The Ancient Alien Question

by Philip Coppens

  The temple complex of Baalbek in Lebanon became the home of the largest Roman temple. But it is the platform below the Roman complex that is one of the great enigmas of the ancient world, as it holds stones that weigh hundreds of tons. No one knows how they were transported.

  The Arabs believe that Baalbek was the place where Nimrod rebelled against God and constructed the Tower of Babel, but there are other traditions that link the construction of the complex with Cain, who built it after Jahweh had cursed him. All of these legends share one common component, which is that the temple of Baalbek is considered to be the oldest building in the world. Apart from being old, it is also huge. The Acropolis of Baalbek is much bigger than the Acropolis in Athens. In fact, even the second-largest temple in Baalbek is bigger than the Parthenon in Athens.

  It is the megalithic ruins between the temple that have attracted speculation as to how our ancestors could have created Baalbek. Most interesting is the stone platform on which the Romans built the Temple of Jupiter. Its walls consist of about 24 monoliths at their lowest level, each weighing 300 tons. There is a trilithon (a grouping of three blocks, two vertical with a horizontal block atop them) in the southwest wall of the platform, known as the “Marvel of the Three Stones,” each more than 62 feet high and weighing an estimated 800 tons! A fourth stone nearby is 80 feet in length and weighs 1,100 tons! They are thought to be the world’s biggest blocks of cut stone. As in so many other places, the stones are precisely cut and were somehow transported from a quarry several miles away from the temple complex. Michel Alouf, the former curator of the site, observed that, “In spite of their immense size, they are so accurately placed in position and so carefully joined, that it is almost impossible to insert a needle between them. No description will give an exact idea of the bewildering and stupefying effect of these tremendous blocks on the spectator.”10

  The so-called Stone of the South, which lies in the quarry, is 69 feet long, and is estimated to weigh 1,200 tons; another stone in the quarry, The Stone of the Pregnant Woman, weighs 1,000 tons. With the technology that science has accredited to the builders, it would take 40,000 men to move this single block! This is logistically impossible, as a 69-foot-long block does not offer sufficient holds and spaces for 40,000 men to put their hands on it. So clearly some form of technology was used in moving this stone; it is the only possible conclusion. Not only were the stones moved from the quarry to the platform, but they were also lifted up 30 feet in the air.

  Roger Hopkins, a stone mason, has suggested that the trilithon stones and 300-ton blocks were all moved with wooden rollers, and he has been invited to demonstrate his suggestion in a number of television programs. However, Hopkins was using 10 people for a 2-ton stone in his demonstration, which was done on a concrete platform—a very smooth surface compared to the landscape around Baalbek. For a stone weighing more than 10 tons, Hopkins agrees he requires more than 100 people to move it.

  The Stone of the South, still in the quarry of the Baalbek complex. It is 69 feet long, and is estimated to weigh 1,200 tons. It is among the most gigantic stones ever to have been carved. How these and similar stones were ever meant to be transported is unknown, and poses challenges even to our modern equipment.

  Archaeologists already have difficulty explaining how the Romans built the temple itself. The Temple of Jupiter consisted of 54 columns, though only six now remain after millennia of earthquakes. It is believed that the platform was actually constructed to make the entire temple complex more resistant to earthquakes, but this is faulty logic, as the temple complex was clearly not resistant to earthquakes, whereas the platform itself has withstood the test of time. A more logical scenario is that the platform was chosen by the Romans to build their temple, as they knew that it would offer a better chance for their temple to remain intact.

  The architrave and frieze blocks of the Temple of Jupiter weigh up to 60 tons each, with one corner block weighing more than 100 tons, and all of them raised to a height of more than 60 feet above the ground. Though archaeologists argue this was done using Roman cranes, these cranes were not capable of lifting such weights. They therefore suggest that combining multiple cranes may have allowed the builders to lift these stones, but in the truth, this is speculation. Archaeologists do not even speculate as to how the 800-ton stones were moved, for there is no evidence from any known civilization that such technology was available to our ancestors—but someone clearly accomplished it, somehow!

