Monoliths — defined by Merriam-Webster as a single great stone often in the form of an obelisk or column — have been appearing in random places around the world from Utah to Romania, California to B.C.
Whether these mysterious structures are signs of aliens setting up shop or a global Banksy-esque art project, nobody knows. Either way, Montreal had its very own for a brief period before it was reportedly removed by the city.
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The monolith popped up in front of a post office in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, at the corner of Rue Sherbrooke Ouest and Avenue Wilson.
Alex Montagano, who posted pictures of the monolith to the Thrive NDG Facebook group, told MTL Blog he first spotted the structure on December 18 at 2 p.m.
"When the sun hit it, it glowed," said Montagano.
By the morning of December 19, the monolith was gone. In its place? Montreal's signature orange traffic cones.
"I guess the city doesn't like aliens. They seemed to have struggled with alien technology," wrote Montagano in a Facebook post. "That was fast. The city, the insufferable killjoys. I guess CDN-NDG is not allowed to have fun."
Montagano owns Restoremontreal.com, a renovation and interior design company based in NDG.
He also showed MTL Blog a video of a model train he had built against a backdrop of NDG, which featured a mini monolith.
"The aliens originally put the monolith on my scale train layout. They quickly realized it wasn't real and set down on Sherbrooke," he said.
Make what you will of it.