THE MARTIAN SPHINX

An independent team of researchers called "The Mars Mission" have been investigating there possibility that various anomalous landforms in Cydonia - the northern desert region of Mars - may be the first concrete evidence of an alien civilisation.

The evidence comes from two photographs taken from 1,162 miles above the Martian surface by the unmanned Viking 1 in 1976. The frames reveal a 1,500 foot high, one mile long stone outcrop which appears to have been carved into a human face.

Adjacent to this are various other artificial looking objects, the most striking being a gigantic five-sided pyramid.

In February 1992, Richard Hoagland, head of the Mars Mission, was invited to the United Nations to present a summary of the Mission’s findings. The Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium was twice packed out as Hoagland proposed that, not only were the structures of Cydonia evidence of an alien civilisation, but that the ground plan and geometry of this area contain an encoded message. Having unravelled part of this puzzle, Hoagland is convinced that the geometry of Cydonia is linked to various ancient sacred sites on Earth.

BACKGROUND TO THE DISCOVERIES

The frame containing the face on Mars was presented by NASA to assembled journalists in 1976. When several people inquired about the Face, they were told that it was a trick of light and shadow.

Three years later, two computer imaging experts, Vincent Dipietro and Gregory Molenaar, chanced upon the picture in the National Space Library. Amazed at the sight of the Face, they searched through 60,000 frames to find a second image of the Face at a different sun angle. This prompted them to produce a series of computer-enhanced images. It was this work and subsequent persuasive enhancements by Mark Carlotto that provided the raw material for Hoagland and his associates to develop their theories.

THE DISCOVERY OF ALIEN ARCHITECTURE

In 1983, Hoagland, then working as a NASA consultant, was given the images of Cydonia for analysis. He studied the relationship between the Face and associated landforms such as the group of polyhedral objects, later termed the City, the giant five-sided pyramid, called the D&M (after Dipietro and Molenaar), a huge ridge-like structure called the Cliff and a large mound called the Tholus. Thinking of the astronomical alignments of some prehistoric sites on Earth, Hoagland wondered whether the objects in Cydonia might be aligned similarly to the Sun or key stars.

He projected eight lines from the centre of the City out to the eastern horizon. He found that an observer at the City Square would have seen the Summer Solstice sun rise directly over the eyes of the Face approximately half a million years ago, giving a possible date of construction. This led to the discovery of the Cliff as it lay directly in the path of the projected sightlines which, when extended through the eyes and the chin of the Face, fall exactly at either end. Hoagland then linked the whole complex with interconnecting lines and found the resulting geometry of the groundplan was not random, but contained repeated examples of universal mathematical constants which would hardly appear by chance in the natural topography.

The initial announcement about these alignments was made in February 1984.

CYDONIA’S ROSETTA STONE

Hoagland believes that the Face was carved to attract attention. The shape of a human face is always instantly recognisable even though it may be part of a blurry photograph; this would naturally lead to a closer scrutiny. The real message, he suspected, was encoded in the interrelationships of the surrounding objects. He reasoned that no one would go to so much trouble unless that message was of great significance.

By analysing the spatial and angular relationships between the main Cydonian landforms, Hoagland discovered that three universal constants were repeatedly generated:

phi (the golden section), Pi e (the base of natural logarithms). He enlisted the help of Erol Torun, a cartographer working at the U.S Defence Mapping Agency, who discovered that internal geometry of the five sided pyramid, the D&M, revealed the same universal constants.

Furthermore, the latitude of the D&M on the planet seems to have been carefully chosen; 40.868 Degrees N (+/- 0.017 Degrees), which is the tangent of e divided by Pi; a further example of the Cydonian geometry generating these significant irrational numbers.

More evidence supporting the intelligence theory was obtained when the area containing Cydonia was recently surveyed using Fractal Analysis. This technique was successfully employed in the Gulf War to locate Iraqi tanks camouflaged in the desert, since it distinguishes between constructed objects and natural topography.

The analysis of Cydonia showed that the Face was the most unnatural object in an area of 4,000 square miles.

TETRAHEDRAL GEOMETRY: KEY TO CYDONIA

After much number crunching, the team concluded that whoever positioned these objects was indicating something about the three sided pyramid, or tetrahedron. This is hinted at by the tetrahedral structure embedded on the rim of the crater and the angle between this and the Cliff, which is 19.5 . The continual repetition of this angle in other parts of the complex led Hoagland to believe it was a significant part of the message. But why 19.5?

The answer appeared to Hoagland to be elegantly simple. When the apex of a tetrahedron is placed on the pole of a sphere, its bottom three corners always touch the sphere’s edge at 19.5 Degrees, either above or below the sphere’s equator.

Hoagland looked at what was happening on other planets at 19.5 Degrees latitude, and found what he thought was a pattern. On Earth, he located the chain of Hawaiian volcanoes; on Mars, the giant shield volcano, Olympus Mons; and on Jupiter, the Big Red Spot.

