Chariots of the Gods

Chapter Nine - Mysteries Of South America And Other Oddities

Although I emphasised that it is not my intention to call in question the history of mankind during the last 2,000 years, I believe that the Greek and Roman gods and also most of the figures in sagas and legends are surrounded by the breath of a very remote past. Since mankind has existed, age-old traditions have lived on among the various peoples. More recent cultures, too, provide us with indications pointing to the remote, unknown past.

Ruins in the jungles of Guatemala and Yucatan can bear comparison with the colossal edifices of Egypt. The ground area of the pyramid of Cholula, 60 miles south of the Mexican capital, is bigger than that of the pyramid of Cheops. The pyramid field of Teotihuacan, 30 miles north of Mexico City, covers an area of almost 8 square miles and all the edifices are aligned according to the stars. The oldest text about Teotihuacan tells us that the gods assembled here and took council about man, even before homo sapiens existed!

The calendar of the Mayas, the most accurate in the world, has already been mentioned, and so has the Venusian formula. Today it is proved that all the edifices at Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copan and Palenque were built according to the fabulous Mayan calendar. The Mayas did not build pyramids because they needed them; they did not build temples because they needed them; they built temples and pyramids because the calendar decreed that a fixed number of steps of a building had to be completed every fifty-two years. Every stone has its relation to the calendar, every completed building conforms exactly to certain astronomical requirements.

But an absolutely incredible thing happened about A.D. 600! Suddenly and for no apparent reason a whole people left its laboriously and solidly built cities, with their rich temples, artistic pyramids, squares lined with statues and grandiose stadiums. The jungle ate its way through buildings and streets, broke up the masonry and turned everything into a vast landscape of ruins. No inhabitant ever returned there.

Let us pretend that this event, this enormous national migration, happened in ancient Egypt. For generations the people built temples, pyramids, cities, water conduits and streets according to calendar dates; wonderful sculptures were laboriously carved out of stone with primitive tools and installed in the magnificent buildings; when this work lasting more than a millennium was finished, they left their homes and moved to the barren north. Such a procedure, brought a little closer to the course of historical events that we are familiar with, seems incredible because it is ridiculous. The more incomprehensible a procedure, the more numerous the vague explanations and attempts at interpretation. The first version put forward was that the Mayas might have been driven out by foreign invaders. But who could have overcome the Mayas, who were at the peak of their civilisation and culture? No traces that could be connected with a military confrontation have ever been found.

The idea that the migration could have been caused by a marked change in climate is well worth considering. But there are no signs to support this view either. How could there be, when the distance covered by the Mayas from the territory of the old to the borders of the new kingdom measures only 220 miles as the crow flies—a distance that would have been inadequate to escape a catastrophical change in climate. The explanation that a devastating epidemic set the Mayas on the move also deserves serious examination. Apart from the fact that this explanation is offered as one of many, there is not the slightest proof of it. Was there a battle between the generations? Did the young revolt against the old? Was there a civil war, a revolution? If we opt for one of these possibilities, it is obvious that only a part of the population, namely the defeated, would have left the country and that the victors would have remained in their old settlements. Investigations of archaeological sites have not produced one proof that even a single Maya remained behind. The whole people suddenly emigrated, leaving their holy places unguarded in the jungle.

I should like to introduce a new note into the concert of opinions, a theory that is not proved any more than the other interpretations are. But regardless of the probability of the other explanations, I venture to make my contribution boldly and with conviction.

At some point in a very early period the Mayas' ancestors were paid a visit by the 'gods' (in whom I suspect space travellers). As a number of factors support the assumption, the ancestors of the American cultural peoples may perhaps have immigrated from the ancient Orient. But in the world of the Mayas there were strictly guarded sacred traditions about astronomy, mathematics and the calendar! The priests guarded the traditional knowledge because the 'gods' had given their word to return one day. They created a grandiose new religion, the religion of Kukulkan, the 'Feathered Serpent'.

According to priestly tradition, the 'gods' would come back from heaven when the vast buildings were completed according to the laws of the calendar cycle. So the people hastened to complete temples and pyramids according to this holy rhythm, because the year of completion was supposed to be a year of rejoicing. Then the god Kukulkan would come from the stars, take possession of the buildings and from then on live among mankind.

The work was finished, the year of the god's return came round—but nothing happened. The people sang, prayed and waited for a whole year. Slaves and jewellery, corn and oil were offered up in vain. But heaven remained dumb and without a sign. No heavenly chariot appeared; they could hear no rushing or distant thunder. Nothing, absolutely nothing happened.

