An Iraqi minister claimed that the ancient Sumerians travelled to Pluto in spaceships thousands of years ago.

Iraq’s Transport Minister Kazem Finjan, told reporters, that the ancient civilization built world’s first airport in Iraq in 5000 BC.

Iraq Transport Minister: Sumerians built world’s first airports & flew spaceships from southern Iraq to discover other planets (5000yrs ago) pic.twitter.com/WOhbyS7NGU — Hayder al-Khoei (@Hayder_alKhoei) September 29, 2016

The Sumerians represent the oldest known civilization in Iraq that reached its peak in 2,700-2,400 BC .

It is believed that they settled in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia, which is now south Iraq where they developed agriculture, trade and artisan skills such as weaving, pottery and metalwork.

The New Arab reports:

Finjan went on to claim that the airport had served as a hub for space exploration, and that the Sumerians discovered Pluto falsely claiming it to be the solar system’s “twelfth planet” and discovered by NASA.

In front of a beleaguered audience Finjan sought to back up his claims asking sceptics to study the works of Sumerian experts such as Russian professor Samuel Kramer.

The academic wrote about the Sumerian awareness of the solar system evident in the ancient society’s creation myths.

The Sumerians represent the oldest known civilization in Iraq and according to historians reached their peak in 2,700-2,400 BC when Iraq – or ancient Mesopotamia – was regarded as the “cradle of civilisation”.

However, most hold that the first manned space journey took place under the Soviet space programme in 1957.

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin boarded Vostok 1 and embarked on a single orbit of the Earth lasting 108 minutes before Gagarin ejected at 23,000 ft and parachuted back to earth.

Youtube video by MEMRI TV