Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is dead. He died on 10 January 2026 aged 90.

Quite why and how he became popular and famous is unknown. He wasn't the first comedian to write about Ancient Astronauts. Brinsley Le Poer Trench wrote “The Sky People” in 1960. Several authors wrote about Ancient Astronauts before Brinsley Le Poer Trench – like for example Charles Fort and Harold T. Wilkins – and it was developed into fiction by H. P. Lovecraft in his story “The Call of Cthulhu”, first written in 1926 and published in 1928. An incomplete list can be found here.

Morris K. Jessup's book “UFO And The Bible” published in 1956 quickly comes to mind as an Ancient Astronaut comedy.

Perhaps the best way to describe the fame of “Chariots of the Gods” is that it came out at just the right time. Just like Dan Brown's “The Da Vinci Code” – so many books and documentaries were made before 2003 when “The Da Vinci Code” was first published – without having the same appeal.

Books without any proof to substantiate their rubbish but are successful to capture the public's imagination are always vastly more popular than real history.