On May 24, 2001 something strange happened on Mars. NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft circled the planet, looking for possible landing sites for Viking 2, when it captured a human face lurking on the ground of Mars. An enormous head seemed to stare back at the cameras from Cydonia. The NASA scientists soon found out it was not an alien marking. The Face is just a natural landform called a Martian mesa.

To begin, The Face natural landform is not the only Martian mesa in Cydonia. This region of Mars is actually quite common for having these weird Martian mesas. This mesa was different from the others with "unusual shadows that made it look like an Egyptian Pharaoh(2)." This information led to the research of an ancient civilization on Mars. The research found that there was not an ancient civilization, although many people wish their would have been.

Since many people wanted to find an ancient civilization, conspiracy theorists hoped to prove NASA wrong. The theorists began to throw false accusations at NASA including, "Some people think the Face is a bona fide evidence of life on Mars-evidence that NASA would rather hide, say conspiracy theorists(5)." NASA defenders stated that they wish there was an ancient civilization on Mars and that they would not lie. NASA flew over Cydonia once again and snapped a picture ten times sharper than the originial Viking photos. The picture proved that it was just a natural landform. This didn't stop the conspiracy theorists from pushing forward.

To conclude, the theorists believed that since there was a haze on Mars when they took the photo, that the haze could potentially hide ancient Martian markings. This kept NASA pushing harder into their research. "Neverless, on April 8, 2001- a cloudless summer day in Cydonia- Mars Global Surveyor drew close enough for a second look(10)." NASA rolled the spacecraft to center the Face in the field of view. They took a picture with extraordinary resolution. If anyone could see anything they could see it. NASA concluded that the Face was equivalent to a butte or mesa- landforms commonly found in the American West.

The Face is just a natural landform called a Martian mesa. The trips NASA took around Mars prove that the Face is a natural landform commonly found in Cydonia. The Face is a giant rock plated with shadows for eyes, nose, and a mouth. Consiracy theorists still may believe that their was an ancient cicilization, but NASA indeed showed them wrong. The Face will always remain a great landform discovery on Mars.