Case file · High strangeness
Palenque 'astronaut' on Pakal's tomb lid
In 1968 Erich von Däniken's 'Chariots of the Gods?' claimed that the carved lid of King K'inich Janaab' Pakal's sarcophagus at Palenque shows an astronaut at the controls of a spacecraft.
1968 CE · 17.48, -92.05 · status: explained
The account
Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier found the tomb inside the Temple of the Inscriptions in 1952. Pakal ruled from 615 to 683.
The sceptical view
Read upright and with Maya iconography, the lid shows Pakal falling into the underworld at death, at the foot of the world tree, with the celestial bird at its top. The 'rocket' is the tree and the 'controls' are standard Maya symbols.
Connections in the atlas
- 'Maya alien contact' documentary claim, Calakmul
- Chariots of the Gods?