INCLUDES A NEW AUTHOR'S P BESTSELLER! EVIDENCE OF EARTH’S TIAL ANCESTORS HARPER Now available in hardcover: U.S. $7.99 CAN. $8.99 THE LONG-AWAITED CONCLUSION TO ZECHARIA SITCHIN’s GROUNDBREAKING SERIES THE EARTH CHRONICLES ZECHARIA SITCHIN THE END DAYS Armageddon and Propfiffie.t of tlic Renirn . Available in paperback: THE EARTH CHRONICLES THE 12th PLANET THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN THE LOST REALMS WHEN TIME BEGAN THE COSMIC CODE And the companion volumes: GENESIS REVISITED EAN DIVINE ENCOUNTERS . “ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS ON EARTH’S ROOTS EVER WRITTEN.” East-West Magazine • How did the Nefilim— gold-seekers from a distant, alien planet— use cloning to create beings in their own image on Earth? •Why did these "gods" seek the destruc- tion of humankind through the Great Flood 13,000 years ago? •What happens when their planet returns to Earth's vicinity every thirty-six centuries? • Do Bible and Science conflict? •Are were alone? THE 12th PLANET "Heavyweight scholarship . For thousands of years priests, poets, and scientists have tried to explain how life began . Now a recognized scholar has come forth with a theory that is the most astonishing of all." United Press International SEP 2003 Avon Books by Zecharia Sitchin THE EARTH CHRONICLES Book I: The 12th Planet Book II: The Stairway to Heaven Book III: The Wars of Gods and Men Book IV: The Lost Realms Book V: When Time Began Book VI: The Cosmic Code Book VII: The End of Days Divine Encounters Genesis Revisited ATTENTION: ORGANIZATIONS AND CORPORATIONS Most Avon Books paperbacks are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, or fund-raising. For information, please call or write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022-5299. Telephone: (212) 207-7528. Fax: (212) 207-7222. ZECH ARIA SITCHIN THE 12 th PUANET BOOK I OFTHE EARTH CHRONICLES HARPER An Tm-h-rint nf T-IA L ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his gratitude to the many scholars who, over a span of more than a century, have uncovered, deciphered, translated, and explained the textual and artistic relics of the Ancient Near East, and to the many institu- tions and their staffs by whose excellence and courtesies the texts and pictorial evidence on which this book is based were made available to the author. The author wishes especially to thank the New York Public Library and its Oriental Division; the Research Library (Reading Room and Oriental Students Room) of the British Museum, London; the Research Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York; and for pictorial assistance to the Trustees of the British Museum and the keeper of the Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities; the director of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen, East Berlin; the University Museum, Philadelphia; la Reunion des Musees Nationaux, France (Musees du Louvre); the Curator, Museum of Antiquities, Aleppo; the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. HARPER An Imprint ofH&rperCoUinsPublishers 10 East 53rd Street New York, New York 10022-5299 Copyright © 1976 by Zecharia Sitchin Author’s Note copyright © 2007 by Zecharia Sitchin Excerpt from The End ofDays copyright © 2007 by Zecharia Sitchin ISBN: 978-0-06-137913-0 ISBN-10: 0-06-137913-1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper paperbacks, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. First Harper paperback printing: April 2007 First Avon Books paperback printing: July 1978 HarperCollins® and Harper® are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers. Printed in the United States of America Visit Harper paperbacks on the World Wide Web at www.harpercollins.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the oublisher has received anv oavment for this “strinned honk.” 3 2 CONTENTS Author’s Note vi Prologue: Genesis vii About the Sources x 1 The Endless Beginning 1 2 The Sudden Civilization 1 3 Gods of Heaven and Earth 52 4 Sumer: Land of the Gods 88 5 The Nefilim: People of the Fiery Rockets 128 6 The Twelfth Planet 1 7 7 The Epic of Creation 204 8 Kingship of Heaven 236 9 Landing on Planet Earth 257 10 Cities of the Gods 283 11 Mutiny of the Anunnaki 312 12 The Creation of Man 336 13 The End of All Flesh 362 14 When the Gods Fled from Earth 387 15 Kingship on Earth 412 Sources 423 Index 428 AUTHOR’S NOTE • This edition of The Twelfth Planet is offered to the reader in celebration of a double milestone. First, it coincides with the publication of the seventh and concluding volume of The Earth Chronicles series; and, second, it marks the thirtieth anniver- sary of the initial publication of The Twelfth Planet, the first book in the series. In the annals of publishing, especially of nonfiction, few books stay so long in print. The Twelfth Planet has managed not only to do that, but to do so very actively: This volume represents the forty-fifth printing of the original Avon Books paperback edition—a record!