WARSAW: A mysterious metal monolith has appeared on a river bank in the Polish capital Warsaw, the latest in a series of similar objects that have recently appeared in Europe and the United States.
Runners noticed the triangular pillar during their morning run along the Vistula River, according to local media reports.
It is about 10 feet (3 meters) tall, has a dull silver surface, is fastened with screws, and is planted in the sand on the riverbank near a major bridge.
“A mysterious and unusual installation has emerged on the beach on the right bank (of the river),” authorities from the Warsaw Vistula district said on their Facebook page.
“If you spend your time actively on the Vistula River, it will not escape your attention,” they added, without elaborating.
But it hasn’t impressed some Warsaw residents.
“I was expecting some kind of metaphysical experience, but it’s not really that impressive,” a woman who visited the site on Thursday told AFP and did not want to be identified.
No one claimed responsibility for the installation until Thursday.
Similar-looking objects were found in the United States, Romania and Great Britain.
The first structure made headlines after it appeared briefly in the Utah desert late last month, then two more appeared in Southern California and Romania days later.
Another appeared on a beach on the Isle of Wight off England’s southern coast on Sunday before hikers ran into another in the Netherlands on the same day.
The appearance of the Utah object in late November sparked rumors of extraterrestrial visitation due to its resemblance to the black monolith from Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
An anonymous art collective has claimed credit for the Utah installation but, as in Poland, no one has yet claimed responsibility for those in Romania, the Isle of Wight and the Netherlands.