When? 24 July 1948
Where? Montgomery, Alabama

What happened? This case was one of the very first UFO sightings reported by commercial pilots. Whilst flying from Houston to Atlanta, pilots Chiles and Whitted encountered a large, cigar-shaped craft flying close to them, barely missing them at times. At one point, the object appeared to stop abruptly before vanishing into thin air. The pilots agreed that it was a long, thin craft, with two rows of windows that emitted a blueish glow. It was moving really fast, leaving a trail of orange/red exhaust in its wake. What makes this sighting more credible is that this sighting wasn’t only reported by Chiles and Whitted.  Several witnesses at an airbase in Georgia claim to have seen an identical object half an hour before the pilots’ experience. Government officials were able to rule out the possibility of it being a military or commercial flight as there were no fitting flights scheduled at that time.

How was it explained? After an investigation, government debunkers wrote the sighting off as an illusion caused by temperature inversions, and later changed their minds and claimed it was a meteor. However, as the description of the object does not at all fit that of a meteor, this sighting is still classed as ‘unexplained’.

When? 21 October 1978
Where? Bass Strait, Australia

What happened? Frederick Valentich disappeared whilst piloting a light aircraft over Bass Strait. During his routine flight, Valentich reported to Melbourne Air Traffic Control that a ‘strange aircraft’ 1,000m above him was following him. He also complained that his engine was running roughly and his craft began to act in strange ways. The transcript from Valentich’s conversation with Melbourne tells us that the unidentified craft was a long ‘shape’, moving at three times his speed and orbiting him. He also said that its lights were beaming and looked a little like landing lights. Perhaps the most chilling extract from the transcript comes just before Valentich is cut off for good. He says: “It’s hovering – and it’s not an air craft…” Valentich and his aircraft disappeared shortly after this conversation. There was an extensive 7-day search of land and sea and not a single trace of Valentich or his plane was found. The Department of Transport were never able to determine the cause of Valentich’s disappearance, but it was ‘presumed fatal’ for him.

How was it explained? The Australian government came up with several potential explanations. Firstly, as he had enough fuel to fly 800km, they have suggested he may have staged his own disappearance. However there were no reports of matching aircrafts plotted on any radar at this time. Secondly, they claimed that he may have been disoriented and was flying upside down – meaning that the lights he saw were actually a reflection of his own in the water. Finally, they have suggested that he may have committed suicide. However, many believe that – as there was no trace of him or his craft, and he was a competent and qualified pilot with a happy life – he was abducted.

When? August-September 1951
Where? Lubbock, Texas

What happened? On the night of 25 August 1951 Dr. W.I. Robinson was standing in the back garden of his home with two of his colleagues from the Texas Technological College, Professor Ducker and Dr. Oberg. All of a sudden all three men saw several lights fly across the sky, silently. They flew across the whole horizon within a matter of seconds, and the same thing happened again a few moments later. Between August and November Professor Ducker claims to have seen 12 similar flights, and several of his colleagues witnessed some as well. Hundreds of other non-scientists claimed to have seen the lights too. On the evening of 30 August, Texas Tech student, Carl Hart Jr. spotted the lights and was able to take five successive photos of them with his 35-mm Kodak camera. He was paid $10 for the photos and they were printed in papers nationally. However, the professors stated that these photos did not accurately portray the lights they had been seeing. Carl photographed the lights flying in a V formation – the professors had consistently seen them flying in a U shape.

How was it explained? Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who would later become the first director of Project Blue Book, was sent to Lubbock to investigate the lights. To this day, an extraterrestrial explanation for the lights has never been fully debunked, however, other possible explanations have been cited. It was suggested that it was a group of Plover birds, shooting stars or comet fragments – though none of these explanations ever really fit the bill.

When? 1989 - 1990
Where? Across Belgium

What happened? These sightings began in 1989 but peaked with the events on 30/31 March 1990. On that night several unknown objects were tracked by two Belgian aircrafts and photographed. Additionally, they were witnessed by around 13,500 people with 2,600 filing official written statements detailing what they saw. The general description of the sighting is of three unusual lights, brighter than stars and changing colour, flying across the sky towards the South-East of Brussels. Patrols of Belgian aircraft were sent to investigate and try to track the lights, which had formed into small triangles. They managed to obtain a radar lock onto the unidentified crafts on three occasions, but their targets rapidly accelerated each time before descending to ground level. The pilots never made visual contact with the targets. The sudden changes in speed of the unidentified crafts should have been fatal to their pilots. Ground witnesses, the police and the pilots all give identical accounts of this sighting.

