Erich von Däniken

Erich von Däniken was a Swiss writer and former hotel manager. His first book, Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968), published in English as Chariots of the Gods?, argued that extraterrestrials visited Earth in prehistory, were taken for gods, and left traces in monuments such as the pyramids, the Nazca lines and the statues of Easter Island, and in religious texts. It sold in the millions, was followed by dozens of sequels, and made the 'ancient astronaut' idea a staple of popular culture and television.

Among his readings, he presented the Ark of the Covenant as a kind of electrical device or communicator, and he inspired others, such as the NASA engineer Josef Blumrich, to read Ezekiel's vision as a spacecraft.

Scientists and archaeologists rejected his work as pseudoarchaeology. Critics showed that he misrepresented evidence, ignored explanations already published, and invented some claims, which he later admitted in cases such as a cave expedition in Ecuador. Before his fame he had been convicted of fraud and embezzlement in Switzerland. He died in January 2026.