Mount Uritorco and Villa de Monte

　　    Villa de Monte is an ancient mountain town located 119 kilometers from the provincial capital Córdoba, at an elevation of 797 meters, with a population of 8,000 residents. The town sits at the foot of Mount Uritorco, which rises to 2,000 meters above sea level. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was inhabited by the Comechingón indigenous tribe. In the late 17th century, the last Comechingón chief, Calabalumba, was brutally killed by the Spanish. Although there are no longer any purely indigenous people living here, many native legends have been passed down orally through generations.

　　    According to indigenous legend, Mount Uritorco is a sacred mountain. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, the natives observed strange lights moving across the sky in the mountains. In more recent times, there have been increasing reports of unusual phenomena in Mount Uritorco. These stories are what made Mount Uritorco and Villa de Monte famous around the world.

　　    An Argentine atomic physicist recounted a strange encounter his father-in-law had when he was 12 years old: it was in 1915, when he got lost in the mountains. That night, he personally witnessed bright lights continuously passing over the mountaintops, illuminating the valleys. In 1928, a woman said that she herded sheep on the mountain every day and saw a glowing object appear on the mountaintop for two consecutive days.      In 1935, a local resident reported that while passing by Mount Uritorco, a strange-looking man wearing a shiny tight suit suddenly stared at him and then vanished.

　　    However, two incidents in the 1980s made the town and Mount Uritorco famous overnight around the globe. On January 9, 1986, "traces of an alien spacecraft landing" were discovered in the mountains of Uritorco. It was a scorched patch on the ground, measuring 122 meters long and 64 meters wide. Witnesses confirmed having seen a glowing flying object the night before. Later that year in August, a forest fire swept through the surrounding 20 square kilometers of woodland, yet the newly grown shrubs within the scorched area remained completely unharmed. Two years later, on February 21, 1988, "spaceship" traces with a diameter of 42 meters were found on another mountainside.

　　 Buenos Aires, Argentina