Wanted: Really big plane
2003-04-30 14:47
Rome - Italy is ready to return to Ethiopia a 4 000 year-old obelisk plundered by fascist leader Benito Mussolini over half a century ago but there is a hitch: finding a plane big enough to transport it, Italian media reports said on Wednesday.
"We have three problems to solve," junior foreign minister Alfredo Mantica told Italian daily La Repubblica.
Those three problems are that the Axum obelisk - an Ethiopian national treasure - is 24m high, weighs 200 tons and needs to be cut into four pieces; it then has to be stored in a warehouse before beginning the hazardous journey home by air to Ethiopia.
It is this last part of the long journey home that has had Italian experts scratching their heads.
"The Ethiopian government wanted us to transport the obelisk by plane, but there are only two aircraft in the world capable of carrying blocks weighing 50 to 60 tons - and who knows whether the runway in Ethiopia will withstand the immense weight," Mantica said.
The obelisk, a funeral stele made of granite dating from the third century BC, has been standing outside what is now the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation ever since it was brought to Rome from then Abyssinia in 1937 following Italy's invasion of the country.
The Axum obelisk has been a bone of contention between the two countries for over half a century, with the Ethiopian government accusing Rome of stalling over its return since an agreement between the two governments was signed in 1947.
Italy finally began the procedure for the return of the monument in July 2002.
Last year the obelisk was damaged in a violent storm and work to restore it has just been completed. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA