Twelfth Planet: Book I of the Earth Chronicles (The Earth Chronicles)

Over the years, startling evidence has been uncovered, challenging established notions of the origins of life on Earth—evidence that suggests the existence of an advanced group of extraterrestrials who once inhabited our world.

The first book of the revolutionary Earth Chronicles series offers indisputable documentary evidence of the existence of the mysterious planet Nibiru and tells why its astronauts came to Earth eons ago to fashion mankind in their image.

The product of more than thirty years of meticulous research, The 12th Planet treats as fact, not myth, the tales of Creation, the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, and the Nefilim who married the daughters of man. By weaving together the biblical narrative with Sumerian and Babylonian clay-tablet texts, it challenges the established notions of the origins of Earth and mankind, and offers a compelling alternative history and prehistory of both.

1) Sitchin ignores all the 9th grade science that discredits his ideas. a) A planet suddenly entering our solar system even thousands of years ago would produce major disruptions in the rock steady orbits of the other planets. Such disruptions in speed and orbit would still be detectable. When this planet supposedly returns, the earth would get pulled way out of orbit. That means we are in big trouble. b) A planet (the 12th planet) orbiting the sun at the huge distances he suggests would have no photosynthesis---nothing green would grow. No plants, no food for any sort for carbon-based life, and no one has yet imagined how you can have non-carbon-based life--life without cells or DNA. No plants means no oxygen in the air. c) for a planet to give off enough internal heat to keep an atmosphere warm, the ground would be too hot to stand on. And what would be the source of the heat? Can't be volcanoes because that much volcanic activity would have those beings living in a sulfur and poison gas environment.

You'd think if a guy writes a book that overturns the laws of physics he'd, you know, address this issue in passing. Perhaps suggest that these beings breathe sulfur, eat dirt and have bodies made of aluminum. Something.

2) Sitchin does not seem to understand metaphysics and the need for the greatest spiritual writers to use symbolic language to attempt to convey religious or mystical experiences that are all but impossible to understand (unless you are having the experience yourself). Understanding God(s) means understanding Beings that transcend our notions of space and time, and the normal use of language. That is why such writings tend to use symbolism and metaphorical language. Sitchin translates this sort of language from Sumerian religious writings literally to produce people going to and from spaceships.

3) He ignores other more commonly accepted explanations for the birth of civilization. For example, Atlantis is generally accepted by non-scientists as the great civilization before the flood that gave rise to Egypt. Many believe that Lemuria in the Pacific gave rise to the Incan and Myan civilizations, the Hindu Indian civilization traces its ancestry back tens of thousands of years to a great, previous age. Are all these groups from Edgar Cayce to the Vedas mistaken, and the real truth is that aliens from space started it all? He does not attempt to reconcile what he writes with the esoteric writings of so many others about mankind's hidden history.

The book is cheaply priced, and some of Sitchin's ideas are interesting on the surface. Certainly it is possible that some of his ideas about the ancients and aliens could be true--space visitors might have come from Sirius, not some invented planet, for example. And this may be the value of the book.


A hammer for the beginning   May 29, 2000
Alain Lipus (Ravne na Koroskem, Slovenia)
121 out of 139 found this review helpful

This is the first book of "The Earth chronicles" series in which Zecharia Sitchin tears the man's origins apart and puts them in a whole new perspective. Author is one of the top scholars in field of the ancient languages and offers his vision of extraterrestrial origins of Homo sapiens on Earth. His main point is that all ancient documents are written on the base of observations and facts and should not be taken symbolically. As we presume today, civilization has originated in Mesopotamia, but no one can really explain the fact that right from its start it was highly developed, that it blossomed virtually out of nothing and created incredible works, which we are not capable of performing even to date. Sitchin quotes many ancient documents, mostly Bible and Epic of Gilgamesh (which he read in Akkadian and Babylonian) and offers more sensful translation of these scripts. He also explains discrepancies of single/plural God in the Genesis and shows how the extraterrestrial wisdom has spread over other countries (Egypt, Greece, India...). Gods came from planet Nibiru (or Marduk in Babylonian), which has been created for special task: to bring order in our, at the time overcrowded solar system. After crushing Tiamat and forming Earth and Moon, planet Nibiru went on his comet-like journey, returning to the Sun in every 3,600 years. Life has formed and developed on it and some 450,000 years ago they noticed that our planet has some resources they desired. So they established settlements on Earth in range of Mesopotamia, because it is very rich with fuels, needed for space travelling. Man was created with genetic manipulation after their image (they mixed hominid's genes with their own in order to obtain higher IQ level) to do the mining work for them. In sitchin's light some very confusing and presumably highly imaginative texts suddenly seem very realistic. He explains why such monumental works like ziggurats, pyramids and other vast temples have been made and for what purposes they were used. The most monumental event in Earth's "modern" history was the Deluge, the Great Flood, found written and known everywhere around the world. Sitchin explains how Gods knew that it's going to happen and why Noah (or Ziusudra or Utnapishtim) was chosen to survive. After the waters flew away (the Deluge was coincided with the end of the Ice Age and the gravital pull of the passing Nibiru, therefore it lasted for a year), Gods gave many different technologies to people and they spread all over the Earth again. The book is very well written - if you don't accept the theory inside, it's still interesting piece of science fiction for you. I think Sitchin knows what he writes and the evidence written inside is sure enough for me. I already look forward what volume 2 will bring. And - if you disagree, maybe you know better?