How was it explained? Many people are sceptical about these sightings, mainly because the only photo to emerge from the wave turned out to be a hoax. A lot of people explain the sightings as mass delusion, from misinformation spread by the media and the UFO logical organisation. Others argue that they were simply helicopters, their silence explained by a strong natural wind, or other noise drowning their engine sound out. However, nothing has been confirmed or verified, and the Belgian UFO Wave remains unexplained.

When? 1942
Where? Los Angeles, California

What happened? On the night of 24 February 1942, not too long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, air raid sirens rang out across Los Angeles. Thousands of people witnessed searchlights around Los Angeles fixing on a target hovering over the city, and the Coast Guard Anti-aircraft guns were ready to fire. They assumed it was an attack from Japan – but they were wrong. To this day, the Japanese claim they never attacked and there is no wreckage or other evidence to say that they did. People inland started to report seeing the large craft, or fleet, and Air Raid Wardens put the city into blackout. Some witnesses describe the sighting as a tremendous single object, crawling through the sky, whilst others say it was a group of smaller objects. At 3.16am a barrage of AA shells began, and the firing at the object continued throughout the night until the blackout was lifted at 7.21am. Several buildings were damaged in the firing and six people were killed – three by friendly fire and three from stress caused by the attacks.

How was it explained? The next morning the papers were filled with several different explanations. Some reported that it was Japanese planes that were shot down – though there was no evidence to say that this was the case. The LA Times ran a front-page picture showing an image of an odd object caught in the searchlights. The Government denounced the whole story, calling it a false alarm caused by ‘war nerves’, however many witnesses confirm that they believe what they saw was extra-terrestrial.

Deep in the South West of England, in the county of Wiltshire, is a former RAF base called Rudloe manor. At first glance, the building looks like any other quaint English manor house, but, deep beneath the structure lies a vast network of underground tunnels and chambers. Contained within their walls is a closely kept secret.

For years, the RAF’s secret service worked at Rudloe Manor across espionage and counterintelligence operations, but also something else -  UFO investigations. The claim was consistently denied by the MOD, but in 2007, during a release of declassified files from the National Archives, it was finally confirmed the site was the centre for UFO investigations in the 1950s.

Shortly before the files were release, the MOD announced that Rudloe Manor was no longer in use, but today the location is still fenced off, monitored by cameras and guarded by dogs. It begs the question, what are they hiding?

To look for answers, Ancient Aliens host Giorgio A. Tsoukalos is heading to the site. Alongside Nick Pope, a former MOD UFO Investigator, Giorgio explores the possibility that important files related to the history of the UFO phenomenon are being kept under lock and key here.

Might there be recovered extraterrestrial craft be stored and analysed there? Could the evidence of extraterrestrial contact from the Berwyn Mountains incident in 1974 and the Rendlesham forest encounter in 1980 be hidden in this highly-protected facility? 

HISTORY spoke to folklore enthusiast Neil Cartwright, who told us, “We all suspected this was happening at Rudloe Manor, but they operated as a clandestine organisation unregulated for decades, never held accountable to the British taxpayer. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this story in the coming years.”

Area 51 is located about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. It is a highly secretive American air force base. The exact use of Area 51 is unknown as it is strictly guarded and cut off from the public.

In fact, it was only publicly acknowledged by the CIA in 2013, when the CIA released the official history of some of its projects in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

60 declassified documents were handed over, which particularly focused on activity in the 1960's and 1970's and the need to develop stealth (spy) aircraft to monitor the Soviet Union. Other documents described the need to take photographs of Area 51 by satellite to see what the Russians may also see if they were spying on them with satellite.

One thing these documents make no mention of is UFOs. That's right, no mention of flying saucers, little green men or of anything remotely to do with extraterrestrials. So why is Area 51 so commonly linked to aliens?

Well there's a couple of reasons:

In July 1947 there was a crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Many believe it to be that of a UFO, specifically a spacecraft and some even claimed to see aliens leave the craft. However, the police and US government claimed it was actually a crashed military air balloon, and absolutely nothing to do with extraterrestrials.

