ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared in a field in southeastern Turkey has now disappeared, Turkish media reported on Tuesday, four days after it was discovered.
The three-meter-high metal plate (about 10 meters high), bearing an old Turkish inscription, was found on Friday by a farmer from Sanliurfa province. It was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage Site Gobekli Tepe, which houses megalithic structures dating back to the 10th millennium BC, thousands of years before Stonehenge.
However, the bright structure disappeared on Tuesday morning, days after authorities said they were investigating its appearance, examining closed-circuit television images and looking for vehicles that could have transported it to the scene.
It was not immediately clear if he was removed by the authorities. Officials at Sanliurfa’s office were not immediately available for comment.
The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the landowner as saying he was puzzled by both his appearance and his disappearance.
“We don’t know if it was placed on my land for marketing or advertising purposes,” Anadolu was quoted as saying by Fuat Demirdil. “I saw that the metal block was no longer in place. Neither the residents can solve the mystery of the metal block. ”
The agency also quoted local resident Hasan Yildiz as saying that the block was still on the ground on Monday night, but had disappeared by morning.
The monolith bore an inscription that read, “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” in the Turkish Gokturk alphabet, according to reports.
Other mysterious monoliths have similarly appeared and some have disappeared in many countries in recent months.
Gobekli Tepe was the setting for the Turkish Netflix series, “The Gift”.