An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. They were called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians; the Greeks who saw them used the Greek term'obeliskos' to describe them, this word passed into Latin and English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic. Most modern obelisks are made of several stones. Obelisks played a vital role in their religion and were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of the temples; the word "obelisk" as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, the Greek traveller, was one of the first classical writers to describe the objects. A number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the "Unfinished Obelisk" found hewn from its quarry at Aswan; these obelisks are now dispersed around the world, fewer than half of them remain in Egypt. The earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the 68-foot 120-metric-ton red granite Obelisk of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Al-Matariyyah in modern Heliopolis.

The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, during the religious reformation of Akhenaten it was said to have been a petrified ray of the Aten, the sundisk. Benben was the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu upon which the creator god Atum settled in the creation story of the Heliopolitan creation myth form of Ancient Egyptian religion; the Benben stone is the top stone of the Egyptian pyramid. It is related to the Obelisk, it is hypothesized by New York University Egyptologist Patricia Blackwell Gary and Astronomy senior editor Richard Talcott that the shapes of the ancient Egyptian pyramid and obelisk were derived from natural phenomena associated with the sun. The pyramid and obelisk's significance have been overlooked the astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset: the zodiacal light and sun pillars respectively. Ancient Nubian kings of the twenty-fifth Dynasty sought to legitimize their rule over Egypt by constructing Egyptianizing monuments in the Middle Nile region.

Historical sources mention. The obelisk was found at the site of Kadakol, it had been cut down to make it into a column for one of the early Christian churches in the area of Old Dongola. Today the obelisk is exhibited in the National Museum in Khartoum; the obelisk is inscribed with the kings official titulary: Strong-bull, Appearing-in-Dominion, King-of-Upper-and-Lower-Egypt, Two-ladies, Ruler-of-Egypt, Son-of-Rê, Piy: what he made as his monument for his father Amen-Rê, lord of. An obelisk of King Senkamanisken was found at Gebel Barkal in 1916 by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition to Sudan. There are remains of another small obelisk inscribed with the cartouche of King Aktisanes at the site of Gebel Barkal. Around 30 B. C. after Cleopatra "the last Pharaoh" committed suicide, Rome took control of Egypt. The Ancient Romans were awestruck by the obelisks they saw, looted the various temple complexes, in one case they destroyed walls at the Temple of Karnak to haul them out.

There are now more than twice as many obelisks that were seized and shipped out by Rome as remain in Egypt. The majority were dismantled during the Roman period over 1,700 years ago and the obelisks were sent to different locations; the largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square at the west side of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet tall and a weight of 455 metric tons. More well known is the iconic 25 metres, 331-metric-ton obelisk at Saint Peter's Square. Brought to Rome by the Emperor Caligula in AD 37, it has stood at its current site and on the wall of the Circus of Nero, flanking St Peter's Basilica; the elder Pliny in his Natural History refers to the obelisk's transportation from Egypt to Rome by order of the Emperor Gaius as an outstanding event. The barge that carried it had a huge mast of fir wood. One hundred and twenty bushels of lentils were needed for ballast. Having fulfilled its purpose, the gigantic vessel was no longer wanted. Therefore, filled with stones and cement, it was sunk to form the foundations of the foremost quay of the new harbour at Ostia.

Pope Sixtus V was determined to erect the obelisk in front of St Peter's, of which the nave was yet to be built. He had a full-sized wooden mock-up erected within months of his election. Domenico Fontana, the assistant of Giacomo Della Porta in the Basilica's construction, presented the Pope with a little model crane of wood and a heavy little obelisk of lead, which Sixtus himself was able to raise by turning a little winch with his finger. Fontana was given the project. Half-buried in the debris of the ages, it was first excavated; the re-erection, scheduled for 14 September, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, was watched by a large crowd. It was a famous feat of engineering, which made the reputation of Fontana, who detailed it in a book illustrated with copperplate etchings, Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V, which itself set a new standard in communicating technical informat

Love and War is an anthology of fantasy stories published by TSR, Inc. in 1987. It was published under the Dragonlance brand name and is set in that brand's fictional world of Krynn, it is the ninth Dragonlance novel to be published, the third book in the "Dragonlance Tales" series, all three books of which are anthologies of stories set in the Dragonlance milieu. The other two books in this series are The Magic of Krynn and Kender, Gully Dwarves, Gnomes. Unlike the Dragonlance novels published up until that point, the Tales books do not follow one group of characters, but instead range across the entire scope of the setting; the book is a compilation of 10 short stories from various authors taking place in the fictional world of Krynn: "A Good Knight's Tale" by Harold Bakst. Told by a Knight of Solamnia, this is a tale that of a selfish father, overprotective over his daughter, which leads to a broken heart. "A Painter's Vision" by Scott Siegel. When a passionate artist Seron dies in an accidental fire, his widow Kyra, finds the strength to carry on his memory through a painting.

Kyra carries on a strange relationship with a dragon named Tosch, who had befriended her husband before he died. "Hunting Destiny" by Nick O'Donohoe. This is the tale of the undead who haunt Darken Wood, in another of Donohoe's interpretation of an event that took place in the novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight. "Hide and Go Seek" by Nancy Varian Berberick. Starts with a captive boy named Keli, captured by a man named Tigo and a goblin named Staag. No sooner is Tasslehoff Burrfoot captured, they are rescued by The Companions. "By the Measure" by Richard A. Knaak. "The Exiles" by Tonya C. Cook, it is the story of Sturm Brightblade's childhood as he and his mother are captured by a ship with guards from an island called Kernaffi. "Heart of Goldmoon" by Laura Hickman and Kate Novak. "Raistlin's Daughter" by Dezra Despain. The mysterious tale of the legend of a daughter fathered by Raistlin Majere; this tale is reprinted in the novel, The Second Generation. "Silver and Steel" by Kevin Randle. "From the Yearning for War and the War's Ending" by Michael Williams

Merocyanines pertain to the class of polymethine dyes which are defined by a set structural properties. Merycyanines belong to the group of dyes referred to as functional dyes where their applications are not only determined by their colour but their valuable chemical properties; these dyes are intensely colored and have large extinction coefficients. Merocyanine 540 was the first fluorescent dye used for measuring membrane potential, while Brooker's merocyanine and related compounds are notable for their solvatochromatic properties. Conventionally, merocyanine class includes streptocyanines and their analogues where both the nitrogen atom and carbonyl group can form part of a heterocyclic system. Like ionic cyanines, merocyanines contain two terminal heteroatoms and a polymethine chain in their chromophores. Cyanine J-aggregate