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Days after mysterious Utah desert monolith vanishes, another appears in Romania
National Post Staff
Two weeks after a mysterious monolith appeared and then vanished in the remote Utah desert, local media have reported another monolith unexplainably materializing halfway across the world — only to vanish again a few days later.
© Provided by National Post A metal monolith stands on the hills of Batca Doamnei, near Piatra Neamt, Romania, November 27, 2020.
Last Thursday, residents in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt discovered a shiny triangular metal pillar propped atop the Batca Doamnei Hill, near the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, an archaeological site overlooking the city.
Just like the first monolith in Utah’s San Juan County, this metal slab measured between 10 feet and 12 feet in height and appeared to be built using a dimly reflective metal material.
City mayor Andrei Carabelea appeared to amiably play along with the bewildering discovery, calling it an honour.
“My guess is that some alien, cheeky and terrible teenagers left home with their parents’ UFO and started planting metal monoliths around the world. First in Utah and then at Piatra Neamt,” he said, according to the Independent. “I am honoured that they chose our city.”
Carabelea added that he wouldn’t be upset if the mystery attracted tourists to his city.
“Beyond the conspiracy theories that can be tempting,” he added, “I’d like to see this randomness as further proof that our city is special. For the earthlings and (maybe) not only.”
Last Thursday, residents in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt discovered a shiny triangular metal pillar propped atop the Batca Doamnei Hill, near the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, an archaeological site overlooking the city.
Just like the first monolith in Utah’s San Juan County, this metal slab measured between 10 feet and 12 feet in height and appeared to be built using a dimly reflective metal material.
City mayor Andrei Carabelea appeared to amiably play along with the bewildering discovery, calling it an honour.
“My guess is that some alien, cheeky and terrible teenagers left home with their parents’ UFO and started planting metal monoliths around the world. First in Utah and then at Piatra Neamt,” he said, according to the Independent. “I am honoured that they chose our city.”
Carabelea added that he wouldn’t be upset if the mystery attracted tourists to his city.
“Beyond the conspiracy theories that can be tempting,” he added, “I’d like to see this randomness as further proof that our city is special. For the earthlings and (maybe) not only.”
What is a mysterious metal monolith doing in the Utah desert?
The mysterious monolith has vanished from Utah desert
Unfortunately for Carabelea and his city, their monolith had disappeared by Monday morning — just as quickly as its American counterpart.
Robert Iosub of the local Ziar Piatra Neamt newspaper told The Daily Mail: “The 2.8 metre tall structure disappeared overnight as quietly as it was erected last week. An unidentified person, apparently a bad local welder, made it… now all that remains is just a small hole covered by rocky soil.”
The news comes after state wildlife officials counting bighorn sheep in Utah spotted a metal monolith standing in a random, remote corner of the desert.
However, the structure had vanished a week later, with nothing except a few jumbled red rocks remaining in its place. Since it appeared, many visitors had rushed to the location to catch a glimpse of the curiosity, which was reportedly removed by environmentally-conscious hikers, who feared the destructive impact of the crowds on the remote location.
In a Reddit forum, one visitor to the site said he knocked on the monolith to see what it sounded like, and noted that it didn’t sound solid or magnetic, more “like a cardboard box.”
We Have Some Questions About The Mysterious Monolith Found In Utah — & RomaniaIf you played a drinking game in which you had to take a shot every time someone described the year of our lord 2020 as “unparalleled,” you’d be passed out on the floor in no time. Alas, this year really has been one for the history books, in many of the worst possible ways. Be it a global pandemic, the continued rise of white supremacy in the U.S., or goddamn murder hornets, this year has tested our capacity to stomach all things strange, unacceptable, and worrisome. And just when you thought you’d had enough, enter: a mysterious monolith.
