Are there canals on Mars?

The grid of narrow dark lines visible on Mars through a telescope was named by the Italian astronomer J. Schiaparelli in 1877 as canals (in Italian canali – straits). Soon the American astronomer P. Lowell put forward a hypothesis about their artificial origin, that is, he suggested that these formations are indeed channels. Based on natural conditions, it has long been clear that there can be no liquid water on the planet’s surface. Close-up photographs of Mars using spacecraft have shown that the channels are associated with fractures in the crust. They correspond to large valleys, ledges located in a row of hills, and clusters of craters.