Christmas

Thank you for visiting Mac's UFO News, i'll be offline now untill after the holidays.  Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas & a happy new year.  Have fun & be safe!

Mac.

Todays Links:

UFO on White House Christmas card turns out to be a hoax - National unexplained phenomena | Examiner.com

UFOs over Glastonbury - Myth or reality? | Glastonbury People

Alien nativity display turns heads in NE Portland – Northwest Cable News

'UFO cloud' spotted floating over UK: Dazzling picture of rare for...

Could the new Earth-like planets harbor life? – Christian Science Monitor

Two Report Sighting UFO Over Hermiston - OPB News

Will we find first alien life in 2012? – KitGuru

PRIVATE COMPANY FOUNDED TO MINE THE MOON

Hubble Spots Complex Carbon Compounds, Possibly Organic, on Pluto’s Surface – Popular Science

Did HAARP Hit Phobos Grunt? Conspiracy MARS « Ahrcanum

Twilight Language: Hopkinsville + Budd Hopkins / August 21st

UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock: 2011, The Year Of The Orb - The 2011 UFO Saga - Told In Story Form - With Top Five Videos

UFO Survey Reveals Many Americans Believe the Obama White House is Lying When it Says the Government has “No Evidence” That Extraterrestrial Beings Do Exist – Wall Street Journal

Resident Reports UFO Sighting Over Severn – Patch

Book Review: Keep Out: Top Secret Places Governments Don't Want You To Know About by Nicholas Redfern - seattlepi.com

Gold Coast UFO sighting on record – Gold Coast Bulletin

Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic Ufology: Victoria, Argentina: UFOs, Bridges and the Unexplained

UFO sightings over Christmas increase at Bray's Point with scientific phenomena | HULIQ

Artificial Lightings Seen in Kuiper Belt Could Signal Alien World, Study Says – International Business Times

An Early Alien Abduction

Two ‘new Earths’ found by Kepler space probe as ‘alien life’ edges closer – Metro

Alien And UFO Sightings In Somerset Reported In 'Record Numbers' (VIDEO SLIDESHOW)

Quintet gangs up on alien worlds – MSNBC

NASA to Announce Discovery of New Alien Planets Tuesday – Space

UFO sightings over Christmas increase at Bray’s Point with scientific phenomena – HULIQ

Did the Military Really Try To Smuggle a UFO Through Kansas In Plain Sight? – Gizmodo

Glastonbury ‘UFO calls hotspot’ – MSN

UFO Over the Las Vegas Strip (VIDEO) – Huffington Post

UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES OF 2011 AND INTO 2012 – Discovery

UFO – drifting lanterns – SunLive

UFO and alien sightings on the rise in Somerset – This is Somerset

How Would an Extraterrestrial Arrival Affect the Markets? – Benzinga

New method to find ET – News24

UFOs spotted over Stonehenge for 5,000 years while 2012 called an excellent year

By Dave Masko on 2011-12-22

 

Ancient Stonehenge stones – that date back to some 5,000 years old – have been dubbed the most visited place on the planet for UFOs; meanwhile, druids reported “good omens” after the winter solstice sunrise over these ancient stones Dec. 21, pointing to 2012 “as an excellent year for mankind.”

