2022 C.R.A.P. AWARD - ANCIENT RUINS ON MARS:

Newly discovered claimed sphinx on Mars. Internet photograph, public domain.

For the highly esteemed and much sought-after C.R.A.P. (Certifiable Rock Art Prevarication) Award for 2022 our judges have selected a whole category of outrageous falsifications, ancient ruins on Mars. While NASA has been releasing photographs from Mars taken by various rovers, a whole coterie of fringies has been studying them in detail and finding statues and ancient ruins. Any search on the internet for ruins on Mars will return dozens of sites announcing this silliness.

Claimed Martian petroglyphs and hieroglyphic tablets. Internet photograph, public domain.

For this award I am not going to specify any individual purveyors of these fringe ideas. I cannot even call them theories as they are just blatant falsehoods. If you dig deep enough down this rabbit hole you can even find a few photographs of rocks on Mars which appear to have petroglyphs on them - more proof of the ancient Martian civilization.

Claimed face of a statue on Mars. Internet photograph, public domain.

Now I do not know whether some of these are examples of paredolia, in which an enthusiastic viewer is deceived by his or her own brain, but many of these are just so ridiculously outlandish that they have to be outright lies.

Claimed ruins of an ancient temple on Mars. Internet photograph, public domain.

"Mars ancient temple found in NASA images is PROOF of alian civilisation." - (misspelled civilization).

Claimed ancient ruined temple on Mars. Internet photograph, public domain.

"Ancient Temple Ruins Found On Mars In Rover Photo."

Claimed statue of an Angel in a Martian temple. Internet photograph, public domain.

"Ancient ruins on Mars: Satellite Images reveal artificial geometric structures."

Fallen statue of an ancient Martian King (artificially colored). Internet photograph, public domain.

"Ancient Ruins Found On Mars Are '100% Proof Of Intelligent Aliens' Says Expert."

An ancient Japanese tomb found on Mars by one diligent observer. Internet photograph, public domain.

"NASA probe captured on Mars the ruins of a huge ancient structure."

And I could go on - - .

Many of these wild claims are accompanied by photographs that are so grainy and blurred that you cannot quite make out the subject being claimed. Others are obviously the result of geographic processes like we see on Earth. And, quite a few are Photoshopped phonies.

Among the claims you will find a photograph of a cola can on Mars, a photograph of a glass bottle on Mars, statues, ruined cities, and even a bone, to say nothing of crashed UFOs. In a time rife with conspiracy theories I suppose we should not be surprised at these stories. I would, however, like to point out one discrepancy in the supposed reasoning behind these claims. If the NASA Apollo moon landings were staged in a Hollywood sound studio we do not really have a deep space program, so how in the world did we get photographs from the surface of Mars?

NOTE 1: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them.

NOTE 2: I am going to dispense with listing references for this column. Anyone who wishes to can look up plenty of this garbage online, and I do not wish to honor any particular source by mentioning them in RockArtBlog.