Ethiopia said on Monday the first piece of an ancient Axum obelisk will return home from Italy on April 11, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday.

Solomon Abebe told journalists that the top piece of the obelisk will leave Rome on a cargo plane on April 10 and be flown directly to Axum a day later.

The obelisk has been cut into three sections to facilitate its transportation and is now at Rome airport waiting to be flown to Ethiopia, he said.

Ahead of the obelisk's return, the Ethiopian authorities, responsible for its transportation from Axum airport to the archaeological site, have already modernized the airport and reinforced the two bridges it will cross on its journey, newspapers said.

The stele, weighing 160 tons and standing 24 meters high, is around 1,700 years old and has become a symbol of the Ethiopian people's identity. In 1937, the invaders of the then fascist Italy have dismantled and taken it on the orders of Benito Mussolini.

Ethiopia is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world. The first known civilization in Ethiopia was that of the mighty Aksumite Kingdom. Having established itself in 1,000 BC, in northern Ethiopia, it eventually spread over all of northern and even central Ethiopia. The ancient city of Axum, which was started by the Aksumites, was Ethiopia's first capital city.