Mystery of Turkey’s monolith is solved

A monolith that mysteriously appeared in Turkey before vanishing on Tuesday turned out to be a publicity stunt tied to the country’s newly-announced space program.

The 10-foot metal slab inscribed with the phrase “Look at the sky, you will see the moon” in ancient Turkish script was discovered Friday by a farmer in the Sanliurfa province.

By Tuesday morning, the shimmering structure had disappeared, puzzling locals.

“We don’t know if it was placed on my field for marketing purposes or as an advertisement,” farmer Fuat Demirdil told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

“Residents cannot solve the mystery of the metal block,” he added.

But the enigma was solved later in the day, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan projected an image of the monolith on a screen as he announced the country’s new space program.

“I now present to you Turkey’s 10-year vision, strategy and aims and I say: ‘look at the sky, you will see the moon,’” Erdogan said during a televised event.

Erdogan’s use of the structure and of the phrase inscribed on it during his announcement made it clear that the monolith’s appearance had been part of a gimmick.

It was just the latest in a series of recent incidents where similar structures appeared and disappeared in numerous countries.

With Post wires