© Provided by Refinery29 Editorial use only. HANDOUT /NO SALES Mandatory Credit: Photo by Utah Department of Public Safety/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (11086017a) (FILE)
– A handout photo made available by the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS) shows a monolith discovered by wildlife officials in southeastern Utah, USA, 18 November 2020 (reissued 29 November 2020). US officials on 29 November 2020 said that the metal monolith, that was first spotted on 18 November, had disapeeared. Metal monolith in Utah disappears days after discovery, USA – 18 Nov 2020
What is it? How did it get here? We attempt to answer those questions (and some more, similarly strange ones) below.
What is a monolith?
Contrary to what the Democratic party thinks, a monolith is not the Latinx vote. Instead, a monolith is described as a “single block or piece of stone of considerable size, especially when used in architecture or sculpture,” per dictionary.com. The monolith we’re talking about, though, refers to a shiny silver structure that first appeared in Utah earlier this month, then mysteriously went missing, then turned up again, apparently, across the world in northern Romania. As reported by the Daily Mail, the European-version of the now-missing Utah sculpture lies “only a few feet away from where an ancient Dacian fortress once stood.” Because, no, 2020 hasn’t been bone-crushingly creepy enough.
What is it? How did it get here? We attempt to answer those questions (and some more, similarly strange ones) below.
What is a monolith?
Contrary to what the Democratic party thinks, a monolith is not the Latinx vote. Instead, a monolith is described as a “single block or piece of stone of considerable size, especially when used in architecture or sculpture,” per dictionary.com. The monolith we’re talking about, though, refers to a shiny silver structure that first appeared in Utah earlier this month, then mysteriously went missing, then turned up again, apparently, across the world in northern Romania. As reported by the Daily Mail, the European-version of the now-missing Utah sculpture lies “only a few feet away from where an ancient Dacian fortress once stood.” Because, no, 2020 hasn’t been bone-crushingly creepy enough.
Where did the Utah monolith come from?
The Utah monolith was first spotted on November 18 by “wildlife biologists performing a helicopter survey of bighorn sheep,” as reported by the Associated Press. (Cheer if you had that Mad Libs-esque sentence on your 2020 bingo card.) To date, no one knows where the Utah monolith came from, though some believe it is reminiscent of and indeed is a John McCracken sculpture, as reported by VICE. McCracken was a minimalist artist who sculpted geometric forms who died in 2011; according to The New York Times, the David Zwirner Gallery, which represents McCracken’s estate, “has asserted that the mystery monolith is a bona fide McCracken.”
And, McCracken’s son told the paper: “He wasn’t your average sort of dad. He believed in advance alien races that were able to visit earth. To his mind, these aliens had been visiting Earth for a very long time and they were not malevolent. They wanted to help humanity to get past this time of our evolution where all we do is fight each other.”
Still, there’s no evidence that the late artist has anything to do with this particular monolith, although we wouldn’t put it past 2020 to find out that hoaxes are now being played from beyond the grave.
Where was the monolith found in Utah?
Initially, the exact location of the Utah monolith was not disclosed to the public for fear it would draw a crowd and, in turn, the need for people who aren’t familiar with the harsh terrain of that part of the Utah landscape to be rescued. But if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that people don’t really give a you-know-what about the rules and will instead buck any sort of safety measures in the name of “freedom.” As a result, we know that the OG monolith was located “in a red rock slot canyon south of Moab,” per a local ABC cable news station. The coordinates of the monolith also circulated on Reddit.
Of course, it’s not there anymore, as Kimberly Finch, a Bureau of Land Management spokesperson said in a statement: “We received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the ‘monolith’ has been removed from the Bureau of Land Management public lands by an unknown party.”
What’s the monolith made of?
The Utah monolith was described in the Times as a “slab of metal into the rock floor.” But given that its origins cannot be 100 percent confirmed, it’s impossible to know for sure, for example, what kind of metal the monolith is indeed made out of. If it is a McCracken, then it’s safe to assume the monolith is made out of the same materials the sculptor often used: “glossy, resin-covered planks.”
