The Rockship of Masuda, a Mysterious Monolith in Japan
Masuda-no-iwafun, translated literally as the Rockship of Masuda, is a bizarre monolith of unknown origin or purpose located in the Nara prefecture of Japan.
It is regarded as a technical marvel for its age, but nobody knows why the monolith was made.
It was carved out of difficult to carve granite, with intentional lattice chiseling on the sides, an oddly flattened top and two cube-like depressions carved into the top, with ridge lines carved parallel to the cubes.
It measures 36 feet in length, 26 feet wide, 15 feet high, weighing approximately 800 tons. The cube-like pits chiseled into it are 5.25 by 5.25 across and 3.9 feet deep.
There are several theories as to why the monolith was created.
Some believe it was created for astrological observation, with proponents of this theory saying that the two large holes may have supported vertical pillars with a crossbeam used as a sighting device for the observation of celestial positions. The ridges also perfectly align with the mountains in the area and with the sunset around the beginning of the spring doyo period, a seasonal marker in the old calendar.
The area is peppered with burial grounds and so some believe that the monolith was meant to become a grave for someone of importance, but the monolith does not contain a grave and no remains have been found nearby.
Locals claim that the monolith is a Buddhist shrine, and the area is full of early buddhist temples, shrines ritual sites and religious monuments. Another similar theory suggests that the monolith was the pedestal for a massive buddhist monument connected to the Masuda Pond with an inscription that may have been written by the famous Buddhist monk Kōbō Daishi.
None of these theories have been able to explain the origin of the Rockship of Masuda, and the massive monolith remains a mystery.