If we give this hypothesis a chance, the disappointment of priests and people must have been tremendous. The work of centuries had been done in vain. Doubts arose. Was there a mistake in the calculation of the calendar? Had the 'gods' landed somewhere else? Had they all made a terrible mistake?

I should mention that the mystical year of the Mayas, in which the calendar began, goes back to 311 B.C. Proofs of this exist in Mayan writings. If we accept this date as proved, then there was only a gap of a few hundred years between it and the beginning of the Egyptian culture. This legendary age seems to be genuine, because the hyper-accurate Mayan calendar says so over and over again. If this is so, the calendar and the national migration are not the only things that make me sceptical. For a comparatively new find starts off nagging doubts, too.

In 1935 a stone relief that very probably represents the god Kukumatz (in Yucatan, Kukulkan) was found in Palenque (Old Kingdom). A genuinely unprejudiced look at this picture would make even the most die-hard sceptic stop and think.

There sits a human being, with the upper part of his body bent forward like a racing motorcyclist; today any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket. It is pointed at the front, then changes to strangely grooved indentations like inlet ports, widens out and terminates at the tail in a darting flame. The crouching being himself is manipulating a number of undefinable controls and has the heel of his left foot on a kind of pedal. His clothing is appropriate: short trousers with a broad belt, a jacket with a modern Japanese opening at the neck and closely fitting bands at arms and legs. With our knowledge of similar pictures, we should be surprised if the complicated headgear were missing. And there it is with the usual indentations and tubes, and something like antennae on top. Our space traveller—he is clearly depicted as one—is not only bent forward tensely, he is also looking intently at an apparatus hanging in front of his face. The astronaut's front seat is separated by struts from the rear portion of the vehicle, in which symmetrically arranged boxes, circles, points and spirals can be seen.

What does this relief have to tell us? Nothing? Is everything that anyone links up with space travel a stupid figment of the imagination?

If the stone relief from Palenque is also rejected from the chain of proofs, one must doubt the integrity which scholars bring to the investigation of outstanding finds. After all, one is not seeing ghosts when one is analysing actual objects.

To continue with our series of hitherto unanswered questions: why did the Mayas build their oldest cities in the jungle, and not on a river, or by the sea? Tikal, for example, lies 109 miles as the crow flies from the Gulf of Honduras, 161 miles north-west of the Bay of Campeche and 236 miles as the crow flies north of the Pacific Ocean. The fact that the Mayas were quite familiar with the sea is shown by the wealth of objects which were made of coral, mussels and shellfish. Why, then, the 'flight' into the jungle? Why did they build water reservoirs when they could have settled by the water? In Tikal alone there are thirteen reservoirs with a capacity of 214,504 cubic yards. Why did they absolutely have to live, build and work here and not in some more 'logically' situated place?

After their long trek the disappointed Mayas founded a new kingdom in the north. And once again cities, temples and pyramids arose according to the dates pre-fixed by the calendar.

To give some idea of the accuracy of the Mayan calendar, here are the periods of time they used:

20 kins = 1 uinal or 20 days

18 uinals = 1 tun or 360 days

20 tuns = 1 katun or 7,200 days

20 katuns = 1 baktun or 144,000 days

20 baktuns = 1 pictun or 21,880,000 days

20 pictuns = 1 calabtun or 571,600,000 days

20 calabtuns = 1 kinchiltun or 12,1521,000,000 days

20 kinchiltuns = 1 atautun or 232,0401,000,000 days

But the stone steps based on calendar dates are not the only things that tower above the green roof of the jungle, for observatories were built, too.

The observatory at Chichen is the first and oldest round building of the Mayas. Even today the restored building looks like an observatory. The circular edifice rises far above the jungle on three terraces; inside it a spiral staircase leads to the uppermost observation post; in the dome there are hatches and openings directed at the stars and giving an impressive picture of the firmament at night. The outer walls bear masks of the rain god ... and the image of a human figure with wings.

