Turkish authorities are investigating the appearance of a mysterious monolith – the latest to materialise without warning after structures began springing up in several countries late last year.
The large metal block was found by a farmer in the southeastern Sanliurfa province on Friday. It bears old Turkic script that reads: ‘Look at the sky, see the moon.’
The monolith stands about 10ft high and was discovered near the Unesco World Heritage Site of Gobekli Tepe, home to megalithic structures dating back to the 10th millennium BC, thousands of years before Stonehenge.
Armed police are guarding the structure while police investigate its possible origins.
Turkish media reported that police were looking through CCTV footage and investigating vehicles that could have transported the monolith.
Curious locals have paid visits to the site since Friday, as well as Sanliurfa Governor Abdullah Erin, according to Anadolu news agency.
Turkish authorities are investigating the appearance of a mysterious monolith – the latest to materialise without warning after structures began springing up in several countries late last year
The large metal block was found by a farmer in the southeastern Sanliurfa province on Friday
The structure bears old Turkic script that reads: ‘Look at the sky, see the moon’. Some of the monoliths found elsewhere have also featured engravings
Curious locals have paid visits to the site since Friday, as well as Sanliurfa Governor Abdullah Erin, according to Anadolu news agency
Armed police are guarding the structure while Turkish police investigate its possible origins
The Turkish monolith is just the latest to appear in a puzzling international mystery that has so far reached more than 10 countries.
The first appeared in the Utah desert in November, sparking comparisons to those seen in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Others have since popped up across the US, as well as in Colombia, Romania and the Netherlands.
In December, a monolith appeared on the top of a hill in Glastonbury on Wednesday with the words ‘Not Banksy’ etched onto it.
UTAH: The first shiny pillar was spotted in southern Utah on November 18 by baffled locals and news of the object quickly went viral around the world
UK: Another mysterious monolith appeared in England in December, this time top of a hill in Glastonbury with ‘Not Banksy’ etched on it
NEW ZEALAND: A monolith was discovered at a theme park for mountain bikers in Christchurch on December 20
Later that month, New Zealand noticed its first monolith after it appeared at a theme park for mountain bikers in Christchurch.
Christchurch Adventure Park in the Port Hills near Canterbury on New Zealand’s South Island posted a picture of the monolith that appeared in a grassy patch near its 1.8km chair lift to social media on December 20.
‘Does anyone know what this is or where it has come from? As we genuinely don’t….’ the park wrote.
While the people behind some of the mysterious structures have been revealed, for the most part their origins remain a mystery.
Theories abound, including suggestions that artists, aliens or savvy marketing executives could be responsible.
That some of the monoliths were quickly removed has only added to speculation about their potential origins.
ROMANIA: A monolith stands on the hills of Batca Doamnei near Piatra Neamy in Romania
THE NETHERLANDS: A group of hikers were left intrigued after they spotted a metallic column in a nature reserve in a village in Oudehorne, Friesland in December
When the first shiny pillar was spotted in southern Utah on November 18 by baffled locals, news of the object quickly went viral around the world.
Some observers pointed out its resemblance to the avant-garde work of John McCracken, a US artist who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico and died in 2011.
But McCracken’s representatives have given ambiguous and at times conflicting responses to this theory, prolonging an international guessing game that intensified further with the monolith’s sudden removal on Friday.
The Most Famous Artist, also known as Matty Mo, is also thought to have been behind some of the monoliths that appeared in the US.