Mysterious gleaming obelisk discovered in US desert
- About 3.6 metres tall, the structure was found during a helicopter survey of bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah
- The object has inflamed the imaginations of UFO spotters, conspiracy theorists and Stanley Kubrick fans around the world
A mysterious metal “obelisk” found buried in the remote western United States desert has inflamed the imaginations of UFO spotters, conspiracy theorists and Stanley Kubrick fans around the world.
The shiny, triangular pillar – which protrudes around 12 feet (3.6 metres) from the red rocks of southern Utah – was spotted last Wednesday by baffled local officials counting bighorn sheep from the air.
Landing to investigate, Utah Department of Public Safety crew members found “a metal monolith installed in the ground” but “no obvious indication of who might have put the monolith there”.
“It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you’re from,” warned the agency in a tongue-in-cheek press release on Monday.
News of the discovery quickly went viral online, with many noting the object’s similarity with strange alien monoliths that trigger huge leaps in human progress in Kubrick’s classic sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Others remarked on its discovery during a turbulent year that has seen the world gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic, and optimistically speculated it could have a different function entirely.