{"id":282930,"date":"2019-07-31T12:07:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T16:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiT2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmpvdXJuYWxkdWNhbWVyb3VuLmNvbS9lbi9pdGFseS10by1yZXN0b3JlLWFuY2llbnQtZXRoaW9waWEtb2JlbGlzay_SAQA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-15T11:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:28:18","slug":"italy-experts-tilting-axum-obelisk-tigray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/282930","title":{"rendered":"Italy sends experts to stabilize a tilting Axum obelisk in Tigray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy sent a government mission of experts to Axum in late July 2019 to assess a tilting ancient obelisk and propose urgent consolidation work, the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/figure>\n

A stele in the main stelae field at Axum (Aksum), Ethiopia, May 2013 (Adam Jones \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

The mission followed an agreement reached when Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Emanuela Del Re visited Ethiopia. Embassy officials said the experts had checked the structural condition of the stelae and would design a sustainable safeguard plan before Rome sent Ethiopia a technical proposal.<\/p>\n

One granite stele, about 24 meters high and weighing about 160 tons, had leaned backward, raising fears it could fall. Ethiopian authorities estimated full restoration could cost about 3.9 million euro and take about 11 months, up from an earlier Italian projection of roughly 500,000 euro, Ethiopian Monitor reported.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had met Italian Ambassador Arturo Luzzi in June 2019 to activate the work, after securing Italian support in talks with then-prime minister Giuseppe Conte at the Belt and Road Forum in China. Authorities said heavy works would wait until after the rainy season.<\/p>\n

The Axum stelae field is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a core symbol of the ancient Kingdom of Aksum. Italy returned a looted Axum obelisk from Rome in 2005; it was re-erected in 2008.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa<\/a>, Ethiopian Monitor<\/a>, Ethiopian Monitor<\/a>, UNESCO: Aksum<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italy sent a government mission of experts to Axum in late July 2019 to assess a tilting ancient obelisk and propose urgent consolidation work, the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/axum-stela-main-field.jpg?fit=1280%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bBo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837812,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282930\/revisions\/837812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}