The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever, 4th Edition [Paperback]

Richard C. Hoagland (Author), Richard Grossinger (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1883319307 | ISBN-13: 978-1883319304 | Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | Edition: 4th revised

In 1976, NASA sent four Viking spacecraft to Mars to photograph the planet and test for the presence of life. One of the orbiters photographed a mile-long mesa that uncannily resembled a human face. Hoagland takes readers step by step through the NASA images and evidence that a former civilization may have lived on Mars. Photos, maps, and charts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I'm fairly convinced that we have discovered life on Mars. There are some incredible photographs [from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory], which to me are pretty convincing proof of the existence of large forms of life on Mars! Have a look at them. I don't see any other interpretation."
—Sir Arthur C. Clarke

"I've seen the studies and I've seen the photographs—and there do appear to be formations of a 'face' and 'pyramids' [on Mars] that do not appear to be of natural or normal existence. It looks like they had to be fashioned by some intelligent beings. For this reason, I have asked NASA to provide assurances that the Mars Observer mission include this [set of targets] as one of its imaging objectives."
—Robert A. Roe, former Chairman, Congressional House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

"Richard Hoagland has really been very successful [in The Monuments of Mars] because, as you know, not only do we have the Mars Observer coming up, but he has managed to convince the President [George Walker Bush] to state that a return to Mars is one of our major goals."
—Dr. John Klineberg, former Director, NASA-Lewis Research Center

"I'm sure you're aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation contained in this present situation, if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning."
—Heywood Floyd, Head, The National Council of Astronautics, 2001 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Richard C. Hoagland has been a NASA consultant, and Science Advisor to Walter Cronkite and CBS News. In 1993 he wont the Angstrom Medal for Excellence in Science. For the last eighteen years, Hoagland has led a multi-disciplinary team - the Enterprise Mission - in an intensely controversial scientific investigation of potential artificial structures on the Moon and Mars.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Frog Books; 4th revised edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883319307
• ISBN-13: 978-1883319304
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Astronomy & Space Science > Mars
  • #33 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Astronomy & Space Science > Comets, Meteors & Asteroids

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very gutsy, exhaustingly researched, a stunner..., May 13, 2004

By 

Takis Tz. (InYourHead) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever (5th Edition) (Paperback)

I read some of the negative reviews here at Amazon and they all struck me as inane drivel of the highest degree. If you're going to agree or disagree with any thesis you have to show why. If all you're going to come up with is name-calling and arguments about "math in cereal" (!!!, man, give us a break) or other , even worse, "arguments" like "NASA says it aint no face and that's what i believe" you're in my mind absolutely and positively hopeless. If, in the end, NASA and any institution of that order is for you a credible source, why bother thinking? Turn your brain OFFICIALLY off and let whomever, may that be NASA or anybody else, programm it for you. Why read what Hoagland or a number of other researchers out there profess?

"The Monuments Of Mars" is a book for people who are keen of doing something rare: think for themselves. In order to do that, you need to entertain whatever available notion out there even if it totally comes in conflict with the definition of the world in your mind. Especially if such a notion is well argumentated and has been hardly refuted with adequacy.

For those not familiar with what's presented in this book, here's a very ( and i mean, very) short summary: Hoagland along with a team of scientists ranging anywhere from geologists to physicists to computer programmers who resoluted photos, to historians and other specialties, analysed a vast series of photographs taken by NASA of the Cydonia region in Mars, photos in which the infamous "Face" appears, along with other clearly geometrical features such as pyramids or the clear designs of a former city. All these features, and their undisputed geometry, one would have to be either blind not to see, or terminally brainwashed.

The only question which remained, was to first verify through statistical probability, what the odds were of these features having been made "naturally". The odds are so staggeringly low that it would be a travesty to dismiss these as natural creations. The next, and more important questions have to do with who made them and why.

Why resort to odds when we could have more and clearer photographs of these features so the matter could be put to rest? Well, that's just it (especially for the naysayers), because Nasa refuses to rephotograph the region with a high resolution camera saying there's nothing there to be seen..And that despite all the "noise" about these features. Mysterious if not downright conspiratorial? Yes, obviously and undoudtedly so.

I don't intend to go more into what Hoagland says. You can pretty much imagine in broad lines, and besides it's your decicion and your inclination whether you'll invest the effort in reading his book anyway. To me, if your inclination is beforehand negative, you would've easily fit in in a past world who thought the world is flat because the church or "scientists" say so. And i could list a high number of such embarrasing examples, there's no shortage of them nor will there ever be.

