If you look at old pre-Viking artwork of what they thought a typical Martian landscape would be like
These images from Opportunity are what they thought it might be like:
A flat wind-swept desert with few or no rocks.
Instead most of the landing sites were covered with rocks and boulders.
Of course in an earlier age astronomers and much of the public were
expecting plants, canals, and the ruins of an ancient civilization.
Just an observation.