scorecard
  1. Home
  2. international
  3. news
  4. A monolith with the declaration 'Not Banksy' etched on it has appeared on a sacred English hill at Glastonbury

A monolith with the declaration 'Not Banksy' etched on it has appeared on a sacred English hill at Glastonbury

Joshua Zitser   

A monolith with the declaration 'Not Banksy' etched on it has appeared on a sacred English hill at Glastonbury
International2 min read
  • Another monolith appeared, this time at the site of a historic monument in Somerset, England.
  • A photographer spotted the monolith, which had fallen on its side, while on a morning walk.
  • With the help of passers-by, they lifted up the fallen structure.
  • The National Trust removed it just a few hours later due to fears that it might damage Glastonbury Tor.

Unsuspecting locals, like the ones in the Netherlands, the US, Finland, and Romania, are spotting mysterious metal structures in random locations.

The latest in the series to have welcomed a metal tower is Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England.

Glastonbury Tor is the ancient site of pagan and early Christian pilgrimage and is steeped in history and legend.

Michelle Cowburne, a photographer from Glastonbury, stumbled upon a particularly unique monolith there on Wednesday morning.

While on her daily morning walk to photograph the ancient monument, Cowburne noticed a metal structure lying on its side.

Upon getting a closer look, she noticed that 'Not Banksy' was etched on it. Additionally, there was a Banksyesque rat drawing on the monolith.

Despite rumors suggesting that the world-famous street artist could be behind the random appearances of monoliths all around the world, a representative of the artist denied this to HuffPost.

The 'Not Banksy' monolith is the latest sign that somebody else is behind it.

Locals were bemused by the Glastonbury Tor appearance.

Cowburne, who photographed the monolith, told Business Insider: "I've seen a lot of strange things at Glastonbury Tor before. I've seen people bring a sofa up them, bagpipers, a man in a suit of armor, fairies, elves, all that sort of thing."

She continued: "But I think this is the strangest thing I'd seen. It was certainly the most unexpected and unusual."

With the help of passers-by, Cowburne helped lift the fallen monolith up.

"It was really, really heavy," she added.

It's currently unknown who installed the structure.

Rangers removed it at 16:00 GMT due to fears that it might damage Glastonbury Tor.

A spokesperson for the National Trust told Business Insider: "The Tor is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and installing objects such as this can cause damage. The monolith was heavy, with some sharp edges, and had fallen several times. It wasn't safe and we had to remove it."

They continued: "We take our responsibility to look after this, and other protected sites in our care, very seriously. To prevent the risk of damaging important sites, we insist that anybody who wishes to put something on our land must always contact us first."

READ MORE ARTICLES ON


Advertisement

Advertisement