Some places are so synonymous with aliens, tales of UFOs and strange lights seeming to signal another dimension that it probably wouldn’t be surprising to see little green beings casually wandering around. Area 51 and Roswell, for example, as well as structures like Stonehenge that are shrouded in mystery and intrigue. But extraterrestrials could be out there in more places than you might think. From unexplained disappearances and strange formations that invite conspiracy theories to the places around the world with the highest number of UFO sightings, here are some of the best places for alien hunting around the world.
Golden beaches, dramatic cliffs, views of the sapphire sea for miles and… alien encounters? California’s Highway 1, which hugs the coastline from Dana Point in the south up to Mendocino north of San Francisco, isn’t the first place that springs to mind when thinking about UFOs. Yet road trippers regularly report strange, otherworldly objects along the route. LA has been a focus for alien hunters since February 1942, when a huge UFO was sighted over the city in what’s become known as “the Battle of Los Angeles”.
The Bermuda Triangle covers 500,000 square miles (1,290,000sq km) between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda, and more than 20 planes and 50 ships have crashed mysteriously or even “vanished”. Theories range from magnetic compass variation to rogue waves. But a growing number of people believe aliens are responsible and that, perhaps looking for a change of scene from Outer Space, the area is home to an underwater alien base. It’s even claimed that reports of “small lights” logged by Christopher Columbus in the 16th century are another sign of alien activity here.
Close encounters of the third kind are apparently pretty commonplace in Elk River, a small city a little northwest of Minneapolis. There have been regular “sightings” of alien bodies since the 1990s, with reports of spacecraft hovering overhead, a ship shaped like a jellyfish, and large white, blue, red and green lights in the sky. It seems the whole state is something of a hotspot for alien activity. In 1979, a sheriff’s deputy in Marshall County saw a bright object that then shot towards his car and engulfed it. The burnt-out car is now in the Marshall County Historical Museum.
Ancient Maori legend says these boulders are gourds or food containers, washed ashore from the wreckage of a canoe that brought their ancestors to New Zealand’s South Island. Geology says they formed in sediment on the sea floor around 65 million years ago, eventually choosing Koekohe Beach as their home. Another popular – though less credible – theory suggests they are alien eggs. The enormous smooth spheres add a certain otherworldliness to this already dreamily beautiful stretch of coast on South Island.
Aliens adore this Canadian province, perhaps for polar-bear spotting or just to gaze at glorious landscapes. In 1967, a geologist reported seeing two mysterious craft at Falcon Lake (pictured), one of which crashed and left him with burns as it departed. In the mid-70s there were a slew of reports of red fireballs in the sky in what became known as Charlie Red Star. The region holds another draw for alien fanciers: in 2019, Ufologist Chris Rutkowski donated his collection of 30,000 documents related to UFO sightings to the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.
Where there’s a mystery, there are inevitably aliens (maybe). Around 300 line-etched figures from a spider to a hummingbird decorate the sands in the Nazca Desert of southern Peru. The pre-Columbian geoglyphs have been explained as a giant calendar, location markers for rituals surrounding water and crops, or – as they can only be fully appreciated from the air – as spacecraft landing strips. The truth, as ever, is elusive – but surely out there. One of the shapes is aptly known as The Spaceman (pictured). Or, if you’re a non-believing type, Owl Man.
It doesn’t really matter what logical explanations are suggested as to the origins of this prehistoric stone circle. The wild theory that aliens must have arranged the rocks this way persists. How the Neolithic site was created more than 5,000 years ago has long baffled scientists and historians. Students at Newcastle University thought they may have cracked it in 2019, suggesting earthlings dragged the rocks into place using sledges lubricated by pig fat. But where’s the fun in that?
Warminster lies around 15 miles (24km) from Stonehenge on the edge of the chalk plateau, Salisbury Plain. But the town has a reputation for being out of this world that goes far beyond the mysterious Neolithic site. It started in 1965, when several people allegedly noticed a UFO streaking across the skies – and the reports have barely stopped since. Drawn by the story of “The Warminster Thing”, people come from all over to camp on top of nearby Cradle Hill and scour the horizon for alien craft.
The term “Bennington Triangle” was first used by local author Joseph A. Citro in 1992. But there have been strange goings-on in the area, centred around Glastenbury Mountain and encompassing the town of Bennington, for far longer. An Algonquin legend apparently warns the mountain is cursed, while there have been reports of a Bigfoot-like creature known as “the Bennington monster” since the early 19th century. A tragic slew of disappearances between 1945 and 1950 added to conspiracy theories around alien or supernatural activity.