Many alien conspiracy believers claim that it was indeed an alien spacecraft that crashed and dead aliens were found. They claim their bodies and the spacecraft were transported to Area 51 by the military for further research and investigation.

They believe that today both the alien remains and the spacecraft are housed at Area 51 and regard these events as “the Roswell cover-up”. Photographs and film have even emerged supposedly showing alien autopsies dating back to 1947, but sceptics claim they are simply hoaxes.

Tourists have been flocking to Area 51 (or as near as they get to it) for decades hoping to spot a UFO. Many UFO photographs have been taken and published, and while their authenticity has come into question, many alien believers take them as proof of alien existence.

Several people have come forward over the years claiming to have worked for Area 51 and involved in top secret projects connected to aliens and their space crafts. For example, Bob Lazar claims to have worked at Area 51 and that he was hired to help guard an alien spacecraft that the US military had in its possession. However, this (and other claims) have been widely criticised by sceptics, especially as there is no evidence that Lazar ever worked there.

Today Area 51 is still shrouded in mystery. While we know that it is indeed a US air force military base, the public are not allowed to enter. There are many warning signs of no-entry and an advanced use of sensors and signal devices are used to protect the area. Many tourists who have dared to trespass into the area have been almost instantly stopped by armed guards, who were able to detect their whereabouts through sensors and hidden cameras.

Some say it’s obvious we’re not alone, others scorn the very idea and still others yet will hauntingly report their own experiences of alien probings following their casual night-time stroll through the fields of small town America. But with everything from increasingly bizarre reportings from increasingly credible sources, to basic mathematical probability suggesting the likelihood of alien life, these days, scepticism is harder won. Whatever your opinions, you may well find that the following examples have some impact on them.

It’s easy enough to write off much recent phenomena, quoting anything from wayward weather balloons to the perpetuation of the legend and UFO sightings in pop culture providing a cohesive image of extra terrestrials for eye witnesses to draw on should someone cry alien. But what’s slightly harder to dismiss is the ancient evidence (i.e. pre the National Enquirer). Enter the ‘The Madonna with Saint Giovannino’, otherwise known as the UFO painting.

Created in the 15th century, it depicts the Virgin Mary and in the backdrop of the painting, a man and his dog staring up at a hovering disk-like object that is suspiciously familiar. And this painting isn’t alone either, with everything from ancient cave paintings to Sanskrit Scrolls all depicting alien life. A sighting even crops up in the Bible in The Book of Ezekiel. Either this is compelling evidence, or humanity has a rich tradition of conspiracy theorists.

Back in 1961, astronomer Frank Drake devised an equation by which he could estimate the likelihood of the existence of alien life, taking into account a number of factors including the average number of planets able to support life and the fraction that could go on to support intelligent life. This was then implemented in 2001. The result: statistically, hundreds of thousands of such planets should technically exist.

There are more registered sightings of UFOs than there is the word count here to deal with them and the majority of the time, there’s a thorough debunking accompanying them. But throughout history there have been a number that have been harder to explain away, from the to 1853 sighting by a number of students and professors at the Tennessee College campus, to the oft quoted Stephenville Lights case from 2008, with over 200 witnesses spotting the UFO including three policemen who remained anonymous. Consider these compelling cases unsolved.

If you’re going to believe any reports of UFOs, you might as well trust those coming from the men who have actually been to space (who usually also come with all their teeth and a P.H.D.). The list of those who have made claims of sightings includes Edgar Mitchell, Cady Coleman and Dr. Brian O’Leary, many also referencing government knowledge of alien existence and cover-ups. Buzz Aldrin has also spoken of his own experience on board the Apollo 11 when they saw something flying alongside them. At first they thought it was the final stage of the detached rocket, until mission control confirmed it was 6000 miles away from them…

While some US presidents have released classified files on the subject of UFOs, with Jimmy Carter famously describing his own encounter, others still have been denied access to classified information on the subject altogether, Bill Clinton claiming to be among them. This has led many believers to suggest there’s a cover up afoot. Clinton has been consistently vocal on the existence of aliens and it’s worth noting his opinions on an ‘Independence Day’ situation too. You know, just in case…

The grainy images of two men in hazmat suits examining the lifeless, pot bellied body of a large-headed extra terrestrial are famous. Or, at least, infamous. Synonymous with an apparent UFO crash landing, the 17 minute ‘alien autopsy’ footage turned out - unfortunately - to be a hoax. 