Admittedly the Mayas' interest in astronomy is not sufficient motivation for our hypothesis of relations with intelligences on other planets. The abundance of hitherto unanswered questions is bewildering: how did the Mayas know about Uranus and Neptune? Why are the observation posts in the observatory at Chichen not directed at the brightest stars? What does the stone relief of the rocket-driving god at Palenque mean? What is the point of the Mayan calendar with its calculations for 400 million years! Where did they get the knowledge required to calculate the solar and Venusian years to four decimal places? Who transmitted their inconceivable astronomical knowledge? Is every fact a chance product of the Mayan intellect or does each fact, or rather do all the facts added together, conceal a revolutionary message for a very distant future, as seen from their point in time?

If we put all the facts in a sieve and roughly separate the wheat from the chaff, there are so many inconsistencies and absurdities left that research needs spurring on to make a large-scale new effort to solve at least some of the enormous number of problems. For in our age research should no longer remain satisfied when confronted with so-called 'impossibilities'.

I have one more, rather gruesome story to tell, the story of the Sacred Well of Chichen Itza. From the stinking mud of this well Edward Herbert Thompson excavated not only jewellery and objects of art, but also the skeletons of youths and maidens. Drawing on ancient accounts, Diego de Landa stated that in times of drought the priests used to make pilgrimages to the well to appease the wrath of the rain god by throwing boys and girls into it in the course of a solemn ceremony.

Thompson's finds proved de Landa's claim. A horrifying story, which also brings up more questions from the bottom of the well. How did this water-hole come into being? Why was it declared a sacred well? Why this well in particular, for there are several like it?

The exact counterpart of the sacred well of Chichen Itza exists, hidden in the jungle barely seventy-six yards from the Mayan observatory. Guarded by snakes, poisonous millipedes and troublesome insects, the hole has the same measurements as the 'real' well; its vertical walls are equally weathered, overgrown and swamped by the jungle. These two wells resemble each other most strikingly. The water is the same depth and the colour shimmers from green to brown and blood-red in both wells. Unquestionably the two wells are the same age and possibly they both owe their existence to the impact of meteorites. Meanwhile, contemporary scholars speak only of the sacred well of Chichen Itza; the second well, which is so similar, does not fit into their theories, although both wells are 984 yards away from the top of the biggest pyramid, the Castillo. This pyramid belongs to the god Kukulkan, the 'Feathered Serpent'.

The snake is a symbol of nearly all Mayan buildings. That is astonishing, for one would have expected a people surrounded by luxuriant rampant flora to leave flower motifs behind on their stone relief as well. Yet the loathsome snake confronts us everywhere. From time immemorial the snake has wound its way through the dust and dirt of the earth. Why should anyone conceive of endowing it with the ability to fly? Primaeval image of evil, the snake is condemned to crawl. How could anyone worship this repulsive creature as a god and why could it fly into the bargain? Among the Mayas it could. The god Kukulkan (= Kukumatz) presumably corresponds to the figure of the later god Quetzelcoatl. What does the Mayan legend tell us about this Quetzelcoatl?

He came from an unknown country of the rising sun in a white robe, and he wore a beard. He taught the people all the sciences, arts and customs and left very wise laws. It was said that under his direction corn-cobs grew as big as a man and that cotton grew already coloured. When Quetzlcoatl had fulfilled his mission, he returned to the sea, preaching his teaching en route, and boarded a ship there which took him to the morning star. It is almost embarrassing for me to mention in addition that the bearded Quetzelcoatl also promised to return.

Naturally there is no lack of explanations for the appearance of the wise old man. A kind of Messianic role is attributed to him, for a man with a beard is not an everyday occurrence in these latitudes. There is even a daring version which suggests that the old Quetzelcoatl was an earlier Jesus! That does not convince me. Anyone who arrived among the Mayas from the ancient world would have known about the wheel for transporting men and objects. Surely one of the first actions of a sage, a god like Quetzelcoatl, who appeared as missionary, law-giver, doctor and adviser on many practical aspects of life, would have been to instruct the poor Mayas in the use of the wheel and the cart. In fact the Mayas never used either.

Let us complete the intellectual confusion with a compendium of oddities from the dim past.

In 1900 Greek sponge divers found an old wreck loaded with marble and bronze statues off Antikythera. These art treasures were rescued and subsequent investigations showed that the ship must have foundered around the time of Christ. When all the plunder was sorted out, it included a shapeless lump that proved more important than all the statues put together. When it had been carefully treated, scholars discovered a sheet of bronze with circles, inscriptions and cog wheels and soon realised that the inscriptions must be connected with astronomy. When the many separate parts were cleaned, a strange construction came to light, a regular machine with movable pointers, complicated scales or dials and metal plates with writing on. The reconstructed machine had more than twenty little wheels, a kind of differential gear and a crown wheel. On one side there was a spindle that set all the dials in motion at varying speeds as soon as it was turned. The pointers were protected by bronze covers on which long inscriptions could be read. In the case of this 'machine from Antikythera', is there the slightest doubt that first-class precision mechanics were at work in antiquity? Moreover the machine is so complicated that it was probably not the first of its kind. The American Professor Solla Price interpreted the apparatus as a kind of calculating machine with the help of which the movements of the moon, the sun and probably other planets could be worked out.

