The "Face" on Mars is a rock formation on the surface of Mars resembling an enormous humanoid face staring straight up into space. It is about 2.5 km long x 2.0 km wide x 0.4 km tall and is located on a flat plain known as Cydonia Mensae in Mars' northern hemisphere (41 deg. N latitude 9.5 deg. longitude). The Face and other objects described on this page were imaged by one of the Viking Orbiters in the summer of 1976.
The Face was dismissed by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a trick of light and shadow and forgotten. The original image (Viking orbiter frame 35A72) was rediscovered by Vincent DiPietro and Gregory Molenaar, two engineers at the Goddard Spaceflight Center, several years later.