Fact check
Is it true: The Face on Mars?
No — this has been debunked.
The 1976 Viking image is authentic and genuinely does look face-like, so the initial fascination was understandable. But four later missions imaged the same mesa at up to roughly 100 times the resolution, plus 3D elevation data, and every one shows an ordinary wind- and gravity-eroded landform with no eyes, mouth, symmetry, or tool marks. The 'face' was pareidolia amplified by low resolution and lighting; the 'cover-up' collapses because NASA published every image and deliberately re-photographed the mesa on public request.
The claim
A two-kilometre mesa in Mars's Cydonia region is an artificially sculpted humanoid face, part of a complex of pyramids and a 'city' built by an ancient civilization, whose true nature NASA has deliberately concealed.
Key evidence
The 1976 Viking image genuinely looks like a face
Mars Global Surveyor 1998 image (~10x Viking resolution) dissolved the face
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