Third monolith found in California following Romania and Utah discoveries

3 December 2020, 08:43 | Updated: 3 December 2020, 11:17

A third mysterious metal monolith has been discovered, this time atop a mountain in California, just a week after similar structures were found in Utah and Romania.

The monolith was spotted in the small town of Atascadero, San Luis Obispo County, in central California, on Wednesday.

According to local newspaper Atascadero News, the structure is placed at the top of local beauty spot Pine Mountain.

Several people have already rushed to the site to see the mysterious structure and take photos with it. 

The report said the structure appeared to be made of stainless steel, 10-feet tall and 18 inches wide and weighing about 200 pounds.

As with other monoliths sighted in recent weeks, there is no information about who installed the structure or why.

It comes after two other monoliths were found over the last few weeks.

The first metal structure was spotted in Utah on 18 November, leading to speculations about why it was installed and by whom.

Almost as mysteriously as it appeared, the structure was removed on 27 November by five men who told witnesses to “leave no trace”.

But unlike the monolith in Utah, the structure in California wasn’t strongly attached to the ground and looked like it could be easily knocked over, local media reported.

The pilot who first spotted the Utah structure said he believed it could be an artist’s installation, while many rival theories also cropped up, some inevitably involving aliens. 

During a site visit on Saturday, a bureau team in Utah confirmed that an unknown person or group had removed the illegally installed structure.

The crew of climbers-gone-environmental TMNT decided there was too much foot traffic in the desert surrounding the statue.

“This land wasn’t physically prepared for the population shift (especially during a pandemic),” the groupd wrote in a post.

Mysterious monolith found in Utah desert

A similar metal structure was discovered on 26 November on Batca Doamnei Hill in northern Romania, prompting the local mayor to write a statement urging “those who think there is still life in the universe” not to panic. 

This third monolith in California has appeared just one day after the Romanian one disappeared from the top of Batca Doamnei Hill.

Gary Lyons, who says he runs and hikes in the area every day, told Sky News that he had found the object in California on Wednesday and that it had not been there the day before.

The monoliths bear a resemblance to a metal form seen in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In the film, apes are seen discovering a metal monolith in the desert.

Millions of years later, another is found on the Moon.