Here we go again! Monoliths are popping up again in 2021.

It looks like the monolith appearances weren't just a crazy 2020 phenomenon. Last week, a Turkish farmer discovered another strange metallic structure near the Gobekli Tepe UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 10-foot monolith is similar to the others in appearance except for an engraving that reads, “look at the sky, see the moon” in an old Turkic script. It disappeared just a few days after being discovered. 

The first monolith was found in remote Utah by a team from the Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau and the Division of Wildlife Resources surveying the area for bighorn sheep in late November. In the following week, a similar metal monolith appeared in Romania with strange markings, and then yet another one was discovered at the top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.

Within one month of the initial discovery in Utah, at least 87 other monoliths popped up across the globe. Each mysterious structure was slightly different, but most were made of metal, stood about 10 feet high, and vanished just as quickly as they appeared.

Some of the structures turned out to be publicity stunts and jokes, like the one found near the Air and Space Port in Colorado. However, a number of the monoliths were never claimed by anyone, prompting lots of discussion about possible origins — notably, aliens. 

The mystery behind the latest monolith was solved on Tuesday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled the country's new 10-year space program, which includes missions to the moon. As an image of a monolith was projected onto the screen, he said, “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.’”

The announcement left no room for doubt; the monolith was a clever PR tactic for their upcoming mission to the moon. NASA is also working on its Artemis lunar missions to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024. The core stage of their SLS rocket is in the final stages of testing before being assembled for launch later this year. Could we be entering another Space Race era?

Do you think we're going to keep seeing these monoliths popping up in 2021? Let us know what you think in the comments.