The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar

THE LOST TREASURE OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

• • • • •

Solving the Oak Iswashsland Mswashystery

• • • •

 STEVEN SORA

To my wife and best friend, Terry, and our sons, Christian and Mike

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

T
hanks first to my family: my wife, Terry, for her unflagging support and generosity over the miles and the years, my sons, Christian and Mike, for their initial patience and later their interest. Thanks to Bob Meledandri for his assistance in translating, editing, and critiquing the manuscript from the earliest stages and for his friendship and support from the very beginning.

Thanks to the staff of numerous libraries and bookstores from New York to Pennsylvania to Nova Scotia who helped in procuring hard to find books and materials. Special thanks to the staff at the Public Library in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to the J. V. Fletcher Library in Westford, Massachusetts, and the Douglas N. Harding Rare Book Shop in Wells, Maine.

My appreciation for those who bring history alive and keep it alive, notably Dr. Regis Courtemanche of C. W. Post and H. S. “Pete” Cummings, Jr., of the Prince Henry Project.

Particular gratitude to everyone at Inner Traditions, especially Ehud Sperling, Jon Graham, Rowan Jacobsen, Peri Champine, Lee Wood, and Blake Maher, and to copyeditor Marcia Merryman Means for her careful work.

And finally a word of tribute to the historians and writers who risk intellectual adversity while inspiring new discovery, notably Michael Baigent, Barry Fell, Charles Hapgood, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, and Frederick Pohl.

C
ONTENTS

 
Acknowledgments

 
Introduction

1.
 The Mystery of Oak Island

2.
 Theories and Suspects: Who Dug the Money Pit and What Lies Below

3.
 Prelude to Expedition

4.
 The Scottish Discovery of America

5.
 “… If Two of Them Are Dead”

6.
 The Knights Templar and Scotland

7.
 The Secret of the Templars

8.
 The French Connection

9.
 The Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau

10.
 The Connecting Thread

11.
 The Treasure Comes to Oak Island

12.
 Oak Kings, Severed Heads, and the Secrets of the Ancients

13.
 The Grail Guardians and the Modern World

 
Epilogue: The Grail Treasure and Oak Island

 
Footnote

 
Notes

 
Bibliography

 
About the Author

 
About Inner Traditions

 
Books of Related Interest

 
Copyright

I
NTRODUCTION

A
n agent of the English king is stabbed and left to bleed to death on the altar of remote Grey Friars chapel in Scotland.

A parish priest in a mountainous village in southern France suddenly becomes immensely wealthy as a result of parchments he finds hidden in an old altar. Kings, Church leaders, and the elite of Paris take an interest as he uses his wealth to restore his church, employing such a bizarre pagan motif that few would recognize the building as Christian. The circumstances of his death are as inexplicable as his wealth.

A secret cabal meets in the dark forests of the Ardennes to hatch a scheme to loot a very specific treasure from Jerusalem. They hide their elite group within a military organization, but once their mission is complete, the cover organization is outlawed and its leaders sentenced to death.

A fog-shrouded bay becomes the center of the most massive treasure hunt in history. The project unites business leaders, a president of the United States, Hollywood actors, and assorted American and Canadian millionaires in an undertaking that will cost millions of dollars as well as human lives.

What do all these events have in common? They are all linked through time and space by a single thread. A secret society formed a thousand years ago that has survived official persecution and is still on its way to reaching its goal. This society at times has controlled the greatest amount of wealth amassed in the world, owned the world’s largest navy, started revolutions, and undermined governments. The society still exists today.

In this book you will learn of an extremely complex construction located on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia that has defied humans and modern science for two hundred years. Tiny Oak Island, only 128 acres in size, is one of 350 islands in Mahone Bay. Today it lies about one hour away from Halifax on the southern half of Nova Scotia. Well before modern times, the surrounding land had hardly been settled when evidence of a hidden treasure was discovered. The evidence is a two-hundred-foot vertical shaft protected by oaken platforms as well as cement and metal barriers. The shaft itself is booby-trapped by diagonal shafts running underground, designed to bring in thousands of gallons of ocean water. Their purpose is to stop anyone from finding the pit’s treasure. The water shafts run hundreds of feet to a false beach, where imported fiber and eelgrass were used to cover and protect the drains that supply the ocean water. The intricately designed system stops all invaders who trespass below a certain depth.

Somehow, someone managed to construct this repository hundreds of years ago. It was discovered more than two hundred years ago, but carbon dating tells us it may be much older. Somewhere under Oak Island there may be an immense treasure: buried treasure of pirates, hidden bounty of Spanish plunderers, or sacred artifacts carried overseas from Europe. No one is certain. Very little has been brought to the surface over the years except more clues. Attempting to find the treasure has already consumed an amount of money that would rival the greatest hoard ever found from a pirate treasure. The effort has cost several individuals their own fortunes and has cost several more their lives. To date, no one is wealthier for having attempted to recover the treasure.

Welcome to the Money Pit.

The past, it is said, is history. Today, two things are certain. At present, even greater technology and resources are available to those willing to spend the money to uncover the Money Pit’s secrets. And there is someone willing to make the commitment. A wealthy Canadian businessman has formed what is called the Triton Alliance with fifty-two Canadian and American investors who are underwriting the current excavation. Under the leadership of David Tobias, even the highly respectable Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute has become involved. Oak Island is under siege to give up its secrets. And what might be the value of the treasure? According to Mr. Tobias, it is worth billions.

There is a treasure lying under the surface of Oak Island. There is evidence that this treasure has a thousand-year provenance and is so valuable that to someone (we know not who), there is no price too great to pay to protect it from being discovered. Concealed in the Money Pit along with a cache of immense monetary value may be secrets that hold crucial importance for the world, even centuries after being hidden. To some, these secrets should stay hidden. To others, no price is too steep to uncover the hoard.

The premise of this book is that a secret society that has existed under several names and for more than a thousand years was responsible for gathering together what is concealed underneath Oak Island. This group, once wealthy and powerful, fell out of power and was forced to go underground. In their darkest hour they had to give up possession of their wealth, although the organization has survived. The treasure and secrets protected by the group passed to an elite Scottish family, which inherited the guardianship of the secret society. This family was instrumental in designing and building the massive underground complex and in using this remote island in the New World as their private bank.