Area 51 Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport (KXTA) on the north of the Area 51 USAF military installation. The lake at elevation is approximately from north to south and from east to west at its widest point. Located within the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin, the lake is south of Rachel, Nevada. The origin of the Area 51 name is unclear. The most accepted comes from a grid numbering system of the area by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC); while Area 51 is not part of this system, it is adjacent to Area 15. Another explanation is
Area 51 show what appears to be F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft stationed on the base. Its secretive nature and undoubted connection to classified aircraft research, together with reports of unusual phenomena, have led Area 51 to become a focus of modern UFO and other conspiracy theories. Some of the activities mentioned in such theories at Area 51 include: Many of the hypotheses concern underground facilities at Groom or at Papoose Lake (also known as "S-4 location"), south, and include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system, a disappearing airstrip (nicknamed the "Cheshire Airstrip", after Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat) which briefly appears when