Another monolith has been found in the middle of nowhere for the first time in years, reigniting discussions of the mysterious object’s origins.

In late 2020, monoliths started to pop up randomly across the world. But then, they stopped appearing altogether.

Until this week, when Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spotted one on a hiking trail just outside Sin City.

The recent monolith looked just like the others that came before, sleek and mirrored, similar to the object seen in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“We see a lot of weird things when people go hiking like not being prepared for the weather, not bringing enough water… but check this out!” the police said on X.

When the monoliths started popping up in 2020 and then disappearing just as quickly, one would have thought it was just a fad, like the clowns that caused a panic in 2016.

But the mystery of the many monoliths is arguably more compelling and bizarre.

The mysterious monolith sightings

On November 18, 2020, state officials in Utah were doing a helicopter survey when they spotted a monolith in the state’s red-rock desert.

The three-sided stainless-steel object was about as tall as two men put together and no clues as to who put it there had been left behind.

Among those who made the discovery was helicopter pilot Bret Hutchings, who said it was “about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying”.

Officials had no idea how the structure got there, but people online claimed it could be seen on Google Earth, dating back to 2016.

It also mysteriously disappeared on November 27 and the Utah Bureau of Land Management said it had nothing to do with its removal.

The second monolith to appear in 2020 was spotted in the Romanian city of Piatra Neamt on November 27.

It was similar in height to the one in Utah and made of similar material and it also just vanished on December 2.

“My guess is that some alien, cheeky and terrible teenagers left home with their parents’ UFO and started planting metal monoliths around the world,” the city’s mayor reportedly said on Facebook at the time.

“First in Utah and then at Piatra Neamt. I am honoured that they chose our city.”

In December 2020, another monolith, this time in Southern California appeared.

It appeared on a hiking trail in Atascadero on December 2, before disappearing on December 3 and then magically reappearing on the 4th.

On December 6, a monolith appeared in Colorado, but that one is less of a mystery.

Another monolith was found in New Mexico on December 7, 2020, and it was taken down the same day.

On December 8, another one was discovered on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.

Now the one that recently appeared in Las Vegas isn’t the first to show up this year. In March, one was spotted in Wales.

Who is behind the monolith?

No one really knows why the monoliths started appearing, or who or what is behind them.

After the monolith in Utah appeared, an artist collective from New Mexico, The Most Famous Artist insinuated it was involved.

“I’m here to say: I didn’t do the monolith, but I didn’t not do the monolith,” founder and artist Matty Mo, said in a December 2020 Instagram Live, according to USA Today.

“I am both the originator and the guy who is just capitalising on it as a result of the artefacts that were created to seed the story which propagated the myth.” 

We know Bill Zempel, the head mechanic at Mile High Aircraft Services, is behind the monolith that showed up in Colorado, as he took credit for it.

“Yes, I built it. As a joke and attention-getter while the topic is fresh in people’s minds,” he wrote on X.

“We’re at the Space Port after all.”

Some people speculate aliens are behind the monoliths.

One Isle of Wright resident suggested at the time it could be a “Coldplay PR stunt or a local mirror dealer drumming up trade”.

Although many of the monoliths look similar, it’s also unknown if they are all made by the same person or group. Or aliens.