At the end of 1935, following the Italian occupation, Italian soldiers found King Ezana's obelisk of Axum fallen, broken in three sections, and semi-underground. The stele was one of about fifty obelisks in the city of Axum at the time of the discovery. In 1937, it was taken as war booty and moved to Italy. The monolith stele was cut into five pieces and transported by truck along the tortuous route between Axum and the port of Massawa, taking five trips over a period of two months. It arrived via ship in Naples (on a ship called "Adwa"), on March 27, 1937. It was then transported to Rome, where it was restored, reassembled and erected on Porta Capena square in front of the Ministry for Italian Africa (later the headquarters of the United Nations's Food and Agriculture Organization) and the Circus Maximus. It was officially unveiled on October 28, 1937 to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the March on Rome. The operation was coordinated by Ugo Monneret de Villard.