Visitors to Rome soon become fascinated with the 13 ancient obelisks (8 Egyptian and 5 made by the Romans in imitation of the Egyptian - additionally there are 5 modern obelisks) that mark such majestic urban spaces as Piazza del Popolo (see image above), Piazza San Pietro, Piazza Montecitorio, and Piazza del Quirinale. The eight Egyptian obelisks were brought to Rome after 31 BC, when the Roman troops led by the Emperor-to-be Augustus decidedly routed those of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Besides putting the cinematic lovers out of business, the Battle of Actium marked the accession of Egypt into the Roman Empire. Elated about bringing such an old and wealthy Mediterranean civilization under their reign, the Romans celebrated by loading obelisks on boats, transporting them across the Mediterranean, erecting them in ancient Rome, and then eventually crafting their own look-alike monuments. Any resident or visitor to the city would have understood such obelisks to be trophies indicating Roman dominance over Egypt and North Africa.
Fast forward several millenia to the year 1937 when the Fascist dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, annexed Ethiopia in an effort to build a modern Roman Empire. Again following the model of ancient Emperors, Mussolini seized an 24-meter-tall obelisk dating to the third century BC from the holy city of Axum and had it transported to Rome (see image below) where it was erected next near the Circus Maximus, aside his “Ministry for Italian Africa” (now the headquarters of the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization).
In 1947, after World War II, Italy signed a peace treaty with Ethiopia in which it agreed to return the obelisk, but it took a further half a century for that to happen with the obelisk becoming a source of contention between the two countries. That Italy ignored this obligation for so long outraged Ethiopians, who hold the city of Axum (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) to be a place of special historic and religious importance. It was the seat of the powerful pre-Christian Axumite Empire, which thrived during the first millennium A.D., and also remains the holiest of cities for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, who believe that the Ark of the Covenant resides in a church there.
In 1997, under pressure from Italian, Ethiopian, and British intellectuals, a treaty was signed in which Italy agreed once again to return the obelisk - but again they did nothing to further the process, citing the border war between Ethiopia and Eretria as the cause for non-conformance. Then, in a dramatic nighttime thunderstorm in 2002, lightning struck the obelisk and sent pieces of it crashing to the ground - it was then that efforts to return the now-damaged antiquity got serious.
Finally, in 2005, the obelisk was dismantled and returned to Ethiopia. The process was an onerous one, best described by Ian Limbach in Archaeology Magazine:
When the Fascists removed the monument in the 1930s, they relied on newly built roads and bridges leading to the seaport at Massaua. Seventy years later, the infrastructure is decrepit and the port belongs to Eritrea. Relations between it and Ethiopia are virtually nonexistent.
The sole option was to fly the stele back in three 60-ton pieces on a Russian-built Antonov 124, the only plane capable of transporting such a load. Because Axum lies nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, the thin air meant that the gargantuan plane could only land when the temperature was below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But since the airstrip lacks navigational aids, a night landing was ruled out. The only option was to land exactly at dawn. “Did we have doubts it could be done? Oh, yeah, right up to the end!” says Paul Furlonger, commercial vice president at Antonov Airlines.
Yesterday, the Italian ambassador to the East African country announced that Ethiopia is at last ready to re-erect the obelisk in Axum and will commence the project later this year after the final technical wrinkles are ironed out. Ambassador Raffaele de Lutio said that a concrete slipway leading up to the obelisk’s site had been completed and that the base itself has been reinforced to prevent the monument causing damage to a recently discovered necropolis. He voiced the hope that the official ceremony will take place ”within the first week of September, just before the Ethiopian New Year which falls on September 11”.
For more on the obelisks of Rome, read our story about the erection of the Vatican obelisk.
