Now all these fossae cut down what had become a coastal plateau; Mareotis and Tempe together formed a huge peninsula of ancient highlands, sticking far into the new ice sea.

It was at the foot of the Great Escarpment, in Tempe Terra, a lobe of ancient highlands extending into the north.

The site on Ares Vallis is a rocky plain at the mouth of a wide channel cutting through ancient highlands.

The Ares Vallis site was chosen because pictures from previous missions showed that it was probably a flood plain scattered with rocks washed down from nearby ancient highlands.

That was the explanation for the Great Escarpment, and the lack of ancient highlands in the north; and one more factor in the extremely disordered look of this land.

Another part of this mission might include delivering a large Russian roving vehicle to the ancient highlands.

The earliest examples seemed to be found in the ancient southern highlands.

The ancient cratered highlands of the southern hemisphere of Mars could not be more different from the low, flat plains of the north, possibly the basin of a former ocean.

In the ancient highlands of the south the flooded craters and rivers and canals glow blue-green once more.

Valley networks are most common in the ancient Noachian-aged southern highlands of Mars, but also occur on the flanks of some of the large volcanoes.