MARS. Monuments, cities, pyramids, roads and canals! 


Mars has featured in mankind's fantasies and mythology for 
thousands of years. The planet itself is named after the 
Roman god of war. Jonathan Swift wrote in "Gulliver's 
Travels" in 1726 that astronomers on the mythical floating 
land of Laputa had discovered two swiftly moving moons on 
Mars, and provided information on their distances from Mars 
and their periods of revolution about Mars. 

Astonishingly, the moons of Mars had not been discovered yet, 
and would not be for another hundred and fifty years or so, 
though Kepler had surmised before Swift's time that Mars had 
two moons. Swift's information on the distances from the 
planet and the revolution periods of Mars two moons was 
extremely accurate, however, many scientists pass it off as a 
good guess. 

This was only the beginning of the mystery of the moons of 
Mars, and of Mars itself. Prior to 1877, when the moons were 
seen for the first time, no one had seen any moons near the 
planet even though excellent telescopes at the disposal of 
astronomers were easily capable of discerning them. 

Mars was a popular planet to view and literally hundreds of 
astronomers observed it for some time. These same astronomers 
even discovered moons on Uranus. Then one day Asaph Hall found 
that Mars had two satellites where none had been observed 
before. 

The two Martian satellites moved at very high speeds and 
appeared to travel in different directions! These and other 
factors prompted prominent astronomers to actually suppose 
that the moons might be artificial! 

Phobos (Fear), about 13 by 16 miles, orbits some 5,800 miles 
from the center of Mars every 7 hours, 39 minutes. 

Diemos (Terror), 7 by 9 miles, orbits some 14,600 miles from 
the center of Mars every 30 hours, 17 minutes. 

Soviet astronomer I.S. Schklovsky pointed out that the Martian 
satellite Phobos exhibits a strange acceleration irregularity 
which would be expected only if the satellite were a huge 
hollow metallic sphere. The same irregularity, however, would 
be impossible for a natural astronomical body. 

Therefore, says Dr. Schklovsky, at least one of the moons of 
Mars is not a natural object, but an artificial satellite 
placed in orbit around the planet, possibly in 1877, or 
shortly before that time. 

A few years later, astronomers noticed markings that seemed to 
be connected in a system that covered the whole planet. These 
markings were dubbed "canals" and were believed to be just 
that by many of the foremost astronomers of the time. Italian 
astronomer Schiaparelli was first to note the canals in the 
early 1890s and other astronomers began to notice them as 
well. 

American astronomer Percival Lowell, who built one of the best 
observatories in the world in Flagstaff, Arizona, became 
obsessed with the canals, drew detailed maps of them and 
worried that the Martians were fighting a losing battle on a 
dying planet. 

Something like canals exist, there can be no doubt. What they 
are is anybody's guess. Considering the great variety of 
canals on the Martian surface, it was believed by some that 
the Martians were trying to signal us and plans were suggested 
for planting mid-western crops in patterns by way of 
acknowledging the communication. (The first crop circles?) 

In the 1910 issue of "Nature," astronomer James Worthington, 
after visiting Lowell at his observatory in Flagstaff, 
commented, "As to the deductions which Dr. Lowell had drawn 
from his observations I have nothing to say except that the 
startlingly artificial and geometrical appearance of the 
markings did force itself upon me." 

Flashes of light were frequently seen on Mars and have been 
called Transient Martian Phenomena, similar to Transient Lunar 
Phenomena. Some astronomers interpreted it as signals; others 
thought them to be clouds drifting across the surface. 

One particular place where the flashes of light occurred is 
the lcarium Mare. Percival Lowell speaking at the American 
Philosophical Society meeting in December 1901, declared that 
the more than 400 light flashes seen in the Mare were clouds 
reflecting light. He believed lcarium Mare was a great tract 
of vegetation forming layers of clouds. 

After Percival Lowell died other scientists declared that 
there was no life on Mars, nor on any of the other planets in 
our solar system. This did nothing, however, to quell the 
hysteria when Orson Wells broadcast his Halloween hoax of H.G. 
Wells' "War Of The Worlds," simulating an invasion by 
Martians. 

