Space might still be the final frontier, but as technology advances and the likes of Elon Musk look beyond the Moon with his eyes on the Red Planet, Mars only seems to get more mysterious by the day.
While the world's richest man has dialled back his hopes of colonizing Mars with self-sustaining life by 2045, Elon Musk still has grand plans to make space a little smaller by putting mankind on its dusty surface.
There's much debate about whether life on Mars exists/existed, and whether we wiped it out, with the many tin foil theories being backed up by supposed 'faces' being spotted. As early as 1976, NASA's Viking 1 orbiter spotted a 2-kilometer-wide anomaly in the Cydonia region, with discussions about the "Face of Mars" keeping scientists busy for decades. Delving into another debate about the mysteries of Mars, resurfaced NASA images have theorists calling on Mulder and Scully to solve another case.
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Known for his 2025 movie called Blue Planet Red, self-confessed Mars disclosure journalist Brian Cory Dobbs shared footage of a bizarre three-sided shape on the surface of Mars. Initially spotted by researcher Keith Laney in 2001, the footage came from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) as it scanned the western region of Candor Chasma – one of the largest canyons in Mars' Valles Marineris canyon system.
As reported by the Daily Mail, Laney is quoted as saying: "Were this found anywhere on Earth, we'd surely be digging into it."
Dobbs reshared the footage on X and opened the doors to scientists and conspiracy theorists alike as he wrote: "On Mars, there is a three-sided pyramid the size of the Great Pyramid in Egypt."
While Dobbs admitted this is far from proof of little green men burying pharaohs in Martian tombs and Martian mummies lurking in the bowels of this strange anomaly, the internet immediately jumped on the hype.
Although scientists have previously noted that the Candor Chasma's steep cliffs, landslides, and layered rock formations could all contribute to the highly geometric look of this 'pyramid', it's become something of a fascination over the years. Following its initial 2001 discovery, the pyramid was photographed in 2002, as well as giving us a closer look when the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter offered a higher-resolution pic in 2007.
Other images from 2014 and 2016 show an even clearer pyramid-like shape, with various illuminations and shadows making it look especially haunting.
While Dobbs continues to question whether alien or artificially constructed buildings could exist on Mars, his musings are echoed by Mars researcher George Haas.
Previously speaking to the Daily Mail, Haas explained: "You don't have to be a geologist to know the difference between a rock and a sculpture, something that's geometric."
Hass co-authored a research paper (via the Journal of Space Exploration), stating: "The structural form of this three-sided pyramid observed within the western region of Candor Chasma is real and exhibits a level of geometry and symmetry that supports a high probability of artificial origins."
Laney agrees that the pyramid is "most definitely artificial."
Things have only been amplified by declassified CIA files referring to Project Stargate and mentions of a 'dying elder race' as well as pyramids.
Away from the idea that the CIA was trying to send someone's consciousness back in time, pyramids on Mars were the focus of a 1975 Doctor Who serial (ironically, before the Viking 1 discovery). Going back even further, it's thought Stanley G. Weinbaum coined the idea when he published A Martian Odyssey as a science-fiction short story way back in 1934.