Did the monolith disappear?
Yes, the monolith in Utah has, in fact, disappeared. According to a Facebook post from the state’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM): “The monolith was removed by an ‘unknown party’ sometime Friday night. The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property. We do not investigate crimes involving private property which are handled by the local sheriff’s office. The structure has received international and national attention and we received reports that a person or group removed it on the evening of Nov. 27.”
Is the monolith found in Romania the same as the one in Utah?
I mean, you be the judge? Romanian officials do not know who is responsible for the erection of the latest monolith, per The Daily Mail, but initial reports conclude that is of the same height, made of similar material, and bears similar carvings as the one in Utah.
Why are people comparing the monolith to ‘2001: Space Odyssey’?
In Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey, similar monoliths were erected in a deliberate act meant to “trigger huge leaps in human progress,” per The Daily Mail. Also, the space travel depicted in that film can be used to draw a straight line to the existence of aliens, which the U.S. government has basically confirmed exist. All to say, given what the outgoing Trump administration has done to stall and, in many cases, backpedal our collective national and global efforts at progress, we’d say any extraterrestrial efforts to “trigger huge leaps in human progress” seems like a good idea to us. What could possibly go wrong? In 2020, it seems the answer is: everything.
Second monolith appears in Romania after US structure removed
The monolith that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere in the Utah desert was removed from its location in the middle of the night over the weekend while a similar structure showed up in Europe, according to officials and witnesses
.
© @davidsurber via Reuters A metal monolith is seen in Red Rock Desert, Utah, Nov. 25, 2020.
However, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reassured the public that whoever took the 10- to 12-foot vertical metal object from its desert location was not from out of this world.
The agency said agents discovered Saturday that the structure was gone from its location in the southeastern Utah desert. Desert rocks marked the spot where the silver-colored object once stood.MORE: Mysterious structure disappears from Utah desert
BLM officials said "an unknown party or parties" removed the monolith sometime after Friday evening
However, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reassured the public that whoever took the 10- to 12-foot vertical metal object from its desert location was not from out of this world.
The agency said agents discovered Saturday that the structure was gone from its location in the southeastern Utah desert. Desert rocks marked the spot where the silver-colored object once stood.MORE: Mysterious structure disappears from Utah desert
BLM officials said "an unknown party or parties" removed the monolith sometime after Friday evening
.
© Kelsea Dockham/AP Rocks mark the location where a metal monolith once stood in the ground in a remote area of red rock in Spanish Valley, Utah, Nov. 28, 2020.
"The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property. We do not investigate crimes involving private property," the agency said in a Facebook post Saturday night.
While the monolith no longer has a footprint in the U.S., a similar structure appeared out of nowhere in Romania over the weekend. Onlookers spotted a similar metal structure in the eastern Romanian city of Piatra Neamț and they shared videos and photos of the structure on social media.
No one has officially claimed responsibility for setting up either of these structures as of Monday evening.
Lt. John Young, the sheriff of San Juan County, Utah, told "Good Morning America" the monolith's appearance and disappearance are difficult to investigate.
"It is a little surprising that it lasted as long as it did. I think it's a little more surprising that it disappeared in the middle of the night," he said.
On Nov. 18, crews from the Utah Department of Public Safety and Division of Wildlife Resources discovered the structure while doing a helicopter survey of sheep in the area. The discovery sparked questions, jokes and speculation about the structure's origins as it evoked sci-fi imagery such as the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Although officials didn't disclose the exact location of the monolith, interested hikers took to the desert to see the object in person and shared their experiences on social media. David Surber, a hiker, told "Good Morning America" it was remarkable to see the structure in person before it was removed
"The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property. We do not investigate crimes involving private property," the agency said in a Facebook post Saturday night.