After Viking 1 Orbiter flew past Mars on July 31, 1976 at an 
altitude of 1,278 miles, taking pictures of the surface, some 
new and interesting information suddenly appeared in a 
photograph released and described by NASA only as "the 
northern latitudes of Mars." 

In the photograph since published several times, a huge rock 
formation that looks like a face can be seen. This formation 
has been measured as one mile across. NASA claims that it is 
an illusion caused by the angle of the sun. 

To the left of the photo are two rock formations which appear 
to be pyramidical in shape. They are clearly throwing out 
triangular shadows. Parallel lines, looking like perfectly 
straight runways or roads appear in the upper let hand portion 
on the photo. 

According to Jim Safran of Lunar Photos in Van Nuys, 
California, these markings appear in quite a few of the Viking 
Mars photos. Oddly, these artificial-looking markings have 
been cropped out of photos appearing in Omni magazine and are 
not mentioned. 

But two computer scientists who work for Computer Science 
echnicolor Associates, of Seabrook, Maryland, contract workers 
for NASA, noticed the photos, and decided to analyze them. 
The scientists, Vincent DiPietro and Greg Molenaar concluded 
that the face in the photos, taken of the Elysian Plains, 
would "appear to have been carved rather than formed by 
nature," as there is no surrounding sediment that could have 
resulted from natural erosion. 

Additionally, they concluded that the face was truly 
symmetrical, having two halves, each containing an "eye," a 
"cheek" and continuation of the "mouth." They even discovered 
what resembles an eyewall with a visible pupil in the eye 
socket! 

Then science writer Richard Hoagland got original copies of 
the photos and claimed to have found, in the same photo, a 
"lost civilization on Mars," as reported in Omni, Vol. 7 No. 
6, March, 1985! 

They turned their attentions to the pyramid features to the 
left of the face, and to the grid-like markings like the plan 
of a city in the shadows of the upper pyramid. Hoagland also 
spotted a series of right angles contributing to an overall 
impression of a main avenue leading toward the face. 

Hoagland discovered that this "avenue" seems to be aligned 
with the face, which runs along a northeast-southwest axis 
with the Martian poles. 

A Martian standing in the center of the "city," gazing east 
over the face, would be sighting along a solstice alignment; 
that is, seeing the sun rise directly over the face on the 
longest day of the Martian year. Hoagland surmised that for 
50,000 years, the first summer sun of the year would have 
risen above the face. 

As the planet tilted with time, the alignment of the solstice 
viewing would have passed right through the top of the 
pyramid. 

The honeycomb-like walls in the shadow of the pyramid cast 
shadows. The grid spacing suspiciously resembles that of real 
city streets, and the layout is aligned toward the winter 
solstice sunrise. 

An architect friend of Hoagland's calculated the buildings 
were originally oriented in a manner to best use the scant 
winter warmth of the shortest day of the Martian year. 

Harold Masursky, senior scientist with the U.S. Geological 
Survey and one of the world's leading experts on Martian 
geology, in charge of selecting the sites where the Viking 
landers set down, told Omni magazine, "If you're going to say 
features like that are evidence for a past civilization, 
that's total nonsense. I'm working on finding landing sites 
for a possible Mars Rover. And this is not one of the areas 
where I would send what is probably a thirty-billion dollar 
mission. In fact, if somebody bought us a free one, I'm not 
sure I'd send it there because there are too many other places 
that are more interesting." 

Is Masursky toeing the party line by refusing to acknowledge 
the possibility of life on Mars at some time in the distant 
past? He is not an idiot, and considering NASA's startling 
finds on the Moon, their many secret projects and cover ups, 
it is not surprising that he would make those declarations. 

He is either on the periphery of NASA knowledge, and actually 
believes that there is nothing worth viewing, or he is trying 
to divert attention from this startling find and cover up what 
may even be a "live city." 

