São Thomé das Letras
The account
The stone town is said to be a landing spot for flying saucers, with caves leading to secret tunnels that reach all the way to Machu Picchu.
What investigators found
The cave inscriptions are ancient paintings or mineral stains, and there is no verified record of craft or tunnels.
The story
São Thomé das Letras, in southern Minas Gerais, is built from quartzite quarried in the surrounding mountains. Its name comes from reddish inscriptions in a cave, which Catholic tradition linked to the apostle Thomas. Starting in the 1970s, the town attracted mystics, hippies and ufologists, and gained a reputation as a place where flying saucers are seen and where portals and underground tunnels supposedly exist.
Visitors climb to the Cruzeiro and the stone Pyramid to watch the sky, and there is no shortage of reports of strange lights. Science explains the physical side: the letters are rock paintings or iron oxide stains, and the story of a tunnel to Peru has no geological basis. The lights usually match satellites, airplanes and planets, which are highly visible from the top of the mountain.