April 12, 2005
The bit they left behind
The Italians were not very thorough when they took the obelisk from Ethiopia back in 1937. They removed the four or five main pieces. But, according to the UNESCO archaeologists I met on the site yesterday, they left this piece behind. It is part of the curved top of the obelisk. The man sitting next to it is Jim Williams, a senior programme specialist at UNESCO.
Apparently the square hole was used to fix a brass sun and moon shaped mask onto the front of the monument – to make it shine out at the top.
The Italians filled in the gap with a carved piece of stone in Rome which was later dislodged by a lightening strike. It wasn't the only missing piece. Again according to the archaeologists, on the way to the Red Sea port of Massowa in 1937, the truck carrying the bottom part proved too heavy for a bridge. They ended up hacking off part of the obelisk's rough foundation to get in across. It now lies somewhere at the bottom of an Eritrean ravine.
The UNESCO team is currently surveying the obelisk site to prepare a report on whether it would be safe to re-erect the returned obelisk in its old site. The whole area is riddles with tombs and buried passages that could, in theory, collapse if subjected to any extra weight.
Posted by aheavens at April 12, 2005 1:54 PM