AN Egyptian obelisk has completed the first stage of its journey to Japan after being removed from its North-East home of the past 47 years.
Specialists were called in to help ease the 3,000-year-old artefact from its concrete base at the Oriental Museum, in Elvet Hill Road, Durham City.
The structure, which is about 7ft high and weighs about 400kg, was lifted out of the building with a gantry and placed on the back of a truck.
It was driven to a storage depot in the South where it will stay until it is shipped to Japan where it will go on a year-long tour.
The obelisk dates from the reign of Amenhotep II in about 1420BC and arrived at the museum, which is run by Durham University, in 1960, having belonged to the Duke of Northumberland and been displayed at Alnwick Castle.
Museum curator Craig Barclay said it had been expected that the operation would take three days, but had only taken one.
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