'Elaborate hoax or aliens?': Mysteries and memes of the Monolith

The year 2020 has been bizarre to say the least.

It was so chaotic that the world didn’t even acknowledge the UFO announcement that the Pentagon made.

Just when we think there isn’t going to be anything that will surprise us anymore, something pops up to make us realise how wrong we were.

While we are all confined to our limited areas, this shiny obelisk keeps appearing and disappearing across the random regions and has gotten the netizens looking for plausible explanations and seek patterns to solve this mystery.

Since then, several theories are floating around the internet without any validation for any of them.

Here’s a look at the timelines, theories, and memes that have been dominating the internet chatter regarding the monolith.

Timeline of events

Utah: The first sighting of the Monolith happened in a remote part of Utah during the areal survey of the Bighorn Sheep on November 18th. While the officials didn’t reveal the location of the find primarily because of how unsafe the area was for the general public, it didn’t take time for this mysterious find to spark off alien and UFO-related theories.

Some thought this was a message from visitors from another planet. More rational explanations followed such as an art installation as a tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey or even an elaborate marketing gimmick.

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Before any theory could be confirmed, though, the mysterious object vanished seemingly into thin air. Soon a video emerged of a group of unknown individuals claiming that they had dismantled the structure.

So this mystery seemed solved, albeit momentarily.

Romania: On November 27th, the day the Utah Monolith disappeared, a similar metallic Monolith appeared on a hilltop in Romania.

While both the monoliths were similar in size, there were visible differences between the two. The Utah monolith was seemingly smooth but the Romanian monolith was covered in interconnected circles.

This monolith, like its Utah counterpart, disappeared few days after its appearance.

California: A day after the Romanian monolith disappeared, another appeared in California’s Pine Mountain and was stumbled upon by a hiker.

This one wasn’t firmly installed into the ground and was subsequently removed.

Netherlands: Baffled walkers stumbled upon this monolith in the Duch Reserves.

Surrounded by a pool of molten ice water and no visible footprints, this monolith added to the already ongoing monolith mystery.

As the monolith mystery continued, the meme maestros got into action and these memes got as viral if not more as their inspiration.

Here are some of the memes that we found hilarious:

Trust Amazon to perfectly get on the Memewagon!

Delhi Metro didn’t disappoint either!

Various ways Indians would put the Monolith to use

UFO? Marketing? Nope, it’s a divine intervention!

The Golden Arches are EVERYWHERE!

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