Ancient Aliens: The Great Egyptian Pharaohs and Gods

Amana, Egypt, 1891. Italian Archaeologist Alessandro Barsanti explores the tomb constructed for the Pharaoh Akhenaten, but finds no evidence of his mummy. GIORGIO A.

TSOUKALOS: What's really interesting is that the Egyptologists were certain that they would find Akhenaten behind that tomb, and they didn't. NARRATOR: Just what happened to this revolutionary leader after his death is as mysterious as the pharaoh himself? Was he never actually buried in his tomb, or could he have been removed?

Akhenaten ruled from 1353 BC until his death 17 years later. His reign was dominated by controversy when he abandoned the pantheon of old Egyptian gods and instead demanded that his subjects worship the sun god Aten. The Aten was something that he saw in the sky between two mountains that inspired him to create the sacred city of Amarna.

Now, the typical view is the Aten must be the sun. But it is entirely possible that what Akhenaten was seeing was in fact an extraterrestrial flying craft. NARRATOR: Did Akhenaten uproot the entire kingdom of Egypt because of an extraterrestrial encounter?

Or could there be an even more profound explanation? If you compare images of Akhenaten to other depictions of pharaohs, you'll notice that Akhenaten looks very different. He had this very bizarre elongated skull.

And he had this weird potbelly and weird arms. So was he really a human? Perhaps, Akhenaten was not of this Earth.

NARRATOR: While archaeologists have yet to uncover the remains of Akhenaten, ancient astronaut theorists believe that depictions of him having and elongated skull could be more than just artistic license because there are other mummies that do, in fact, have unusual skulls. Some elongated skulls can be explained by the fact that numerous ancient cultures practiced head binding, a form of body modification where the heads of infants were tightly bound to force their skulls to become conical in shape. But several misshapen skulls appeared to defy explanation.

In Peru and Malta, elongated skulls have been discovered that are mysteriously missing a sagittal suture, the fibrous jagged joint found in all human skulls. GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: When you compare some of these elongated skulls, some have sutures like we have as humans.

And then there are other skulls that do not have the same sutures. So is it possible that some of them are of actual extraterrestrial origin? It would not surprise me in the least bit, in the least bit.

The Giza plateau, Egypt, 1925. Rising out of the desert sand is a giant stone statue of a human head. For centuries, most visitors to the area believed this was all that existed.

But French engineer Emile Baraize is convinced that much more lies beneath the surface than even archeologists are aware of. He begins an excavation to uncover it. And after 11 years of extensive digging, Baraize unearths a massive body resembling a lion, and reintroduces the world to the full splendor of the Great Sphinx.

It is the largest monolithic sculpture on earth. It must have been quite eerie to be there back then, not knowing a lot about the ancient Egyptian history, and having this huge structure staring down at you. NARRATOR: Facing east toward the rising sun, the Great Sphinx is located nearly half a mile from Egypt's three largest pyramids.

It is carved from a single piece of limestone bedrock, and stands over 60 feet tall and 240 feet long. People have asked themselves for centuries what was the Sphinx for? Why was it built?

There is a story behind it, but what is the story? NARRATOR: The Sphinx is arguably one of the most studied monuments in the world, yet it remains one of the most mysterious. There are no inscriptions on the Sphinx to indicate who built it or why, but most egyptologists date it to 2,500 BC, the time of the pharaoh Khafre, or Khefren, as he is known by Greek scholars.

The dating is based on a mention of Khafre on a tablet found between the paws of the Sphinx. But this tablet, known as the Dram Stele, also tells the story of a pharaoh who came 1,000 years later, King Thutmose IV. King Thutmose IV comes in the New Kingdom, which we believe is more than 1,000 years after the time the Sphinx was sculpted.

He made the stele to tell his story. King Thutmose IV before becoming a king was on an expedition here in Giza. And he slept right next to the Sphinx.

And back then the Sphinx was covered in sand all the way up to its head. And in his dream, the Sphinx came to him. The Sphinx spoke to him and said that if he would uncover the Sphinx from the burial in the sand, he would then end up as pharaoh.

