Welsh hiker says mysterious monolith on hillside 'almost looks like a UFO'
They're baaack.
A hiker in Wales this week said he discovered a monolith similar to those found around the world in 2020.
Craig Muir, a builder, discovered the approximately 10-foot monolith near Hay-on-Wye duing a regular hike, according to the PA news agency.
"I come up here most days and I've never seen this before," Muir says in video showing the discovery. "It almost looks like a UFO."
Muir told the news agency that the ground around the object was undisturbed and suggested that it could have been helicoptered in.
"It didn’t seem like it was chucked in there, instead it has been accurately put in the ground," Muir told the agency.
Multiple metal structures appeared around the world in 2020, leading to speculation about their origins.
Monolith appearances around the world
Utah
The first unexplained metal monolith was discovered in Utah's remote Red Rock Country in November of 2020. The Utah Department of Public Safety announced the discovery of the monolith by the DPS's Aero Bureau and the Utah Division of Wildlife on November 23.
By the 27th the monolith had been removed.
The Most Famous Artist — an artist collective in New Mexico — suggested that it may have had a hand in the monolith's creation when it attempted to sell the piece.
"I'm here to say: I didn't do the monolith, but I didn't not do the monolith," the collective's founder, artist Matty Mo, said in a December 2020 Instagram Live with art podcaster Heidi Zuckerman. "I am both the originator and the guy who is just capitalizing on it as a result of the artifacts that were created to seed the story which propagated the myth."
When asked for comment on the new monolith Mo told USA TODAY Wednesday, "people sure seem to think it was me."
California
Multiple monoliths also appeared in California in 2020.
A monolith was discovered on a hiking trail in Atascadero, Southern California, in December but disappeared the next day. Four men took credit for erecting the Atascadero monolith: Travis Kenney, Randall Kenney, Wade McKenzie and Jared Riddle, according to The New York Times.
Another monolith connected to The Most Famous Artist appeared by Joshua Tree National Park days after the Atascadero sightings. Mo said that, "all monoliths are with collectors."
United Kingdom
A similar sculpture to the one found in Utah was spotted in December of 2020 on the Isle of Wight's Compton Beach, located off the southern coast of England.
A different monolith was found on Glastonbury Tor, a hill near the southwesternEnglish town of the same name. That sculpture had the words "Not Banksy" etched into one side as well as a picture of a rat in the style of the street artist Banksy.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monolith discovered in Wales similar to mysterious objects from 2020
