Bolt from blue knocks obelisk
2002-05-28 11:26
Rome - A bolt of lightning has damaged one of Rome's most- photographed obelisks, scattering rubble on a roadway to be used just hours later by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) leaders driving to a summit conference here.
The lightning knocked the top off the Obelisk of Axum, a trophy seized in Ethiopia by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's forces.
Addis Ababa has demanded for half a century that the monument be returned, but the two sides have never agreed about who would pay.
The road past the obelisk is part of the route being used Tuesday by Nato delegates travelling to the
venue of a summit at Pratica del Mare, south of the Italian capital.
Workers were clearing the debris after the lightning strike just before midnight on Monday in an electrical storm over the capital.
During the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1937, the 160-ton obelisk, originally a tomb monument, was uprooted and taken to Rome.
It stood 24m high and was engraved with patterns of windows
and doors.
Its Roman site is outside the United Nations food and agriculture organisation headquarters. The building housed the ministry for Africa during the fascist period. A 1947 peace treaty between Rome and Addis Ababa provided for its return, but the costs were never settled.
In 1997, Italy appropriated 1 billion lire (about 400,000) for
the relocation, but after fresh delays, Addis Ababa complained to
the UN's cultural organisation this year and appealed to Unesco to exert pressure on Rome. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA