A monolith that mysteriously appeared in Turkey before disappearing on Tuesday turned out to be an advertising ploy linked to the country’s recently announced space program.
The 3-meter metal plaque with the inscription “Look at the sky, you’ll see the moon” in ancient Turkish writing was discovered Friday by a farmer in the province of Sanliurfa.
By Tuesday morning, the sparkling structure had disappeared, puzzling local residents.
“We don’t know if it was placed in my field for marketing purposes or as an advertisement,” said farmer Fuat Demirdil to state agency Anadolu.
“Residents cannot solve the mystery of the metal block,” he added.
But the puzzle was solved later in the day, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan projected an image of the monolith on a screen while announcing the country’s new space program.
“Now I present to you Turkey’s 10-year vision, strategy and goals and I say: ‘look at the sky, you will see the moon'”, said Erdogan during a televised event.
Erdogan’s use of the structure and the phrase inscribed on it during his ad made it clear that the monolith’s appearance was part of a trick.
It was just the latest in a series of recent incidents in which similar structures appeared and disappeared in several countries.
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