The fact that the machine gives the year of its construction as 82 B.C. is not so important. It would be more interesting to find out who built the first model of this machine, this small-scale planetarium!

The Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II is supposed to have brought back a most unusual tent from the east when he returned from the Fifth Crusade in 1229. In the interior of the tent stood a clockwork motor and people watched the constellations in motion through the dome-shaped roof of the tent. Once again a planetarium in olden times. We accept its existence at that date because we know that the necessary mechanical skills existed then. The idea of the earlier planetarium irritates us because in Christ's day the concept of a heaven with fixed stars taking into account the rotation of the earth did not exist. Even the knowledgeable Chinese and Arabic astronomers of antiquity can give us no help regarding this inexplicable fact, and it is undeniable that Galileo Galilei was not born until 1,500 years later. Anyone who goes to Athens should not miss the 'machine from Antikythera'; it is on show in the National Archaeological Museum. We possess only written accounts of Frederick II's tent planetarium.

Here are some more strange things that antiquity has bequeathed to us:

Outline drawings of animals which simply did not exist in South America 10,000 years ago, namely camels and lions, were found on the rocks of the desert plateau of Marcahuasi 12,500 ft above sea-level.

In Turkestan engineers found semicircular structures made of a kind of glass or pottery. Their origin and significance cannot be explained by the archaeologists.

The ruins of an ancient town which must have been destroyed by a great catastrophe exist in Death Valley, in the Nevada Desert. Even today traces of melted rocks and sand can be seen. The heat of a volcanic eruption would not have been enough to melt rocks—besides the heat would have scorched the buildings first. Today only Laser beams produce the required temperature. Strangely enough not a blade of grass grows in this district.

Hadjar el Guble, the Stone of the South, in the Lebanon weighs over 2 million pounds. It is a dressed stone, but human hands could certainly not have moved it.

There are artificially produced markings, as yet unexplained, on extremely inaccessible rock faces in Australia, Peru and Upper Italy.

Texts on gold plaques, which were found at Ur in Chaldea, tell of 'gods' resembling men who came from the sky and presented the plaques to the priests.

In Australia, France, India, the Lebanon, South Africa and Chile there are strange black 'stones' which are rich in aluminium and beryllium. The most recent investigations showed that these stones must have been exposed to a heavy radioactive bombardment and high temperatures in the very remote past.

Sumerian cuneiform tablets show fixed stars with planets.

In Russia archaeologists discovered a relief of an airship, consisting of ten balls arranged in a row next to each other which stand in a right-angled frame supported on both sides by thick columns. Balls rest on the columns. Among other Russian finds there is a small bronze statue of a humanoid being in a bulky suit which is hermetically closed at the neck by a helmet. Shoes and gloves are equally tightly attached to the suit.

In the British Museum the visitor can read the past and future eclipses of the moon on a Babylonian tablet.

Engravings of cylindrical rocket-like machines, which are shown climbing skywards, were discovered in Kunming, the capital of the Chinese province of Yunnan. The engravings were on a pyramid which suddenly emerged from the floor of Lake Kunming during an earthquake.

How is anyone going to explain these and many other puzzles to us? When people try to dismiss the old traditions wholesale as false, erroneous, meaningless and irrelevant, they are merely dodging the issue. It is equally unreasonable, when all is said and done, to lump all translations together as inaccurate arid then make use of them when it happens to suit one's purpose. I think that there is something cowardly about stopping one's eyes and ears to facts'—or even hypotheses—simply because new conclusions might win men away from a pattern of thought that has become familiar.

Revelations take place hourly and daily all over the world. Our modern means of communication and transport spread discoveries all round the globe. Scholars of all disciplines should inquire into the reports from the past with the same creative enthusiasm that they bring to contemporary research. The adventure of the discovery of our past has finished its first phase. Now the second fascinating adventure in human history begins with man's moving into the cosmos.

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