The pyramids in Egypt have long been a fixation for conspiracy theorists, who like to claim they were constructed by “ancient astronauts” that visited the Earth thousands of years ago to construct the epic monuments.
So it shouldn’t come to much surprise that a pyramid-like shape on the surface of Mars is whipping the alien truther community into a frenzy.
In a post, self-proclaimed “Mars disclosure journalist” Brian Dobbs showed off what appears to be a fairly symmetrical “three-sided pyramid the size of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.”
The subject quickly drew the attention of tabloids, which published stories about “mysterious” and “bizarre” pyramids sparking “alien civilization theories” and purportedly bewildering scientists.
Dobbs pointed to satellite images taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 2001. The sight is certainly striking, a major geological feature jutting out in the landscape with three even ridges connecting in a sharp peak. It’s located in the Candor Chasma, one of the largest canyons in Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system in the entire solar system.
However, that’s where the resemblance to the Great Pyramids ends. For one thing, the actual pyramids in Egypt have four sides — or technically eight — but certainly not three.
Researchers have since thrown cold water on the conspiracists’ eyebrow-raising conclusions, arguing that the mound is nothing particularly unusual when considering the surrounding canyon system.
“Nothing to me screams anything close to ‘alien civilization’ here when I see that,” Mars Institute chairman and SETI Institute planetary scientist Pascal Lee told NewsNation last week. “This is not an alien archeological site.”
Instead, Lee argued that the pyramid was likely shaped by wind.
“If you look more closely, there are rock layers that are very typical of the rock layers in this region that are sticking out of one side of this hill,” he told NewsNation.
One doesn’t have to go as far as Mars to discover pyramids in nature, as there are plenty of seemingly natural pyramidal formations found on Earth as well. For instance, the Cerro Tusa mountain in Colombia reaches out 1,500 feet above the surrounding terrain in a strikingly pyramidal shape.
As one skeptical reader quickly pointed out to Dobbs on X, there are also the natural pyramids found in China’s Guizhou Province, a series of striking pyramid-like mountains and hills.
A massive natural and snow-covered pyramid in Antarctica, which features four equal sides, also sparked alien conspiracy theories last year.
Satellite imagery of the surface of Mars has revealed plenty of other fantastical formations that have allowed imaginations to run wild, from the strange and “spiderweb”-like formations currently being explored by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover to a plateau that looks like a face and what many claimed to be a “doorway” cut into the side of a cliff.
In short, while researchers still have plenty to learn about how wind, water, and possibly seismic activity shaped the rugged landscapes like the Candor Chasma canyon, it’s pretty safe to assume that the three-sided pyramid wasn’t the product of an ancient alien civilization.
More on pyramids: Scientists Detect “Anomaly” Underground Near Great Pyramid