Finally some good news. London’s Telegraph newspaper reported the winter solstice sunrise over Stonehenge yesterday resulted in local druids stating they felt “good omens for 2012,” with the New Year being “an excellent year,” as the sun shone on these ancient stones that are viewed as the top spot in the world for UFO sightings. In fact, the recently released British government UFO documents state that “Stonehenge is off the chart when it comes to reported UFO sightings over the past 5,000 years.” At the same time, ancient druids considered Stonehenge to be sacred ground were “ancient astronauts” would visit “over the centuries;” while a vortex around these famous stones produces a “concentrated energy field” that druids say “radiates from both the stones and the ground” producing a sort of mental energy and awareness that allows some druid members to “understand such things as if the New Year will be good or bad.” According to the “Stonehenge vortexes,” good things are in store for the planet and its people in 2012; as a counter to the Mayan Calendar predicting 2012 as “a time of apocalypse.”
Omens are good from Stonehenge: Rejoice!
It’s no secret that throughout the recorded history of man, Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments have attracted attention from scientists, antiquarians, astronomers and archaeologists; while the world’s top ufologists also concur with the view that “there’s no place on Earth that draws more flying saucers, or generated a blizzard of sparks about the origins of life on the planet than Stonehenge.”
For instance, early in 1977 The New York Times reported that astronomers researching the grouping of Stonehenge stones said they were in favor of scientific studies of UFOs; with the Times stating that “unidentified flying objects should be investigated further based on the Stonehenge findings.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported in 1977 – when any talk of UFOs was still pie in the sky, with anyone mentioning the word “aliens” as nuts – the Times reported stated that “a majority of the world’s top astronomical observers said in a survey that Stonehenge and its UFOs need further investigation.”
In turn, experts who’ve examined Stonehenge and “its magical stone formations” have stated in recently released once top-secret British government UFO documents that Stonehenge has the “highest concentrations of UFO sightings in the world;” while ufologists believe “the aliens are drawn in some way to the vortex that the Stonehenge rocks both create and radiate.”
Reports from Stonehenge on winter solstice
The shortest day of the year often falls on December 21, “but this year the druid and pagan community marked the first day of winter today because the modern calendar of 365 days a year - with an extra day every four years - does not correspond exactly to the solar year of 365.2422 days,” reported elegraph.co.uk; while quoting Rollo Maughfling, the arch druid of the standing stones in nearby Wiltshire -- after yesterday’s winter solstice ceremony – stating that as the sun was rising over the horizon at the end of the religious service, it bathed “more than 1,000 people who attended in pale light, meant good things for the next 12 months.”
Also, the London newspaper reported how “mild temperatures and sunshine at the pre-historic site were a marked contrast to last year's solstice, when the giant stones were surrounded by a thick blanket of snow and the winter morning mist obscured the actual sunrise.”
''Just as the ceremony came to an end the sun came over the horizon, it was excellent,'' Maughfling said. ''It has been a very jolly occasion. It's a good omen for the year ahead.''
During the winter solstice, the sun is closer to the horizon than at any other time in the year, meaning shorter days and longer nights, added the Independent report; while noting how the day after the winter solstice marks “the beginning of lengthening days, leading up to the summer solstice in June.”
Stonehenge rocks moved by ancient astronauts
It was on Dec. 19 that scientists in England said they’ve finally – after 5,000 years of speculation -- located the “exact source of Stonehenge stone that was used to create some of Stonehenge’s first stone circle that ufologists still believe is “some sort of ground control or command center for spacecraft from both within and outside our universe.”
According to London’s Independent newspaper, “researchers have been able to match fragments of stone from around the 5,000 year old monument with an outcrop of rock in south-west Wales. The work - carried out by geologists Robert Ixer of the University of Leicester and Richard Bevins of the National Museum of Wales - has identified the source as a site called Craig Rhos-y-Felin, near Pont Saeson in north Pembrokeshire. It is the first time that an exact source has been found for any of the stones thought to have been used to build Stonehenge. The discovery has re-invigorated a long running debate as to whether the smaller standing stones of Stonehenge were quarried and brought from Pembrokeshire by prehistoric humans or whether they were carried all or part of the way to Wiltshire by glaciers hundreds of thousands of years earlier.”
In turn, leading archaeologists tend to subscribe to the 'human transport' theory, while geomorphologists often favor the glacial one; while “the debate is solely about Stonehenge's smaller standing stones which are sometimes known collectively are sometimes known collectively as bluestones. The larger stones, or sarsens, are accepted to have been incorporated into the monument several centuries later.”
