Ruins of the Crusaders’ Banqueting Hall, Athleet 

Elizabeth Thompson captured in watercolor the Ruins of the Crusaders’ Banqueting Hall at Athleet. Here, the solitary column emerges from the earth, a silent, stoic reminder of vanished grandeur and human endeavor. Notice how Thompson frames the ruins not just as stone, but as symbols of memory. The column, a phallic symbol, echoes the Egyptian obelisks—pointers to the heavens and assertions of power. Throughout history, such forms recur, from the Roman columns celebrating conquest to the modern skyscrapers that scrape the sky, each a testament to human aspiration and dominance. Consider the emotional resonance of ruins. They evoke not just loss but also the cyclical nature of civilization, of rise and fall. This psychological undercurrent speaks to our collective anxieties about legacy, about what remains after we are gone. The column remains, embodying a powerful reminder of the continuous interplay between destruction and regeneration, between the past and our fleeting present.