Long before anyone looked to the sky, this was simply a chapel on a hill. The story begins in 1585, when Lucía González Jaimes, daughter of a Spanish conqueror, inherited land in the valley; that grant, dated October 30, is taken as the town's founding. Between 1695 and 1719 Captain Antonio de Ceballos built the first chapel, and the name stuck: Capilla del Monte, Chapel on the Hill. The town as it stands owes much to one man. In 1878 Adolf Döring, a German-Argentine chemist and naturalist, settled here, laid out the streets, built a sewage system, and seeded the elegant mansions that still line the center. He is remembered as the founder of the modern town.

By the mid-1980s Capilla del Monte was a modest holiday town. Then came the footprint. After the news spread, the city began drawing a different kind of visitor: people fascinated by UFOs, mysticism, magic, and the esoteric. Where roughly 400 people a year had once climbed nearby Cerro Uritorco, suddenly more than 100,000 were arriving. The locals adapted, as small towns living on tourism must. Shop windows filled with alien-themed souvenirs, energy stones, and dreamcatchers. In 2012 the city launched its Alien Festival, held most Februarys since, where visitors dress as extraterrestrials and characters from Star Wars and Star Trek. Belief and showmanship blur here, and the town wears both lightly.

Cerro Uritorco rises just three kilometers from the center, the highest peak of the Sierras Chicas at 1,949 meters. The climb takes about three hours and passes waterfalls, springs, and shifting bands of vegetation; from the top you can see the town, the El Cajón reservoir, and the white shimmer of the Salinas Grandes salt flats to the north. To many who come here, the mountain is more than a hike. It is said to be a portal to Erks, a hidden underground city, and a focus of energies that draw pilgrims of a different sort. Whether or not you believe a word of it, standing on that summit with the valley spread below, you understand why people want to.

Strip away the saucers and Capilla del Monte is still a town worth wandering. At its heart runs the Calle Techada, a roofed street covered in 1964 for a photography exhibition called Foto Cita 64; the roof was never meant to stay, but it was never removed either, and the shaded arcade became the town's favorite gathering place, lined with cafes and shops and host to the Alien Festival itself. Nearby, El Castillo del Cómic fills a 1905 mansion, the old Hostería Argentina, with more than 15,000 action figures and 3,000 comic books, alongside workshops, a bar, and a restaurant. The natural rock formation called El Zapato, shaped like a shoe, offers another long view over town and reservoir. Water shapes the town too, from the Los Alazanes Dam built in the early 1940s to the larger El Cajón reservoir, finished in 1993, where people now swim, fish, and sail. The roads here have even served as stages for Rally Argentina. It is a place of many small wonders, only some of them otherworldly.