As to the book itself, it is one which is incredibly researched. The degree of scholarship in it is superb, and more importantly, it is not the work of ONE person. Hoagland did not sit down and think all this up as some would like the case to be. There's a vast array of people who worked with him from the scientific community and who agree with him. There's also a number of other resarchers who did NOT research this subject but yet came to the same conclusions with him. Sitchin would be one. Robert Temple would be another. And the list does go on you know, as any search on alternative archaelogy in Amazon or elsewhere would show you.

The fact that we know only 5000-7000 years of human history when this planet numbers over a million years of existence means that we are actually in the dark about our origins. At least as far as "mainstream science" is concerned and this is a fact they accept themselves while offering us all kinds of comical explanations and tons of "missing links" in the process. The truth might be in fact very simple, that is, simple if you actually realise that the Universe is very probably bursting with intelligent life, not only now, but for millions of years in the past, and that the chance that we, are in very intriguing ways connected with the "out there" is also nothing shocking. It only is if you allow the world in your mind to be something painfully small.

Only reading this book will more than likely not be enough to provide you with all the data supporting such theories. Yes i mean data, and not speculations. Raw data. You will need to pick up some Sitchin, some Temple, some Colin Wilson, or others. Only then will you able to form a more spherical and stronger opinion.

But if you haven't done so up to now, Hoagland's book is a great place to start.
Absolutely essential material for people not content with the hilarious version of the truth spoon-fed to us on a daily basis.

52 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The complete history of the NASA coverup of The Face, August 4, 2000

By 

Glenn R. Holcomb (Honolulu, Hawaii United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever, 4th Edition (Paperback)

In "The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever," author Richard Hoagland gives a heavily referenced history of The Face on Mars and other suspiciously "non-natural" structures and features of the Martian surface. He describes how The Face was first discovered shortly after the Viking Mission started sending back images from Mars. NASA immediate pooh-poohed the possibility of its artificial origin. The images of The Face were too startling to be ignored, though, and research by Vince DePietro, Greg Molenaar, Hoagland and others resulted in the discovery of other unnatural, pyramid-like structures located in the vicinity of The Face. Hoagland provides solid arguments for the claims he makes. Often, this slows the pace of reading this thick book. But, by taking his time in explaining his claims, he tackles many of the arguments that might arise in the reader's own mind. Hoagland's book describes how NASA has pointedly ignored evidence from noted scientists and organizations verifying the suspiciously non-natural nature of the Cydonia region on Mars that is home to these anamolous features. Finally, Hoagland documents how NASA has refused to PUBLICALLY rephotograph Cydonia and suggests that NASA may have already done so in secret. He offers that there may be dark reasons for this suspected duplicity. "The Monuments of Mars" describes an engaging (and ongoing) real-world mystery. But, it is also frustrating in that the evidence that could solve this mystery is being withheld by the very government agency that is supposed to be honestly and publicly disseminating it...

62 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really makes you think!, February 9, 2002

By 

Mark Lahren (Bismarck, North Dakota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever (5th Edition) (Paperback)

This book is absolutely compelling reading from page one. I've been following this since I read the first (?) edition of this book published in 1987. That book (348 pages, much smaller than this updated version) caused me to begin questioning the human belief system. That is to say I began to wonder about whether what we all have been taught to accept as 'fact' was in fact real. I began talking to everyone I knew about this, and discovered that even people I had previously thought to be open-minded were actually pretty closed minded on this subject. Since then, I've been on kind of a personal quest to find out why people have such a problem accepting anything Hoagland says. I personally still have not been convinced of anything on this 'Face on Mars' one way or the other, but Hoagland's theories are fascinating and well thought out enough that I don't think they can be dismissed out of hand. I've read reviews from others who just laugh and say that these formations are just coincidental and formed by nature. This could be true, but how can these people be so sure? Would these same people dismiss the Egyptian pyramids as natural formations too? (Obviously not, since they are close by and easy to study. Apparently, just because Mars is so far away, this automatically disqualifies it from further study). Why are they so intent on dismissing Hoagland's theories so quickly, without really knowing? I think it has something to do with a fear that their own belief systems are threatened by any seemingly implausible evidence or theories.

To me, this book is much more than a book about strange Martian constructions. It is more a criticism of the closed-mindedness that is stopping mankind from making progress and discoveries that could change the world as we know it. Do we really think we already know all there is to know about this? Hoagland doesn't ever claim to know everything about this. All he wants is answers, and apparently the 'scientific' community doesn't, or at least doesn't care. What has happened to humankind's curiosity? Our curiosity is what got our civilization this far. Why stop now?