Twilight of the Gods: The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials Read Free

ancient peoples told the same kind of strange stories as the Israelites in the Bible. And that's where it all started. I got stuck in and began researching. Thus began a fascinating life that has been filled with ups and downs and has taken me halfway across the world. It has led me to visit the world's greatest libraries. It has caused me to seek out and talk to many highly educated and intelligent people. It has moved me to visit countless archaeological excavations. And, last but not least, it inspired me to start writing. I wrote my very first book, Chariots of the Gods, at the tender age of 33, while I was still working full time as the director of a top-class hotel.
    Twilight of the Gods is my 25th nonfiction book! Add to that my collaborations on seven anthologies and just on the side-the six novels I've written, and you've got quite a collection. I've had a bit of fun recently counting up all the nonfiction pages I've published: 8,342 pages! Looks like a number you might see on a check.
    Eight thousand, three hundred forty-two pages! Would you believe it? Doesn't the guy ever run out of things to say? Surely, he must repeat himself quite a lot!
    To be honest, the reason that it never gets boring is because the material just keeps coming and coming! The field I work in never stops getting more exciting and more up-to-date. Increasing numbers of authors and scientists are becoming fascinated by the subject. And that's not really any great surprise. After all, the thought that extraterrestrials were here thousands of years ago is one that touches on a whole range of different scientific fields. So what are we talking about? Well, it involves prehistory, archeology, philology (especially linguistics), ethnology, evolution, genetics, philosophy, astronomy, astrophysics, exobiology, space travel, and, of course, one mustn't forget theology.
    Repetitions? Well, they're impossible to avoid completely. For instance, I already dedicated 12 pages in my book The Stones of Kiribati to the enigmatic ruins in Puma Punku in the highlands of Bolivia, and now I've come back to the subject. Why, you ask?

    Well, it's like this: In the past, I dealt with Puma Punku more like a journalist. I reported on it and presented a number of pictures without ever really going into any depth on the subject. But this time, I'd like to document what it was that left the very first visitors breathless and stammering as they stood before the mighty stone blocks of Puma Punku 400 years ago. I'd like to show you what archaeologists discovered hundreds of years ago and demonstrate how much has been destroyed throughout the centuries. Intentionally. But I will also prove that Puma Punku was not built by any Stone Age people.
    And in December 2012, the gods will return from their long journey and appear again here on Earth. At least that is what the Mayan calendar, and Mayan written and oral lore, would have us believe. This time, I've gone into greater depth than ever before. The so-called gods-in other words, the extraterrestrials-will come again. We're in store for a "god shock" of major proportions.
    Doesn't anyone with half a brain know that interstellar travel is simply impossible and is likely to remain so because of the huge distances between the stars? And that extraterrestrials would never look like us?
    Well, my dear readers, I destroy these preconceptions. Systematically. One little piece at a time. I hope you enjoy reading about it!
    Yours,
    Erich von Daniken
    September 2009

     



What would you say if I told you there is a place 13,000 feet high up in the Andes that, according to ancient Inca traditions, was built in a single night by the gods? A place where huge stone slabs lie strewn around like discarded playing cards on the floor? Stone slabs that have been carefully cut and transported and yet about which the Spanish chroniclers-writing 400 years ago-said that no man could have moved? A place where gigantic blocks of andesite were cut and