A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monoliths are

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged mag ...

s, solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano. 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

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

s, 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 , from the Ancient Greek word (), from () meaning "one" or "single" and () meaning "stone".

Geological monoliths

Large, well-known monoliths include:

Africa

* Aso Rock, Nigeria * Ben Amera, Mauritania * Brandberg Mountain, Namibia * Sibebe, Eswatini * Zuma Rock, Nigeria * Mount Lubiri, Angola * Mount Poi, Kenya *

Great Sphinx of Giza The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, E ...

Antarctica

* Scullin monolith

Asia

Batu Caves Batu Caves ( ta, பத்து மலை : Pathumalai) is a mogote (a type of karst landform) that has a series of caves and cave temples in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia. It takes its name from the Malay word ''batu'', meaning 'rock'. The hill ...

, Selangor, Malaysia *

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

, Gujarat, India *

Bellary Fort The Bellary Fort ("Bellary Kote") was built on top of a hill called the "Ballari Gudda" or the Fort Hill. It is situated in the historic city of Bellary, in the Bellary district, in Karnataka state, India. It was built in two parts namely, the Up ...

, Bellary, India *

Bhongir, Telangana Bhongir, officially known as, Bhuvanagiri is a district headquarters of the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district and part of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Region of the Indian state of Telangana. Falling under Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority ...

, India * Madhugiri Betta, Karnataka, India * Kailasa temple, Ellora.

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India * Namakkal Fort Namakkal , Tamilnadu India, * Mount Kelam, Indonesia * Mount Pico de Loro, Philippines *

Mount Pulumbato Mount Pulong Bato (Columbato) is a monolith located in Zamboanga City at the Zamboanga Peninsula, the western tip of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The mountain is situated in the Upper Abong-Abong Park within the Pasonanca Natural Par ...

, Philippines *

Sangla Hill Sangla Hill is a tehsil in the Nankana Sahib District of the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It lies 103 km from the provincial capital of Lahore and 47 km from Faisalabad. Until 2005, it was part of Sheikhupura District. Education Colleges * ...

, Pakistan * Savandurga, Karnataka, India * Sigiriya,

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma *Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative ca ...

, Karnataka, India *

Gilbert Hill Gilbert Hill is a monolith column of black basalt rock at Andheri, in Mumbai, India. The rock has a sheer vertical face and was formed when molten lava was squeezed out of the Earth's clefts during the Mesozoic Era about 66 million years ago. ...

, Mumbai, India * Rockfort, Trichy, India * The Tsunami Penile Monument, Malé, Maldives *Ekasila, Warangal, India

Australia

* Bald Rock, near Tenterfield, New South Wales * Mount Augustus (Burringurrah), Western Australia (NOTE: this is not actually monolith as popularly claimed, but rather a monocline) *

Mount Coolum Mount Coolum is a coastal suburb in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Mount Coolum had a population of 4,265 people. Geography The Sunshine Motorway passes through the locality from the north-west (Coolum Beach) t ...

, Queensland * Mount Wudinna, South Australia * Pine Mountain, Victoria * Uluru, Northern Territory

Europe

Kalamos Kalamos ( grc, Κάλαμος, lit=reed, reed pen; la, Calamus) is a Greek mythological figure. He is son of Maiandros, the god of the Maeander river. Mythology A story in Nonnus's ''Dionysiaca'' tells about the love of two youths, Kalamos and K ...

, Anafi, Greece * Katskhi pillar, Georgia *

Levski G. Levski may refer to: Places *Levski, Pleven Province, a town in Bulgaria *, a village in Suvorovo Municipality, Bulgaria *Levski, Pazardzhik Province, a village in Panagyurishte Municipality, Bulgaria *Levski Peak (Bulgaria), in the Balkan Mounta ...