Yet while the video that excited so many when it surfaced back in 1995 proved to be fake, the incident the clip claimed to come from is very real indeed. What exactly happened in ‘The Roswell UFO Incident’, however, remains to be known. At least to us normal folk, anyway.

What might’ve happened in the small New Mexico city of Roswell back in July 1947…? 

Let’s look at some of the theories, shall we?

We’ll begin with the main theory that’s pervaded the incident for decades - that an alien spacecraft crash-landed in the New Mexico desert. 

It didn’t take long for the stories of a downed flying disc to start circulating when unusual debris was found on a ranch some 30 miles north of Roswell in early July 1947. By July 8th, local newspaper the Roswell Daily Record led with the headline, ‘RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region’.

As the years passed, the story was built upon by locals, ufologists and conspiracy theorists. The ‘discovery’ of the since-debunked 1995 autopsy filmed really brought the story to the world’s attention.

Yet while the post-mortem may not have been legitimate, there’s no evidence to say the crash wasn’t that of an alien spacecraft. Of course, there’s no evidence that it was, either.

Post-war America had a fascination with the Nazis. Understandably, given Adolf Hitler had recently very nearly taken over the world. But whereas Europe, having faced the evils of the Third Reich first hand, was quick to dismantle Nazism and consign it to history, the USA was focused on pilfering its biggest talents and most useful technology.

While Operation Paperclip secretly shipped Nazi scientists and doctors across the Pacific to do their bidding for a new employer, other secret operations connected to the work of Nazi Germany quietly went about their business. 

Basically, what we’re saying here is this: NAZI UFOs.

Yup, that’s right, some people have claimed that the object that crashed in the New Mexico desert was part of a project to test Nazi flying machine tech. It was, apparently, a craft called ‘The Bell’, a machine which was propelled with electric particles. 

According to this theory, the technology was unstable and simply dropped out of the sky during a test flight. The project was then scrapped.

Charles Berlitz and William Moore’s classic conspiracy book The Roswell Incident was first published back in 1980. In it, a new theory is put up for examination.

Berlitz and Moore suggest that it was, in fact, a spaceship which crashed on the ranch. But that it wasn't ‘driver’ error or shot down, the accident was caused simply by a strike of lightning. 

Why were the aliens there? Well, according to the authors, they were looming in the skies keeping their oversized eyes on US nuclear weapons activity. Something they were concerned about. For some reason.

73 years of whispers, theories and tales of alien spacecraft and autopsied ETs have led to the incident being firmly mired in paranormal lore. So perhaps, rather ironically, the most controversial explanation as to what happened back in July of ‘47 is the US government’s ‘official’ version of events.

For years, the official story was this: it was a weather balloon that crashed. This rather simplistic explanation kept most Americans happy for a few decades until alternative ideas surfaced. 

Eventually, the American Air Force expanded on their story and admitted a little more. The balloon was, they revealed in two reports in the late 1990s, a nuclear test surveillance balloon used in something called Project Mogul, a top secret and covert operation to detect sound waves coming from Soviet Russsian atomic bomb tests.

It’s doubtful we’ll ever really know the full story. The truth is out there. It’s just that none of us will ever find out what it is...

Historians and experts investigate various events, legends and texts throughout history that may contain evidence of contact between humans and extraterrestrial life. 

The more cynical and dismissive (wo)man on the street may scoff on seeing the words ‘credible’ and ‘UFOs’ next to each other in a sentence. For many, the very idea of unidentified flying objects buzzing about above us is inherently ridiculous. Strange craft zooming across the night sky, perhaps with alien lifeforms aboard at the control panel… A silly concept, they think.

To others, the premise of flying saucers is not all that fanciful or unbelievable. Modern history is packed full of bizarre instances of folk witnessing inexplicable aircraft. Some eye-catching tales intrigue, others sound slightly daft. 

For now, let’s ignore the slightly sillier stories and focus on the more feasible close encounters to have been experienced here in good ol’ Blighty.

Here are three of what we’ll call ‘the most credible’ UFO incidents in (fairly) recent British history:

We’ll kick things off with a biggy. The Holy Grail of UK UFO sightings. Such is the scale, fame and supposed legitimacy of these sightings that the ‘The Rendlesham Forest Incident’ is also known to some as ‘Britain’s Roswell’.

Here's the brief outline: Some 40 years ago, several US airmen claimed to have witnessed a UFO flying over Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk.

