Erich von Däniken, who claimed aliens built the pyramids, dead at 90

Erich von Däniken, the Swiss author whose 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? launched the ancient astronaut movement and sold over 70 million copies, died January 10 in a hospital in central Switzerland, reports Yahoo News. He was 90.

Von Däniken claimed the Mayans and ancient Egyptians were visited by extraterrestrials who taught them advanced technology — the only explanation, he insisted, for how they could have built such impressive structures. Scientists and archaeologists found his theories insulting to the ingenuity of ancient peoples and utterly unsupported by evidence. Fans didn’t care. He published more than 40 books over five decades, translated into 32 languages.

His influence on pop culture was enormous. His work inspired Marvel’s Eternals, provided conceptual foundations for the Indiana Jones franchise, influenced Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and most directly spawned the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, where von Däniken appeared as a regular commentator.

Before becoming famous, von Däniken was a Swiss hotel manager who embezzled 400,000 francs from his employer to fund expeditions to Peru, Easter Island, Mexico, Lebanon, and Egypt, hunting for alien evidence. The theft eventually caught up with him, but by then Chariots of the Gods? had made him wealthy enough to pay it back many times over. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Elisabeth, daughter Cornelia, and two grandchildren.