Monolith

For other uses, see Monolith (disambiguation).
Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, is often referred to as the biggest monolith, but that is generally avoided by geologists. While the surrounding rocks were eroded, the rock survived as sandstone strata making up the surviving Uluru 'monolith'.
Monolithos fortress on Rhodes, Greece.
Landsat 7 image Brandberg Mountain, Namibia.
Gavea Rock, the greatest monolith next to the sea in the world, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains, or a single large piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument or building. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock.

In architecture, the term has considerable overlap with megalith, which is normally used for prehistory, and may be used in the contexts of rock-cut architecture that remains attached to solid rock, as in monolithic church, or for exceptionally large stones such as obelisks, statues, monolithic columns or large architraves, that may have been moved a considerable distance after quarrying. It may also be used of large glacial erratics moved by natural forces.

The word derives, via the Latin monolithus, from the Ancient Greek word μονόλιθος (monolithos), from μόνος ("one" or "single") and λίθος ("stone").

Geological monoliths

Large, well-known monoliths include:

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Savandurga, India from the northern side
Sangla Hill, Pakistan

Australia

Europe

Penyal d'Ifac, Spain

North America

United States

Beacon Rock, Washington viewed from the west
Stawamus Chief as seen from Valleycliffe neighborhood in Squamish, British Columbia

Canada

Mexico

South America

El Peñón, monolith in Colombia, located in Antioquia.

Extraterrestrial

Monumental monoliths

A structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ López Domínguez, Leonor (May 2001). "Villa de Bernal and its Magic Mountain". México Desconocido #291.
  2. ↑ "Peña de Bernal - Bernal - Queretaro" (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 November 2008.
  3. ↑ Cava Northrop, Laura; Dwight L. Curtis, Inc. Let'S Go, Natalie Sherman, Raul Carrillo (2007). Let's Go Mexico: On a Budget. Macmillan. p. 370. ISBN 978-0-312-37452-5. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
  4. ↑ Escobar Ledesma, Agustín (1999). Recetario del semidesierto de Querétaro: Acoyos, rejalgares y tantarrias. Conaculta. p. 75. ISBN 978-970-18-3910-2.
  5. ↑ "Glossary".
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