  British author Alan Alford, in Gods of the New Millennium, contacted Bob MacGrain, the technical director of Baldwins construction company, who confirmed that modern technology was just about able to lift and place 1,000-ton stones on a support structure that was 20 feet high, but this technology had just come about in the 1990s, when Alford wrote the book.

  Because of its location, Baalbek is largely off-limits, so the ability to understand our ancient past has become one of the victims of the warfare that has typified this region. Is it a coincidence that the Romans all of a sudden excelled in their building techniques in a location where humankind had excelled before? Or is it possible that when the Romans erected their temple, there was still a body of knowledge locally available that they made full use of? That could more easily explain the enigma of the largest temple of the Roman Empire, though it does not explain the mystery of the platform itself.

  For that mystery, we need to go back to the beginnings of civilization. With stories of the Tower of Babel and folklore that this was the oldest building in the world (which, in biblical terms, the Tower of Babel obviously is), Baalbek presents some of the best evidence from the ancient world to demonstrate that at a point in time before the Roman Empire, someone in the Bekaa valley was far more advanced than anyone else, and constructed a stone platform that truly defies belief. Whoever built it possessed technology and/or knowledge that cannot be accredited in a normal manner to our ancestors, as Baalbek’s platform is truly extraordinary—out of the ordinary. No wonder, therefore, that the Russian scientist Matest Agrest in 1959 proposed that Baalbek was used as a launch platform for extraterrestrial spaceships. Indeed, until NASA moved the gigantic Saturn V rocket to its launch pad on a huge tracked vehicle, no one had transported such a weight as the stones of Baalbek.

  Carnac

  In Brittany, France, Carnac and its neighboring villages still contain about 4,000 megalithic stones. Archaeologists believe that the original amount was probably closer to 10,000 stones. Carnac is especially famous for the thousands of stones that have been grouped into so-called alignments—stone rows. Though the stone rows of Carnac are not unique—they are found elsewhere in France and abroad—Carnac does have the most impressive and most gigantic stone alignments in the world.

  The French town of Carnac is primarily famous for its stone rows. More than 4,000 remain. But the area once also had the tallest standing stone in the world, weighing 340 tons and measuring 60 feet high. This incredibly large stone has since fallen and broken into various parts.

  Archaeologists date the stone rows as being 5,000 to 6,000 years old, making them approximately 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza, in Egypt. It should therefore come as no surprise that, locally, the stone rows are compared to a “Neolithic cathedral.”

  It is known that the largest stones on display here weigh more than 20 tons. Modern reconstructions, using tools and techniques that were known to our Neolithic ancestors, have shown that a group of approximately 20 people were able to create a stone of such size. But this is not the real enigma of Carnac. The enigma is that the stones are still standing. The surface of the Neolithic Age is barely 10 inches below the present ground level, and a further 10 inches below is granite—one of the hardest rocks on the planet. This means that the stones were placed on soil with a maximum depth of 10 inches, before they hit solid rock. In this tiny hole, the builders had to create all the required balance to keep the stone upright. Despite the long odds, they managed to succeed in this, as is evidenced by the thous
ands of standing stones that make up the stone rows.

  Whereas many megalithic remains have been seriously damaged and been the subject of vandalism, the key to the survival of the Carnac megaliths might be the fact that they were largely invisible until the 17th century. Documents written before that time do not refer to them; most likely they were hidden by foliage that masked them from passers-by. But in the 17th century there was a need for more agricultural ground, which led to the discovery of the megaliths. Whereas in other parts of the world the megalithic blocks were often moved (if possible) or toppled and then buried, in Carnac, there were so many of them that it was an impossible task for any farmer, which meant that they remained intact.

  Major archaeological interest in the stone rows only began in the latter half of the 20th century. These archaeologists originally believed that, rather than a series of stone rows, there was in origin just one major stone row, covering a distance of more than 5 miles. Soon, research revealed that this “single stone row” theory did not float; it seemed instead that there were five stone rows, four of which contained approximately 1,000 stones. However, more recent research, which I will come back to shortly, suggests there is indeed a “great plan” to Carnac, and that it could be considered as one single stone row.