The Independent also reported that this “remarkable find has been reported in the journal Archaeology in Wales and opens up the possibility of finding archaeological evidence of quarrying activity at Craig Rhos-y-Felin which would indicate humans rather than glaciers were responsible for transporting the stone.”
Moreover, the outcrops where some of the stones come from are thought to have been associated with sacred springs and local Welsh stone circles that have also gotten the attention of the UFO community in England that has “always maintained that Stonehenge stones were moved by aliens.” Thus, “by bringing those particular rocks the 160 miles from Pembrokeshire to Wiltshire, the builders of Stonehenge may have thought they were obtaining more than just plain rock. Experts have suggested they may have regarded the stone as having supernatural powers.”
Stonehenge pits discovery points to ancient astronauts command center
Although they’ve been around for more than 5,000 years, another recent discovery of “two pits” at Stonehenge points to a possible “command center for ancient astronauts.”
The breaking news out of England last month pointed to “two uncovered pits to the east and west of Stonehenge that suggest the area around the 5,000-year-old circle of stones may have been a significant sacred site,” and possibly a “command center for ancient astronauts.”
For as long as there has been the written word in England, there’s been tales about the ancient standing stones at Stonehenge.
According to an overview about Stonehenge at the British Museum in London, “Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire; about eight miles north of the medieval town of Salisbury. It is considered to be one of the most famous sites in the world. The ancient site is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks. It is also the center of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, and includes nearly 300 ‘burial mounds.’”
British archaeologists think this iconic stone monument was built between some 3,000 years before Christ (B.C.)
In turn, a 2008 research project by the British government point to “radiocarbon dating” that puts Stonehenge as “being erected somewhere between 2400-2200 B.C.
Stonehenge “pits” confirm ancient “alien command center”
While ufologists in England are calling the discovery of two “pit areas” – that were hidden at the Stonehenge site for centuries – as a possible “command center” for alien spacecraft, traditional scientists say they’re just happy about the discovery. And, since it took literally thousands of years to sort out what British scientists currently know about Stonehenge, they’re not in any real hurry to speculate at this time, say officials at the British Museum in London.
“Researchers say they've found two pits to the east and west of Stonehenge that may have played a role in an ancient midsummer ceremony. The discovery suggests that the 5,000-year-old circle of stones we see today may represent just a few of the pieces in a larger geographical, astronomical and cultural puzzle,” reported msnbc.com Nov. 29.
The previously undetected pits could provide clues for solving the puzzle.
"These exciting finds indicate that even though Stonehenge was ultimately the most important monument in the landscape, it may at times not have been the only, or most important ritual focus, and the area of Stonehenge may have become significant as a sacred site at a much earlier date," said Vince Gaffney, an archaeology professor at the University of Birmingham.”
Overall, experts say the pits, which measure about 16 feet (5 meters wide) and at least 3 feet (1 meter deep,"have been covered over for centuries and can't easily be spotted on the ground. But they showed up in a survey that was conducted using non-invasive mapping techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry. The survey is part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, which was initiated last year with backing from the University of Birmingham's IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Center and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna,” added the Nov. 29 msnbc.com report, that also noted how “the placement of the pits is intriguing: They were found on the eastern and western sides of the Cursus, a racetrack-style enclosure north of Stonehenge itself that spans 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) from east to west and is up to 100 yards (meters) wide. From the perspective of an observer standing at the Heel Stone, a massive upright stone just outside Stonehenge's main circle, the sun would rise just above the eastern pit on the day of the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. The same observer would see the sun set that evening in line with the western pit.”
Stonehenge: an ancient gathering place for aliens and others
Throughout the first and second century, ancient peoples would gather in what are now the recently discovered Stonehenge pits. This practice of a gathering of tribes at the Stonehenge pits later involved what was dubbed as “Neo-druids,” in the late 19th century.
“These modern Druids arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from the site,” states British Stonehenge historian Ronald Hutton.
In turn, Hutton notes in a history of Stonehenge at the British Museum how these “Neo-druidic groups” would make good use of the “megalithic monument for secret ceremonies tied to the “Ancient Order of Druids,” that many ufologists believe were hybrids from a “joining of the ancient ones and humans who lived in this part of England.”