Here's the slightly more in-depth version of the story: On the 26th of December 1980, multiple United States Air Force security personnel, who were stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, called in reports to their superiors of strange and inexplicable lights moving over the forest. Some of the men claim to have made out a triangular shape appearing to land in the trees.

Three years later, in 1983, a memorandum written by deputy base commander Lt. Col. Charles Halt was released by the American government confirming the many reports of the UFO.

The story quickly spread and the incident achieved a high level of fame in ufology circles. What happened isn't exactly clear. Explanations range from an extraterrestrial visitation to testing out secret military aircraft. Some scientists claim the lights were natural lights or even the beam from the relatively nearby Orfordness Lighthouse. 

The trouble with a lot of UFO sightings is that it’s never possible to know if the eyewitness really did witness something with their eye or just used a little imagination. What’s interesting about the Broad Haven UFO sightings in Pembrokeshire in 1977 is that swathes of people saw the object.

An entire class full of ten-year-old schoolchildren saw a series of saucer and cigar-shaped crafts whizzing about the sky one day. It came shortly before a local hotelier also saw something similar.

"I was a natural born sceptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it," one of the children, David Davies, has since recalled. He described seeing a silver cigar-shaped craft with a 'dome covering the middle third'. “My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree."

In the 43 years since the sightings, not a single witness has come out to reveal that it was a hoax or that they were lying.

Our final pick sees us heading east again and looking to the skies over Royal Air Force bases in Suffolk. Like the Rendlesham Forest Incident, the sightings over the East Anglian air bases Lakenheath and Bentwaters left many scratching their heads.

August of 1956. Radio operators at RAF Bentwaters pick up strange movements on radar. A craft of some description appears to be flying at over 1,000mph. Training aircrafts were sent up to intercept the UFO, but they found nothing. At the same time, many air force personnel on the ground saw luminously bright objects darting about the sky.

Two Venom jet fighters were then scrambled and tasked with tracking down the craft. They then - apparently - played cat and mouse with the craft for some time before it disappeared.

Project Blue Book - the most in-depth study into UFOs by the USAF - said this about the incident: "It’s the most puzzling and unusual case in the radar-visual files. The apparently rational, intelligent behaviour of the UFO suggests a mechanical device of unknown origin as the most probable explanation of this sighting."

Blue Book was mostly known for its debunking of UFOs, so this admission was unusual.

So what can we learn from these mysterious incidents? It’s tricky to say. The truth is almost certainly out there. It’s just that it’s a bit like when you lose your car keys. The truth will probably be in the last place we look.

To Christians, their holy book is the gospel truth. As you might expect. For them, the Bible is, an accurate collection of tales that explains how we came to be. Those that don’t believe the bible to be factually correct are often quick to point to inconsistencies or oddities within the text. Their conclusion being that the Bible is basically just a collection of made-up stories and fables.

There is, however, a smaller subset of folk that believe that a large portion of the Bible is accurate but that some of the more ‘out there’ parts can be explained by the presence and influence of extraterrestrials.

Yep, that’s right. Aliens.

Blaze’s Ancient Aliens has previously touched on the idea of aliens making their presence known in the bible. So let’s dive into the Good Book to explore some of the biggest mysteries within and try to work out just how ancient aliens could have played their part…

So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’

- Numbers 13: 32 - 33

According to the books of Genesis, Numbers and Ezekial, the ‘nephilim’ were a group of enigmatic and mysterious ‘people’ of a really quite huge size. They’re referred to as ‘sons of God’ and were regarded by many as supernatural in origin. Some biblical scholars believe them to be demons or fallen angels, others just say they were large men and feared warriors. To a few, they may well have been aliens. Or, at least, part alien, anyway.

One theory that exists suggests that these enormous beings were alien-human hybrids, the products of union between human women and extraterrestrials. They were thought to stand up to eight metres high at their tallest. 

There’s no solid evidence for the existence of such creatures, but one thing that is quite curious is that tales of giants originate across almost all ancient cultures and civilisations. Which lends some credence to things. Whether or not they originated from outer space, though, remains to be proven. 

‘Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings.’

Ezekiel 1: 4 - 6

We immediately revisit The Book of Ezekiel and The Vision of the Throne-Chariot (1: 4 - 28), which sees the prophet Ezekial have a vision of God in the sky. But this was unlike any other vision that any other prophet had had. This was much more like a modern UFO/alien sighting. 

