Nexilist Notebook

I have always been fascinated by the story of the Knights Templar. A religious order founded in 1129 to protect pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem, they built a fortress on the Temple Mount. There is evidence that they excavated the ruins of Solomon’s temple. Legend says that they found something very important that gave them leverage in circles of power. They grew rich and powerful and were regarded as some of the fiercest warriors in the Holy Lands during the Crusades. Fearing their power and coveting their wealth, the King Philip of France turned the Pope against them and raided all their French strongholds in 1307. Although the king captured the Grand Master Jacques de Molay, the fabulous treasure of the Templars had disappeared. Some say the Templars retreated to Scotland and laid low after the raids across Europe. Two hundred years later, the Scottish Rights of the Knights Templar entered the Masonic ritual across Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar

International Banking:

As the Templars spread their fortresses across Europe and the Holy lands, they offered commercial services to travelers. A pilgrim could deposit gold at a Templar stronghold in England and be issued a receipt, encrypted in a special Templar code. As the pilgrim traveled to the Holy Lands, they could stop at Templar installations on the way and withdraw portions of their deposit by presenting the receipt. This system was a forerunner of our modern international banking system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Knights_Templar#Bankers

Shroud of Turin:

The Shroud of Turin is a famous cloth with the image of a man imprinted in some mysterious fashion. Some say it is the burial shroud of Jesus himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_turin

A group of researchers came up with a fascinating theory about the Shroud. They covered people in paint and rolled them in cloth to try to duplicate the image. They found that the best position for creating the image was of a man in a bed with his back and knees propped up. They point out the lactic acid can stain cloth and that lactic acid is given off in sweat when a person is under extreme stress. Jacque de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar was captured and tortured in the Templar headquarters in Paris. The Templars used burial shrouds in their rituals and he could have been wrapped in one after the torture while he was being nursed back to health so he could stand trial. His lieutenant’s family had nursed him after he was tortured and they moved to Turin years later. They could have kept the cloth and discovered the image imprinted by lactic acid. The Shroud first appeared in Turin about that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin#Alternate_14th_century_origins

Oak Island:

Oak Island is a small island off the south coast of Nova Scotia. In 1795, Donald McGinnis found a tree with a block and tackle tied to it above a circular depression. When he dug under the tree, he found a layer of flagstones a few feet below the surface. They kept digging and discovered layers of logs every 10 feet.  Around 1803, a company excavated down to 90 feet, still finding layers of logs every 10 feet. They also found layers of coconut fiber. Later a drill brought up fragments of wood, coconut fiber, and coins. A written account from 1862 says that they found a carved stone at the 90 foot level that said that there was two million pounds buried forty feet below. Their excavation flooded to the 33 foot level and, unable to bail out the water, they abandoned the dig.

Subsequently, another company used a drill to penetrate further down and brought up pieces of metal and wood in multiple layers. Many different groups tried and failed to dig down to the treasure. It turned out that a clever system of tunnels had been dug so that if anyone sank a shaft, the sea would rush in at the high tide and flood the hole. The treasure of Oak Island remains hidden to this day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island

One theory of the origin of the treasure says that the Sinclair family with historical ties to the Templars, hid the treasure that was smuggled out of France in Scotland and then brought it to Oak Island. They had connections to a hydraulic engineer who could have devised the system of tunnels to flood any attempts to dig out the treasure.

http://www.atlantisrising.com/issue20/20templar.html