During a now famous August 1905 meeting, in which the Ancient Order of Druids admitted 259 new members into their organization; with many of the members being Lords and other British Royals. While a history of this group points to the Druids and “hybrids” being ridiculed in the press, those who mocked them soon learned that these people and others dressed in white robes “were powerful,” state British newspaper reports from 1905.
Stonehenge: haunted by UFOs
Back in November of 2002, a report, now posted on stevequayle.com, and translated by Maria Gousseva – titled “Stonehenge: Haunted by UFOs – caught the attention of UFO watchers in England because it was part of the 8,500 British government’s once top secret UFO documents that were released to the public back in March of this year.
In turn, a link to this story about the ancient Stonehenge site being “haunted by UFOs,” pointed to a sort of “headquarters” or “ground control” operation carried out by “ancient astronauts” or aliens in and around the new Stonehenge “pits” that have been unearthed now at the end of November 2011.
Also, it's known that the majority of Englishmen "know the Salisbury Valley because of the ancient Stonehenge monument. However very few people know that the ruins are haunted by UFOs,” states this report on stevequayle.com. “In August 1957, a war game was held between the London garrison and the Royal Guards from Liverpool in the mentioned valley. According to the battle’s conditions, the defending side (the London garrison) was equipped with five Centurion tanks. The tanks performed a defensive role: they maneuvered and fired at the center of the area. When the tanks were getting ready for the combat mission, the crew of one of the tanks reported that they saw a large, silver, cigar-shaped object; they reported that the tank was ready to open fire. After the report, no more information could be obtained about the tank, and none of its traces could be found. The tank simply disappeared.”
Really strange things occur around Stonehenge
For instance, the reported noted how “one Englishman decided to fly a kite near Stonehenge. He stood on the bed of his pickup, and the kite flew up and up towards the sky. Suddenly, when the kite flew above the cromlech’s edges, 150-200 yards from the car park, a strange unknown source of energy hurt the man’s hands. The man lost his conscience and fell down from his car. His wounds healed only after six months.”
There is another even more fantastic phenomenon, the report adds. “Once, a group of people heard some strange sounds from the direction of the stones. These people immediately left, but the strange sound went up into the sky with a buzzing. Then, these people saw something resembling a huge wheel of fire, turning as it flew up into the sky. Later, after they returned home, they saw a female figure dressed in yellow clothes. The woman’s hair was long, and her coiffure resembled an ancient Egyptian one. This even gave them the impression that they witnessed a struggle between good and the evil.”
One Czech artist says that levitation of sounds was used when Stonehenge was built; the levitation was caused by the strengths of sound and thought.
Moreover, an ufologists named Tony Wedd discovered a very important element of new discoveries: “he discovered a connection between ancient field lines of the area and UFOs. The cromlech area resembles an UFO when seen from the air. Circular embankments and ditches are an exterior rim of the UFO, the Aubrey holes are the illuminators, and the internal stone ring is the UFO’s cabin. The central stone resembles a prominent cabin, and the so-called blue stones are humanoids.”
Stonehenge comes under the control of the Queen of England
The report goes on to state that “although Stonehenge is owned by civilians (it belongs to the Royal family), it is surrounded by closed military zones. Glastonbury’s peace and quiet is not disturbed yet. Over Waminster, UFOs frequently follow a flight path from the east to west, from Stonehenge to Glastonbury. In this place, people have observed UFO landings, giants, sounds of invisible pedestrians, and even exotic space perfume left after a UFO flew away. However, this phenomenon isn’t new. Even John Aubrey in his notes in 1670 mentioned a strange ghost seen not far from Sprinchester. When the ghost was asked whether it was a good or an evil spirit, no response followed, and the creature disappeared, leaving an unusual smell and melodious chime after itself.”
Also, the recently released British government UFO documents point to an UFO sighting from 1968, “when a man named Arthur Shuttlewood saw an UFO close to a circle of fire that emerged from Stonehenge. When Shuttlewood decided to approach the strange object, it shot straight up. Late one evening in November 1977, blazing fires were seen. They moved across the sky in a line, and they could hover and suddenly change direction. At that, the fires didn’t move fluently like planes, by in a very energetic and sudden manner.”
In turn, the British UFO documents point to this UFO sighting by Shuttlewood as “something aircraft do when approaching a flight line, with “Stonehenge serving as a command post for these ancient astronauts.”
Image source of an early photograph of Stonehenge taken in July 1877 when locals reported strange “lights from the sky over the ancient stones. Today, Stonehenge is viewed as both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the “most powerful UFO sighting locations in the world.” Photo courtesy British government UFO documents and Wikipedia



