Two Arcologies in a Ruined City

Latitude	24.74°
Longitude	192.77°

Plain in East Nilosyrtis Region

NASA Catalog:

http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/fha005/fha00501.html

Click on any thumbnail image below to see a high-resolution photograph

	Viking Context Images ~247m/pixel	Viking Color Context Images

Enhancements

This structure is at the rightmost edge of the above Viking context image, approximately horizontally in line with the top of the large crater.

At 1.45 m/pixel x 1024 pixels, the little green rectangle (indicating the location of the MOC image, not shown) is 1484 m across. It occupies 6 pixels of width on the context image; therefore the 1024x1024 context image is about 247 m/ pixel.

Here it is magnified 4x with some interpolation.

Here are the approximate dimensions:

This is really, really big. Not a mansion in the conventional sense. A factory? An arcology? Both? It looks like at least two buildings. Some interesting features that I see:

bright luminous surface
rectangular base
towers, apparently topped with something
orientation - presumably facing the sun
sheer size and massiveness
apparently good state of preservation
two buildings with exactly the same spatial orientation
smaller building in front, so it doesn't cast many shadows on the taller building
Lots of other indistinct objects on the Viking context image, that appear to all have straight edges that are perfectly aligned with the edges of this structure.

Some grid lines make the consistent orientation of structures throughout this area more obvious. I think these structures were purposefully aligned.

Quite probably, this was a spread-out area where people lived, worked, and played (i.e., a city).