Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (/ˈɛrɪk fɒn ˈdɛnɪkɪn/; German: [ˈeːrɪç fɔn ˈdɛːnɪkən]; born 14 April 1935) is a Swiss author of several pseudoscientific books which make claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968.

(German: Erinnerungen an die Zukunft, literally "Memories of the Future"), working on the manuscript late at night after the hotel's guests had retired.

[11] In November 1968, von Däniken was arrested for fraud, after falsifying hotel records and credit references in order to take out loans[8] for $130,000 over a period of twelve years.

[5] Two years later,[8] von Däniken was convicted for "repeated and sustained" embezzlement, fraud, and forgery, with the court ruling that the writer had been living a "playboy" lifestyle.

[12] He unsuccessfully entered a plea of nullity, on the grounds that his intentions were not malicious and that the credit institutions were at fault for failing adequately to research his references,[5][8][12] and on 13 February 1970 he was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment and was also fined 3,000 francs.

[5][14] His first book, Chariots of the Gods?, had been published by the time of his trial, and its sales allowed him to repay his debts and leave the hotel business.

Von Däniken writes about his belief that structures such as the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, and the Moai of Easter Island, and certain artifacts from that period, are products of higher technological knowledge than is presumed to have existed at the times they were manufactured.

Von Däniken explains the origins of religions as reactions to contact with an alien race, and offers interpretations of sections of the Old Testament of the Bible.

[16] The first edition of von Däniken's Erinnerungen an die Zukunft failed to cite Robert Charroux's One Hundred Thousand Years of Man's Unknown History despite making very similar claims, and publisher Econ-Verlag was forced to add Charroux in the bibliography in later editions, to avoid a possible lawsuit for plagiarism.

[17] That writing as careless as von Däniken's, whose principal thesis is that our ancestors were dummies, should be so popular is a sober commentary on the credulousness and despair of our times.

[18]In Chariots of the Gods?, von Däniken cited the Iron pillar of Delhi in India, erected approximately 402 AD, as a prime example of extraterrestrial influence because of its "unknown origins" and a complete absence of rust despite its estimated 1,500 years of continuous exposure to the elements.

[19][20] When informed by an interviewer, in 1974, that the pillar was not rust-free, and that its origin, method of construction, and relative resistance to corrosion were all well understood, von Däniken responded that he no longer believed extraterrestrials had been involved in its creation.

[21][22] In The Gold of the Gods, von Däniken describes an expedition that he undertook through man-made tunnels within Cueva de los Tayos, a natural cave system in Ecuador, guided by a local man named Juan Moricz.

He reported seeing mounds of gold, strange statues, and a library containing metal tablets, all of which he considered to be evidence of ancient extraterrestrial visitation.

Moricz told Der Spiegel that there had been no expedition; von Däniken's descriptions came from "a long conversation", and the photos in the book had been "fiddled".

[23] During the 1974 interview, von Däniken asserted that he had indeed seen the library and the artifacts in the tunnels, but he had embellished some aspects of the story to make it more interesting: "In German we say a writer, if he is not writing pure science, is allowed to use some dramaturgische Effekte – some theatrical effects...And that's what I have done.

[23] Samuel Rosenberg said that the Book of Dzyan, referred to by von Däniken,[26] was "a fabrication superimposed on a gigantic hoax concocted by Madame Blavatsky."

"[27] According to Richard R. Lingeman of The New York Times, it is likely that von Däniken obtained these references from UFO books that mentioned them as real documents.

[29] The idea did not originate with von Däniken; it began after people who first saw the lines from the air made joking comparisons to Martian "canals",[28] and had already been published by others.

[29] Von Däniken's books attracted so many tourists to the Nazca region that researcher Maria Reiche had to spend much of her own time and money preserving the lines.

[36] Erich von Däniken puts forward many beliefs about the Great Pyramid of Giza in his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?, saying that the ancient Egyptians could not have built it, not having sufficiently advanced tools, leaving no evidence of workers, and incorporating too much 'intimate' knowledge about the Earth and its geography into the design.

[42] Von Däniken states that the Great Pyramid is located on the Median line dividing the continents,[38] and that the Egyptians could not have aligned the edges so perfectly to true north without advanced technology that only aliens could give them.

[45] The ancient Egyptian astronomers and, possibly, farmers spent much time studying the stars in order to accurately track the agricultural seasons.

[48] Kenneth Feder accused von Däniken of European ethnocentrism,[49] while John Flenley and Paul Bahn suggested that views such as his interpretation of the Easter Island statues "ignore the real achievements of our ancestors and constitute the ultimate in racism: they belittle the abilities and ingenuity of the human species as a whole.

"[58] Von Däniken is an occasional presenter on the History Channel and H2 show Ancient Aliens, where he talks about aspects of his theories as they pertain to each episode.

He was able to bounce back into popularity when he produced a twenty-five-part German television series in 1993, and this led to his books being translated into English once again.