ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – A metal monolith that mysteriously appeared and disappeared in a field in southeastern Turkey turned out to be a publicity stunt before a government event on Tuesday, during which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a program space for the country.
The three-meter-high (about 10-foot-high) metal plaque with ancient Turkish writing was found Friday by a farmer in the province of Sanliurfa. It was discovered near Gobekli Tepe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which houses megalithic structures dating from the tenth millennium BC, thousands of years before Stonehenge.
However, the shiny structure bearing the inscription “Look at the sky, you’ll see the moon” in the ancient Turkish alphabet Gokturk, was reported on Tuesday morning, adding to the mystery.
An image of the monolith was later projected onto a screen while Erdogan presented Turkey’s space program during a televised event.
“I now present Turkey’s 10-year vision, strategy and goals and say, ‘look at the sky, you will see the moon,'” said Erdogan.
Previously, the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the owner of the camp as saying he was baffled by its appearance and disappearance.
“We don’t know if it was placed in my field for marketing purposes or as an advertisement,” said Anadolu citing Fuat Demirdil. “We saw that the metal block was no longer in place. Residents are also unable to solve the mystery of the metal block. “
The agency also quoted local resident Hasan Yildiz as saying that the block was still in the camp on Monday night, but had disappeared in the morning.
Other mysterious monoliths have also appeared and some have disappeared in several countries in recent months.
Gobekli Tepe was the setting for Netflix’s Turkish mystery series, “The Gift”.