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Cydonia Mensae is an albedo feature (region) on Mars. It lies in the planet's northern hemisphere in a transitional zone between the heavily-cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the North. Cydonia itself is covered in numerous mesas and may have been a coastal zone if planetologists are correct in believing that the northern plains were once ocean beds. One of the Cydonian mesas, situated at 30°45' north latitude and 9°26' west longitude, took on the striking appearance of a human Face on Mars in a photo taken by Viking 1 on July 25, 1976. While generally believed to be an optical illusion (pareidolia), others view it as evidence of a long-lost Martian civilization. Other features are argued to have been observed, such as apparent pyramids. A popular belief is that these are part of a ruined city. NASA has stated however that "a detailed analysis of multiple images of this feature reveals a natural-looking Martian hill whose illusory face-like appearance depends on viewing angle and angle of illumination." More recent pictures by the Mars Global Surveyor seem only to confirm the validity of this scientific opinion. On September 21, 2006, the European Space Agency published new photographs of the Cydonia region taken by the Mars Express probe. The new images are at a resolution of less than 14 m/pixel (46 ft/pixel). On October 23, 2006, the European Space Agency published a 3D animation of the "Face on Mars" using a combination of digital data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express probe and the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. Originally, eighteen images of the Cydonia Mensae region were taken by the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters, but only seven have resolutions better than 250 m/pixel (820 ft/pixel). The other eleven images have resolutions worse than 550 m/pixel (1800 ft/pixel) and are virtually useless for studying the "feature". Of the seven good images, the lighting and time at which two pairs of images were taken are so close as to reduce the number to five usable, distinct images. The Mission to Mars: Viking Orbiter Images of Mars CD-ROM image numbers are: 35A72 (VO-1010), 70A13 (VO-1011), 561A25 (VO-1021), 673B56 & 673B54 (VO-1063), and 753A33 & 753A34 (VO-1028).
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