Highway to the gods

Often the sky turns grey and the night fills will flashes and heavy noise which I will call thunder and lightning. There are no known explanations for these phenomenon, or even a meaning for this word phenomenon, so I can only presume that the gods are angry.

This must have come up before because I found evidence of a mighty structure built to transport people up to the gods. Large pillars of a stone like substance support a flat, black surface that seems to head up into the heavens, gathering positive energy as it spirals upwards.

I found no gods on the curving fortress of stone, only slow moving, smoke-belching chariots of plastic and steel. Maybe the stairs to the stars aren't high enough?