, Sofia, Bulgaria * Logan Rock, Treen, Cornwall, England * Monolithe de Sardières,

Sollières-Sardières Sollières-Sardières is a former commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val-Cenis.France *

Penyal d'Ifac Penyal d'Ifac Natural Park ( ca-valencia, Parc Natural del Penyal d'Ifac, es, Parque Natural del Peñón de Ifach) is a natural park situated in Calpe, in the Valencian Community, Spain. The Penyal d'Ifac is a massive limestone outcrop emerging ...

Calpe Calpe () or Calp () is a coastal municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta, in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of and a population density of . The city lies at the foot ...

, Valencian Community, Spain *

Peña de Arcos Peña, meaning "rocky outcrop" or "rocky summit" in the Spanish language (Aragonese: ''Penya'', Catalan: ''Penya''). It may refer to: Mountains *Peña Montañesa, a mountain in the Pre-Pyrenees, Aragon, Spain *Peña de los Enamorados, a mountain ...

, Arcos de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain *

Peña de los Enamorados Peña de los Enamorados ("The Lovers' Rock") is a mountain near the city of Antequera, Málaga Province, Andalusia, Spain. It reaches a height of 880 metres above sea level. Name The mountain was named after a legend from the local oral traditio ...

Antequera Antequera () is a city and municipality in the Comarca de Antequera, province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (''el corazón de Andalucía'') because of its central locat ...

, Andalusia, Spain (a World Heritage Site) *

Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabel-al-Tariq) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and near the entrance to the Mediterr ...

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

Rock of Monaco The Rock of Monaco (french: Rocher de Monaco) is a tall monolith on the Mediterranean coast of the Principality of Monaco. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea and the Port Hercules. History The Rock has been a coveted possession from the beginn ...

, Monaco-Ville, Monaco *

Rock Cappa Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

, San Luca, Italy

North America

United States

Angels Landing Angels Landing, known previously as the Temple of Aeolus, is a tall Formation of rocks, rock formation in Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, United States. A renowned trail cut into solid rock in 1926 leads to the top of Angels Landing an ...

, Zion National Park, Utah * Beacon Rock, Columbia River Gorge, Washington *

Bottleneck Peak Bottleneck Peak is a natural monolith located on the eastern side of Sids Mountain in the Utah San Rafael Swell wilderness area. It is situated northwest of Window Blind Peak. Precipitation runoff from this feature drains north into the San Raf ...

, Sids Mountain, Utah *

Castle Rock Castle Rock may refer to: Geography Islands * Castle Rock (Alaskan Island), an island off the coast of the U.S. state of Alaska * Castle Rock, Hong Kong (螺洲白排), an island of Hong Kong, part of the Po Toi Islands * Castle Rock (Massachusett ...

, Pineville, West Virginia * Chimney Rock, Bayard, Nebraska * Chimney Rock, Chimney Rock, North Carolina *

Courthouse and Jail Rocks Courthouse and Jail Rocks are two rock formations located near Bridgeport in the Nebraska Panhandle. The Oregon-California Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express Trail and the Sidney-Deadwood Trail all ran near the rocks. The pair of rock f ...

, Bridgeport, Nebraska * Devils Tower, Wyoming * El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California * Enchanted Rock, Llano County, Texas * Frog Woman Rock, Mendocino County, California *

Great White Throne The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

, Zion National Park, Utah * Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California *

Haystack Rock Haystack Rock is a sea stack in Cannon Beach, Oregon. It is the third-tallest such intertidal structure in the world. A popular tourist destination on the Oregon Coast, the monolithic rock is adjacent to the beach and accessible by foot at low ...

, Clatsop County, Oregon *

Looking Glass Rock Looking Glass Rock is a pluton monolith in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, United States. Description The mountain is located within Pisgah National Forest about northwest of Brevard and southwest of Asheville. Named ...

, Transylvania County, North Carolina *

Morro Rock Morro Rock (Salinan: ''Le'samo; ''Chumash: ''Lisamu; Spanish: ''El Morro'') is a volcanic plug in Morro Bay, California, on the Pacific Coast at the entrance to Morro Bay harbor. A causeway connects it with the shore, making it a tied is ...

