Pyramids on Mars: Europe's Space Agency May Want to Find Them!

Does an Official ESA Video from the 1990s, Reveal that Finding the Remains of an Ancient Civilization on Mars, is a Realistic Possibility?

Feb 20

A 16-minute documentary video released by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1993 called "Mars and The Pyramids of Elysium", speculates that pyramids exist on Mars that were built by an ancient civilization.

Pic 1: Following the American reluctance to investigate potential ancient structures on Mars, have the Europeans suggested they might be more curious? - image credit: ESA; artistic rendition/caption: M J Craig

While the American space agency NASA, conducts their pedantic science exploration of Mars – a tedious effort that 26 years on, is still focused on rocks, geology, water and finding signs of ancient microbial life - this European vision for exploring the Red Planet as presented in this daring video, boldly targets far more imaginative and robust scientific goals such as the search for fossils and present-day life on Mars, something NASA has clearly been avoiding.

During the film, statements are made such as:

“The scientific evidence that Mars once supported life is overwhelming.”

“Fossils collected from what had once been the shore of an ancient lake have been studied exhaustively.”

Pic. 2 **Fossils from shore of ancient lake** – a still image taken from the ESA video Image credit: ESA 1993

The ultimate goal of the European Space Agency may well be revealed in the video’s closing shot, which ends in dramatic fashion as two ESA astronauts stand before the artificial pyramids of Elysium “Towering before them...” and closes with the statement:

“Yet again Mars surprises everyone. Yet again, Europe ushers in a new chapter of history."

Pic. 3: **European astronauts observe the Pyramids of Elysium - a** still image from the ESA video - image credit: ESA 1993

Although this 1993 video is somewhat dated (albeit with a fine choice of music from Vangelis and Jeff Lynne’s War of the Worlds) and the ESA haven’t made much progress yet with their plans for exploring Mars on the scale suggested, it was obviously released for a specific reason and carried the message that it was intended to.

To date, NASA continues to ridicule the idea that the Planet Mars was ever inhabited by an intelligent civilization ... and yet this ESA video appears quite open to the idea. Curious.

Finally, here are two NASA images of the real pyramids of Elysium, the first taken by the Mariner 9 Orbiter in 1972, and the second, from a much more detailed recent image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) HiRISE camera: