Infamous "alien area" is not so popular among Google users

Area 51 in the Nevada desert may be the rumoured home of aliens and intergalactic spaceships, but according to Google users, it's just not worth visiting. The idea of knowing what lies inside the mysterious military base, would be enough to send most space geeks weak at the knees.

Its contents and purpose have long been kept intensely secret by the US government, leading to widespread conspiracy theories, many linked to supposed UFO activity. But pranksters on Google Maps, which allows users to review places they have been to, have given the remote base an emphatic thumbs-down.

Sardonically referring to the site's massive security operation and its rumoured links to extraterrestrials, many invent travel nightmare stories involving crashed spaceships and military heavy-handedness.

One, whose comments were reproduced on gizmodo.com, writes: "Never park your spaceship nearby. I had a permit (and was legally parked), and they still towed! Not only that, but they refused to return it to me. Now I have no way to get back to my native planet Xenu."

Another, giving a tongue-in-cheek five-star rating, adds: "I cannot wait to visit again. This is possible, because I am alive and not dissected with my organs on display in a research compound."


/Telegraph.co.uk/