Aksum Obelisk - inauguration ceremony

The inauguration ceremony of Aksum Obelisk will take place 4 September 2008. The 3rd and last block of the obelisk was successfully re-installed on 31 July 2008 by UNESCO teams. Re-installation project started in 2005 when the governments of Ethiopia and Italy requested UNESCO to send an evaluation team to Aksum to prepare for the return of the obelisk that has been in Rome since 1937. The engineering design was developed by 2006. See the time-line of the obelisk's re-installation.
The Wolrd Heritage describes Aksum as the "massive ruins, dating from between the 1st and the 13th century A.D., include monolithic obelisks, giant stelae, royal tombs and the ruins of ancient castles."