Needed: Strong plane

2004-02-10 01:01

Rome - Italian and Ethiopian officials are searching for an airplane strong enough to carry the 70-ton pieces of the 1 700-year-old Axum Obelisk from Italy to Ethiopia, an Ethiopian embassy official said on Monday.

Engineers dismantled the obelisk at the end of last year from where it stood near the Circus Maximus in central Rome, where it was placed as a prize after the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia in 1937.

Divided into three sections, the obelisk is now in storage near a Rome airport.

"We are waiting for an airplane," said Eshetu Yisma of the Ethiopian embassy in Rome. As soon as a plane is found that can accommodate the weight of the obelisk, it will be flown back, said Yisma.

Each section of the obelisk weighs 70 to 80 tons, said Yisma. The three pieces will be transported individually and reassembled at their original location in Axum, northern Ethiopia.

The Italian government has agreed to pay for the transportation. Two committees of engineers and archaeologists in Italy and Ethiopia have been coordinating the project.

For decades, Ethiopian officials have demanded the return of the obelisk.

Italy agreed to send the monument back in 1998, but a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea put those plans on hold.

In May, it was badly damaged by a lightning-strike which smashed the top of the monument, causing stone pieces to crumble to the ground. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA