After the Martian Apocalypse

by Mac Tonnies

  Unlike the clear rectilinear border that frames the face in Cydonia, there is no defined edge to the Crowned Face’s right-hand side. As with the mouth, this feature is inferred by the seeming consistency of the other supposed facial features. The Crowned Face is topped with a fairly symmetrical “crown” of what looks like random boulders, with the exception of a central indentation. There is an overall impression of bisymmetry and facial detail that, although interesting, seems to be largely superficial. Unlike the Cydonia Face, the Crowned Face appears nested in a series of natural-looking ripples. Computer-derived views using the same technique used by Mark Carlotto in his investigation of the Cydonia region suggests that one such ripple is responsible for the mouth. The fact that the Crowned Face is a very shallow feature, with no prominent shadows, as might be expected from a carving intended to stand the test of time, makes testing for artificiality exceptionally difficult.

  A useful standard in assessing a given surface feature’s potential artificiality is the anomaly’s ability to conform to a priori criteria. If the Crowned Face is indeed a huge sculpture, then better images should show internal detail strengthening the facial resemblance. But until such images are taken, no one can be absolutely sure.

  Van Flandern is to be credited for drawing attention to a face-like surface feature that is not of the endlessly questionable profile variety. While I don’t think the Crowned Face represents intelligent design, it at least provides us with the ability for high-resolution imaging to help settle the debate using scientific methodology.

  A Natural Mechanism

  for Pyramid-Making?

  The attention lavished on the Cydonia Mensae region, home of the Face, has distracted attention from pyramidal formations elsewhere on Mars. While several of these appear decidedly natural, others are more open to interpretation. The question that needs to be kept in mind is, obviously: Can there be a purely geological mechanism capable of producing artificial-seeming pyramids?

  Of the features in Cydonia, the only formations that can rightfully be dubbed pyramids are the City Pyramid and the D&M Pyramid. Other City formations scrutinized in the Viking photos, such as the “Northwest City Formation” and City Mound, while interesting, are much less geometric and possibly the least relevant in terms of confirming artificiality. But while the Surveyor has laid to rest some of the reconstructive models based on the Viking data (architect Robert Fiertek’s speculative interpretation of the City being among the most notable), the new images have also unveiled some tantalizing new formations. Either we are dealing with exotic geology or artificial structures—or, as suggested previously, a curious combination of both.

  As noted, the first pyramids discovered on Mars were brought to public attention by Carl Sagan, who wrote of them in his book Cosmos and pointedly (no pun intended) referred to them in his television series of the same name. Located in “Elysium,” these striking formations are generally dismissed as faceted mountains, sculpted by abrasive Martian winds. While the Pyramids of Elysium lack complementary faces, their tetrahedral design is actually more striking, to my mind, than many of the City formations originally identified by Richard Hoagland. Then again, their very simplicity also argues against their having an esoteric heritage; three-sided forms are not unknown in geology.

  While the Elysium pyramids are intriguing, their lack of internal and contextual complexity makes them difficult to assess as candidate artifacts. The formations in Cydonia—being close together and displaying more sophisticated morphology (both the D&M Pyramid and the City Pyramid are five-sided)—lend themselves more easily to an architectural interpretation.

  A number of theories have been put forward to explain various pyramidal formations on Mars. Wind and even giant crystal growth have been suggested as culprits. Cartographer Erol Torun rules all geological mechanisms out; in his view, the D&M simply must be artificial, as its detail and proposed mathematical consistencies are incompatible with blind natural forces, to say nothing of its incriminating proximity to the Face. While Torun’s analysis is useful, it was based largely on a speculative reconstruction of the feature. More meaningfully, Torun was forced to work from low-resolution Viking images. Future images of the D&M taken by the Mars Global Surveyor will help us evaluate the accuracy of Torun’s model. Critics of the Artificiality Hypothesis universally ignore the conjecture that the anomalies under investigation are almost inconceivably ancient and bound to exhibit some characteristics of massive natural formations.

