HEAVEN’S MIRROR Ancient monuments around the world exactly mirror the night sky. Is it possible they reveal a common wisdom from a lost civilisation? Revised March 1997 HEAVEN’S MIRROR/INDEPENDENT IMAGE Macintosh HD:Users:stefold2:Library:Containers:com.apple.mail:Data:Library:Mail Downloads:HEAVEN12-3.doc 1 HEAVEN’S MIRROR INDEX Executive Summary...…........…..............................…..............3 Programme Summaries.........................................…........……5 Programme 1 - SACRED SCIENCE……………….…………..8 Programme 2 - ZEP TEPI: THE FIRST TIME….…....….……17 Programme 3 - ANCIENT MARINERS……...…….............…30 Schedule and Budget..............…....................…..........…….37 Production Team.............................................…..……….….38 Independent Image..........................................…........……..39 HEAVEN’S MIRROR/INDEPENDENT IMAGE Macintosh HD:Users:stefold2:Library:Containers:com.apple.mail:Data:Library:Mail Downloads:HEAVEN12-3.doc 2 HEAVEN’S MIRROR Executive Summary History tells us that civilisation began around 3,500 BC. But there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that an ancient civilisation, or civilisations, about which we know very little, pre-dated the Egyptians and Sumerians by many thousands of years. These were people who studied the heavens with precise instruments; they could apparently track the stars over millennia and replicate stellar constellations on the ground with machine-age accuracy. They could build colossal monuments using construction methods we cannot yet comprehend. In very different parts of the world, evidence exists of a common legacy - shared by cultures separated by hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. From Mexico to Iceland, from Britain to China, we are finding a common astronomical wisdom handed down from a time before history, a time perhaps before the ‘Great Flood’. A common wisdom from a lost civilisation which might hold the key to our own identity on earth! HEAVEN’S MIRROR is a personal quest for the answer - the culmination of eight years of painstaking research by writer Graham Hancock and photographer Santha Faiia. Hancock, the author of best selling Fingerprints of the Gods and The Keeper of Genesis (The Message of the Sphinx in the US) will present the series and write the accompanying book. Accompanied by Faiia, whose photographs have helped unravel the sky-ground symbolism found in so many of the world’s ancient monuments, and driven by a conviction that he is now on the verge of a major new discovery, Hancock presents a passionate and controversial argument about the origins of mankind’s knowledge. Hancock is convinced there are irrefutable and uncanny links between the ancient myths and monuments scattered around the globe. They came from a time when science and religion were one. Now - thousands of years later - perhaps they can HEAVEN’S MIRROR/INDEPENDENT IMAGE Macintosh HD:Users:stefold2:Library:Containers:com.apple.mail:Data:Library:Mail Downloads:HEAVEN12-3.doc 3 offer us clues, even a solution, to who we are and why we’re here. Hancock’s ideas radically challenge orthodoxy, but they are not without support from eminent academics. With his journalistic eye for truth and enthusiastic approach, Hancock is joined by a colourful collection of scholars and experts in the disciplines of Astronomy, Egyptology, Engineering and related sciences. Eminent consultants and contributors include the distinguished Egyptologists, Dr Bob Bianchi and Jane Sellers; Dr Edwin Krupp, of the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, and Britain’s Dr Clive Ruggles, the world’s leading Archaeo-astronomers; Dr Phyllis Pitluga, of the Adler Planetarium, Chicago, and Undine Concannon, Director of the London Planetarium; Dr Jaromir Malek, Keeper of Archives at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University; Dr Robert Schoch, Geologist, MIT; Professor Hertha von Dechend, University of Frankfurt; Professor Keith Critchlow, Director of Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture. Virtual reality computer graphics assist our understanding of the more complicated theories as we traverse five continents, visiting some of the world’s most beautiful and mysterious sites. Specially composed music will transport us through the ages as we follow his quest - both historical and spiritual - for the origins of civilisation and the very meaning of life. The series will be directed by Tim Copestake, a first class graduate of the London International Film School, who has spent twenty five years making award winning documentaries for all the terrestrial channels in Britain, shown throughout the world. His critically acclaimed Pharaohs and Kings (3 x 60’ for Channel Four / Discovery) has set the benchmark for prestige archaeology series around