'I thought it looked a bit bizarre and might be a scientific media research thing collecting rainwater.'
Walkers have been baffled by a mystery steel monolith which appeared on a hill in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.
Locals in the Powys town spotted the block of steel – which is shaped like a giant Toblerone – on Hay Bluff over the weekend.
But it’s not the only mystery monolith – a string of sightings were reported in rural areas across Europe in 2020, including on the Isle of Wight and at the Merry Maidens stone circle in Cornwall.
Richard Haynes, who took photographs of the latest sighting while running on Hay Bluff, told WalesOnline: ‘I went off towards Hay Bluff towards where the trig point is and I looked over to my right.
‘I thought it looked a bit bizarre and might be a scientific media research thing collecting rainwater. But then realised it was way too tall and strange for that.
‘Then I went up to it and it was about 10-foot-tall at least and triangular, definitely stainless steel. It was hollow and I imagine pretty light. Light enough for two people to carry it up and plant it in the ground.’
Richard said he runs the route often and had never seen the monolith before, and a friend who had been near the spot two weeks ago and said it wasn’t there then.
Richard added: ‘I did notice on Google that it’s popped up fairly recently and from what I can gather it disappears after a couple of days.’
But the latest monolith to pop up has led some to believe it was the work of aliens.
Others believe it’s an elaborate piece of undercover artwork, akin to Banksy’s bizarre works.
For others, the sudden appearance of the massive monoliths have sparked questions about the damage they cause to the environment.
But Richard said: ‘I don’t know about that, but it’s clear someone would have had to have dug a large hole to get it in the ground.’
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In 2020, a string of monolith appearances across the world – ranging from Romania to Utah – sparked a media frenzy.
One monolith discovered in the US state of Utah was a similar size to that found in Wales this week, measuring 12 feet tall.
Questions of extraterrestrial involvement were raised after a motorist captured a picture of a ‘monolith in the sky’ while driving nearby.
After the massive statues first appeared in 2020, rumours suggested they could be a message from alien life because of the similarity to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – but this had no backing.
Another massive steel monolith appeared in Romania in November 2020 on Batca Doamnei Hill in the city of Piatra Neamt in Romania’s north-eastern Neamt County – and the government said it was unknown who put it up.
And in 2020, a monolith appeared on a Spanish beach before it was quickly cordoned off, while another was spotted in Turkey in 2021.
But it appears the massive metal statues have an explanation, as a community called ‘The Most Famous Artist’ founded by American artist Matty Mo later claimed credit for the stunts, which are thought to have begun in America.
The structures ranged from the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands, Colombia, Paraguay, among many other countries.
It appears the bizarre statues may be making a comeback, after the latest one appeared in Wales.
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