Actual Contact — Attraction in Marfa

There is a place, out in the barren lands where the wind carries whispers of ancient voices, where time and space seem to stretch and contract at will. A place called Actual Contact.

Towering, rust-colored pillars stand solemnly in a near-perfect arc, their surfaces etched with cryptic petroglyphs—symbols that speak a language lost to the modern world. The moment you step among them, an eerie stillness settles in, as if you’ve crossed into a realm where reality bends and the past breathes just beneath the surface.

The air hums with an unspoken energy, a mystery too vast to grasp but impossible to ignore. Each pillar is adorned with intricate designs, spirals and figures that could be cosmic maps, ancestral messages, or perhaps something even older—something meant to be felt rather than understood. Are they a gateway? A warning? A marker of something watching just beyond our perception? The answers remain elusive, buried beneath centuries of forgotten knowledge.

Even without fully comprehending the meaning behind these symbols, the experience lingers long after you leave. It’s as if the land itself holds a secret, teasing you with fragments of a story you’ll never quite piece together. Was this site always meant for human eyes? Or have we stumbled upon something we were never meant to see?

Actual Contact is not just a visit. It’s an encounter. A brush with something ancient, something that defies explanation. If you dare to step into its presence, prepare to leave with more questions than answers—and the distinct feeling that, somehow,...

These pillars of steel rise out of the Texas desert to create the silhouette of sentinels, as if protecting an ancient site of a long dead civilization. Carved with glyphs that are at both whimsical and profound, the monoliths glow in the night in a rainbow of colors, communicating the connection between the beings we have been, we are and have yet to become. Far more than any art installation, the pillars are oriented to the constellations, likewise their lights programmed with patterns of the cosmic matrix that must experienced. Make time to meditate among the monoliths and you'll experience something unique....

On the way to and from the Marfa Lights Viewing Center, an arc of illuminated steel pillars beckons you to pull over for an encounter with their an assembly of glowing forms. The artwork—open to the public and free to visit—invites you to wander among the tall columns and wonder at the peculiar, playful images. Viewed at night, they shine like aliens from inner space who emerge from the blackness of closed eyes. Visit at sunset or sunrise to see their colors changing against the changing colors of...