In northern Ethiopia, in the once-great city of Axum, final preparations are under way for the return of one of Africa's most remarkable archaeological treasures.
The Axum obelisk, a 1,700-year-old stone monolith, measuring 24-metres (78 feet) high and weighing 180 tons, is returning home after more than six decades adorning a square in the Italian capital, Rome.

It was looted by Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in 1937 during Italy's brief occupation of Ethiopia and has been a bone of contention between the two countries ever since.

The Ethiopian authorities accused Italy of foot-dragging over the issue, while Rome blamed the slow progress on the difficulty and cost of moving such a massive stone between two continents.

Trading empire

The obelisk is the finest of more than 100 stone monoliths which stood in Axum, capital city of the ancient Axumite kingdom and birthplace of the biblical Queen of Sheba.


The obelisk in Rome is one of the tallest and most highly decorated

In the 3rd Century AD, the Persian philosopher Mani described Axum as one of the four greatest kingdoms in the world, along with Rome, China and Persia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4376627.stm

Thank you for this Brother Pan :toast:

Brother OldSoul has taught on the obelisks our Ancestors created. It was during one of his classes, right here in our own Black Voice Chat (http://blackvoicechat.com), that i first heard the word "obelisk." God is Good. i'm so encouraged by the fact that if i can learn in this community, directly from my own Sisters and Brothers, then surely others can too! I'm often amazed at the many times i get to put into effect, the information he shares in his class! You all really are missing a great treat every Sunday @ 3 pm ET!

As a matter of fact, my learning about obelisks (plural, is that right?) coincided with the addition of our front page (http://destee.com) to the community. That is why we have an obelisk on that page! Take a look, that's an obelisk! It is on the left, the menu of our contents! It came as a direct result of Brother OldSoul teaching us (me) about them! He has a few pages on his web site teaching on this subject too. Hopefully he'll read this thread and share a link to that information.

Brother OldSoul recently asked in class, as the Pope's funeral event was taking place, did we notice the obelisk there in Rome? i didn't notice it, but i didn't watch very much of that.

So much has been stolen from us, it's nice to see even a little bit of it being returned to its proper owner.

God is Good.

:heart:

Destee

I wonder was there any connection to this obelisk and Cleopatra's needle?

And if there is any writting on it, in which language and format was it structured in?