Alto Paraíso and the Chapada dos Veadeiros
The account
The town supposedly sits on a huge slab of crystal that attracts spacecraft, and strange lights are said to cross the sky over the plateau.
What investigators found
The region has abundant quartz, but there is no evidence of any energy effect or of spacecraft. The reported lights have not been identified as anything out of the ordinary.
The story
Alto Paraíso de Goiás, the gateway to the Chapada dos Veadeiros, began attracting alternative communities, spiritual groups and many flying saucer enthusiasts in the 1980s. Local tradition holds that the town lies near the 14th parallel and on top of a great layer of quartz crystal, which would explain the energy of the place and the visits from spacecraft. Reports of lights in the sky appear frequently in the regional press.
Geology confirms part of the story: the plateau's rocks are very ancient and rich in quartz, which has been mined in the region. The idea that the crystal attracts UFOs, however, has no scientific basis. The lights are usually explained as satellites, airplanes and atmospheric phenomena, easy to see in the dark sky of the cerrado.