While the monolith no longer has a footprint in the U.S., a similar structure appeared out of nowhere in Romania over the weekend. Onlookers spotted a similar metal structure in the eastern Romanian city of Piatra Neamț and they shared videos and photos of the structure on social media.
No one has officially claimed responsibility for setting up either of these structures as of Monday evening.
Lt. John Young, the sheriff of San Juan County, Utah, told "Good Morning America" the monolith's appearance and disappearance are difficult to investigate.
"It is a little surprising that it lasted as long as it did. I think it's a little more surprising that it disappeared in the middle of the night," he said.
On Nov. 18, crews from the Utah Department of Public Safety and Division of Wildlife Resources discovered the structure while doing a helicopter survey of sheep in the area. The discovery sparked questions, jokes and speculation about the structure's origins as it evoked sci-fi imagery such as the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Although officials didn't disclose the exact location of the monolith, interested hikers took to the desert to see the object in person and shared their experiences on social media. David Surber, a hiker, told "Good Morning America" it was remarkable to see the structure in person before it was removed
.
© @davidsurber via Reuters A metal monolith is seen in Red Rock Desert, Utah, Nov. 25, 2020.
"It was really nice to have 10 minutes of peace with what I would like to call a landmark at the time," Surber said.
BLM officials, however, warned that the desert is public land and any development on public lands must be approved by the agency. They also reiterated that visiting the site where the monolith stood is prohibited, as there are no restrooms or cellphone service and only high-clearance vehicles are allowed.MORE: Hiker who went missing in mountain in whiteout conditions 'grateful' to doctors who revived him
Some visitors looking to see the monolith parked on vegetation and "left behind human waste as evidence of their visit," according to the BLM.
"Many people have been enjoying the mystery and view it as a welcome distraction from the 2020 news cycle," BLM Monticello Field Manager Amber Denton Johnson said in a statement. "Even so, it was installed without authorization on public lands, and the site is in a remote area without services for the large number of people who now want to see it."
"It was really nice to have 10 minutes of peace with what I would like to call a landmark at the time," Surber said.
BLM officials, however, warned that the desert is public land and any development on public lands must be approved by the agency. They also reiterated that visiting the site where the monolith stood is prohibited, as there are no restrooms or cellphone service and only high-clearance vehicles are allowed.MORE: Hiker who went missing in mountain in whiteout conditions 'grateful' to doctors who revived him
Some visitors looking to see the monolith parked on vegetation and "left behind human waste as evidence of their visit," according to the BLM.
"Many people have been enjoying the mystery and view it as a welcome distraction from the 2020 news cycle," BLM Monticello Field Manager Amber Denton Johnson said in a statement. "Even so, it was installed without authorization on public lands, and the site is in a remote area without services for the large number of people who now want to see it."
Visitor: Monolith toppled by group who said 'leave no trace'
© Provided by The Canadian Press
SALT LAKE CITY — New clues have surfaced in the disappearance of a gleaming monolith in Utah that seemed to melt away as mysteriously as it appeared in the red-rock desert — though it's no longer the only place where a strange structure has come and gone.
A Colorado photographer told KSTU-TV that he saw four men come to the remote Utah site Friday night and push over the hollow, stainless steel object.
“Right after it had fallen over and made a loud thud, one of them said, ‘This is why you don’t leave trash in the desert,’” Ross Bernards told the Salt Lake City TV station.
The group broke down the structure into pieces, loaded it into a wheelbarrow and left.
“As they were loading it up and walking away, they just said, ‘Leave no trace,’” he said.
The sheriff’s office in San Juan County has said it's not planning an investigation into the disappearance of the monolith, which had been placed without permission on public land. But authorities also said they would accept tips from any of the hundreds of visitors who trekked out to see the otherworldly gleaming object deep in the desert.
The sheriff and the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land where the object appeared, didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment on whether they are investigating the removal that Bernards' group photographed.
