A Russian academic claims an ancient civilisation drove giant all-terrain vehicles on Earth in pre-historic times, alleging they left tracks visible today which were made 12 to 14 million years ago.
Geologist, Dr. Alexander Koltypin claims that mysterious groove-like markings in the Phrygian Valley of central Turkey are artificial, not created by any natural process.
"We can suppose that ancient vehicles on wheels were drove on soft soil, maybe a wet surface,” he said.
"Because of their weight the ruts were so deep.
"And later these ruts—and all the surface around—just petrified and secured all the evidence.
"Such cases are well known to geologists, for example, the footprints of dinosaurs were 'naturally preserved' in a similar way."
Dr. Koltypin, director of the Natural Science Scientific Research Centre at the Moscow's International Independent University of Ecology and Politology, has just returned from a field trip to the site in Anatolia with three colleagues.
He described the markings as 'petrified tracking ruts in rocky tuffaceous deposits'—made from compacted volcanic ash.
He said: "All these rocky fields were covered with the ruts left some millions of years ago ... we are not talking about human beings."
The academic said: "We are dealing with some kind of cars or all-terrain vehicles.
"The pairs of ruts are crossing each other from time to time and some ruts are more deep than the others."
According to his observations, 'the view of the ruts does not leave any doubt that they are ancient, in some places the surface suffered from weathering, cracks are seen here'.
The age of the ruts is between 12 and 14 million years old, he believes.
"The methodology of specifying the age of volcanic rocks is very well studied and worked out," he said.
"As a geologist, I can certainly tell you that unknown antediluvian all-terrain vehicles drove around Central Turkey some 12-to-14 million years ago."
He claimed archeologists "avoid touching this matter" because it will "ruin all their classic theories".
He claimed: "I think we are seeing the signs of the civilisation which existed before the classic creation of this world.
"Maybe the creatures of that pre-civilisation were not like modern human beings."
He claimed the ancient "car tracks" are one of a number of clues "which prove the existence of ancient civilisations" but which are often ignored by mainstream scientists.
There was no comprehensible system for the tracks but the distance between each pair of tracks "is always the same", he said.
"This distance very much fits that between the wheels of modern cars," but the tracks are too deep for today's vehicles.
"The maximum depth of a rut is about one metre.
"On the sides of ruts there can be seen horizontal scratches, it looks like they were left by the ends of the axles used for ancient wheels.
"We found many ruts with such scratches," he said.
Koltypin graduated in Soviet times from the Russian State Geological Prospecting University, later working as a mainstream scientist.
More recently, he has written and encouraged books on popular science mysteries.
