Case file · High strangeness
Ezekiel's vision by the Chebar canal
The Book of Ezekiel dates its opening vision to 593 BC, among exiles by the Chebar canal near Nippur: a storm cloud with fire, four living creatures and wheels 'full of eyes'.
593 BCE · 32.15, 45.20 · status: legend
The account
The vision (Ezekiel 1) became the basis of Jewish merkabah mysticism. In 1974 NASA engineer Josef Blumrich published 'The Spaceships of Ezekiel', reading it as a landing craft, after setting out to refute Erich von Däniken.
The sceptical view
Biblical scholars read the imagery against Mesopotamian throne iconography and prophetic tradition; the canal is identified with the nāru kabari of Babylonian texts. Coordinates approximate.