Visitors have left behind a mess of human waste, cars parked on vegetation and other debris, the land agency said. The mysterious structure that evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” generated international attention and drew plenty of speculation about otherworldly origins, though officials said it was an earthly creation of riveted plates of stainless steel.
For Bernards, the visitors' damage to the environment convinced him that the remote area was better off without the structure.
“Leave the art to places where art should be and let Mother Nature have her space for art,” he said.
Utah isn’t the only place a monolith emerged. A similar metal structure was found on a hill in northern Romania, in the city of Piatra Neamt but has since disappeared, according to Robert Iosub, a journalist with the local publication ziarpiatraneamt.ro.
Like the Utah structure, whoever placed the object didn’t follow the proper steps and get a building permit, Mayor Andrei Carabelea said in a Facebook post over the weekend. Still, he took it in stride, joking that some “cheeky and terrible” alien teenagers were likely putting them up around the world.
“I am honoured they chose our city,” he said.
___
Associated Press photographer Vadim Ghirda in Bucharest, Romania contributed to this story.
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — New clues have surfaced in the disappearance of a gleaming monolith in Utah that seemed to melt away as mysteriously as it appeared in the red-rock desert — though it's no longer the only place where a strange structure has come and gone.
A Colorado photographer told KSTU-TV that he saw four men come to the remote Utah site Friday night and push over the hollow, stainless steel object.
“Right after it had fallen over and made a loud thud, one of them said, ‘This is why you don’t leave trash in the desert,’” Ross Bernards told the Salt Lake City TV station.
The group broke down the structure into pieces, loaded it into a wheelbarrow and left.
“As they were loading it up and walking away, they just said, ‘Leave no trace,’” he said.
The sheriff’s office in San Juan County has said it's not planning an investigation into the disappearance of the monolith, which had been placed without permission on public land. But authorities also said they would accept tips from any of the hundreds of visitors who trekked out to see the otherworldly gleaming object deep in the desert.
The sheriff and the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land where the object appeared, didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment on whether they are investigating the removal that Bernards' group photographed.
Visitors have left behind a mess of human waste, cars parked on vegetation and other debris, the land agency said. The mysterious structure that evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” generated international attention and drew plenty of speculation about otherworldly origins, though officials said it was an earthly creation of riveted plates of stainless steel.
For Bernards, the visitors' damage to the environment convinced him that the remote area was better off without the structure.
“Leave the art to places where art should be and let Mother Nature have her space for art,” he said.
Utah isn’t the only place a monolith emerged. A similar metal structure was found on a hill in northern Romania, in the city of Piatra Neamt but has since disappeared, according to Robert Iosub, a journalist with the local publication ziarpiatraneamt.ro.
Like the Utah structure, whoever placed the object didn’t follow the proper steps and get a building permit, Mayor Andrei Carabelea said in a Facebook post over the weekend. Still, he took it in stride, joking that some “cheeky and terrible” alien teenagers were likely putting them up around the world.
“I am honoured they chose our city,” he said.
___
Associated Press photographer Vadim Ghirda in Bucharest, Romania contributed to this story.
The Associated Press
Another metal monolith appears in Romania, then vanishes
Either the aliens are stepping up their invasion or someone is looking for attention in Romania, where a monolith similar to the one that vanished in Utah has been spotted.
Either the aliens are stepping up their invasion or someone is looking for attention in Romania, where a monolith similar to the one that vanished in Utah has been spotted.
© Via Ziar Piatra Neamt
A metal monolith is shown against the sun in Piatra Neamt, Romania, on Nov. 27, 2020.
A new three-sided metal monolith mysteriously appeared on a hill near the community of Piatra Neamt in northeastern Romania last week, according to local media. The object appeared to be about 2.8 metres tall, and was roughly the same shape as the one that captured viral fame in the Utah desert in November.
The new monolith was first spotted on Nov. 26 on Batcas Doamnei Hill near Petrodava, a ruined Dacian fortress on a plateau outside the city, according to the Ziar Piatra Neamt newspaper.