  The Tholus

  The Tholus is a deceptively simple-looking formation that presents important questions regarding the redundancy of the layout of the Cydonia complex. Unique in being the only circular anomaly in the region, the Tholus is easily comparable to Silbury Hill, an artificial domed landmass in Wiltshire, England.

  The Tholus is exactly south of the Cliff and is accompanied by a similar circular formation that has yet to be imaged by either the Surveyor or the Mars Odyssey. Circular mesas are not impossible. But the Tholus offers tantalizing detail that suggests contextual links with other formations in the Cydonia region, not the least of which is the discovery of an apparent triangular platform atop the Tholus peak.

  Mark Carlotto revealed just how strange the Tholus was when he produced synthetic perspective images based on original Viking data. These showed that the Tholus has an unusual corkscrew aspect, much like a ziggurat. Artificiality proponents offered that this was a ramp whereby Martians could ascend to the Tholus’ summit, perhaps to view the Cliff in the distance.

  A new image of the Tholus was unveiled to online researchers in 2000 along with the first-ever high-resolution image of the controversial Fort. The Fort received the lion’s share of attention, while the Tholus, though not ignored, failed to receive any particular attention. Certainly, there was no obvious evidence of intelligent construction. The ramp suggested in Carlotto’s shape-from-shading graphics was very faint. And without a similar high-resolution image of the Tholus’s nearby “satellite formation,” there didn’t seem to be any corroborating anomalies that would argue for artificiality.

  Mark Carlotto followed up on his Viking-derived shape-from-shading image with an animated 360 degree rotation of the Tholus based on the Surveyor image. Intriguingly, there seemed to be an elongated triangular feature at the top of the Tholus. This appeared out of place with the rest of the formation’s rounded morphology. While proving nothing in itself, it suggested that a closer look at the Tholus might reveal additional oddities.

  In no time, Richard Hoagland had posted his own interpretation of the vague triangular feature. Hoagland argued that the triangle was in fact a tetrahedron, a finding easily incorporated into his conception of a geometric “message” encoded by various formations in Cydonia and, incidentally, on Earth’s own Moon. While I didn’t think the triangle was tetrahedral, I essentially agreed with Hoagland’s verdict. After all, if the Tholus was artificial, then it wasn’t entirely unreasonable to expect some sort of heavily eroded structure at its apex.

  The ramp feature, although not as pronounced as some anomalists had expected, enhanced the ziggurat model; it was enormously tempting to view the Tholus as a colossal shrine of some sort, groping skyward like some unearthly Babel tower. Could the Tholus have functioned as an observatory? Its uniquely domed shape implied that it may have fulfilled an altogether different need than the platform anomalies, such as the Face and Fort. Perhaps, like the Mounds analyzed by Crater and McDaniel, the Tholus was essentially a sophisticated marker—the Tholus connected the Cliff and D&M Pyramid in a neat triangle (yet another component in Hoagland’s hypothetical “Message of Cydonia”).

  Close inspection showed that the triangular feature was rather more elaborate than the simple three-sided tetrahedron posited by Hoagland. The triangle was actually a blunt pyramid resting on top of a shallow five-sided platform. Surmising that the Tholus may have served as a marker, I quickly realized that the complementary pyramid (such as it was) and platform shared a definite alignme
nt, directing the observer’s viewpoint across the desert. Oddly enough, this sight line intersected the Face itself. Thus the Tholus appears to reference two other major anomalies in the region: the Cliff to the north and the Face to the northwest.

  One wonders what—if any—significance the Tholus’s satellite has, or even if the two features are meant to memorialize an astronomical event. The Tholus may be a geoglyphic approximation of a planet, and the satellite mesa may represent another celestial body. A similar argument has been made for the dolphin feature in the vicinity of the Face, along with its attendant domes (all of which are several orders of magnitude smaller than the Tholus and its companion).

  The Egyptians attempted to sculpt the territory next to the Nile into an interactive simulacrum of the night sky. Could a Martian civilization have experimented with similar ideas, either for instrinsic cultural purposes or to tell a story to future explorers?

