Area 51 refers to a map location and is the popular name for a United States Air Force base. It is at Groom Lake, a dry lake bed in the Nevada Desert, 85 miles (135km) north of Las Vegas.
For decades, Nevada's Area 51 Air Force facility has represented the eye of a conspiratorial hurricane that swirls around "evidence" that aliens (and their technology) exist and are hiding behind its walls. Books, TV shows, and even massive online "raids" have tried to glimpse beyond its stark signs warning against trespassers.
While aliens aren't taking up residence in the compound, what is going on there is just as interesting.
In the middle of the barren Nevada desert, there's a dusty unmarked road that leads to the front gate of Area 51. It's protected by little more than a chain link fence, a boom gate, and intimidating trespassing signs. One would think that America's much mythicized top secret military base would be under closer guard, but make no mistake. They are watching.
What goes on inside is extremely secret. Members of the public are kept away by warning signs, electronic surveillance and armed guards.
It is also illegal to fly over Area 51, although the site is now visible on satellite images. The base has runways up to 12,000ft (2.3 miles/3.7km) long.
The facility is next to two other restricted military areas: the Nevada Test Site, where US nuclear weapons were tested from the 1950s to the 1990s, and the Nevada Test and Training Range.
The entire range covers more than 2.9 million acres of land.
According to the US military, it represents "a flexible, realistic and multidimensional battle-space to conduct testing tactics development, and advanced training
For decades, Nevada's Area 51 Air Force facility has represented the eye of a conspiratorial hurricane that swirls around "evidence" that aliens (and their technology) exist and are hiding behind its walls. Books, TV shows, and even massive online "raids" have tried to glimpse beyond its stark signs warning against trespassers.
While aliens aren't taking up residence in the compound, what is going on there is just as interesting.
In the middle of the barren Nevada desert, there's a dusty unmarked road that leads to the front gate of Area 51. It's protected by little more than a chain link fence, a boom gate, and intimidating trespassing signs. One would think that America's much mythicized top secret military base would be under closer guard, but make no mistake. They are watching.
Beyond the gate, cameras see every angle. On the distant hilltop, there's a white pickup truck with a tinted windshield peering down on everything below. Locals says the base knows every desert tortoise and jackrabbit that hops the fence. Others claim there are embedded sensors in the approaching road.
What exactly goes on inside of Area 51 has led to decades of wild speculation. There are, of course, the alien conspiracies that galactic visitors are tucked away somewhere inside. One of the more colorful rumors insists the infamous 1947 Roswell crash was actually a Soviet aircraft piloted by mutated midgets and the wreckage remains on the grounds of Area 51. Some even believe that the U.S. government filmed the 1969 moon landing in one of the base's hangars.
For all the myths and legends, what's true is that Area 51 is real and still very active. There may not be aliens or a moon landing movie set inside those fences, but something is going on and only a select few are privy to what's happening further down that closely-monitored wind-swept Nevada road. "The forbidden aspect of Area 51 is what makes people want to know what's there," says aerospace historian and author Peter Merlin who's been researching Area 51 for more than three decades.
And there sure is still a lot going on there.
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