In 1976 NASA found an interesting sight on Mars, a giant face! It shocked the mission controllers and when it was released to the public, it sent people buzzing. Theorists said that the "face" was made by aliens but NASA disagred.

After the Viking photos, NASA made getting better photographs of the face a priority. In April of 1998, the Mars Global Surveyer (MGS) reached Cydonia and got a picture of the face. "... snapped a picture ten times sharper than the original Viking Photos." The photo then revealed that the face was no more than a natural landform. But, theorists said that there could have been markings that the Mars clouds blocked out. So in 2001, they attempted again with thier best resolution and once again found that it was just a natural structure.

I can see why theorists would say the face was made by aliens because it was really life like and acurate to a human face.

They discovered that it looked a lot like a mesa or a butte. Jim Garvin expllains that, "It reminds me of the Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho." and "That's a lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars."