New Evidence of an Artificial Origin for Cydonia on Mars

The Cydonia region on Mars contains six landforms in close proximity that do not appear completely natural in one way or another. One of these is the so-called "Face" on Mars. Eight tests of artificiality have been proposed, yielding mixed results. The principle test results favoring a natural origin are the apparently random location and random orientation on the planet, because no apparent purpose is served by a face monument looking upward toward space if it is not oriented right-side-up and in an attention-getting location on the planet. But it has previously been established that the Martian poles had a different location with respect to the surface of the planet in the past (Schultz, 1985), and apparently jumped from that location to the present one in relatively little geological time. We here draw attention to the fact that the Cydonia area is right on the old martian equator, and the "Face" is oriented perpendicular to that old equator, to within the measurement uncertainties. This has only about a 1% probability of occurring by chance. Taken in conjunction with the finding of bilateral symmetry in the Face, the anomalous nature of nearby objects on Mars, and positive results from all other tests of artificiality to date, the weight of existing evidence appears to have shifted in favor of an artificial origin of the Cydonia complex. With luck, the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft's high resolution camera, capable of 30 times more resolution than the best Viking photos, will soon confirm or refute this conclusion that the Cydonia complex is apparently artificial.