Mystery metal monolith in Turkey turns out to be a govt gimmick

A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared on a field in southeastern Turkey turned out to be a gimmick worked about before a government event Tuesday during which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a space programme for the country.

The three-meter-high (about 10-foot-high) metal slab bearing an ancient Turkic script -- meaning “Look at the sky, you will see the moon”, was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. It was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gobekli Tepe.

The shiny structure, however, was reported gone Tuesday morning.

Also read | Mysterious monolith pops up near Turkish world heritage site

An image of the monolith was later projected on a screen as Erdogan presented Turkey’s space programme during the televised event.

“I now present to you Turkey’s 10-year vision, strategy and aims and I say: ‘look at the sky, you will see the moon,’” Erdogan said.

Earlier, security forces were called to the scene as curious locals sought to get a look at the monolith, which resembled a mysterious object which appeared in a desert in Utah in America last year, but then vanished.

Other mysterious monoliths have popped up and some have disappeared in numerous countries in recent months.