An Avon book published in the United States in 1978, and which 
originally appeared as a BBC special in Britain, called 
"Alternative 3" was reportedly an investigation into the 
disappearance of scientists in Britain and the United States. 
According to the book, these scientists were being sent to 
Mars by NASA to work in secret cities there, in an effort to 
create a habitual climate on Mars, which work included melting 
the polar ice caps and building dome-cities. 

The reason stated in the book was that NASA was doing this 
because the Earth's atmosphere is becoming super-heated and 
unbreathable. 

A secret conspiracy, involving most of the world's 
governments, including Russia, were working to move a certain 
portion of mankind to Mars, the first manned landing on Mars 
having taken place in the early 1960s. 

Mars bases were begun shortly afterwards. Antigravity ships 
were used to shuttle scientists and "brain washed," kidnapped, 
slave-workers to the bases to work. There was a lunar staging 
base in a crater on the moon. These scientists were listed as 
missing or killed by foreign agents so people would not be 
looking for them. 

It was in fact an April Fool's Day television special done for 
the BBC that was never aired because of a television strike in 
Britain. When it was finally aired, most people did not 
realize that it was an April Fool's joke. It was later 
published in Britain and the United States in book form as 
"science fact," also on April Fool's Day. 

An interesting story, it is unlikely considering the 
difficulty both the Soviets and the Americans had in just 
landing space probes on the moon in the early sixties. Even if 
NASA possessed anti-gravity vehicles in 1965, it seems 
unlikely that they would have been flying them to Mars when 
they could not even hit the moon with a Ranger. 

Furthermore, the author, Leslie Watkins, admitted that the 
book was a hoax; still, many UFO enthusiasts believe it. 

One does wonder, however, if NASA is visiting Mars in 
"Anti-Gravity" ships. It seems unlikely. They are far too 
busy setting up bases on the Moon. With all the UFOs out 
there and their occasional interference, NASA may consider it 
too dangerous to send their people on a flight to Mars, 
particularly if the reports of a huge space station orbiting 
the planet are valid. 

One cannot help but think that there may have been intelligent 
life on Mars in the past, if not now. Some UFOs may have come 
from Mars to Earth at some time in the past, perhaps to escape 
an environmental calamity such as might befall the Earth not 
too many years hence. 

But if we are to accept that idea, we must be able to produce 
some kind of evidence to back up the claim, otherwise it is 
nothing but idle speculation. 

The requirements for living organisms to evolve from 
non-living chemicals (hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and water) 
almost certainly existed on Mars about 4 billion years ago. 
Life could have formed and adapted, evolving right up to the 
time of the Exodus. 

Of four experiments conducted aboard Viking landers, three 
gave evidence of life forms still on Mars in 1976. The fourth 
experiment detected none. 

Living Martians, in whatever form, would have to exist without 
oxygen and large amounts of water for long periods of time, 
would have to live underground or possess natural shielding 
from solar ultraviolet and cosmic radiation, and would be 
required to withstand great temperature changes over short 
periods of time. 

While each of these requirements is met by earth organisms of 
some sort, no earth organism meets them all, but only because 
no living earth organism has been forced to do so. 

Those coming closest to meeting all the requirements are 
reptiles and it is interesting to note that a number of people 
have reported lizard-like aliens scrubbing about in the bushes 
outside landed UFOs. 

In 1982 Dale Russell and R. S_guin of Ottawa published an 
article on an intelligence dinosaur, Stenonychosaurus, a 
small, fast creature with a large brain and cunning hunting 
skills. In their paper, they showed a detailed model of the 
upright bipedal creature this dinosaur might have become had 
it continued to evolve from the Cretaceous period about 64 
million years ago to the present day. 

Russell and S_guin assumed for it a large brain, and the short 
neck and upright posture was arrived at as a way of balancing 
the head more efficiently. The vertical posture removed the 
need for a tail. The legs were modified by lowering the ankle 
to the ground and the forefoot was lengthened. This creature 
would have stood upright at about five feet. Given the proper 
conditions and time, this evolution would have been possible. 

                                             C1998

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