Cheers erupted as the massive cargo jet carrying the first piece of the funerary monument broke through the early-morning mist of the shrouded sky of this northern city that was the centre of ancient Ethiopia’s civilisation.

The Russian-made Antonov 124 cargo jet, one of only two types of plane large enough to carry the granite monument’s three parts, landed smoothly in landlocked Ethiopia on a runway specially built to accommodate its bulk.

“I am now in the last stretch of my life on this earth and I will go to my grave with the greatest happiness I have experienced – seeing the return of the obelisk,” said Abebe Alemayhue, 82, who remembered how Italian invaders surrounded Axum and carried the obelisk away under heavy guard.

The jet, paid for by Italy and flown from Rome, landed nearly 60 years after Italy promised to return the 24m obelisk after its World War 2 defeat.

But arguments and logistical challenges kept the obelisk in Rome, where fascist dictator Benito Mussolini had ordered it erected in a flourish of imperial grandeur reminiscent of ancient Roman conquerors.

Ethiopian Orthodox churchmen clad in gold and blue ornamental robes raised high a golden cross and blessed the monument as two cranes pulled the 60-ton segment out of the jet’s cavernous hold onto a waiting flatbed truck.

Protected by a metal casing, it is to be joined by two other segments in the next 10 days and then re-erected at the site where Italian troops in 1937 split it into three and carried it to Rome as a symbol of victory over Ethiopia.

The return of cultural treasures, from looted Nazi art to colonial-era artifacts, has become a global issue.

For example, Greece has repeatedly requested the return of the Elgin Marbles, fragments from Athens’s Parthenon temple removed in the early 19th century, from London’s British Museum.

In 1980, the United Nations’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) set up a committee that seeks to promote the return of cultural property to its country of origin.

In Axum, 850km north of the capital Addis Ababa, residents took to the streets, schools were closed for the day and the buildings festooned with banners of red, green and yellow – the colours of the Ethiopian flag.

“The obelisk is my country’s most precious treasure. This is a day I will never forget and will tell my three children about its history, how it was stolen and how it was returned,” said Boursier Nawumie, who came home from Paris to see the return.

Nesanet Asfaw, Ethiopian minister of state for information, thanked Italy for its co-operation.

“We have waited too long for this day,” she said.

Italy’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Guido Latella, said Italy was spending $5-million (about R30-million) on transporting and re-erecting the monument.

It weighs 160 tons and the protective casing adds 20 tons during transport.

The re-erection of the stele – as archaeologists call the obelisk – is considered by many a serious challenge even for modern engineers, let alone its ancient builders who are said to have used thousands of men and elephants to put it up.

The obelisk is considered to be among the finest of more than 120 here, the city of the legendary Queen of Sheba who ruled 1 000 years before the birth of Christ.

Legend has it that God bestowed his favour on the city after the queen’s son Menelik I stole the Ark of the Covenant from his father King Solomon in Jerusalem and brought it to Axum, where many Ethiopians believe it remains to this day. – Reuters