to have been

accomplished using primitive tools. One of the amazing things here at Puma Punku is the precision of the blocks. You can see with this block of granite that it's really been cut at very accurate right angles. Not only do these granite blocks have precision corners, but they also have these difficult drill holes that are going right through the rock. Mainstream scientists believed the site was originally constructed about 2,000 years ago. But in 1945, archaeologist Arthur Posnansky proposed that Puma Punku was much, much older. By examining the structures and what he believed were their original alignment with the stars,

he dated the ruins to 15,000 BC. But how could such primitive peasant? people, living perhaps over 10,000 years ago, have produced such flawless stonework. The Spanish conqueror asked the Inca, the people living there, including the king of the Inca, what is this? Puma Puncu. And they all said, it's not us. It's not our forefather who make this. This were made by the gods in one single night. One of the earliest Christ, one of the The chronicles that we have in regards to Puma Punku talks about that these giant platforms were moved through the air by the sound of a trumpet.

They basically floated into place. And here's another very interesting thing that, according to the myths, this is exactly what happened with the Moaii on Easter Island. Could it be that the local traditions of Easter Island, Island and Puma Punku tell nearly identical stories of levitation because the ancient people at both sites witnessed the same extraterrestrial technology. And if the stone blocks of Puma Pumaku were once part of a megalithic structure, how did it end up in ruins? Brian Forrester, author of The Enigma of Tijuana Kaku and Puma Punku. I honestly believe that Puma Punku is more

than 12,000 years old. 12,000 years ago, there was a global cataclysm that destroyed a lot of ancient sites that we find, whether in Egypt or the Altiplano of Bolivia. We had, at the end of the last ice age, all kinds of catastrophic flooding due to the events and the climate changes and the melting of the glaciers and increased precipitation.

There were incredible rises in sea levels since the end of the last ice age. More than 12,000 years ago, Lake Titicaca was 100 feet higher than it is today. And I believe that Puma Punku was literally on the shore of the lake at that time, whereas now it's eight miles away. 12,000 years ago, it was hit by a wave of mud

coming from Lake Titikaka as a tsunami. A megalithic structure built more than 12,000, years ago, with the help of extraterrestrial technology destroyed by a great cataclysm. If this incredible story is true, one question still remains. What was Puma Punku? When you look at the complexity of Puma Punku, the huge platforms, the interlocking blocks that was made into what they thought were indestructible walls, What you could have is the kind of perfectly made granite spaceport that extraterrestrials would want.

Although the origins of many of the incredible sites we featured on ancient aliens continue to be debated, to me, Puma Punko is so extraordinary that it is the one site where I will say yes, this was likely built directly by the aliens themselves. But make no mistake, each and every one of the sites on our countdown deserves to be investigated with an open mind. And it is only by asking the questions that we can finally uncover the truth of our extraterrestrial origins.