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One of the red granite quarries that provided stone for Ancient Egyptian temples and statues still holds a giant and unfinished obelisk.

The obelisk is roughly dressed and was in the process of being 'cut free' of the surrounding rock. A flaw in the stone developed, which is still very visible, and the work was abandoned. It is thought that this was the pair of the Lateran Obelisk, which is now in Rome, which originally stood before Karnak Temple and was commissioned for Tuthmosis III.

From the chisel marks and the ancient tools found in the area, some of the ancient quarry techniques have been determined. These include soaking wooden blocks to encourage the rock to crack and also using quartz sand slurry as an abrasive. The huge effort required to free this Obelisk is staggering, especially considering the basic tools and lack of any non-manual techniques. If the piece was freed an equally monumental effort would have been needed to move it 220 Km from the Quarry to the Nile, and then to Karnak.

Not my own site, I just love web1.0 looking sites.

When looking at Matthew's narrative of Jesus' crucifixion, one verse piqued my interest. While Pontius Pilate was debating whether to crucify Jesus (as the people wanted) or not, his wife comes to him and says. "While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”" ~ Matthew 27:19 I started thinking about what that dream might have looked like, keeping in mind "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

I'll put the story here but I'd really appreciate it if you clicked on the link!

Claudia Minervina tossed and turned all night. Her body tensing, her fists tightened until her nails drew blood from her palms.

She watched her son scream in pain while being whipped by Roman soldiers. 40 times, holding back 1 for mercy. She cried out and pushed against the wall of Roman soldiers blocking her from her beloved son.

Latens, now nearly 19, had not once been seen by the public. His mind still 10 years younger than his body. Supposed to be her greatest shame: that from her womb she created a lesser, an invalid; instead, she loved and cared for her beautiful boy anyway.

After every strike he bit into his lips until blood flowed from his mouth. Minervina clawed at the Roman soldiers before her, trying to reach her beloved. A glow shined from his head; a crown made of light lay there.

Minervina trembled in fear, her bones aching for her Latens. Her breath shook and slowed till she could no longer breathe. The one thing she could ever truly care for, the kindest man she ever knew, the son who she rejoiced with at all times was being treated like a criminal. The wall of soldiers shoved her to the ground, where she lay unable to take in a breath. As her mind grew thinner, a voice echoed.

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you do unto the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do unto me.’

She woke up with a shudder and quickly ran into Pontius Latens’ room, and hugged him with tears flowing from her eyes in the windowless room.

The next morning, she saw her husband on the balcony, with 2 prisoners before him. One, the notorious prisoner Jesus Barabbas, and the other sat quietly with a tear leaving his eye. Adorned on his head was a golden crown made of light.

She ran to her husband and put her hands on his shoulders, leaving blood stains on them, and whispered into his ear,

“Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

I wrote this essay about how Princess Diana's work with AIDS reflects Jesus with leprosy. I'm super proud of it, and would love for you to read/give feedback. Any opposing opinions or critical feedback is more than welcome!

(not monetized) I have more stuff at natebquill.com. Would love feedback on any of my works! I'm young and always looking to improve.

It's been a minute, sad the competition didn't work out (not many submissions).

Here with something I wrote for another competition that I lost. Paying to join a competition, losing, and getting an automated rejection letter sucks. Would have loved at least a singular human sentence.

Anyway, hope you enjoy my little story!

I wrote this as an exercise in creating a specific atmosphere, focusing on sentence length and structure. I found this interesting excerpt discussing "writing music" from Gary Provost, and thought I'd give it a try.

What sort of atmosphere/vibe do you get from this story? Let me know to help me improve my writing! All feedback is appreciated.

Since I got so many updoots on my proposed writing competition the other week, and no response neither positive or negative from the mods, I've decided to go through with it. Write in the comments below a short story, essay, or piece of poetry based on the prompt "Echos in the dark". The winner will be determined by whoever has the most updoots within 7 days. I'd highly recommend you start writing straight away to get the most eyes on your work. I too will be writing something for fun, but won't be included as a possible winner.

The winner of the competition will be announced in a separate post, either just winning bragging rights, or will get a shout out to any social medias or websites they're working to promote.

I have a website setup and am trying to get ad revenue (wordpress.com site). Issue is that I need a Paypal account, for which I need a phone number and bank account from the same country. I have Canadian bank stuff, but no Canadian phone number. I've checked out skype, viber, textnow, openphone, and a few other services but none work (because I'm in Lebanon and they require a phone number to sign up). Any ideas? A VPN won't work since most services are requiring that I sign in using my phone number, which is Lebanese.

I was thinking about how to bring a bit of life into this community, and I was thinking that a weekly writing competition would be great. Perhaps instead of just short stories, we could include a further focus on poetry, short essays, and of course still including short stories. I think the prompts could be less restrictive than those on r/writingprompts over on Reddit and similar communities; instead they could be things like "Gaza-Israeli conflict", opening the floor to poetry, essays, commentaries, or short stories. Would love to see your prompt suggestions.

Furthermore, how would the voting go? Perhaps the mods could help with that, perhaps it could be based on the Lemmy voting system? This has been the most difficult part for me to figure out so far.

In place of a cash prize (I'm broke), I think a shout out to any websites, social media pages, or just your Lemmy account right here could work as a prize.

Would love to see what you guys think: prompts, choosing winners, a larger platform for shout outs to make the prize more enticing.

In bed? Cafe? At a desk? Do you bring snacks? Write caffeinated? I'll usually have a coffee and write for an hour before I get too jittery and I'll do some physical exercise. It's an okay schedule considering that I'm still in school.

Used WordPress.com to make the website, wasn't the worst experience. I'm going to get the pro version and buy myself an actual domain soon enough, but it's been fun sharing my stuff online in any capacity. Constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated!