FIntroduction                                                          F                                                                      FNot far from the sea, in the Andes mountains of Peru, lies            Fthe Palpa Valley near the city of Nazca.  A small area of             Flevel ground about a mile wide and nearly forty miles long            Fsits in the middle of this valley.  Should you fly                    Foverhead, you will see big lines laid out on this dusty               Fplain.  Some of the lines run parallel, some intersect                Fwhile others seem to enclose geometric shapes.  The                   Farchaeologists who discovered the lines, concluded that               Fthey were Inca roads.  Roads which go nowhere.  Erich Von             FDaniken, in his book "Chariots of the Gods" claims that               Fthey were runways for ancient astronauts.                             F                                                                      FThe ancient Mayans posessed an astonishing knowledge of               Fmathematics and celestial mechanics.  They were aware of              Fthe fact that the earth was round and had estimated the               Flength of an earth year at 365.242 days.                              F                                                                      FThere are many mysteries of ancient peoples which continue            Fto amaze modern investigators.  This section deals with               Fsome of these ancient mysteries.                                      F/                                                                     FPER Palpa Valley                                                      F                                                                      FNear the city of Nazca in the Andes Mountains, lies the               FPalpa Valley.  In flying over this narrow valley, it is               Fplain to see that there are giant lines laid out on the               Fplain.  Archaeologists investigating the area discovered              Fthese lines and decided that they were Inca roads.                    FThe logic of this analysis breaks down in two major areas.            FIn the first place, the roads go nowhere.  Of what use are            Froads that go for a few miles in a barren, desolate valley?           FIn the second place, the Inca peoples did not have the                Fwheel. (There is some dissention on this point within the             Fscientific community.  The fact is that they may have had             Fa wheel, but no practical use for it.)  Even if they had the          Fwheel, they did not possess a beast of burden for use as a            Fdraft animal.  The Llama was the most powerful animal that            Fthe Incas had and it is not strong enough to be used for              Fpulling carts or wagons.                                              FIf these lines are not roads, then what are they?  Erich              FVon Daniken believes that they are the remnants of a landing          Ffield used by ancients astronauts for Earth-to-Orbit travel.          FThe main problem that has been found with this explanation            Fis that the lines are laid out in a confusing criss-cross             Fpattern.  What pilot would attempt to land on such a field?           FThe truth of the matter is that we simply to not have an              Fadequate explanation for these particular lines.                      F/                                                                     FPER Tres Cruces Tree of Life                                          F                                                                      FHigh on red sandhill cliffs overlooking the Bay of Paracas            Fnear Pisco, Peru is a 602 foot design.  It is visible some            F12 miles from the coast and is in the shape of a large                Ftrident known as the Tree of Life.  Its purpose is unknown,           Falthough there is some speculation that it may be a pointer.          FIt points toward the Plain of Nazca, but why would anyone             Fwant to build such an enormous pointer? And, if it is not a           Fpointer, what was it carved for?                                      FThe answer may lie in religion.  Many ancient peoples drew            Fdesigns to honor their God or Gods.  Is it not possible that          Fthese peoples, knowing that their God lived in heaven high            Fabove, decided to make their artwork enormous so that it              Fcould be seen from heaven?                                            F/                                                                     FPER Sacsahuaman                                                       F                                                                      FThe fortress of Sacsahuaman which is near the present day             Fcity of Cuzco, is a marvel of ancient engineering.  Many of           Fthe stone blocks used in the construction of this fortress            Fweigh more than 100 tons.  The walls which form the terraces          Fon the side of the mountains are more than 1500 feet long             Fand 54 feet wide.  These blocks have been carved from even            Flarger pieces of rock which have been transported from a              Fdistant quarry.  How did these ancient peoples accomplish             Fthis feat of engineering?  It must have taken decades to              Ffinish the construction using an enormous amount of labor.            FResearchers such as Erich Von Daniken believe that these              Fancient peoples had help from extraterrestrial visitors in            Fthe building of their fortress.  The physical evidence of             Fthe construction is right in front of our eyes, however, the          Fanswer to the puzzle eludes us.                                       