"Twenty five years ago something funny happened around Mars. NASAs Viking 1 spacecraft was circling the planet, snapping photos of possible landing sites for its sister ship Viking 2, when it spotted the shadowy likeness of a human face." This is an excerpt from the article "Unmasking the Face on Mars". This is describing a strange feature found on the face of mars in the region of Cydonia.

At first there were no clear pictures of the face and no certain explanations. The Viking 1 found it in 1976 and back then the quality was not so great. Scientists thought "it was just another Martian mesa" but they also noted one unusual shadow, so they were not that clear on the reason. In 1998 NASA took another picture in better resolution but it was cloudy and some people were not convinced that it was a mesa. In 2001 NASA was finally able to capture a clear picture of the formation, putting down any kind of conspiracy theories.

Speaking of conspiracy theories, many believed that "...the Face is bona fide evidence of life on Mars". Some theories were that aliens built "an Egyptian pharoah". Some of the scientists at NASA even believed that it was evidence of alien life on mars! Conspiracy theorists say that NASA would rather hide life on Mars, but defenders of the NASA budget wish there was an ancient civilisation on mars becuase then NASA would get more money to go to mars.

Now with higher resolution pictures NASA scientists have found what the "Face" really is. It seems that their earlier guesses were in fact correct! As quoted in "Unmasking the Face on Mars", "What the picture actually shows is the Martian equivalent of a butte or mesa". The scientists were correct on saying it looked like a mesa. They have even found out with higher resolution pictures that it almost resembles the Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho. They both have a similar height and shape.

Sadly the "Face" is not an ancient alien ruins or a temple. Dont we all want it to be proof of life on mars? Scientists have proved that it is not though. Scientists say that it is in fact a mesa, and they put to rest a long standing mystery of the face on mars and any conspiracy theories with it.