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Word of the Day: Obelisk
If you read my posts often, you know that I like to write about abstract and intangible English expressions.
It’s not very often I write about a thing, but today I choose to write about Obelisks.
At first, you may think obelisks are just giant towers.
On that, you are right, but there’s more to them.
Obelisks were first made by the Egyptians to honour important people or events.
They were carved out of one piece of rock and then stood on one end.
It’s a fantastic feat of engineering.
There are obelisks all over Rome, but the Romans didn’t make them.
They were brought back as trophies of war by the Roman armies.
If you thought the construction of obelisks was pretty amazing, imagine taking one down and getting it across the Mediterranean to Rome.
I’ve often wondered if these obelisks should be given back.
I created a lesson a while back about how many countries are fighting to have stolen historical and religious artifacts removed/stolen by Western countries returned to them.
There are multiple obelisks in Rome, and I’ve never heard if Egypt wants them back or not.
I’ve always thought it quite funny that the one in St. Peter’s Square has a Christian cross on top of it.
One of the 10 commandments is ‘Thou shalt not steal.’
Sure, the Catholic Church did not put the obelisk there, but there is such a thing as stolen property.
I don’t know.
It just seems very weird and contradictory.
Anyway, now that I’ve got that off my chest, what do you think? Should the obelisks be given back to Egypt?
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 74.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.