All these phenomena, he hypothesised, are caused by an upwelling of vorticular energy. This theory led him in July 1989, two weeks before the Voyager Probe reached Neptune, to predict successfully that Neptune had a giant spot similar to Jupiter’s and further, that it would lie on 19.5 Degrees latitude.

THE TERRESTRIAL CONNECTION

The Mars Mission’s most controversial point is the link made between Cydonia and various ancient sacred sites on Earth; specifically the Sphinx and the Avebury stone circle.

The parallels drawn by Hoagland between the Face and the Sphinx are somewhat tentative. He notes that the cosine of the Sphinx’s geodetic latitude (Approximately 30 Degrees N) equals the tangent of 40.868: the latitude of the D&M. More persuasive is the discovery that the three pyramids at Giza lie on the curve of an Archimedian spiral and that the position of the Sphinx in relation to this spiral is e divided by Pi.

The most dramatic piece of evidence of this proposed link came when Hoagland, in his UN presentation, displayed two photographs of the Face composed by David Percy, the Mars Mission’s English researcher.

Each side of the face was duplicated and placed next to its mirrored opposite. The two left halves revealed a hominid face, while the two right halves revealed a feline likeness. Is this due to extraordinary lighting conditions, or could the Face, like the Egyptian Sphinx, be a mythological fusion of man and beast?

AVEBURY AND SILBURY HILL

David Percy was also responsible for discovering another possible terrestrial link, involving the Cydonian Tholus, Crater and Cliff. Following a suggestion by Hoagland that Tholus resembled Silbury hill, Percy superimposed a map of the Silbury/Avebury site on a scaled down map of Cydonia. By placing Silbury Hill on top of the Tholus, he discovered that the crater fitted exactly over Avebury Circle. Furthermore, a mound on the rim of the Avebury circle corresponded exactly to the tetrahedral pyramid on the Cydonia Crater. Could there be a connection between the builders of Cydonia and Avebury?

CONCLUSIONS

If one assumes that the Cydonian landforms were not caused by random geological forces, then they were created either by an extinct civilisation on Mars or by a culture not indigenous to the planet.

An indigenous civilisation seems improbable since: (1) no other complex ruins have been located (although there are several other isolated anomalies); and (2) any atmosphere Mars might have had was probably lost millions of years ago, leaving insufficient time for life to evolve. A non-indigenous culture therefore seems more likely.

What most people will find hard to swallow is the terrestrial connection. Looking at the clues - the possible date of construction of 500,000 years ago, the fact that the Face is of a proto-human nature and the speculative links with ancient sacred sites on Earth - Hoagland postulates a variety of the Ancient Astronaut hypothesis. He suggests that the architects of Cydonia, having already travelled vast distances to reach Mars, were likely to have paid Earth a visit and may have been instrumental in accelerating human evolution.

Hoagland is convinced that the architects of Cydonia were benevolent and constructed the complex partly for our benefit, leaving vital information awaiting the day mankind had developed technologies sophisticated enough to reach the Red Planet and coinciding with the time that we would be in desperate need of a new source of energy.

THE OFFICIAL POSITION

Is the Mars Mission’s interpretation of two blurry photographs a case of wishful thinking or a great piece of scientific detection work?

Confirmation of a Martian civilisation would have such far reaching consequences that NASA has been under intense pressure to resolve this issue. The earliest opportunity for closer scrutiny is now under way. In September 1992, NASA launched the Mars Observer probe, equipped with a camera 50 times more powerful than Viking’s. Pictures of the planet’s surface will start arriving back in December 1993.

Hoagland has given two presentations at NASA reacher centres, but NASA’s official line on the Face has long been sceptical.

However, reportedly at the urging of Vice President Dan Quayle, who is head of the National Space Council, NASA chief Richard H. Truly was recently sacked and replaced by someone more sympathetic to the Mars Mission’s ideas.

David Evans, project manager for the NASA Mars Observer Mission, stated in politically expedient terms: "We will do the very best we can to get those pictures for the American people", but NASA has so far failed to offer guarantees that Cydonia will be re-photographed. The new NASA photographs will be digitally processed by the camera’s designer, Dr. Michael Malin, and not released to the public for six to nine months. Hoagland, however, has expressed concern that if NASA succeed in getting pictures of Cydonia and they confirm the Mars Mission’s theories, they will not be released to the public. Hoagland is not convinced by that argument. "This is the most explosive issue of all time", he says. "If we are not alone, this raises profound questions which undercut all existing paradigms and institutions: economic, scientific, religious, social, philosophical and technological. Such questions would be highly disturbing for any government." In that he is most definitely right.

The Mars Mission produce a quarterly journal, "Martian Horizons" and have copies of both Hoagland’s briefings to NASA and the UN.

For further information, contact:

The Mars Mission

31-10 Skytops Gdns

Parlin, NJ 08859