Does Mars have it locked away, the architectural phantasms of a vanished civilization?
Far up in Libya Montes’ rough landscape, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took an image in 2011 that has become one of the most debated in planetary anomaly research since. The so-called “keyhole” form a wedged base surmounted by a rounded dome struck George J. Haas, the founder of The Cydonia Institute, as “exquisite” in its symmetry. Haas, who has been looking at Martian images for over three decades, compares it directly to Japan’s Kofun burial mounds, writing that “you don’t have to be a geologist to know the difference between a rock and a sculpture.” In 2016, he published a paper arguing that the geometry was too accurate to be a coincidence. Planetary geologists reply that these impressions usually result from pareidolia, the tendency for the brain to see familiar shapes in random patterns, a tendency Carl Sagan long ago called an evolutionary survival mechanism.
In the Argyre Basin, a 2002 image showed another striking shape. Researcher Wilmer Faust saw what appeared to be a bird, and Haas immediately identified what was later called the parrot geoglyph. With a recognizably beaked, eyed, winged, and feathered profile, Haas tallied 22 points of anatomical correctness. Five vets, one of whom is an avian expert, tested the assertion by examining the image and concurring that the proportions are consistent with actual bird anatomy. Geoglyphs such as Peru’s Nazca Lines on Earth frequently feature animals, but Haas insists there are none whose anatomical accuracy is greater than that in this Martian specimen. Mainstream scientists once more attribute pareidolia, backed by research demonstrating that wind erosion, volcanic flows, and thermal fracturing can produce edges and silhouettes mimicking man-made design.
One of the most daunting of these anomalies are the Sagan pyramids in the Elysium region, which were first imaged by NASA’s Mariner 9 in 1972. Standing over 3,200 feet high and stretching nearly 10,000 feet across, their crisply outlined triangular silhouettes caught the eye of Carl Sagan himself, who proposed wind and sandstorms as probable sculptors but conceded that only detailed study could prove their origin. Haas observes that natural pyramids lean toward conical form, juxtaposing these Martian ones with an unusual three-sided pyramid at Nevada’s Area 51, constructed for weapons testing. The similarity, he contends, suggests intentional design. Geologists, on the other hand, cite erosional residue of ancient volcanic plugs and tectonic uplift as a possible explanation for such angular features.
In Nepenthes Mensae, a hardscrabble plateau shelters the “starburst” pattern five outspreading arms around a central mound. Haas compares it to 16th- and 17th-century European star forts, referencing Fort Henry in Tennessee as a near duplicate in design. Radial symmetry like this can, in geologic terms, be caused by differential erosion around a resistant central core, with fractures dictating the removal of softer rock. The same patterns have been found in basaltic landscapes on Earth, where jointing and cooling produce polygon or star-shaped boundaries without any human influence.
These arguments take place in the context of speeding-up Mars exploration. SpaceX’s Starship effort, under Elon Musk’s leadership, plans to send uncrewed missions to the Red Planet as soon as the November–December 2026 launch window. The new Starship Version 3 will be 408 feet high, completely reusable, and dependent upon orbital refueling to transport heavy payloads including, maybe, next-generation imaging systems that can resolve these anomalies at sub-meter scales. Musk has said, We’ll try to make that opportunity, if we get lucky. I think we probably have a 50/50 chance right now.
The scientific community is skeptical. The “Face on Mars” sighting of the 1970s subsequently debunked by higher-resolution images as an eroded mesa reminds us that extraordinary assertions demand extraordinary proof. But the fascination with these structures lingers, driven by the hope that one day high-resolution, in-situ measurements might prove or disprove their man-made nature. While NASA’s Perseverance rover keeps exploring for biosignatures, like the latest analyzed Sapphire Canyon sample with possible organic-mineral textures, the technological equipment to explore Mars’ geometric puzzles is progressively developing.
Whether the keyhole, parrot geoglyph, Sagan pyramids, and starburst are products of ancient builders or the artistry of Martian geology, their study sits at the intersection of planetary science, engineering, and the enduring human drive to find meaning in the patterns of distant worlds.
