The "face" in the rocks

[davidhorman]

I don't know if Randi was aware of this when he put the email in this week's commentary, which contained this link:

http://www.optillusions.com/dp/1-46.htm

A quick search found this image, apparently taken before the one above:

and this one, taken after (compare the damage of the foreground ruins):

No face!

(edit: my point being that the face in the rocks is only there because the image has been manipulated, so it's a little disingenuous to compare it to the face on Mars)

David

 

[Rolfe]

There's a similar effect of an entire recumbent body formed by the mountain peaks of the north part of the Isle of Arran. It's known as the "Sleeping Warrior". You can see it best from the Isle of Cumbrae, which itself is notable for "lifelike" rock formations - one of a huge couchant lion, one which can be seen to look like the profile of Queen Victoria on the old coins, one which nobody realised looked like a crocodile until someone painted it, and one "Face on the Rock" (also painted up for emphasis) which has been everything from the Tsar of Russia (in my grandfather's time) to a Red Indian. Oh yes, and the "Minister's Rock", which just looks a bit like a pulpit.

Hey, Google yourself for the photos if you want them, mine are all slotted in an album somewhere.

Edited to fix spelling just in case anyone does want to Google for Cumbrae.

Rolfe.

 

[DrMatt]

New Hampshire has a famous outcropping like that which only looks like a face from one place on the highway. As you get closer or go around it, you see that the details aren't in the right depth order for a face. But from that one viewpoint, the similarcrum is pretty good. It's usually depicted under the slogan "Live Free Or Die", which comes off as an insane imperative akin to "I command you to disobey me."

 

[DrMatt]

New Hampshire has a famous outcropping like that which only looks like a face from one place on the highway. As you get closer or go around it, you see that the details aren't in the right depth order for a face. But from that one viewpoint, the similarcrum is pretty good. It's usually depicted under the slogan "Live Free Or Die", which comes off as an insane imperative akin to "I command you to disobey me."

My error, I did not know at the time that I posted this that the outcropping collapsed last May.

 

[Brown]

Have a look at this link, which shows other "faces" in rocks.

In Colorado, there are at least three (and probably many more) "Sleeping Indian" rock formations, one of which is on the top of Long's Peak.

 

[Garrette]

Nice link, Brown. I've been to some of those places.

I'm surprised it doesn't include Cochise Face in the Chiracahua Mountains of Arizona.