Ancient UFO Accounts

From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)

Unusual aerial phenomena have been reported throughout history. Some of these strange apparitions may have been astronomical phenomena such as comets or bright meteors, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia. Examples of these reports include:

• The Book of Ezekiel describes the vision of beings descending and ascending in the sky in something with smoke, flames, and wheels inside wheels. NASA aerospace engineer Josef Blumrich designed a spaceship that he thought would fit the various parts of Ezekiel's description (in Blumrich's book, The Spaceships of Ezekiel). Blumrich thought, for example, that the wheels might represent helicopter rotors for landing and takeoff. However, others argue that a "wheel within a wheel" might simply be a religious metaphor for God's continuously revolving kingdom.
• During the reign of the Pharaoh Thutmose III around 1450 BC, there is a description of multiple "circles of fire" brighter than the sun and about 5 meters in size that appeared over multiple days. They finally disappeared after ascending higher in the sky.
• The army of Alexander the Great in 329 BC, as they were crossing a river into India, saw "two silver shields" in the sky that dove repeatedly on their military columns causing panic. In 322 BC when Alexander was besieging Tyre in Phoenicia, another "flying shield" moving in triangular formation with smaller "shields" approached. Supposedly the larger object shot beams of light at the city shattering its walls and other defenses. Alexander's army quickly took advantage of the situation and seized the city. The objects then departed.

• The Roman author Julius Obsequens writes that in 99 BC, "in Tarquinia towards sunset, a round object, like a globe, a round or circular shield, took its path in the sky from west to east."
• In 1235 the army of Oritsume in Japan saw mysterious lights in the sky.
• In the Chronicle of monk and historian William of Newburgh, it says that in 1290 the abbot and monks of Byland Abbey in Yorkshire were terrorized when "a flat, round, shining silvery object" flew over the abbey. This story was, however, later shown to be a hoax, started when two school boys from the local school wrote a letter to the editor detailing the claim.
• Circa 1491-1492, famous explorer Christopher Columbus had an account, in his journal, of lights that had seemed to come out of the sea, and vanished into the air.
• On April 14 1561 the skies over Nuremberg, Germany were reportedly filled with a multitude of objects seemingly engaged in an aerial battle. Small spheres and discs were said to emerge from large cylinders. (image right)

Usually treated as supernatural portents, angels, and other religious omens, some contemporary investigators believe these reports to be the ancient equivalent of modern UFOs.