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Cydonia is an albedo feature (region) on Mars. It lies in the planet's northern hemisphere in a transitional zone between the heavily-cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the North. Cydonia itself is covered in numerous mesas and may have been a coastal zone if planetologists are correct in believing that the northern plains were once ocean beds.
One of the Cydonian mesas took on the striking appearance of a human "face on Mars" in a photo taken by Viking 1 in 1976. Whilst generally held to be an optical illusion, some people interpreted it as evidence of a long-lost Martian civilisation. Later, better, photos revealed a very ordinary-looking mesa with little resemblance to a face at all.
Cydonia was also featured in both Zak McKracken and the first "X-COM" game as the place of an alien base.
Cydonia is also the name of the genus to which the quince belongs.
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