What is a monolith? Why are they appearing around the world?

New Delhi, Dec 08: After making appearances in the American states of Utah and California, and Romania, the mysterious monolith was spotted on the Isle of Wight.

Several of these tall, shiny pillars have now been found at sites around the globe without warning or explanation since mid-November.

The shining metal objects have sparked a flurry of memes and even conspiracy theories on social media.

According to the Collins Dictionary, a monolith is a "very large, upright piece of stone, especially one that was put in place in ancient times". Stonehenge can be called the most famous example of a collection of monoliths on earth.

The first one was discovered in the US, when a helicopter crew flying over a remote part of a Utah desert counting sheep spotted a strange statue below on November 18.

While authorities, scientists were speculating how the shimmering, mirrored object was installed at a remote spot in the desert, the monolith disappeared just as mysteriously as it appeared on 27 November.

Around the same time as the Utah one vanished, a shiny metal monolith appeared on the other side of the globe in the Romanian hillside.

In the same way, the structure disappeared several days after it was first spotted near the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, a local archaeological landmark in the northern Neamt country.

Shortly afterward, a new monolith was spotted at the top of a mountain trail in southern California before it also vanished.

Then, over the first weekend in December, people stumbled across a tall shiny monolith on a beach on the Isle of Wight. The pillar was spotted on Compton Beach on the west side of the island.

Amid all the controversies relating aliens and UFO going on, an anonymous collective called The Most Famous Artist has taken credit for the Utah and California statues, and is selling three replicas for $45,000 each.

However, when asked about the Isle of Wight structure, it said, "The monolith is out of my control at this point. Godspeed to all the aliens working hard around the globe to propagate the myth." Also, no one has claimed responsibility for the European monoliths.

A Colorado photographer told KSTU-TV that he saw four men come to the remote Utah site one night and push over the hollow, stainless steel object, saying "leave no trace" as they walked away.