Case file · High strangeness
Tassili's 'Great Martian God'
In 1956 Henri Lhote's expedition to the Tassili n'Ajjer copied a huge round-headed painted figure at Jabbaren and nicknamed it the 'Great Martian God'. Ancient-astronaut writers took the joke literally.
1956 CE · 24.65, 9.45 · status: explained
The account
Lhote's 1958 book made the rock art of the Tassili world-famous. Erich von Däniken and others presented the 'round heads' as helmeted astronauts.
The sceptical view
Archaeologists read the figures as masked or ritually costumed people of the Round Head period, painted when the Sahara was green. Some of Lhote's team were later accused of touching up the paintings.