Ethiopia reerects ancient Axum obelisk
AFP

October 24, 2007

ADDIS ABABA -- Ethiopia has started reerecting its famed Axum obelisk 30 months after it returned to the country from Italy, where it stayed for 70 years, a UN expert said Wednesday.

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is overseeing the operation, said preliminary work to restore the 1,700-year-old obelisk on its original site has been completed.

"At the moment, the obelisk exists in three main pieces, but we have prepared the foundations, brought on the necessary equipment, and mobilized our labor resources at the site," UNESCO expert Sumeko Ohinata said.

"It's a very complex project, we don't want any impacts on other obelisks, so we are working to achieve stability," she added.

The three pieces of the 150-tonne (165-ton) stela are being reerected at a cost of $4 million, Ohinata said.

"We are aiming to complete the reerection by the end of September next year, but the entire process will be finalized a few months later," she added.

Italian soldiers carted away the 24-meter (78-foot), 3rd-century-BC granite funeral stela on the orders of then-dictator Benito Mussolini, 70 years ago, during his attempt to colonize Ethiopia.

Since then, the obelisk had remained in Italy, standing outside the Rome headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization until the last of its three pieces arrived in Axum in April, 2005.

Axum, founded around BC 100, was the capital of the Axumite kingdom that flourished as a major trading center from the 5th century BC to the 10th century AD.

At its height, the kingdom extended across areas in what are today Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Source: Middle East Times