Almanac of the Gods
Area 51
Photo: NASA · Public domain

Place No. 01 of 44

Area 51

United States (Nevada) · 37.235° N · 115.811° W

For decades the government would not even admit it existed, so people filled the silence with flying saucers, alien bodies and a man who said he flew them.

Distance from Las Vegas
about 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest
Base founded
1955, as a CIA test site for the U-2
Longest paved runway
about 3,657 m (roughly 12,000 ft)
Restricted airspace (the Groom Box)
about 23 by 25 miles
Field elevation
about 4,494 ft (1,370 m)
U-2 cruising altitude that fueled UFO reports
above 60,000 ft, when airliners flew at 10,000-20,000 ft
People at the 2019 'Storm Area 51' festivals
about 1,500-3,000
Longest-lived known isotope of element 115 (moscovium)
about 0.65 seconds half-life

What it is

Area 51 is a secret Air Force flight-test facility on the edge of a dry lakebed called Groom Lake in southern Nevada, roughly 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas. It sits inside the huge Nevada Test and Training Range, next to the old nuclear test grounds. The base has no public entrance, no tours and no visitors' center. What the public knows comes from declassified papers, former workers and satellite photos.

The CIA picked the spot in 1955 to test the U-2 spy plane far from prying eyes. Staff nicknamed it Paradise Ranch, or just the Ranch. Over the next decades it hosted a run of classified aircraft: the A-12 OXCART, captured Soviet MiG fighters flown for evaluation, the Have Blue stealth demonstrator and the F-117 Nighthawk. Workers still commute on unmarked airliners, known as Janet flights, from Las Vegas.

Today the site has long paved runways, several lakebed runways, hangars and housing. A block of restricted airspace about 23 by 25 miles, nicknamed the Groom Box, keeps civilian pilots out. On the ground, orange posts and warning signs mark the line. Guards in white pickup trucks watch the approaches, and signs warn that deadly force is authorized against trespassers.

Area 51 matters because it is where modern UFO folklore and real Cold War secrecy meet. The government refused to name the base for decades while silver spy planes flew higher than any airliner. Into that gap came stories of crashed saucers, alien autopsies and reverse-engineered craft. Those stories made Area 51 the most famous military base on Earth, and a regular stop on Ancient Aliens.

The ancient-alien case

Ancient-astronaut theorists see Area 51 as the modern end of a very old story. If visitors from space shaped human history, they argue, a modern government that found their craft would hide it in exactly this kind of place. Ancient Aliens has returned to the base again and again, treating it as the link between ancient sky gods and today's UFO reports.

The show's 'Beyond Roswell' episode presents Area 51 as a likely home for debris from the 1947 Roswell crash and other recovered craft. The narration notes that the government denies holding any alien spacecraft there, but the episode lays out the claims of people who say otherwise.

The most famous voice is Bob Lazar. He says he worked on captured flying saucers at a site called S-4 in the late 1980s, and that they ran on element 115. In the episode 'Element 115', reporter George Knapp argues that a sample of the element would back up Lazar's story. Nick Pope suggests the physics community may have downplayed the element's stability. Mike Bara and Travis Taylor link a Navy UFO video to the kind of gravity-bending drive Lazar described.

Giorgio Tsoukalos goes further in 'Area 52'. He asks whether Area 51's fame now serves as a decoy, with the real work moved to hidden underground sites. He climbs into an old mine to test the idea. Linda Moulton Howe adds claims about alien research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. For theorists, each new government admission about secret programs shows how much remains hidden.

What archaeologists say

Historians say Area 51's secrets are real but earthly. A 2013 CIA history confirms the base was built to test spy planes. A 1997 CIA study by historian Gerald Haines says agency officials believed more than half of UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s were really U-2 and other spy flights. Air Force investigators could trace the sightings but could not explain them to the public without revealing the planes.

Lazar's story has problems that researchers point out. No records confirm his claimed physics degrees or his employment at S-4. Element 115, now called moscovium, was first made in a lab in 2003. Every isotope made so far decays in well under a second, so it cannot serve as a stable fuel. A long-lived form is possible in theory, but none has been found.

Official reviews have also come up empty. The Pentagon's AARO office looked at government UFO records back to 1945 and in 2024 said it found no verifiable evidence of alien technology. In 2025 the Wall Street Journal reported that military officials at times encouraged UFO rumors, and even handed out doctored saucer photos, to shield real weapons programs such as stealth aircraft. Skeptics argue that this may explain some of the base's alien lore.

