Burroughs was an important Martian city situated in a low point near Xanthe and Isidis Planitia.

Among the first Martian settlements to be founded, this tented city expanded very quickly until it became the biggest city on Mars and the planet's commercial and administrative capital. In 2057, it was the place where the negotiations for the renewal of the UN Mars Treaty took place. Burroughs lost its dominant position in Martian affairs after the space elevator opened in Sheffield, however it remained a very powerful city thereafter.

Sax Russell, undercover as Stephen Lindholm, worked in Burroughs in the Praxis subsidiary Biotique in 2101-2102.

Due to its low altitude, a thick and long dike was built around it to protect it from the newly created Isidis Sea that was growing on the North. Eventually, Burroughs became a seaside city.

The dike was breached by Kakaze during the Second Martian Revolution. Burroughs was submerged. Its entire population had to be evacuated by foot to Libya Station, using breathing masks provided by Sax Russell's Da Vinci team. Burroughs was represented at the Pavonis constitutional congress in the form of a refugee organization.

The ruins of Burroughs could later be visited by diving.

Kim Stanley Robinson named the city as a tribute to American author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created the pulp series around hero John Carter of Mars.

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