Now, he was the son of a pharaoh but was not the heir. Thutmose IV ended up with that throne after this dream. The Sphinx itself speaks to a future pharaoh, and the history of ancient Egypt is altered by this fact.

The Sphinx told King Thutmose IV in his sleep, right here in that line, that everything that the eye of the lord illuminates will be his. He cleared all the sand surrounding the Sphinx, and Thutmose IV then became the king. So the Sphinx kept its promise.

Now, the amazing thing about this is that we learn of what's called the flashing eye of the lord. What is the flashing eye of the lord? This sounds like some kind of technology that is in communication with the Sphinx or perhaps channeled by the Sphinx that could ensure the prosperity of Thutmose IV.

NARRATOR: If the story on the Dram Stele is true, the Sphinx not only ensured the prosperity of Thutmose IV but of perhaps the most important dynastic family in the history of the Egyptian empire. Thutmose IV was actually the grandfather of Akhenaten. NARRATOR: Akhenaten was considered a heretical pharaoh.

He changed the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt and declared there was only one god, Aten, a god he depicted as a disk in the sky. Akhenaten became enthralled with the Aten disk. Is it possible that the eye of the lord and the Aten disk are one and the same, and that they are in fact some kind of UFO spaceship that's hovering over Egypt as an eye in the sky and is guiding the Egyptian civilization?

The Valley of the Kings. Located on the Western bank of the Nile River lies one of the most expansive burial grounds in all of Egypt. The tombs were constructed between 1539 and 1075 BC for pharaohs and other nobility.

To-date, 63 tombs have been discovered in the Valley of the Kings. Of the best preserved is that of Pharaoh Ramses VI, who ruled from approximately 1145 to 1137 BC. RAMY ROMANY: More than 4,000 years ago, King Ramses would have started dating this to become his tomb, where as he called it his House of Eternity.

For ancient Egyptians, a tomb wasn't just a place where he would end up dead; a tomb was in place where they would start their eternal life. NARRATOR: The Egyptians believed that in death, the soul would split into several parts and begin the journey to the afterlife. But to make this transition, it was essential to reunite this soul with the physical body.

And while the Egyptians were not the first to mummify their dead, no other ancient culture went to such great lengths to preserve the body and ensure entrance into the next life. TORI RANDALL: Ancient Egyptians would put a body that needed to be mummified in a dry room. And they would first take out the internal organs.

And they packed that body with natron salt to start the drying process. And then they would remove the brain. And then they would rinse the body with sweet-smelling oils.

And they cover the entire body in natron salt. And it would stay that way for about 35 to 70 days. Once the body was all dried out, they would wrap the entire body, putting amulets and other special jeweled objects in the linen.

And then once it was completely wrapped and be done. NARRATOR: The Egyptians understood the most important factor in mummification, the removal of fluids, which ensures that bacteria cannot survive and the body will not decay. Although archaeologists have discovered much about how these mummies were prepared, the Egyptians left behind no texts or instructions on mummification.

Just how the Egyptians came to create this complex practice remains a mystery. But they did leave behind extensive records regarding their thoughts on the afterlife. This right here is a very good depiction of the journey of the after life with King Ramses.

You see him here on a solo barge being protected by all the different gods behind him-- goddess Isis and goddess Osiris. This right here is god Anubis. And god Anubis this is the god of the mummification.

JONATHAN YOUNG: The most important story in Egyptian mythology is the god Osiris, how his brother Set coveted his brothers power and killed him. Then his wife Isis, in grief, got help from a Anubis, who then helped Isis breathe life back into him to survive into the next life, with the help of Anubis, inventor of embalming and mummification. The mummification process in Egypt has often been related to the star Sirius, which we call the Dog Star.

And the mummification rites where it's overseen by the Egyptian god Anubis, who was a jackal-headed god. And so you have to wonder if a new this wasn't some real, physical extraterrestrial god. WILLIAM HENRY: The ancient Egyptian temple walls are covered with images of transformation.