Timeline

  1. 1955The CIA and Lockheed choose Groom Lake as a hidden test site for the U-2 spy plane.
  2. Late 1950s-1960sU-2 and later A-12 OXCART flights at extreme altitude catch the sunlight after dusk; a later CIA history says these flights explain many UFO reports of the era.
  3. 1977-1981The Have Blue stealth prototype flies, followed by delivery of the first F-117 Nighthawk prototype.
  4. 1989Bob Lazar tells Las Vegas TV reporter George Knapp he worked on alien craft at 'S-4', a site he placed near Papoose Lake south of Groom Lake.
  5. 1996Nevada names State Route 375, the road past the base, the Extraterrestrial Highway.
  6. 2013A CIA history of the U-2 and OXCART programs, released under a Freedom of Information request, openly names Area 51.
  7. September 2019A joke Facebook event to 'storm' the base draws huge online interest; a small crowd gathers at festivals in Rachel and Hiko instead.
  8. March 2024The Pentagon's AARO office reports it found no verifiable evidence that the U.S. holds or reverse-engineers alien technology.
  9. June 2025The Wall Street Journal reports that for decades some Air Force personnel were shown fake UFO images and told of a bogus alien-tech program called Yankee Blue, a practice halted in 2023.

Still unanswered

  • What is being tested at Groom Lake today? The current programs are still classified.
  • Did S-4 ever exist as Lazar described it? No document or satellite image has confirmed it.
  • How much of the Area 51 alien legend was deliberately encouraged by officials to protect real projects?
  • Could some sightings near the base still involve aircraft the public has never seen?

Did you know?

  • The U-2 test site's cheerful nickname, Paradise Ranch, was reportedly chosen to make a remote desert posting sound more appealing to workers.
  • Base staff fly to work on unmarked white passenger jets from Las Vegas, known to plane spotters as the Janet airline.
  • The 2019 'Storm Area 51' Facebook event started as a joke, yet it led to real festivals in Rachel and Hiko.

On Ancient Aliens

  • S11E13 Beyond Roswell Frames Area 51 as a possible storehouse for Roswell debris and airs Lazar's element 115 claim.
  • S13E06 Area 52 Giorgio Tsoukalos asks whether Area 51 is now a decoy for deeper, hidden underground bases.
  • S14E03 Element 115 Centers on Bob Lazar's S-4 story, with George Knapp, Nick Pope, Mike Bara and Travis Taylor.
  • S14E20 The Storming of Area 51 Covers the 2019 internet 'raid' and Alienstock, with Jeremy Corbell, Nick Pope and Lazar's story.

Episode numbers follow Wikipedia's episode list; History and some reviewers number a few seasons differently.

Visiting

Getting there. Southern Nevada. Most visitors drive from Las Vegas to the tiny town of Rachel on State Route 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway, about three hours away.

What you can see. The base is completely closed to the public. You can drive the highway, stop at the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, and walk up dirt roads to the marked boundary, but crossing it is a crime and guards will stop you. Photographing the base from the boundary is also prohibited.

Tip. Fill your gas tank and carry water before leaving the main highways; services are few and far apart, and many dirt roads are rough.

Sources

  1. Area 51 - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
  2. Area 51 and its purpose declassified - NBC News nbcnews.com
  3. CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90 (Gerald K. Haines) - FAS sgp.fas.org
  4. U.S. Has 'No Evidence' of Alien Technology, New Pentagon Report Finds - Smithsonian smithsonianmag.com
  5. Yankee Blue - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
  6. Review of Ancient Aliens S11E13 'Beyond Roswell' - Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
  7. Review of Ancient Aliens S13E06 'Area 52' - Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
  8. Review of Ancient Aliens S14E03 'Element 115' - Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
  9. Review of Ancient Aliens S14E20 'The Storming of Area 51' - Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
Research notes: what we could not confirm
  • The old entry's count of nine Area 51 episodes was not rechecked; only S11E13, S13E06, S14E03 and S14E20 were confirmed from reviews. S12E03, S13E01, S14E19, S14E21 and S17E03 may also mention the base.
  • The ban on photographing the base from the boundary is based on posted warning signs as widely reported; the exact legal wording was not checked.
  • The 1996 naming of the Extraterrestrial Highway, the 2003 first synthesis of moscovium, and Lazar's 1989 interview with George Knapp come from general knowledge and were not re-opened in a cited page this session.
  • The claim that no records confirm Lazar's degrees or employment reflects the standard skeptical position; it was not re-checked against a primary source this session.