It’s not just ancient alien types who buy into this UFO theory. In 1974, the esteemed and respected NASA engineer Josef F. Blumrich wrote The Spaceships of Ezekiel, a book postulating that Ezekiel's vision was, in fact, that of a visiting alien spacecraft.

Noah was famous for his ark. Gathering up two of every species on the planet and fitting them all onto a giant wooden ship he’d built himself was no mean feat, after all. But that’s not the only extraordinary thing about the man.

According to the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, as a baby, young Noah had ‘glowing’ skin and an ability to light up a room with his eyes. Noah’s father Lamech questioned whether or not the child is his and openly questioned his wife. 

Was Noah’s ‘real father’ from another planet...? Some ancient alien theorists suggest that would explain his ethereal appearance and even why God chose him to help when he enacted The Great Flood (he was ‘a higher being’ and, as such, didn’t carry the sins that other humans did).

None of these mysteries are likely to be solved any time soon, so don’t hold your breath waiting. Are any of these theories likely to hold water? It’s hard to say. They’re certainly interesting to consider, anyway.

Anyone with the taste and common decency to be familiar with the (excellent) Blaze TV series Ancient Aliens will no doubt know all about the theory that extraterrestrials built The Great Pyramids of Ancient Egypt.

Whether there’s any truth to the hypothesis remains a topic of some consternation and controversy. Many scholars, academics and regular Joes will scoff at the notion. After all, it is a fairly wacky suggestion. Little green men assembling enormous triangular structures in the deserts of planets light-years from their own… It’s not the obvious answer.

But there are plenty of folk out there (scientists, researchers and - as we’ll discover - even science-y billionaires) who are convinced that aliens were behind the Great Pyramids of Giza.

As for us? Well, we can’t be sure either way. Ancient Aliens can be pretty persuasive, though. Did aliens build the Pyramids of Egypt? Here are some reasons why they just might have:

There is one principal argument that proponents of the theory that alien life constructed the giant pharaoh tombs refer to. They say that it just wouldn’t have been possible for humans to build them back then. The Pyramids are over 4,500 years old. Back then engineering was relatively basic and the task of assembling such huge polyhedrons was extraordinary.

Take The Great Pyramid, for example. The largest of Giza’s three structures and one of the Seven Wonders of the World. At nearly 500 feet tall, the thing is 756 feet long on each side and made up of more than 2.3 million stones. Each stone weighs nearly 3 tons each. That's a total mass of well over 6.5 MILLION TONS.

Even using the kind of construction equipment and technology available nowadays, that is a hugely intimidating project for anyone to undertake. Given the comparatively rudimentary tools and building knowhow available back in 2,560 BC, the job looks all but impossible to conceive for humans. Especially for unskilled slaves, no matter how many of them were forced into labour.

The Great Pyramids’ location is not insignificant. They weren’t just randomly plonked in the sands of Egypt. Not only do the three buildings align almost perfectly with the stars in Orion’s belt, they also have quite telling coordinates.

The exact geographic coordinates for The Great Pyramid itself are 29.9792458°N. The speed of light is - rather remarkably - exactly 299,792,458 metres per second. Ancient alien researchers point to this as proof to their claims. Precision, when it comes to measuring the speed of light, was only honed by man in the 1950’s, so the Ancient Egyptians couldn’t have known about it. 

The speed of light is central to the theory of time travel. The theory goes that aliens from the future travelled back in time and built the pyramids at 29.9792458°N on purpose. As something of a clue, perhaps.

On the 31st July 2020, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted: 'Aliens built the pyramids obv'. His confident statement received well over half a million likes on the social media networking site. 

He followed up with another tweet, correctly saying that 'The Great Pyramid was the tallest structure made by humans for 3800 years. Three thousand, eight hundred years.'

The South Africa-born tech billionaire is known for his controversial views, but the man’s no slouch when it comes to pulling off big projects and even dealing in outer space. So while his comments might not convince many, they do provide extra firewood for the already fiercely burning debate.

So, did aliens build the pyramids? Well, that was never really a question we were going to be able to definitively answer here. Opinions are split and we may never know the real answer. Likely they weren’t, but maybe - just maybe - they were…

Ancient Aliens might not be able to give you the full answers either, but they don’t half half offer up some interesting ideas on it all.