Some believe this forest, so shrouded in mist and mystery, is haunted. Others believe it’s aliens that are responsible for strange happenings in Hoia-Baciu. Much of the fascination comes from its crooked trees, that seem frozen mid-dance, and many a brave hiker has reported seeing strange lights and experiencing alien encounters. There are also stories of people vanishing in the woods, earning it the nickname “the Bermuda Triangle of Romania”. Most bizarre of all is The Clearing, a central area where nothing grows – and no one, yet, knows why.
Roswell is a quiet, inconspicuous city. Or at least it was until aliens singled it out as a place to crash-land one of their craft in 1947. A ranch worker claimed to have stumbled upon the debris of this flying saucer, which was quickly tidied up and explained as a weather balloon crash. That clearly didn’t satisfy those who believe there’s something Out There, and it’s been the ultimate spot for alien truth-hunters ever since. Rumours that the UFO was taken to Area 51 in the Nevada desert persist too.
This still-operational Air Force facility, known as Area 51, drew attention during its Cold War-era aircraft testing, spawning rumours of sinister experiments, a staged moon landing and a lab run by aliens. It’s strictly off-limits, of course, but that doesn’t stop people flocking to the area hoping to catch a glimpse of something a little alien (or perhaps just of a little alien). It’s along the Extraterrestrial Highway, as Route 375 was officially named in 1996 following numerous UFO sightings. Highlights include the Alien Research Center, a metal hangar stuffed with curios and gifts and guarded by a 35-foot (11m) tall alien.
Australia’s equivalent of Area 51 is aptly located in the middle of the Outback in the Northern Territory, which adds to its otherworldliness. The satellite surveillance base opened in the 1970s as a joint operation between the US and Australian governments and, in an odd twist, was disguised as a space research facility to hide the fact it was actually an espionage facility during the Cold War. The erroneous space link has fuelled conspiracy theories of alien experiments ever since.
Tiny Wycliffe Well – aka “the UFO Capital of Australia” – is so rife with UFO sightings that, really, you’d have to be pretty remiss or unlucky not to spot something strange going on in the neighbourhood. Flying saucers have congregated in its air space since the 1950s, with the otherworldly crew apparently attracted to nearby top-secret surveillance base Pine Gap. To say the area embraces its alien status is an understatement. There are statues of spindly green men, signs warning of UFO landing sites and, at places like Wycliffe Well Holiday Park, paraphernalia galore.
Located in the Ural Mountains, the M Triangle is considered among the most mysterious (and alien-rich) places in the world. It centres around the remote village of Molyobka (hence the “M”) between the Perm and Sverdlovsk regions, and people report seeing strange lights, UFOs and symbols painted across the sky, as well as close encounters with shimmering alien beings. There are also reports that those who venture there develop super powers – or at least end up smarter.
Arizona is one of the hottest states when it comes to alien landings, UFO sightings and all things Outer Space, and Phoenix is arguably the best place to make contact. Besides the regular reported sightings, the desert city was the chosen location for one of the most famous UFO incidents, the so-called “Phoenix Lights”. Thousands claimed to see a triangular formation of orbs over the area in March 1997, with another similar sighting in September 2020 being dubbed “Phoenix Lights 2.0”.
Proving once and for all which shape is the most mysterious, this small seaside town is at the heart of what’s become known as “the Dyfed Triangle”. Strange lights and odd encounters are rife here and it’s been a famed alien-hunting spot since 1977, when a group of school children claimed to see a spaceship land and a seven-foot (2.1m) tall figure emerge from it wearing a silver suit. Some of the sightings were explained by secret military training nearby, but that hasn’t stopped it remaining a pilgrimage destination for believers.
It might be easy to dismiss the tales of one or even three schoolchildren claiming to have seen a UFO or perhaps a little green man. But 300? The 1966 Westall incident, named for the high school where it took place, is one of the most famous mass UFO sightings, with hundreds of pupils and staff spotting a flying saucer landing in a grassy field. The UFO was described as a “round humped object with a flat base” circled by a light aircraft, though it’s since been suggested they actually saw a balloon used to monitor radiation levels after controversial nuclear tests.
The Beatles, shipbuilding and, erm, little green men. Liverpool’s fame apparently extends beyond music and its docks. In fact, it’s been described as the UK’s prime alien-sighting hotspot, with more phone calls to police about UFO sightings than anywhere else in the country. A UFO even delayed a flight landing in 2015, when the pilot was forced to circle back because an object – later thought to be a drone – was spotted above the River Mersey.
