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I spent several days in Axum some years ago on a trip to the Blue Nile Falls at Gondar. The whole area was just bizarre. I rode on roads that the Egytians built that couldn't be built today with the machinery that we have. The Queen of Sheba's bath tub was really wild. The old churches that had been built by the Copt's and the Portugese were just amazing. The obolisk's were all over. There were 60- 70 in the town as I remember. The big ones had been destroyed or removed. The amazing thing was that most of the obolisks were single stone pieces that were from a quarry about a 150 miles away and they were carried over the mountains by primative people as single, intact pieces of stone. We couldn't do that today in that part of the world. A really strange place to visit with a history that is unbelievable.

Fascinating trip and lucky you for having made it.

Several Ethiopians I know are overjoyed at the news of the return of the obelisk. However, as you are probably aware, Ethiopia is struggling with spome very serious problems including a growing Muslim influence and tribal unrest.