And what it reveals is that their core sacred science was about human transformation or ascension into celestial beings. So you wonder, is it possible it's because those who originally taught us the concept came from the stars? NARRATOR: As ancient Egypt grew into a great civilization, its citizens believe their pharaohs were sons of Osiris and thus, living gods.

Artwork and wall carvings depicted them as perfect humans. And while the people worship many different gods, the pharaohs stood above them all. This basic Egyptian religious belief remained in force for nearly 1,000 years until one pharaoh changed everything.

Who was this heretic? His name was Akhenaten. And in every surviving depiction, he is shown with an elongated skull.

Who was he? According to Egyptian mythology, he too was descended from the gods who arrived on Earth at the time of Tepp Zeppi. But why do so many still believe he actually came from the stars?

In 1352 BC, Akhenaten ascended to the throne as the 10th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. Almost immediately, he instituted a series of radical religious changes, including a ban on references to multiple gods. ROBERT BAUVAL: It's a rather strange thing that he would want to do that with one sweep, but he ordered all the iconography of previous gods to be removed.

He only allowed one emblem, which was the sun emblem, literally a sun disk with curious arms or rays pouring down. Why did he do this? Because according to his writings and his poems that were written about him later on, he was visited by one of those beings that descended from the sky who told Akhenaten, this is the way, I am your god.

NARRATOR: This sun god was known as Aten. Akhenaten claimed to be a direct descendant of Aten. ROBERT BAUVAL: Akhenaten, like any other pharaoh, regarded himself to be divine.

He was a god. Not only himself believed himself to be a god, but the whole nation saw him as a god. Now, the definition of god is that he was a descendant from these celestial beings.

NARRATOR: During his fourth year as pharaoh, Akhenaten ordered the construction of a new capital city he called it Amarna, and dedicated it to the sun. Akhenaten would spend the next 10 years here. During which time, he instituted changes in both art and culture, including how he himself would be publicly depicted.

ROBERT R. CARGILL: In Egyptian iconography, Egyptian pharaohs are depicted as these triangular-shaped beings, these broad, strong shoulders and these very skinny waist. Now, we look at leaders today and we know that most leaders don't have broad shoulders and skinny waist.

But it was important to depict the Egyptian kings as having broad shoulders and skinny waist, the epitome of what a king ought to look like. That's exactly the opposite with Akhenaten. He shows himself perhaps as he really is, a rather strange look.

He has very mystical look. ROBERT M. SCHOCH: If we take Akhenaten's statues, for instance, literally, he was a very strange-looking character.

Sort of combined, some people would say feminine aspects with masculine aspects, may have had an elongated skull. ROBERT R. CARGILL: The change in royal iconography of Akhenaten showed him as he probably really was, with a misshapen head, with a potbelly, with a sunken chest, as opposed to the idealized iconography of traditional Egyptian artists that show this big, strong pharaoh.

NARRATOR: Akhenaten's wife, Queen Nefertiti, and their children, were also depicted as having elongated skulls. So why were Akhenaten's and Nefertiti's heads deformed? Did they suffer from a genetic abnormality?

Or did they deliberately alter their shape? Some believe there could be yet another explanation behind their strange otherworldly appearance. They look like they're different than other human beings.

Is it possible that Akhenaten might have been an extraterrestrial hybrid? [ominous music] ROBERT R. CARGILL: Ancient alien enthusiasts look at pharaoh Akhenaten of Egypt and say, ah, look at that long head.

That looks like an alien Gray, that looks like some kind of something that's non-human or some hybrid between something else and something human. Must be evidence of alien interference, alien reproduction with humans, something like that. BETTY ANN BROWN: I've been to Egypt.

And one of the most stunning things is about seeing the archeological remains of ancient Egypt, is that one unique pharaoh Akhenaten. GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: I mean, he's got a very narrow, pointy face, high cheekbones, and a very elongated cranium.

DAVID CHILDRESS: The idea that they were either looking like extraterrestrials or perhaps had extraterrestrial DNA in them is a credible idea.