You wouldn’t want to find yourself stranded in the middle of this sprawling, 500-acre ranch. The name alone, taken from a Navajo legend about malevolent witches, is enough to send shivers down the spine. Then there’s the long history of unexplained, bizarre and frankly rather terrifying goings-on, from UFO sightings to animal mutations. The ranch came to wider attention in the 1990s when its owners, the Sherman family, shared horrific stories about strange lights and dismembered cows with the media.
This small Andean town takes its reputation as one of the world’s top UFO hotspots pretty seriously. So much so that, in 2008, a 19-mile (30km) stretch was designated a UFO trail, passing mountain plateaus that apparently make convenient landing pads for flying saucers. The route is dotted with signs with information on past sightings and sites including El Enladrillado, a vast flat area made up of 200 volcanic blocks. This is also wine country, though there’s no firm evidence that the aliens have a penchant for cabernet sauvignon.
The Marfa lights have baffled onlookers for the best part of 150 years – yet still no one can explain why they are there or even if they exist at all. They appear as bright, often colourful orbs that throb or soar across the sky on clear nights. They're so integral to the identity of this hip Texan town that they’re usually celebrated at the annual Marfa Lights Festival. Theories on what they are include the ghosts of Spanish conquistadors, UFOs and reflections of car headlights.
For a small town, Bonnybridge has attracted a lot of attention from around the world – and apparently out of the world, too. It’s one of the most popular places for UFO enthusiasts thanks to the fact that there are hundreds of reported sightings every year. It’s considered part of the so-called "Falkirk Triangle” between Stirling, Fife and the outskirts of Edinburgh, where there are frequent reports of balls of light and alien spacecraft coming in to land. Less eerily, Bonnybridge is also famed for its explosion of cherry blossom each spring.
This pretty Bavarian city is all chocolate-box cottages, riverside strolls and UFO sightings. The country’s most famous UFO sighting was right here in April 1561, when residents saw an aerial battle fought out between orbs, cylinders, crosses and an arrow-shaped object, followed by a crash landing in the distance. The phenomenon was immortalised in a woodcut carving by printer Hans Glaser, who described it as a “frightful spectacle” that many believe was a battle between rival spacecraft.
The last thing you’d expect when driving through the remote Australian Outback is to be chased by a UFO. An emu, perhaps. But the Nullarbor Plain, a relentlessly flat stretch that covers South and Western Australia, has been considered something of a hotbed of alien activity since British atomic testing was carried out in the 1950s. In 1988, a family said they were terrorised by a UFO that chased them before plucking their car from the road. Such claims are so common that authorities erected a “Beware of UFOs” sign on the highway.
If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise… a big acorn-shaped surprise, to be precise. The cutely named Space Acorn statue stands as an unusual monument to an unusual event. It’s located right at the spot where, according to several witnesses, in December 1965 a UFO crash-landed shortly after a fireball streaked across the sky. The spot in the woods was quickly sealed off by military personnel and people claim to have seen them remove an acorn-shaped object the size of a VW Beetle and etched with hieroglyphic-like symbols.
It seems the Bermuda Triangle is the ultimate when it comes to mysterious alien goings-on. Colorado’s San Luis Valley is such a hub of UFO activity that it’s known as “the Bermuda Triangle of the West” – and the world’s first UFO Watchtower was erected here in 2010. Clear skies and a long history of sightings in the area, stretching back to the 16th century, attract UFO fans from around the world to see the museum, stroll the alien-themed garden and scour the horizon for visitors from Outer Space.
Some believe one of the UK’s most famous UFO sightings was a hoax. But many others are convinced that, wandering through this eerie forest on Boxing Day in 1980, a group of US airmen really did encounter aliens. The men, stationed at RAF Woodbridge, spotted lights in the forest and went to investigate. Once there, they apparently encountered a UFO. Their fateful walk in the woods became so legendary it still draws alien-seekers to the forest and is the subject of a recent documentary film.
It’s not hard to believe that the surreal, boulder-strewn desert of Joshua Tree National Park, named after the spindly trees that dot the landscape, could be home to aliens. It looks like it could have been created on another planet, in fact. UFO hunters come to seek an alien base rumoured to be hidden somewhere beneath the desert ground. Giant Rock, an enormous freestanding boulder, has been a gathering spot for people scouring the skies for spacecraft since the 1950s and there's an annual UFO convention, Contact in the Desert, in nearby Indian Wells.
Somehow it’s hard to imagine spacemen and women holidaying at the beach. But it seems aliens enjoy a bit of sandy sunbathing – and perhaps a few rounds of golf – as much as the rest of us. The Atlantic coastal city of Myrtle Beach is an unlikely hotspot for UFO gazing. The National UFO Reporting Center has logged reports of floating orange orbs (sometimes dripping with lava), jumping lights, glowing orange ovals and fiery spheres hovering over the water.