, Morro Bay, California *

Quincy Quarries Reservation The Quincy Quarries in Quincy, Massachusetts, produced granite for over a century and were the site of the Granite Railway—often credited as being the first railroad in the United States. A section of the former Quarry, quarries is owned and ...

, Quincy, Massachusetts * Scotts Bluff National Monument, Gering, Nebraska * Shiprock, San Juan County, New Mexico * Stone Mountain, Stone Mountain, Georgia * Stone Mountain, Stone Mountain, North Carolina * Tooth of Time, Cimarron, New Mexico * Wolf Rock, Linn County, Oregon stawamus sharp

Canada

* Stawamus Chief, Squamish, British Columbia

Mexico

La Peña de Bernal LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

, Queretaro; claimed to be the world's third largest monolith.

South America

* El Peñón, also known as El Peñol Stone or simply La Piedra, Colombia *

Pão de Açúcar Sugarloaf Mountain ( pt, Pão de Açúcar, ) is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Rising above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to ...

, Brazil *

Pedra da Gávea Pedra da Gávea is a monolithic mountain in Tijuca Forest, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Composed of granite and gneiss, its elevation is , making it one of the highest mountains in the world that ends directly in the ocean. Trails on the mountain wer ...

, Brazil the world's largest monolith on the coastline *

Pedra da Galinha Choca Pedra da Galinha Choca (Rock of the Brooding Hen) is a rock formation in the Brazilian city of Quixadá in Ceará, taking its name from its curious shape. It is located 5 km from the city center. The formation is in the Quixadá Monoliths ...

, Brazil * Torres del Paine, Chile

Outside Earth

Phobos monolith The Phobos monolith is a large rock on the surface of Mars's moon Phobos. It is a boulder about across and tall. A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive piece of rock. Monoliths also occur naturally on Earth, but it ...

on Phobos *

Mars monolith The Mars monolith is a rectangular object (possibly a boulder) discovered on the surface of Mars. It is located near the bottom of a cliff, from which it likely fell. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures of it from orbit, roughly 180 mil ...

Monumental monoliths

A structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock. * Aztec calendar stone "Stone of the Sun" * The Church of Saint George in

Lalibela Lalibela ( am, ላሊበላ) is a town in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Lasta district and North Wollo Zone, it is a tourist site for its famous rock-cut monolithic churches. The whole of Lalibela is a large and important site ...

, Ethiopia, is one of a number of monolithic churches in Ethiopia. * Coyolxauhqui Stone another aztec monolith * Ellora Caves - UNESCO World Heritage Site *

"The Egyptian Sphinx" *

Gommateshwara statue The Gommateshwara statue is a high monolithic statue on Vindhyagiri Hill in the town of Shravanbelagola in the Indian state of Karnataka. Carved of a single block of granite, it is one of the tallest monolithic statues in the world second onl ...

of Bahubali at

Sravanabelagola Shravanabelagola () is a town located near Channarayapatna of Hassan district in the Indian state of Karnataka and is from Bengaluru. The Gommateshwara Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola is one of the most important tirthas (pilgrimage dest ...

Carnataca Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnata ...

, India. * Obelisks - see this article for a list * Ogham stones, inscribed standing stones throughout Ireland * Runestones *

Standing stones A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

* Stelae *

Stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

Stone of the Pregnant Woman The Baalbek Stones are six massive Roman worked stone blocks in Baalbek (ancient Heliopolis), Lebanon, characterised by a megalithic gigantism unparallelled in antiquity. The smallest three are part of a podium wall in the Roman complex of the ...

, Baalbek. * The

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

in present-day England. * The Longstones or the Devil's Quoits, Avebury, Wiltshire, England *

Architecture of Vijayanagar The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana and Maharash ...

in present-day south India.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Monoliths * Regarding Uluru/Ayers Rock and earlier representations of it as the largest monolith
GA.gov.auWayoutback.com.au
Sandstone Geomorphology Geography terminology