the globe. The producer will be David Wickham, another award winning filmmaker with the top prize at the Royal Television Society and the Prix de Bale, and Silver Medals from New York and Monte Carlo among his credits. HEAVEN’S MIRROR/INDEPENDENT IMAGE Macintosh HD:Users:stefold2:Library:Containers:com.apple.mail:Data:Library:Mail Downloads:HEAVEN12-3.doc 4 PROGRAMME SUMMARIES Programme 1: ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS Ancient cultures around the world had an understanding of the heavens which we are only now beginning to recognise, and, perhaps more importantly, a knowledge which we have yet to learn! As we discover more, we are finding that those cultures, separated by aeons and oceans, and with no apparent contact, are linked by too many similarities to be coincidence. Could they have shared a common inheritance of an earlier civilisation? We start this programme by comparing the fantastic animal drawings and geometric designs etched into a vast area of the Peruvian desert at Nazca with the mysterious Pyramids at Giza. Although separated by thousands of miles and created in different epochs, they both appear to be terrestrial maps of part of the night sky - specifically the constellation of Orion. They were, quite literally, trying to create heaven on earth. Why? As we tour the world’s most celebrated monuments the similarities abound. First we find the consistent use of giant stones, some too heavy for our largest cranes to move! And the alignment of these stones hides an advanced knowledge of astronomy which we can only decode with the modern computer. The new science of archaeo-astronomy can shed light on what these cultures were doing and the evidence suggests that an earlier culture, of whom we know nothing, has left its fingerprints in every corner of the ancient world, from Egypt to Europe to China and the Americas. Interviewees: Robert Bauval, (Archaeo-astronomer, author of ‘Orion Mystery’) Dr Phillis Pitluga, (Astronomer, Adler Planetarium, Chicago) Dr Edwin Krupp (Archaeo-astronomer, Griffiths Observatory, LA) Dr Clive Ruggles (Britain’s foremost archaeo-astronomer) Dr Thor Heyerdahl (Explorer, anthropologist, Kontiki expedition) Principle Sites: Nazca, Ollantaytambo - Peru Giza , Abu Simbel - Egypt Callanish, Outer Hebrides Baalbeck - Lebanon Teotihuacan - Mexico Okinawa - Japan Shensi - China HEAVEN’S MIRROR/INDEPENDENT IMAGE Macintosh HD:Users:stefold2:Library:Containers:com.apple.mail:Data:Library:Mail Downloads:HEAVEN12-3.doc 5 Programme 2: ZEP TEPI: THE FIRST TIME If there was a lost civilisation, when could it have existed and what were their beliefs? In this programme we find a mountain of scientific evidence pointing to a highly complex, technologically advanced civilisation in the 11th millennium BC - a civilisation not mentioned in our history books and pre-dating the ancient Egyptians by an astonishing 7000 years! Geologists re-date the Great Sphinx to at least 10,000 years ago. And computerised star maps reveal that the whole of the Giza Plateau is a map of the heavens as it looked in 10,500 BC - the ancient Egyptians called it Zep Tepi: The First Time - a mysterious golden age when the gods came to earth and humanity was offered the gifts of civilisation. And this is not the only map of the skies in 10,500 BC. The ancient Hindu temple site of Angkor in Cambodia mirrors another important section of the sky - those stars which revolve endlessly around the pole. The mysterious Tiahuanaco, in Bolivia, also shows astronomic alignments that place it firmly in the 11th millennium BC, making it the oldest city on earth. In order to build a coherent picture of these people we need to examine the myths and beliefs that they passed on. What we find as we journey from Europe to Mexico, to Peru and to Egypt is an obsessive drive to predict accurately the intricate cycle of the heavens. ‘As above, so below’ was the universal dictum - everything on earth was believed to be a reflection of the heavenly realm. ‘Heaven’s Mirror’ is more than the sky-ground symbolism that we see at so many of these ancient sites. It became the basis for a complete belief system that started religion. And we may be on the verge of finding out a lot more about these people. Three years ago, a hi-tech miniature robot used to explore the shafts of the Great Pyramid, found a portcullis door with copper handles. Permission has just been granted by the Egyptian government for another robotic exploration to feed a fibre optic cable beneath the door. There is a great deal of tension and excitement on the Giza Plateau at the moment, both with what may lie behind the door and the increasing likelihood that there are secret passages under the Sphinx, and possibly extending underneath the whole plateau. Interviewees: Robert Bauval, (Archaeo-astronomer, author of ‘Orion