A Temple of the Martian Moon Gods?

A Temple of the Martian Moon Gods?

In July 1976, the NASA space probe Viking 1 photographed the Cydonia region of Mars. The photographs revealed a mile-square landform which resembles a human face. It was immediately discounted as 'a trick of light and shadow' by scientists. Other strikingly artifact-like landforms in the region were also dismissed. But the controversy just hasn't gone away.

Why would an intelligent civilization on Mars build a sculpture of a face and several other mysterious monuments on such a scale that they can only be properly viewed from high above? Turning to human history, we find that such monoliths and 'sky drawings' were often constructed, and the motive was always religious. That is, the ancient societies believed they were communicating with powerful 'sky gods.' Along the same lines, the 'Face on Mars' could then be a Martian version of one such 'sky god' monument.

The scientific response to this has been, "Lots of rocks look like faces." Yes, but do lots of rocks look like stylized schematic diagrams of the Martian moon system? Let's explore that . . . .

You see, if the Martians were to build monuments to honor sky gods, their own moons would be likely candidates for 'godhood.' This fits into the pattern of many ancient pagan cultures here on Earth, which ended up worshiping our own Moon as a god or goddess. The two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, are just a few miles in diameter, quite small in comparison to our own Moon, but they would be the brightest, fastest moving, and of course nearest objects in the Martian night sky. If there were Martians, and if there was a Martian priesthood that built monuments to sky gods, they would likely incline their eyes toward their moons as the celestial objects most worthy of worship.

Here is a diagram of the Martian moon system, of the moons Phobos and Deimos in orbit around the planet Mars:

The line segment at the bottom is worthy of your attention. It shows that the Martian moon system can be represented linearly. We could make four markers. The first marker at the left represents the center of the planet. To the right, the second marker represents the surface of the planet. The third marker represents the orbital radius of Phobos. And the fourth and rightmost marker represents the orbital radius of Deimos. If we wanted to do everything right, we would space out the markers in proportion to the distances of the Martian moon system: scaled values that match 3397 km for the surface radius, 9380 km for Phobos orbital radius, and 23,500 km for Deimos orbital radius.

We could also choose appropriate symbols to represent these markers. For example, the center of the planet might be represented by a cross-hairs, the surface radius by an arc segment, the moons by . . . faces.

Now, here's the point: just how plausible it would be to find a schematic of the martian moon system in nature? Rocks that look like faces are one thing. But to have four symbols that match our required markers, and to find them proportionately spaced to the same scale -- that's beyond plausibility, isn't it?

The Face on Mars at Cydonia is part of just such an astronomical diagram.

Let's look at the component parts of what has been called, 'The Cydonia Complex.' Keep in mind that all these pictures are scanned off official NASA photographs available in public archives. And please note, the photos have actually been substantially 'de-enhanced' in order to go into GIF format and be small enough to transmit over phone lines in a suitably brief period of time.

A. CENTERPOINT. These four 'dots' (each the size of a large Egyptian pyramid) correspond to the cross-hairs on a schematic diagram, symbolizing the center of a circle. In this instance, it represents the center of the circular cross-section of Mars, and is also the center of the orbits of the two moons.

B. WEDGE. On the left-hand side, this landform has the shape of an animal face in profile, and possibly represents the pagan personification of Mars itself. The right-hand side's curving wall schematically corresponds to an arc segment of a circle. In this context, it represents the circular cross-section of the Martian surface.

C. FACE. The most famous of Cydonia landforms represents the inner martian moon, Phobos, in the form of a human face. Like the planets drawn in medieval illustrations, the moons of Mars are portrayed at Cydonia in human form. As in the folk traditions of many cultures here on Earth, the Martians also chose to symbolize a 'man in the moon.'

D. SECOND FACE. The image shown here is vertically compressed to simulate a low-south viewing angle; in overhead perspective, the elongated curving shape of a moon in crescent phase is even more pronounced. The symmetrical eyes, nose ridge, mouth, and chin repeat the 'man in the moon' facial theme. This face personifies the god of the outer martian moon, Deimos.

So, all the symbols of a line schematic of the martian moon system are present at Cydonia. But are they appropriately arranged in order? Well, that would certainly be coincidental. It turns out that they are.

But are they proportionately spaced according to the same distance scale? Well, that would be even more coincidental. It turns out that they are.

Here's the NASA composite photograph of the Cydonia Complex, as viewed by the Viking 1 space probe long ago in the summer of 1976:

This diagram shows three correspondences between the Cydonia Complex and the Martian moon system: symbols, arrangement, and scale.

If you're unfamiliar to archeology and astronomy, you might find it strange that a humanoid civilization would construct an astronomical diagram with faces to communicate with imaginary sky beings. Actually, there is a civilization on Earth which has done exactly the same thing.

The civilization is our own.

In the early 1970s, before Viking reached Mars, NASA launched two space probes named Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. These probes were the first artificial objects from Earth to escape the Sun's gravity and enter interstellar space.

Scientists believe that superior beings live out in space, so they decided to communicate with them by attaching a graphical message on the space probes. Here is the Pioneer Plaque message:

At the bottom of the plaque is a diagram representing the layout of our solar system: the Sun at left, then Mercury, Venus, Earth, etc., out to Pluto. At middle right are two 'typical' human beings.

An astronomical diagram, containing two faces.

The messages at Cydonia and on Pioneer are variations of the same theme: show them where we are, show them what we look like.

There's more to Cydonia than just a rock that looks like a face. There's a whole complex of rocks that look like a message sent to the stars.