Prometheus (2012) Trailer #1



Deconstructing the Alexander the Great UFO story

Antonio Huneeus | Dec 20, 2011

Marble portrait of Alexander the Great, 2nd-1st century BC (Credit: The British Museum)

Ever since the well known radio broadcaster, author and ufologist Frank Edwards published it in his book Stranger Than Science, the story of a UFO incident during the military campaigns of Alexander the Great has been repeated endless times in books, articles, TV programs and the web. Its latest incarnation appears in the just released book, UFOs in Wartime – What They Didn’t Want You to Know (Berkley Books) by Mack Maloney. It’s understandable than Maloney included this case since Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) is one of the most successful and iconic military commanders of all times. Unfortunately, Maloney didn’t do any research on this particular story, limiting himself to paraphrasing the Edwards account and a second story where “flying shields” supposedly helped Alexander’s army to conquer the city of Tyre in modern-day Lebanon.
Despite the many repetitions of Alexander’s UFO story, there are only two modern versions of it and neither one provides historical references or sources. All efforts by various historians and researchers to find ancient sources have failed so far. Before mentioning these efforts by Jacques Vallee and others, let’s see first what was supposed to have happened. The first version published originally by Frank Edwards in 1959 is very brief. It comes at the end of his book in Chapter 72, “Spies in the Skies.” Edwards wrote:

Alexander the Great was not the first to see them nor was he the first to find them troublesome. He tells of two strange craft that dived repeatedly at his army until the war elephants, the men, and the horses all panicked and refused to cross the river where the incident occurred. What did the things look like? His historian describes them as great shining silvery shields, spitting fire around the rims… things that came from the skies and returned to the skies.

The second version was published in 1966 by Alberto Fenoglio in the Italian ufological publication Clypeus (issue #9, 1st Semester 1966) in an article titled, “Cronoistoria su oggetti volanti del passato – Apunti per una clipeostoria” (Chronological History of Flying Objects in the Past – Notes for a History of Shields). Fenoglio’s account, which like Edwards didn’t cite any historical sources, was in turn translated and published by the English ancient astronaut author Raymond Drake in his 1967 Gods and Spacemen in Greece and Rome (recently reprinted by Tim Beckley’s Global Communications as Alien Space Gods of Ancient Greece and Rome). After repeating the Edwards account, Drake goes on to say that Fenoglio based his version on the 19th century historian Johann Gustav Droysen, revealing the following startling information during the Macedonian siege of Tyre on 332 BC:

The fortress would not yield, its walls were fifty feet high and constructed so solidly that no siege-engine was able to damage it. The Tyrians disposed of the greatest technicians and builders of war-machines of the time and they intercepted in the air the incendiary arrows and projectiles hurled by the catapults on the city.
One day suddenly there appeared over the Macedonian camp these “flying shields”, as they had been called, which flew in triangular formation led by an exceedingly large one, the others were smaller by almost a half. In all there were five. The unknown chronicler narrates that they circled slowly over Tyre while thousands of warriors on both sides stood and watched them in astonishment. Suddenly from the largest “shield” came a lightning-flash that struck the walls, these crumbled, other flashes followed and walls and towers dissolved, as if they had been built of mud, leaving the way open for the besiegers who poured like an avalanche through the breeches. The “flying shields” hovered over the city until it was completely stormed then they very swiftly disappeared aloft, soon melting into the blue sky.

Detail of the Alexander Sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, showing Alexander fighting the Persians at the Battle of Issus. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Unverified account
There is a rather modern tone in this account by Fenoglio, reminiscent of contemporary UFO stories, with phrases like the objects “flew in triangular formation” and “hovered over the city until it was completely stormed.” If this was a true story and the “flying shields” played such a decisive role in a key battle, one would expect to find it mentioned by Plutarch, Quintus Curtius and all the other historians of Antiquity who wrote extensively about Alexander the Great, and yet none have been found. I looked at French translations of Droysen’s German biography of Alexander, where he described the siege of Tyre in detail. Needless to say, the flying shields and lightning-bolts are not there. He describes how the Greek army bombarded the walls heavily with catapults until a part of it finally collapsed. Moreover, I later found a more complete translation of Fenoglio’s Clypeus article where he writes that, “during the siege of Tyre in the year 332 BC, strange flying objects were observed. Johann Gustav Droysen in his History of Alexander the Great [Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen (1833)] does not cite it intentionally, believing it to be a fantasy of the Macedonian soldiers.” So Drake misunderstood completely the Droysen reference or else translated a distorted version of the original article, but either way the Fenoglio story lacks any valid ancient or modern sources.

