ADDIS ABABA, April 26(Xinhuanet)-- Major archeological vestiges have been discovered at Ethiopia's Axum obelisk site, UN experts said Tuesday.

"Underground chambers and arcades have been found in the vicinity of the original location of the obelisk," said a statement released here by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO)

"Geo-radar and electrotomographic prospection, the most advanced technologies for underground observation, revealed the existence of several vast funerary chambers under the site's parking ground which was built in 1963," it said.

UNESCO experts were sent to prepare for the elevation of the Axum obelisk at its original location.

The last segment of the 160-ton, 24-meter high stele arrived atthe airport of Axum Monday morning after 68 years in Rome.

According to the experts, the site is a royal necropolis used by several dynasties before the Christian era, and it stretches considerably beyond the perimeter of the present archeological site, at the foot of Mount Saint George and Mount Mariam.

A number of tombs, some of them pillaged, have been discovered in Axum since the 1970s. Their riches are at the archeological museums of Axum and Addis Ababa. Only one of the Axum tombs, the Tomb of the False Door, is open to the public.

The archeological site of Axum consists of three parts and contains 176 stelae: the Northern site, the Gudit stelae field(named after the Jewish queen who took power in the 10th century) and the central area where the stele, now known as the Axum obelisk, used to stand. Its foundations form a 6-meter and 10 sq meter hole.

According to experts, pillagers caused the obelisk to topple over in either the 10th or the 16th century. Enditem