May 25, 2001: Mars Face Update - Richard C. Hoagland with Kynthia
Hoagland argues that symmetry was never his model. At a 1992 United Nations presentation, he proposed the Face as a fusion of two species, hominid on one side and feline on the other, similar to the Egyptian Sphinx. He points to the Skeptical Inquirer's recent acknowledgment that his lion-head interpretation should not be ridiculed. Kynthia explains how wind erosion and sand deposits account for the differing textures on each side of the formation, and compares the dual-image technique to Mayan split-face sculpture traditions documented by researcher George Haas.
Art remains unconvinced by the visual evidence but acknowledges the mathematical alignments Hoagland presents between Cydonia and Giza. The audience response runs roughly 50-50 on whether the formation is artificial. Hoagland reports that separate political sources confirm rumors of a potential manned Mars mission announcement from the Bush White House.
Key Moments
Bell concedes: high-res Face image isn't a face: Art Bell tells Hoagland on the air that, after looking at NASA's new straight-on, full-resolution photograph of the Cydonia Face, his honest take is that it's not a face and 'it's been a good fight, give it up.'
Skeptical Inquirer concedes lion-head reading: Bell reads Gary Posner's May/June 2001 Skeptical Inquirer admission that Hoagland should not be ridiculed for reading the new Face image as an Egyptian-style lion head rather than a humanoid - an unusual climbdown from the magazine.
Hoagland's 1992 UN prediction vindicated: Hoagland recounts that at his 1992 UN presentation he broke from everyone else by predicting the Face would not be bilaterally symmetrical but a fusion of two species - hominid on the left, feline on the right - mirroring the Sphinx in Egypt.
Face is 'irrelevant' next to Cydonia geometry: Hoagland argues the Face itself is now beside the point - the real discovery at Cydonia is the embedded mathematics and geometry that he says scales up into a hyperdimensional physics model describing planetary and solar behavior.
Kynthia: read each half separately, like Mayan two-faced art: Sculptor Kynthia, after two decades sculpting the Face, says the plateau is symmetrical but the head is not - and that ancient Mayan two-faced sculptures split down the centerline are the right interpretive frame for reading Cydonia's intentional asymmetry.