Cover of the book Wonders in the Sky by Vallee and Aubeck, showing an artist’s rendition of Alexander’s silver shields. (Credit: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin)

All the researchers who have spent some time with this story have come up empty-handed so far. Gordon Creighton, the longtime scholarly editor of Britain’s Flying Saucer Review wrote in 1970 that, “so far I have seen no indication as to which classical author is responsible for it,” and “I hope if there is a Greek or Latin text somebody can tell me where to find it.” The Swiss ufologist Bruno Mancusi looked into it with the Macedonian historian Aleksander Donski, concluding a 2003 post in UFO Updates that “this story remains very dubious.” Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck reached the same conclusion in their recent important book, Wonders in the Sky – Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin), where they even put Alexander’s “silver shields” battle scene on the cover. The story of the Tyre siege, however, was relegated to the “Part II: Myths, Legends, and Chariots of the Gods” in their catalog of historical UFO cases. The authors first questioned the idea that there were two incidents (river and siege) involving Alexander rather than one. They also pointed out that Fenoglio was an unreliable source who had invented or embellished several ancient stories. To say, as put by Edwards, that “his historian” had described the “flying shields” is a moot point because the Deeds of Alexander written by Callisthenes (who accompanied the Macedonian King in his campaigns and wrote the official history of them) is lost. Some excerpts were quoted by later Greek and Roman historians but none cited the “flying shields.” For all these reasons, Vallee and Aubeck conclude: “Until some original source can be located, we are left with the suggestion that Alexander’s army at Tyre simply witnessed fiery projectiles, some sort of flaming weapon.”

By far the most thorough analysis of this case was made by historian Yannis Deliyannis in his excellent website “Chronicom Mirabilium – A historian’s look on ancient anomalous celestial phenomena and mysterious history,” specifically on his piece, “Did Alexander the Great really see UFOs?” posted in November 2009. After going over the same material by Edwards and Fenoglio discussed already, Deliyannis made an honest effort to find some sources to the legend. He discovered that the classical historian Quintus Curtius Rufus wrote the following in his Historia Alexandri Magni (lib. IV, cap. V):

Furthermore, they [the Tyrians] would heat bronze shields in a blazing fire, fill them with hot sand and boiling excrement and suddenly hurl them from the walls. None of their deterrents aroused greater fear than this. The hot sand would make its way between the breastplate and the body; there was no way to shake it out and it would burn through whatever it touched. The soldiers would throw away their weapons, tear off all their protective clothing and thus expose themselves to wounds without being able to retaliate.
(From Heckel, W. and Yardley, J. Alexander the Great: historical texts in translation, 2004, p. 147)

“This is as close as we can get to Fenoglio’s ‘flying shields’ by looking at ancient sources,” commented Deliyannis, “and I believe this passage from Quintus Curtius is the basis Fenoglio used for his version, whether intentionally or as a result of a (hard-to-believe) misunderstanding or mistranslation.” As for the description of “silvery shields,” Deliyannis points out that an elite unit of Alexander’s army known as the Hypaspists changed their name at the beginning of the campaign in India to Argyraspides, which means “silver shields” because they decorated their shields with silver, so that could be another source of confusion for modern writers like Edwards, Drake and Fenoglio.The Alexander Romance

A naval action during the siege of Tire in 332 BC by the 19th century artist André Castaigne (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Deliyannis also mentions another possible source—the literary genre known as the Alexander Romance, which reached extraordinary popularity in medieval times. It was basically a fantastic version of Alexander’s campaigns which started in the waning years of the Roman Empire with a writer known as the Pseudo-Calisthenes, to distinguish him from the official historian Calisthenes. Another apocryphal document that contributed to the Romance was the so-called Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, “a fake, probably composed in the 4th or 5th century AD” that “was extremely famous during the middle ages and was eventually inserted in the Pseudo-Calisthenes,” according to Deliyannis.