  One concentration of stones can be found near Erdeven; the other concentration of stones stands back-to-back to the north of Carnac. The most western is that of Le Menec, where there are 1,099 standing stones in 11 rows. One stone towers above all others, measuring 12 feet, and is thus labeled “the giant.” Most of the stones are, however, relatively small—at least in comparison to the stone row of Kermario, to the east of the row of Le Menec.

  The stone rows of Kermario number 1,029 stones, distributed in 10 rows. The field where they stand measures 3,675 feet, showing that the stones are roughly one yard apart. This field has the most gigantic stones, and is continued in the field of Kerlescan, where there are 594 stones, in 13 rows, spread out over 2,900 feet.

  There are further stone rows: those of Sainte Barbe, which is a stone row of 50 stones, in four rows, oriented south to north; and the most northern stone row of Kerzerho, which numbers 1,130 stones in 10 rows, measuring an impressive 7,000 feet in length. Near the camping of Kerzerho, some of these stones measure no less than 19 feet in height. They are the highest standing stones in the entire region.

  Apart from stone rows, there are also other megalithic constructions here, like the dolmen at Crucuno, which makes for an impressive sight as it leans against a wall of a farm; its covering stone weighs 40 tons. Archaeologists have dated it as contemporary with the stone rows, at around 4000 BC.

  There is one standing stone that was 60 feet high, weighed in at 340 tons, and was moved over a distance of 4 miles to its present location. It should come as no surprise that this stone is no longer standing. But this stone does underline the knowledge and technology of this culture, which erected stones on a scale not seen anywhere else.

  What are they? Archaeologists have excluded the possibility that these are graves. Neither did they serve a military purpose, though the American soldiers, during the Second World War, did mistake the stone rows for a German defense line. According to the legend, a French soldier who was aware of the situation had to intervene, as otherwise the stone rows would have become the target of intensive bombing raids.

  Excluding funerary and military purposes, archaeologists conclude that the only purpose could have been religious. Modern archaeologists think that it is likely that the stones were used as the framework for a procession, and whereas this is possible, in the final analysis, all archaeologists have to agree that they simply do not know why Carnac was built.

  One man, Howard Crowhurst, has been able to demonstrate how Carnac was constructed and has revealed that the builders were great mathematicians, who were also very familiar with astronomy. Crowhurst has demonstrated that a number of stone rows were aligned to solar and lunar phenomena. Kermario, for example, is aligned to the sunrise at the summer solstice—something Kermario has in common with that other great marvel of the megalithic world, Stonehenge.

  Crowhurst moved to the Carnac region in 1986, and his three decades of mapping the stones—more recently aided by the arrival of Google Earth and its satellite photographs—has revealed to him a master plan. When he analyzed the stone rows, he realized that there was great intricacy in their design. He noticed that the construction method of the stone rows at Carnac involved squares: Sometimes two squares were used to create a rectangle, and sometimes three. What Crowhurst realized, for example in Le Menec, was that the short side of this rectangle was aligned perfectly north–south, and the stone rows were aligned along the diagonal of this rectangle. This insight revealed Carnac’s master plan, which is marked by an extreme accuracy in design and planning, whereby its builders used advanced mathematics, and were also able to plot and measure pieces of land over distances of several miles, before they began to place thousands of megaliths. In short, the region of Carnac was carefully mapped, measured, and plotted, so that these stone rows would be accurately directed to certain lunar, solar, and maybe other astronomical phenomena—likely some that are not yet discovered.

