This book has everything.
The destruction of a civilization on a planet that has always held a special place in our imaginations; a huge sculpted face that stares at us out of the planet’s surface; a possible X-files type cover-up: why doesn't NASA want us to know the truth? And: a warning - the same cosmic forces that wiped out life on the red planet are waiting to destroy earth. Shouldn’t we be focusing our energies on this threat to the human race rather than spending our time squabbling among ourselves?
Graham Hancock loves mysteries.
 He delights in those lurking in the dark corners of pre-history. He has followed the trail to the lost Ark of the Covenant; examined the evidence for the civilizations that flourished on earth before the Flood; and now, with this book, poses an extraordinary hypothesis. What if life on Mars did exist thousand even millions of years ago, and was destroyed by a huge comet? He believes that we can detect archaeological remains in one area of Mars. These, when linked to the finds of space probes in the last 30 years, lead him to the conclusion: there was life on Mars. Not only that, but the geographic relationship between the stone remains suggest a pattern similar to the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico. Did humans borrow their design from their Martian cousins? And what of the largest stone structures, including one that seems to resemble a face? According to NASA scientists this is just a trick of the light. Hancock suggests that some photos from recent Mars probes would help to settle the issue but that these photos may have been deliberately withheld. Some readers may want to side with NASA here. The more adventurous may conclude that there was indeed a huge face, maybe part of a larger structure and designed to confront earth.
Was it a warning, or a greeting? 
Hancock examines some of the evidence of damage done by comets to earth’s ecosystem. The annihilation of the dinosaurs points more and more towards a giant comet or meteorite smashing into the earth and hiding the sun. The resultant freezing temperatures would have wiped out these creatures. Hancock then shows that this kind of asteroid activity occurs in cycles roughly every so many thousand years increasing the risk of collision damage each time. Swift-Tuttle is due to pass close to the earth again in 2126: the question is just how close? Nobody knows. Most of our knowledge of comets derives from the evidence collected from observations during the last three centuries. And what about the possibility of a comet that returns every 90,000 years – beyond the limits of our recorded history? The great Flood recorded in the mythology of so many early cultures – too many to be conveniently dismissed – could also have been the result of asteroid collision. If there ever was an Atlantis, what better explanation of its destruction? The planet could be at risk now and in future. Yet modern governments dedicate almost no funding to researching this nemesis from the stars.
Hancock’s exploration involves mathematics, astronomy, and archaeology. 
His case is convincingly developed: the use of photos, maps, grids and charts reinforce his claims. Readers may fall into two categories: those who dismiss this book as another UFO type ‘storm in a vacuum’, and those of us who want to believe it in spite of ourselves.

  You can probably tell which camp I belong to.