Russian-American author Zecharia Sitchin claimed in his 1976 book The Twelfth Planet that the Anunnaki were actually a race of extraterrestrial beings from the uncharted planet Nibiru, who came to Earth to mine gold approximately 500,000 years ago.
According to Sitchin, the Anunnaki genetically engineered homo erectus to create modern humans to work as slaves. Sitchin claimed that the Anunnaki were forced to leave Earth when the Antarctic ice caps melted, causing Noah’s Flood, which destroyed the Anunnaki’s bases on Earth. These had to be rebuilt, and needing more people in this great effort, the Nephilim taught them agriculture.
According to Ronald H. Fritze, Sitchin, “The Annunaki built pyramids and other monumental structures from around the world that ancient astronaut theorists considered impossible to build without highly advanced technologies.” he writes. Sitchin also claimed that the Anunnaki left behind human-alien hybrids, unaware of their alien ancestors, some of whom may still be alive today. Sitchin expanded on this mythology in later works such as The Stairway to Heaven (1980) and The Wars of Gods and Men (1985). In his The End of Days: Armageddon and the Prophecy of the Return (2007), Sitchin predicted that the Anunnaki would return to earth as early as 2012, possibly coinciding with the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
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