Overview
- His representatives announced he died on Jan. 10 in a hospital in Unterseen, central Switzerland, with his daughter confirming the news to the Swiss agency SDA.
- Von Däniken broke out with the 1968 bestseller Chariots of the Gods?, which argued that extraterrestrials influenced ancient civilizations.
- Across more than two dozen follow‑ups, his books sold an estimated 60–70 million copies and were translated into over 30 languages.
- Scholars widely dismissed his claims as pseudoscience, and he was the first Ig Nobel literature recipient in 1991.
- His career included fraud and tax convictions with prison time, and his Interlaken‑area Mystery Park opened in 2003 but later failed and reopened under a new owner.