  Cydonia can be viewed as a slate of ancient stone, dense with a most peculiar sort of cuneiform. The challenge is to determine if this code is indeed the work of consciousness and, if so, decipher what is being said. The Face implies the use of visual metaphor. On the other hand, improbable correlations between disparate anomalies such as the Fort, D&M, and Tholus imply esoteric geometry.

  As a thought experiment and as a potential archaeological site on another world, Cydonia gives a rude twist to popularly accepted contact scenarios. While components of the message may be obvious (e.g., the Face), the implicit relationships between them may represent a planetary cryptogram. The most critical element of the message (again, assuming there is one) may be our own ability to make sense of it. By doing so, we may well be forced to subvert our own mathematical vocabulary. But the potential reward—nothing less than the legacy of an extinct civilization—is incalculatably valuable. It may even be imperative to our species. Mars and Earth are neighbors; it would be folly to assume Cydonia has no cross-cultural relevance. Even if it’s a long shot, making sense of Cydonia is certainly worth our time.

  “Glyphs” on the D&M Pyramid?

  During a 1999 press conference devoted to Martian anomalies, Tom Van Flandern noted what he called letters photographed on the D&M Pyramid. Van Flandern attributed the alleged “letters” found on the D&M Pyramid’s northeast quadrant to the work of intelligent Martians.

  Mike Bara, criticizing Van Flandern’s endorsement of the letters in a post on the Enterprise Mission website, blasted the notion that they were carved by Martian architects. Instead, he argues, scheming JPL technicians hoping to discredit Mars anomaly research placed them there as “bait” for credulous Cydonia researchers.

  Neither of these scenarios makes any sense whatsoever. The so-called letters are dark grooves in the D&M’s surface and conform to the pyramid’s domed uplift. Bara argues that the letters must be intentionally “airbrushed” because there are no corresponding features on the D&M’s surface to cast alphabet-shaped shadows. But there needn’t be shadow-casting features to explain the presence of these markings. Given the highly irregular, eroded nature of the D&M’s northeast flank, it’s the consensus opinion among Cydonia researchers that the letters are spurious shallow grooves, probably etched out over the millennia by patient Martian winds.

  And just how letter-like are these markings, anyway? The answer, after a careful look, is: not very. A few isolated characters can be made out, in particular a passable “A.” Tellingly, no actual words are spelled, and the alphabet-like figures are interspersed with random “glyphs” consistent with the hypothesis that these are natural, linguistically meaningless features. If JPL actually intended to put one over on the independent Mars research community by inserting graffiti on Mars Orbiter Camera image strips, one would certainly think they could do better than this.

  It would be wise to remember our previous experience with apparent letters on Mars. In Cosmos, Carl Sagan relates the appearance of the apparent letter “B” on a rock at one of the Viking landing sites. Letters are extremely easy to visualize when faced with a screenful of alien geography. The graffiti on top of the D&M Pyramid are additional examples of the mind attributing meaning to spurious arrangements of pixels. They do not reflect the handiwork of ancient Martian architects or, for that matter, disinformationists on the JPL payroll.

  The Face and other formations in Cydonia—including the vast D&M Pyramid—constitute a very real scientific puzzle. Citing the letters as evidence of anything other than what they are trivializes the Mars SETI inquiry.

  Where Martians Dwell

  Reason suggests that a civilization inhabiting megascale structures such as the D&M Pyramid and Fort wouldn’t pass up the potential shelter offered by the Face itself. While the Face may be a sculpture and nothing more, I suspect it probably served as a habitat for the (always hypothetical) Martian civilization.

  It’s a reasonably good bet that the Cydonia complex was assembled late in Mars’s life as a water-rich, bio-friendly world. The Martian population, indigenous or otherwise, probably would have countered the vanishing atmosphere and oceans by retreating into arcologies consisting largely of subterranean enclosures. This would allow near-limitless climate control as well as block harmful solar and cosmic radiation—not to mention incoming meteors. The presence of the Cliff on top of a meteoric ejecta blanket strongly implies that the Martians had at least begun to deal with the reality of meteor strikes while the Cydonia complex was still under construction.