F/                                                                     FPER Plain of Nazca                                                    F                                                                      FNear the city of Nazca lies a barren, desolate plain upon             Fwhich are carved a number of enormous drawings.  Many are             Fmore that 150 yards in size.  They are of everyday animals            Fand objects such as a bird, spider, fish and other designs.           FThese carvings are so large so as to be unrecognizable from           Fthe ground.  They can only be made out distinctly from the            Fair.  This observation has led many researchers to assume             Fthat this means that they were drawn to be seen by men or             Fpossibly extraterrestrials flying overhead in machines.  If           Faliens did visit the earth in antiquity, they would                   Fcertainly have been impressed with this artwork.  However,            Fthere may be a more earthly possibility.                              FLets imagine that the Nazca peoples revered a God, perhaps            Fmore than one.  They (as most other ancient peoples)                  Fbelieved that God resided in heaven which is high overhead.           FPerhaps they were making these drawings enormous so that              Fthey would be easily seen from heaven.                                F/                                                                     FPER The Great Idol of Tiahuanaco                                      F                                                                      FIn an ancient building in the ancient city of Tiahuanaco,             FPeru is a stone idol weighing approximately 20 tons which             Fis carved from a single block of red sandstone.  This fact            Falone is enough to make one wonder about the means that               Fthe pre-Inca indians used to create such a masterpiece,               Fhowever, there is an even more intriguing mystery which               Fsurrounds this carving.  The temple in which the idol                 Fwas housed was constructed with the primitive techniques              Fand tools available to its builders.  It looks as though              Fit belongs in this ancient city.  The Idol, however is                Fcarved as precisely and delicately as today's fine                    Fcrystal.  It is covered with hundreds of carefully carved             Fsymbols.  The accuracy and precision of the idol's work-              Fmanship stands in stark contrast to the primitive building            Fin which it resides.  Further, the symbols themselves are             Fa source of amazement.                                                FIn a book entitled "The Great Idol of Tiahuanaco", H.S.               FBellamy & P. Allen postulate that the symbols embody a mass           Fof astronomical data about the earth and the heavens 27,000           Fyears ago.  They believe that a book titled "Theory of                FSatellites" by Hoerbiger which was published in 1927, five            Fyears prior to the discovery of the idol, details a series            Fof events which are encoded in the symbols on the idol.               FAccording to theory, a large satellite was captured by the            Fearth's gravity field and, as it spun in, its mass and                Fvelocity caused the rotation of the earth to slow as well             Fas its orbital velocity around the sun.  Bellamy and Allen            Fbelieve that the idol records that the object was making              F425 orbits around the earth per year and that one earth year          Flasted only 288 days.  Do the symbols on the idol actually            Flead one to this conclusion?  If they do, where did a                 Fprimitive people get the astronomical knowledge needed to             Funderstand this?  And finally, why is an idol which is                Fcarved in such a precise manner be housed in a far more               Fprimitve building?  Some believe that extraterrestrial                Fintervention is the only possible answer.                             F/                                                                     FTUR The Maps of Admiral Piri Reis                                     F                                                                      FIn the early 1700s, a series of ancient maps which had                Fbelonged to Turkish Navy Admiral Piri Reis were discovered            Fin the Topkapi Palace.  The maps were given to an American            Fcartographer named Arlington H. Mallerey for analysis.  At            Ffirst glance, the amount of land mass and relative positions          Fof the major continents seemd to be correct, however, it              Fwas noted that the continent outlines did not conform to a            Fstandard flat map.  With the assistance of a cartographer             Ffrom the U.S. navy Hydrographic Bureau, Mallerey was able             Fto determine that the maps were a representation of the               Fworld as viewed from a point in space above Cairo, Egypt.             FNot only were the outlines of the continents correctly                Fdistorted by the curvature of the earth, but the placement            Fof mountain ranges and other geographical features was just           Fas accurate.  Further, the Piri Reis maps show mountain               Franges on the Antarctic continent that were not known until           F1952 when echo sounding maps were produced for the first              Ftime.  These mountains have been covered with ice throughout          Frecorded history.  How were the maps made?  Were they                 Fproduced from photographs taken from orbit thousands of               Fyears ago?  This may remain a mystery forever.                        F/                                                                     FEGT The Great Pyramid of Cheops                                       F//                                                                    