In the article "Unmasking the Face on Mars" the author writes about a mesa on the surface of the planet Mars. This particular mesa recieved a lot of attention because the shadows resmbled a human face. Many conspiracy theorist believe this means there is alien life on Mars, but they are incorrect. The "Face" on Mars in simply an ordinary mesa.

The original picture of the "Face" was captured in 1976. Since that time ouR camera have improved, allowing us to see images more clearly. The original image was blurry and indistinct, leading may people to believe that the mesa was evidence of alien life on Mars. Again when the second picture was taken in 1998 camera were improving, but not as efficient as the camera used to take the final picture. Also in 1998 the picture was taken on a cloudy day, obscuring the mesa behind clouds. The 2001 picture clearly shows an ordianry Martian mesa, not a "Face".

"As a rule of thumb, you can discern things in a digital image 3 times bigger than the pixel size so, if there were objects in this picture like airplanes on the ground or Egyptian-style pyramids or even small shacks you could see what they were!"(Garvin, Mars global surveyor). If there was any sign of alien life, activity, or even past activity NASA would be able to see it in the 2001 picture of the "Face". However the picture clearly shows an empty mesa. This

Martian mesa can even be compared to an ordianry Earth mesa!

This mesa attracted a lot of attention from the media because of the way the shadows fell across the mesa, creating a face-like illusion. NASA captioned the original photo "huge rock formation...which resembles a human head...formed by shadows giving the illusion of eyes, nose, and mouth." The authors wanted to engage the public and they definetly did! While many people believed the shadows created the image of a face, NASA clearly stated in the original caption of the 1976 photograph that it was simply an illusion caused by the shadows.

The "Face" is not really a face at all. It is a huge rock formation/mesa, similar to many other mesas on Mars. The only thing that made this particular mesa any different from every other mesa on the surface of Mars was the coincedincial way the shadows fell across it. Many people thought this "Face" was evidence of life on the surface of Mars, but the are wrong. This is because the picture would show signs of life or activity, but there were none. So, in conclusion the "Face" is not and never was an ancient alien monument.