The personality of Alexander the Great was already larger than life even in his own lifetime. There were rumors that he was not the son of King Philip II of Macedon, but that the chief god Zeus had seduced his mother Queen Olympias (played by Angelina Jolie in the Oliver Stone movie), thus becoming a semi-god. This rumor was probably used as propaganda to discourage any resistance to his invasions. In just 12 years, Alexander changed completely the ancient world, conquering the mighty Persian Empire and pushing all the way to India in the east and Egypt to the west. Many cities still bear his name, such as Alexandria in Egypt and Kandahar (from his name in Persian, Iskandar) in Afghanistan. Although his empire was divided among his main generals after his death in Babylon in 323 BC at the age of 32, the era of Hellenic civilization spread through the Mediterranean and beyond, symbolized by the famous Library of Alexandria.
Although the known facts about Alexander the Great were fantastic enough, the Pseudo-Calisthenes and a series of Byzantine, Armenian, Arab and European variants developed through the Middle Ages converted the “Alexander Romance” into a kind of medieval science-fiction. There are dozens of variants—some of the more famous are the 15th century French illuminated manuscript, La Vraye Histoire du Bon Roy Alixandre (The True Story of the Good King Alexander), now in the British Library, and the Spanish epic Libro de Alexandre (Book of Alexander), written between 1178 ad 1250 AD. Many of these versions are magnificently illustrated. Among other fantastic deeds of the Alexander Romance, the Macedonian hero built a wall in Asia confining the armies of Gog and Magog, which will not be unleashed until the end of times; reached Eden or the primeval Paradise of Adam and Eve; flew in the sky in a chariot propelled by griffins and descended to the bottom of the ocean in a barrel-shaped submarine; fought and killed dragons and many other exotic monsters; encountered all kinds of strange creatures including the fabled Amazons, a bigfoot-type Wildman, and the legendary headless beings known in Antiquity as Blemmyes, who had eyes and mouth on their chests.

Beautiful illustration by medieval artist Jean Wauquelin showing Alexander’s aerial voyage in a cage flown by griffins, from the Histoire du bon roy Alexandre, 1438. (Credit: Biliothèque nationale de France)

Illuminated manuscript from the XV century showing Alexander the Great’s diving bell submarine. (Credit: British Library)

Alexander encounter the Wildman in his voyage to Asia, from a medieval manuscript of the Alexander Romance. (Credit: Biliothèque nationale de France)

One of the most delightful stories of the Alexander Romance is the King’s flying chariot pushed by griffins, which exhibits the most quaint propulsion system ever devised in literature. According to the various versions of the Romance, Alexander had captured two griffins during his campaign in India. He built a cage for one man to stand up and kept the animals without eating for three days, so they would be really hungry. He then tied the griffins to the cage and put a big piece of meat on top of a spear, dangling the meat in front of the griffins. “Trying to grab it, the griffins kept flying,” says the Libro de Alexandre. This scene was particularly popular with medieval illustrators, and so was another science-fiction type episode of his descent into the bottom of the ocean in a barrel-shaped submarine, which is mentioned in a famous letter on future inventions by Friar Roger Bacon, one of the wisest men of the Middle Ages. In this letter written c. 1260, Bacon wrote:

A machine can be constructed for submarine journeys, for seas and rivers. It dives to the bottom without danger to man. Alexander the Great has made use of such a device, as we know from Ethicus the astronomer. Such things have been made long ago and they are still made in our days, except perhaps the flying machine…

Alexander the Great in his griffin-powered flying machine, XV century, from La Vraye Histoire du Bon Roy Alixandre. (Credit: British Library)

It is clear that the many exploits of the Alexander Romance are fanciful and not factual, although they deserve a spot in the history of science-fiction. The historian Yannis Deliyannis found a “celestial prodigy” in the so-called Letter to Aristotle worth citing:

Immediately after that the sky grew very black and dark, and from the dark sky there came burning fire. The fire fell to the earth like a burning torch, and the whole plain was burning from the fire’s flame. Then men said that they thought it was the anger of the gods which had fallen upon us. Then I ordered old clothing to be torn up and used as a protection against the fire. After that we had a quiet and peaceful night, once our difficulties assuaged.
(Orchard, Andy. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf Manuscript, Cambridge, 1995, p. 245)

Deliyannis points out that this account is not as fantastic as the one described by Edwards and, in any case, “the historiographical value of the documents belonging to the Romance of Alexander” are not reliable. He concludes his thorough study of Alexander’s alleged UFO incidents by pointing out the amusing fact that “the aforementioned UFO writers have somewhat become the spiritual continuators of the tradition of the Alexander Romance in our century, still adding marvelous events to it, as had done before them their medieval predecessors…”
We have to agree with Deliyannis. Until ufologists and ancient astronaut writers find legitimate historical accounts that back up the alleged UFO incidents of Alexander the Great, the story should not be repeated as factual.