Optimistically Skeptical   June 9, 2000
47 out of 52 found this review helpful

I've read the Sitchin collection. It's a mind boggling experiance. It's also very scholarly. An expert in Sumerian language, culture, et al.., Mr. Sitchins findings, if remotely accurate, explains a lot of empty holes in our History. I have never bought the fact that ancient cultures could be THAT imaginative. I am a believer that imagination is based on some basis of experience, exposure to or passed on story. You've heard the expression, there are no original thoughts, just original ways of presenting old ideas. I can't imagine that these civilizations just made up all those elaborate stories without some sort of core truth. Was there another more advanced culture? I wouldn't doubt it--there is so much we don't know. Mr. Sitchin's assertions are worth the read if only to spark further inquiry intoour mysterious and ancient past. Also read the works of Graham Hancock. His assertions are the same but different. He looks at the world where Sitchin focuses on a region. Never the less, why is it so hard to believe that our past may have been manipulated, Why couldn't there be a prehistory that has yet to reveal itself to us in detail. It's fascinating and deserves a serious study. Those who mock these ideas now once believed the universe rode on the back of a great turtle, or thought the world was flat or mocked Copernicus. A small question can ignite an inferno of curiosity and lead those who are brave enough into a wonderful world of adventure.


Ultra important book even if 50% of it is wrong...   May 23, 2002
Takis Tz. (Germany)
40 out of 41 found this review helpful

Sitchin, if you didn't know it already, is one of the leading figures in alternative archaelogy and science in general.
These days, and especially the last 30-40 years, a "new wave" of scientists and non scientists alike has risen with the intention of re-examining what we as a species consider "knowledge", knowledge about what we are, and where we come from.
Sitchin, being one of the few people in the world who can actually read Sumerian, has spent his life examining our origins, and his conclusions have little to do with apes descending trees and miraculously evolving into humans.
In the "12th planet", his most famous of his alltogether 9 books, he suggests that we are actually the creation of an alien race which landed on earth more than 450 millenia ago, and who created us as slave labor for their purposes on this planet back then. From then on, and through a myriad interdevelopments and influences, we developed to what we are today.
Sure, this sounds controversial, and to most people content with swallowing mainstream teachings for "facts" this might seem as pure science fiction. You would have to read this book before you term it as such though.
It is an exhausting book too, as the author needs to use literally 100s of quotes on original translations he's made in order to make his argument and this isn't just any argument, you understand...
Exhausting as this book might then be at times, the reward is immense, to put it very mildly. Even if Sitchin happens to be wrong on half of his conclusions what he suggests is mind blowing and shatters to bits most of our current beliefs.
More importantly, Sitchin can serve you as a gateway to new paths of thinking. It is impossible -i would think- to read the "12th planet" and emerge the same person afterwards, providing of course that you read it with an open mind. All new knowledge recquires an open mind to begin with. This does not mean that you will necessarily agree with Sitchin if you do read it with an open mind, but the evidence he offers is important and solid enough to make you think in a way you've never thought before.
You ever wondered why we are the only species on this planet that definately does not fit in with its environment? Or why we have so many grey areas and disagreements about where we originate from and how? Or why the word "anthropos" (a greek word) means "the creature that always looks up"? Or even why the root word of the word "earth" comes from the ancient Sumerian (the word e.ri.du) and means "a home far away"?
The "12th planet" will provide you with some spectacular answers.


The Longest Arms in the Solar System   April 5, 2003
doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania)
39 out of 65 found this review helpful

I find it rather sad that Zecharia Sitchin has spent 20 years and six books obsessing over the ridiculous theories that get started here. Sitchin is surely an expert on the cuneiform tablets of ancient Sumer and Akkadia, but has misinterpreted them into the completely laughable stipulations found in his "12th Planet" thesis. According to Sitchin, something big happens on Earth about every 3600 years - the first settled villages, the beginning of Christianity, etc. First of all, this is a coincidence that is hardly a basis for a large theory. You could just as easily pick out events that happened every 36 days then jump and shout about how important that interval is. Sitchin then looks to his Sumerian texts for evidence and determines that there is a 12th planet in the solar system. (Note: he uses the ancient method of counting the sun and moon as planets, so with the nine actual planets, eleven are known). This 12th planet supposedly has an extremely eccentric orbit that takes it way out beyond Pluto, but every 3600 years it swings in so close to Earth that its inhabitants can jump over and influence humanity in ways that make new-agers swoon with unctuous reverence.

Any critical thinker can see that this is a classic example of forming the theory first, then bending the evidence to fit preconceived notions. Sitchin sees spaceships and aliens in any of his ancient tablets that are otherwise unexplained or doubtful, which is the same mistake Erich von Daniken made with Mesoamerican forms in his equally atrocious “Chariots of the Gods.” Sitchin and von Daniken are in the same faulty mindset - if it’s not explained, it must be aliens! Not to mention, this theory of a 12th planet and its extreme orbit violates both Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion and Newton’s Laws of Gravitation. Mainstream astronomy has found zero evidence of a planet that improbably swings into our area (the key is measuring gravitational pull, the process that led to the discovery of Neptune and Pluto).

Sitchin does so much stretching here to make the so-called evidence fit his theory, that you'd swear his arms are ten feet long. If Sitchin manages to convince anyone with this drivel, then more power to him. But critical thinkers, prepare for a good laugh.