  The Face is extremely interesting seen in this environmental context. In fact, the headpiece sports unusual linear features that may be of a practical nature instead of a purely decorative one. They may have been access roads or even drainage channels built to minimize water erosion on the Face’s surface. The Cliff also features an apparent “access road” that may have played a role in its construction or subsequent use.

  It’s unlikely that a civilization that built on the scale suggested by the monuments of Cydonia would forego the Face as a piece of habitable real estate. The view from the Face itself would be quite stunning, with the Cliff to one’s east and the City complex looming in the west. Looking south would offer an observer an impressive view of the D&M Pyramid.

  Further evidence that certain Cydonian mesas were converted for use as buildings includes the feature named the Hollow, discovered independently by Mark Carlotto and myself. This irregularly shaped mesa is interestingly notched in a manner similar to that seen around the perimeter of the City Pyramid. In addition, it features a triangular enclosure that may once have served as a platform for habitation, the roof having been destroyed by erosion.

  In summary, certain morphologies in the City region and formations such as the Face, Cliff, and D&M Pyramid have properties consistent with modified landforms designed to serve as enclosed structures, possibly of the arcology variety espoused by architect Paolo Soleri and explored in Richard Hoagland’s The Monuments of Mars. Images of features acquired after the arcology hypothesis was presented (e.g., the Hollow) confirm, to an albeit limited degree, this functional interpretation of the Martian enigmas.

  The “Cerberus Platform”

  NASA debunkers have routinely trivialized the Face on Mars by comparing it to natural formations on Earth, such as New Hampshire’s erstwhile “Old Man in the Mountain,” a passable human profile composed of natural rock that crumbled in mid-2003. However, the Old Man’s resemblance to a human face disappeared when the viewer moved a few degrees. This is most unlike the Face on Mars, which retains a humanoid appearance from virtually any angle, including from the ground.

  More recently, NASA seems to have given up on the Old Man in the Mountain explanation in favor of more exotic would-be terrestrial analogues, such as Middle Butte Mesa in the Snake River region of Idaho and Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona. When NASA compared the Face to these features on its PR website, it didn’t include photos that would bear out its contention. When aerial photos of Middle Butte and Camelback did surface, thanks to Lan Fleming, it became obvious why
NASA had never shown the photos: neither formation remotely resembles the Face and do nothing to advance the artificiality debate. In fact, the only earthly formation that resembles the Face is an artificial mesa in Iran, photographed from the air as part of an archaeological expedition in the 1930s. The similarity is superficial but nevertheless striking. While the Iran formation is not a face, its dimensions and platform recall the Face in Cydonia. The structure in Iran goes unmentioned by NASA, and is little known even among the Mars anomaly community.

  This remarkable formation, photographed from the air in Iran in the 1930s, is an elegant example of large-scale earthworks engineering comparable to that needed to construct the Face on Mars. Note that the Iranian formation’s symmetrical “platform” is not unlike that of the Face. Image courtesy Oriental Institute Museum/University of Chicago.

  In any case, NASA’s stance has always been that the Face on Mars is unremarkable, despite its failure to produce photos of a formation (on Earth or Mars) that would suggest a geological origin for the Face. But in 2002, a strikingly Face-like formation was uncovered—not by NASA but by independent researchers held in thrall by Malin Space Science System’s ever-growing online database.

  Located in the Cerberus region, the “Cerberus Platform” features a highly symmetrical framing mesa very much like the headdress surrounding its counterpart in Cydonia. However, the Platform is devoid of anything that could be construed as a face. Instead, its top is riddled with eroded knobs. There is no sign of bilateral symmetry or organization; either the Cerberus Platform is a natural formation, or it is an artificial structure whose uppermost features have weathered away over the eons.

  Contextual details suggest the latter possibility is more likely. In this case, the Cerberus Platform is a highly significant discovery: it demonstrates that the basic architectural layout used to construct the Face was employed on at least one other occasion.