Mystery Metal Monolith Turns out to Be Turkish Government Gimmick

Mystery Metal Monolith Turns out to Be Turkish Government Gimmick
Turkish police officers guard a monolith, found on an open field near Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey, on Feb. 7, 2021. Bekir Seyhanli/IHA via AP
The Associated Press
Updated:

ANKARA, Turkey—A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared on a field in southeast Turkey turned out to be a publicity gimmick before a government event Tuesday during which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a space program for the country.

The three-meter-high (about 10-foot-high) metal slab bearing an ancient Turkic script, was found Friday by a farmer in Sanliurfa province. It was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gobekli Tepe, which is home to megalithic structures dating to the 10th millennium B.C., thousands of years before Stonehenge.