  This means that our ancestors could plan almost to the inch plots of lands that stretch for several miles. In his analysis of Carnac, Crowhurst confirmed that this civilization used the so-called megalithic yard. This megalithic yard was first proposed by Professor Alexander Thom, who made detailed surveys of 600 megalithic sites in Britain, Ireland, and France. The megalithic yard is equal to 2.72 feet. Thom also proposed another unit, which he labeled the megalithic rod, and which was 2.5 megalithic yards. Whereas archaeology is largely preoccupied with trying to find ammunition with which to attack Thom’s conclusions, Crowhurst is one of several who have found further evidence of this unit of measurement. At Kermario, he found that the three most important stones present were 500 megalithic rods apart. He has measured the Scottish Ring of Brodnar (on the Orkney Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland) and found its diameter is 50 megalithic rods, a distance he also found in the diameter of the stone circles surrounding the Irish megalithic complex of Newgrange and the two stone circles in Avebury, near Stonehenge. All these sites are identified as the most important megalithic monuments of Western Europe, making Crowhurst’s observations extremely important.

  Alexander Thom suggested that “there must have been a headquarters from which standard rods were sent out but whether this was in these islands or on the Continent the present investigation cannot determine.”11 What can be determined is that there definitely was a central HQ, which covered both France and Britain, and this from as early as 4500 BC.

  Whereas some conservative archaeologists such as Aubrey Burl have poured scorn over Thom’s megalithic yard, more progressive archaeologists have actually boldly gone where even Thom did not go. Archaeologist Euan Mackie noticed similarities between the megalithic yard and a unit of measurement that was in use in Mohenjo Daro, in modern Pakistan, as well as ancient measuring rods used in mining in the Austrian Tyrol. He has also suggested similarities with other measurements such as the ancient Indian gaz and the Sumerian šu-du3-a, and is one of many who have noted that the megalithic yard is the diagonal of a rectangle measuring 2 by 1 Egyptian remens. The “diagonal of a rectangle” is of course precisely the “secret of Carnac” that Crowhurst has uncovered.

  The emerging scenario is therefore that the ancient world used several units of measurement, but several cultures actually shared common units of measurement, or units that were related—most specifically, that Egypt and the megalithic civilization were somehow using a related unit of measurement. Throughout Western Europe, all megalithic monuments share not only a similar appearance, but also made use of the same system of measurement and mathematics.

  We know that human hands could have built Carnac, but that is not the real mystery of the site. The revelation of Carnac is that our ancestors were—once again—far more a
dvanced in mapping the landscape, measuring it, and building to an incredible accuracy, for reasons unknown. Crowhurst has identified that our ancestors seemed to realize the landscape came with certain energies, and he feels adamant that is why certain megaliths were placed in the locations they can now be found. Megalithic Europe incorporated certain natural features (such as mountains) into an artificially enhanced landscape, which had been constructed according to a mathematically complex and precise master plan. It involved careful alignments to astronomical phenomena, but also played with the energies of the earth—which is likely one of the reasons why the stones of Carnac were placed on top of a granite surface. Certain energies were harnessed here, but how and why remains a question that can only be answered in the future. What we can say is that the site shows that the builders of Carnac—in 4500 BC—possessed knowledge with which official archaeology refuses to credit them.

  Flying Machines in Ancient India

  Ancient India has made one of the greatest contributions to the concept of ancient flight: the vimana. At the World Space Conference on October 11, 1988, in Bangalore, India, Dr. Roberto Pinotti addressed the delegates and spoke on ancient Indian vimanas, telling them what the vimanas were and that they should take the subject seriously: that the vimanas should be studied as real flying machines. He was largely addressing the foreign delegates, for many Indian traditions hold the belief that their ancestors possessed technology that gave them the ability to fly.

  References to vimanas can be found in the Yuktikalpataru of Bhoja (12th century AD), the Mayamatam, in 150 verses of the Rig Veda, the Yajurveda, and the Atharvaveda, as well as literary passages belonging to the Ramayana (fifth century BC), the Mahabharata (sixth century BC), the Puranas, the Bhagavata (ninth century AD), the Rahuvamsam, and references in the drama Abhijanaakuntalam of Kalidasa (second century BC, the Jatakas (third century BC), and several more. Some of these documents even give details on the mechanism of the vehicles. Chapter XXXI of the Samarangana Sutradhara contains details of the construction of this machine, and it has been found that one manuscript of this treatise is as old as AD 1610. There are 230 stanzas dealing with not only their construction, but also with take-off, their ability to cruise for distances of thousands of miles, and the danger of bird strike!