It disappeared on Tuesday.
The object immediately prompted speculation about its potential link to the one in Utah, which vanished late Friday.
However, the objects were not identical, and reports show that the Romanian object was put up before the Utah one was taken down.
Images and video posted by Romanian news outlets show their monolith was covered in squiggles and loops, unlike the unadorned surface of the monolith in Utah. The Romanian monolith also appeared to have been welded together and embedded in the dirt.
The Utah monolith was held together by rivets and embedded in a slot in the stone.
The Utah monolith generated intense speculation about its origins, especially after internet sleuths revealed that it had been standing silently in the desert for years. The mystery only deepened over the weekend after the object was removed by an unknown party.
It's still unclear who built the Utah monolith, although the prevailing theory remains that it was an art project. It's also unclear who might have taken it.
Both objects have been compared to the towering monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which appears in both the Stanley Kubrick film and the book by Arthur C. Clarke.
The fictional monolith was meant to provoke a leap in human science and evolution.
That begs a tongue-in-cheek question: are the aliens trying to give us a hand with the coronavirus vaccine in 2020?
Robert Iosub, a journalist for Ziar Piatra Neamt, says the Romanian monolith appeared to be a shoddy knock-off of the Utah one.
"An unidentified person, apparently a bad local welder, made it," he told Reuters.
Iosub says the Romanian monolith "disappeared overnight as quietly as it was erected last week.
"Now all that remains is just a small hole covered by rocky soil," he said.
Video and photos show the object did have a bubbled crease in the metal.
Local police say they are looking into the structure, which was built illegally and placed on a protected archeological area.
No one has confessed to the copycat monolith (or the bad welding job) as of this writing.
—With files from Reuters
A new three-sided metal monolith mysteriously appeared on a hill near the community of Piatra Neamt in northeastern Romania last week, according to local media. The object appeared to be about 2.8 metres tall, and was roughly the same shape as the one that captured viral fame in the Utah desert in November.
The new monolith was first spotted on Nov. 26 on Batcas Doamnei Hill near Petrodava, a ruined Dacian fortress on a plateau outside the city, according to the Ziar Piatra Neamt newspaper.
It disappeared on Tuesday.
The object immediately prompted speculation about its potential link to the one in Utah, which vanished late Friday.
However, the objects were not identical, and reports show that the Romanian object was put up before the Utah one was taken down.
Images and video posted by Romanian news outlets show their monolith was covered in squiggles and loops, unlike the unadorned surface of the monolith in Utah. The Romanian monolith also appeared to have been welded together and embedded in the dirt.
The Utah monolith was held together by rivets and embedded in a slot in the stone.
The Utah monolith generated intense speculation about its origins, especially after internet sleuths revealed that it had been standing silently in the desert for years. The mystery only deepened over the weekend after the object was removed by an unknown party.
It's still unclear who built the Utah monolith, although the prevailing theory remains that it was an art project. It's also unclear who might have taken it.
Both objects have been compared to the towering monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which appears in both the Stanley Kubrick film and the book by Arthur C. Clarke.
The fictional monolith was meant to provoke a leap in human science and evolution.
That begs a tongue-in-cheek question: are the aliens trying to give us a hand with the coronavirus vaccine in 2020?
Robert Iosub, a journalist for Ziar Piatra Neamt, says the Romanian monolith appeared to be a shoddy knock-off of the Utah one.
"An unidentified person, apparently a bad local welder, made it," he told Reuters.
Iosub says the Romanian monolith "disappeared overnight as quietly as it was erected last week.
"Now all that remains is just a small hole covered by rocky soil," he said.
Video and photos show the object did have a bubbled crease in the metal.
Local police say they are looking into the structure, which was built illegally and placed on a protected archeological area.
No one has confessed to the copycat monolith (or the bad welding job) as of this writing.
—With files from Reuters
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