1. The Abduction of Barney
and Betty Hill
Bertos / Getty Images
In September 1961, married couple Barney and Betty Hill of
Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, experienced something totally out of the
ordinary — a three-hour lapse of memory before awaking in a seemingly
“magnetized” car. After both underwent therapy, they seemed to recall similar
visions of being abducted and probed by little gray men. Under hypnosis, Betty drew
a map of the constellation that the aliens claimed to be from, which first
appeared as nonsense, until some statisticians noticed its resemblance to the
Zeta Reticuli system in the southern constellation of Reticulum — a system
largely unknown in the 1960's.
2. The Bermuda Triangle
Time Life Pictures / Getty Images
Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, this notorious spot of roughly 500,000 square miles off the southern tip of
Florida is where dozens of ships and aircraft have mysteriously disappeared,
leading some to believe that the location may be some kind of portal to another
world. When sailing through the region, Christopher Columbus wrote of strange lights off in
distance, as well as erratic compass readings. But perhaps no tale is more unexplainably
eerie as the mystery of Flight 19, when a group of five war-hardened U.S. Navy
torpedo bombers suddenly disappeared, never to be
heard from again.
In July 1947, a rancher named W.W. “Mack” Brazel set out on
horseback to check on his sheep after a major lightning storm. What Mack supposedly encountered was the wreckage of a
crashed flying saucer, along with the bodies of its alien pilots (note: not
actually pictured above). His story would become legend and solidified Roswell,
New Mexico, as ground zero for extra-terrestrial contact. Today, Roswell
wholeheartedly embraces the E.T. lore and hosts an annual UFO festival that draws hundreds of
curious humans longing for alien contact.
For years, UFO watchers have claimed Sochi, Russia, to be a
galactic hub from which alien spacecraft can be regularly observed with the
naked eye. Some enthusiasts have even suggested that the nearby summit of Bytkha Mountain functions as a sort of
gateway between worlds. True or not, Sochi has built a reputation as major UFO
destination for ET enthusiasts.
5. The Nazca Lines
Martin Bernetti / AFP / Getty Images
Believed to have been created by the Nazca people between
500 BCE and 500 CE, the Nazca Lines are colossal geoglyphs that are only
observable from the sky. As they were only discovered after the advent of
modern commercial airliners in the 1920s, the location has been frequently
cited by UFO enthusiasts as an ancient spacecraft landing zone.
6. The Levelland UFO Case
Thinkstock
In 1957, two terrified migrant workers called the Levelland sheriff's office to report
a close encounter, claiming that moments before their truck unexplainably shut
down, a rocket-shaped UFO hurled itself in the direction of their vehicle in a
cosmic game of chicken. Needless to say, the sheriff took their story as a
laughing matter — until varying reports across the region flooded in with the
exact same story.
7. The Phoenix Lights
KNXV-TV ABC15 Arizona
On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across the city of Phoenix
and nearby areas reported strange, glowing lights that slowly moved across the
night sky in the shape of a V. As there has never been a clear explanation of
what took place that evening (though many suspect flares or Chinese lanterns),
many UFO enthusiasts believe that this event is one of the best-documented
examples of a UFO sighting.
8. The Northern Territory
Hotbed
Thinkstock
In recent years, Australia’s Northern Territory has been a
hotbed of UFO activity, with one Australian man claiming to have documented
upwards to 500 UFO sightings on camera.
Several years before the term “UFO” made its way into popular
culture, Evelyn Trent was feeding her rabbits when she
noticed a flying saucer hovering above her Oregon farm on May 11, 1950. Her
husband Paul quickly grabbed his 35-mm camera and was able to snap two
black-and-white pictures. The resulting images have since become the most
famous and controversial photographic evidence of alien visitors to date.
10. The Aurora Cemetery
Getty Images
Aurora, Texas, is the only town in the world that claims to have
an actual alien buried in their local cemetery. According to the story, in 1897
an unidentified object crashed into a local farmer’s windmill, and several
residents discovered a dead creature “not of this world”. The townsfolk supposedly saw
fit to bury the creature in the local cemetery. Since then, the local residents
have engaged in a push-and-pull fight with UFO enthusiasts who have sought to
excavate the grave for proof of alien existence.
11. The Warminster Thing
Daily Mirror
Since the 1950s, Warminster, England, has been the site of some
rather odd occurrences, including crop circles, UFO sightings, and cars
unexpectedly shutting down in their tracks. The strange phenomena has been
dubbed the “Warminster Thing.”
12. The Marfa Lights
Thinkstock
Since the 1800s, residents of Marfa, Texas, have witnessed
strange, ghostly apparitions of light dancing
across the west Texas desert. Dubbed “the Marfa Lights,” these mysterious orbs
have dazzled tourists and elicited wonder in even the staunchest of skeptics.
13. The Broad Haven Visitor
Thinkstock
In 1977, a group of 14 schoolchildren were reported to have witnessed a cigar-shaped spacecraft
land in an open field near the Broad Haven primary school; several other locals
also claimed to have witnessed the same craft in flight. Since then, the events
of that evening reignited controversy after the Mirror Online revealed
that England’s Ministry of Defense had allegedly attempted to cover up an investigation into the incident.
----fishducky
----fishducky