—and coincides with the book’s translation into its twenty-first language (Korean). Published and republished in English and other various languages in hardcover, softcover. paperback, pocketbook, mass market, and other formats (including Braille for the blind and Books- on-Tape), the book has reached millions of readers, has been quoted (or misquoted . .) in scores of other books, and has been reviewed and discussed in countless articles and on radio, TV, and more than half a million websites. It is, by all stan- dards, a “classic.” When I set out to write it, I had no idea that the book would attain such heights, or that it would spawn a seven-book series (plus four “companion” books). In fact, I had no idea that it would include “planet” in its title. All I wanted to find out was who were the biblical Nefilim. The realization that they were the Sumerian Anunnaki (“Those Who from Heaven to Earth Came”) opened up for me new vistas of research and understanding. The greatest breakthrough was the insight that the Sumerian/Babylonian Epic of Creation was a sophisticated scientific document. The resulting conclusions regarding the existence of one more planet in our solar system, the origins of life on Earth, and past space travel presaged a host of sub- sequent discoveries in astronomy, genetics, and other scientific fields that were unthinkable thirty years ago. The book has shown that there is no conflict between Bible and Evolution. It endures, I believe, because it tells us the truth about our own origins—and that WE ARE NOT ALONE. Zecharia Sitchin New York, October 2006 PROLOGUE: GENESIS GENESIS The Old Testament has filled my life from childhood. When the seed for this book was planted, nearly fifty years ago, I was totally unaware of the then raging Evolution versus Bible debates. But as a young schoolboy studying Genesis in its original Hebrew, I created a confrontation of my own. We were reading one day in Chapter VI that when God resolved to destroy Mankind by the Great Flood, “the sons of the deities”, who married the daughters of men, were upon the Earth. The Hebrew original named them Nefilim; the teacher explained it meant “giants”; but I objected: didn’t it mean literally “Those Who Were Cast Down”, who had descended to Earth? I was reprimanded and told to accept the traditional interpretation. In the ensuing years, as I have learned the languages and history and archaeology of the ancient Near East, the Nefilim became an obsession. Archaeological finds and the deciphering of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Canaanite and other ancient texts and epic tales increas- ingly confirmed the accuracy of the biblical references to the kingdoms, cities, rulers, places, temples, trade routes, artifacts, tools and customs of antiquity. Is it not now time, therefore, to accept the word of these same ancient records regarding the Nefilim as visitors to Earth from the heavens? The Old Testament repeatedly— asserted: “The throne of Yahweh is in heaven” “from heaven did the Lord behold the Earth”. The New Testament spoke of “Our Father, which art in Heaven”. But the credibility of the Bible was shaken by the advent and general acceptance of Evolution. If Man evolved, then surely he could not have been created all at once by a Deity who, premeditat- • vii vn i • prologue: genesis ing, had suggested “Let us make Adam in our image and after our likeness”. All the ancient peoples believed in gods who had descended to Earth from the heavens and who could at will soar heavenwards. But these tales were never given credibility, having been branded by scholars from the very beginning as myths. The writings of the ancient Near East, which include a profusion of astronomical texts, clearly speak of a planet from which these astronauts or “gods” had come. How- ever, when scholars, fifty and one hundred years ago, de- ciphered and translated the ancient lists of celestial bodies, our astronomers were not yet aware of Pluto (which was only located in 1930). How then could they be expected to accept the evidence of yet one more member of our solar system? But now that we too, like the ancients, are aware of the planets beyond Saturn, why not accept that ancient evidence for the existence of the Twelfth Planet? As we ourselves venture into space, a fresh look and an acceptance of the ancient scriptures is more than timely.