[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech; Additional Mosaic Processing: Kenneth Kremer & Marco Di Lorenzo]
Looks like the rover showed up on low tide.
Quite possibly, water involved in creating the dense sandstone could have helped to support ancient life on the red planet. Mt. Sharp, the unusual central peak of Gale Crater, has a similar base-to-peak height as Earth's Mt. Everest.
Steve Jones, in his 1999 update of Darwin's "The Origin of Species" states "... the summit of Everest is formed of rocks made in a shallow sea."
Nothing there now. Time to terraform and colonize.
Very misleading, I would say. What they've been calling Mount Sharp is not the small central peak you see at the center of this comparison, but the entire central area of the crater, ringed by the dark dunes. Curiosity is at the top left, traversing westward along that north side of that thin, straight, dark strip towards the "lower slopes" of Mount Sharp.
The yellow line in the Mt. Everest ( in the blue circle ) comparison is 15 km.
Awesome pic!!!
At times, Mars reminds me a great deal of Tattooine.
Look at the rover at the bottom left. Photoshopped color!