page_title: Monolith
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Monolith / Geological monoliths / North America / United States
caption_attribution_description: Beacon rock
context_page_description: 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, from μόνος and λίθος.
context_section_description: Angels Landing, Zion National Park, Utah
  Beacon Rock, Columbia River Gorge, Washington
  Bottleneck Peak and Moon, Sids Mountain, Utah
  Castle Rock, Pineville, West Virginia
  Chimney Rock, Bayard, Nebraska
  Chimney Rock, Chimney Rock, North Carolina
  Courthouse and Jail Rocks, 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, Zion National Park, Utah
  Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California
  Haystack Rock, Clatsop County, Oregon
  Looking Glass Rock, Transylvania County, North Carolina
  Morro Rock, Morro Bay, California
  Scotts Bluff National Monument, Gering, Nebraska
  Shiprock, San Juan County, New Mexico
  Stone Mountain, Stone Mountain, Georgia
  Tooth of Time, Cimarron, New Mexico
  Wolf Rock, Linn County, Oregon
caption: Beacon Rock, Washington, viewed from the west
exif: {}