Like the other monoliths that mysteriously appeared in America and the world in the last weeks of 2020, the one that appeared on a hilltop in California on Christmas Day seemed to have emerged out of nowhere.
Also like the others, it was tall, with three sides and quickly attracted crowds of curious visitors before premature destruction.
Unlike the others, this monolith was made of … honey bread.
In true pop-up fashion, the 2.10-meter-high monolith made of tasty and aromatic gingerbread mysteriously appeared in San Francisco and then – perhaps unsurprisingly – collapsed the next day.
The tower, joined by icing and decorated with some gums, enchanted the city on Friday, when news of its existence spread.
People walked to Corona Heights Park throughout the day, even with a light rain falling on the edible and ephemeral art object. In a video posted online, someone took a bite of gingerbread.
Phil Ginsburg, head of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, told KQED that the site “looks like a great place to roast” and confirmed that his team will not remove the monument “until the cookie is crumbled”.
It happened on Saturday morning, a fitting ending to what was certainly a tribute to the discovery and rapid disappearance of a shiny metal monolith in Utah’s red rock desert last month. It has become a subject of fascination worldwide, as it evoked the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” and attracted speculation about its supernatural origins before strangers violently dismantled it.
A similar metal structure was found and quickly disappeared on a hill in northern Romania. Days later, another monolith was discovered at the pinnacle of a trail in Atascadero, California, but was later destroyed by a group of young people, city officials said.