Mystery deepens:10-foot-high metal monolith vanishes from Turkish heritage site

The shiny structure, however, was reported gone Tuesday morning, days after authorities said they were investigating its appearance by looking through closed circuit television footage.

A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared on a field in southeast Turkey has now disappeared, Turkish media reported Tuesday, four days after it was discovered.

Turkish police officers guard a monolith, found on an open field near Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey. The metal block was found by a farmer Friday in Sanliurfa province with old Turkic script that reads "Look at the sky, see the moon." The monolith, 3 meters high (about 10 feet), was discovered near UNESCO World Heritage site Gobeklitepe with its megalithic structures dating back to 10th millennium B.C. Turkish media reported Sunday that gendarmes were looking through CCTV footage and investigating vehicles that may have transported the monolith. Other mysterious monoliths have popped up and some have disappeared in numerous countries since 2020. (AP)

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.

The shiny structure, however, was reported gone Tuesday morning, days after authorities said they were investigating its appearance by looking through closed circuit television footage and searching for vehicles that may have transported it to the site.

It wasn't immediately clear if it had been taken down by the authorities. Officials at the Sanliurfa governor's office weren't immediately available for comment.

The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the field’s owner as saying he was baffled by both its appearance and disappearance.

“We don’t know if it was placed on my field for marketing purposes or as an advertisement,” Anadolu quoted Fuat Demirdil as saying. “We saw that the metal block was no longer at its place. Residents cannot solve the mystery of the metal block either.”

The agency also quoted local resident Hasan Yildiz as saying the block was still at the field Monday evening, but had disappeared by the morning.

The monolith bore an inscription that read: “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” in the ancient Turkic Gokturk alphabet, according to reports.

Other mysterious monoliths have similarly appeared and some have disappeared in numerous countries in recent months.

Gobekli Tepe was the setting of the Turkish Netflix mystery series, “The Gift.”