ALCHEMY

Alchemy is generally defined as an art which aims to change impure metals into silver or gold. The goal of the Great Work of alchemy, called also the Art, is the "Philosopher's Stone".

The Stone was viewed as a magical touchstone that could immediately perfect any substance or situation. The Philosopher's Stone has been associated with the Salt of the World, the Astral Body, the Elixir, and even Jesus Christ.

The Elixir of the alchemists has essentially the same ability to perfect any substance. When applied to the human body, the Elixir cures diseases and restores youth. The alchemists' dream is to attain knowledge of the mysterious Philosopher's Stone, or "that Elixir by which such wonders are performed".

The basis of all the alchemical transformations required to obtain the Stone (called the Great Work) is seven-stepped formula described by the Emerald Tablet of Hermes.

The Emerald Tablet of Hermes The Tablet probably first appeared in the West in editions of the psuedo-Aristotlean Secretum Secretorum which was actually a translation of the Kitab Sirr al-Asar, a book of advice to kings which was translated into latin by Johannes Hispalensis c. 1140 and by Philip of Tripoli c.1243. Other translations of the Tablet may have been made during the same period by Plato of Tivoli and Hugh of Santalla, perhaps from different sources.

• The Emerald Tablet of Hermes - Translation

1. This true without lying, certain & most true. That which is below is like that which is above & that wch is above is like yet which is below to do ye miracles of one only thing.

2. And as all things have been & arose from one by ye mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.

3. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nourse.
4. The father of all perfection in ye whole world is here.

5. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth. Seperate thou ye earth from ye fire, ye subtile from the gross sweetly wth great indoustry.

6. It ascends from ye earth to ye heaven & again it desends to ye earth and receives ye force of things superior & inferior.

7. By this means you shall have ye glory of ye whole world & thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.

8. Its force is above all force. for it vanquishes every subtile thing & penetrates every solid thing. So was ye world created.

9. From this are & do come admirable adaptaions whereof ye means (Or process) is here in this.
10. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of ye philosophy of ye whole world.
11. That which I have said of ye operation of ye Sun is accomplished & ended.

• Translation of Issac Newton c. 1680

Seven Steps of the Philosopher's Stone Formula Although the alchemists went to great pains to conceal the true order of the steps of the formula for making the Stone, the correct order according to the Emerald Tablet is: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, Coagulation. The first four steps take place Below, in the realm of matter. The last three steps take place Above, in the realm of mind and creative imagination.

BLACK WORK
Saturn / black crow perching on top of a skull / Visita = Putrefaction Jupiter / black crow watching itself dissolving / Interiora = Dissolution

WHITE WORK
Mars / two white soul birds retrieving the remains / Terra = Separation Sun / ascending soul & spirit birds leave Earth and lift the five-spiked crown / Rectificanto = Conjunction
RED WORK
Venus / soul & spirit birds nest in a tree and brood over their egg / Inveniens = Fermentation Mercury / unicorn lying in front of a rose bush / Occultum = Distillation Moon / androgynous youth emerging from an open grave / Lapidem = Coagulation.

The Stone of the Philosophers

There are two primary ways of knowing reality:
1. The rational, deductive, argumentative, intellectual thinking that is accepted by the science and our patriarchal Western culture. The alchemists called this Solar Consciousness and assigned it many code words, such as the Sun, Sulfur, the King, the Father, Spirit, and ultimately, the One Mind of the universe. This involves left-brain activity like linear thought, schematics, formulae, arguments and logic.
2. The intuitive way of thinking, also called intelligence of the heart, a non-linear, image-driven way of thinking that is an accepted tool of the arts and religion. The alchemists called the other way of knowing Lunar Consciousness. Among its many symbols are the Moon, Mercury, the Queen, the Holy Ghost, Soul, and ultimately, the One Thing of the universe. This involves right-brain activity dealing with drawings, paintings, mandalas, symbols, music, and meditation.The alchemists believed that perfection could only be achieved by working with both Solar and Lunar ways of knowing and ultimately uniting them in a third state of Stellar Consciousness. Stellar Consciousness is a state of incorruptible wisdom symbolized by the heroic Child that resulted from the marriage of the King and Queen, as well as by Salt, Gold, the Philosopher's Stone, the Astral Body, and of course, the Stars themselves.

GREATEST HOAX : BOOK OF MORMON

The Book of Mormon is one of the sacred texts of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is regarded by most, if not all, Latter Day Saint groups as divinely revealed and is named after the prophet–historian Mormon who, according to the text, compiled most of the book. It was published by the founder of the LDS movement, Joseph Smith, Jr., in March 1830 in Palmyra, New York, USA.

It is considered to be a divinely inspired book of equal value to the Bible. Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon religion, claimed that he was directed by an Angel to a hill near his home in which he found golden tablets containing the full text of the book. With the books he found two objects called the Urim and Thummim which he described as a pair of crystals joined in the form of a large pair of spectacles. Unfortunately, after Smith finished his translation, he had to return the tablets to the Angel, so there is no physical evidence that they ever existed.

WHY THE BOOK OF MORMON IS A FRAUD

First of all, despite claims to the contrary, the Book of Mormon is the work of man and is not inspired by God. Since its original publication there have been over 4,000 alterations made to this supposedly inspired writing. These changes include deletions of entire sections, the changing of characters named in the book, changes of the names of locations, and much more. Yet despite all these alterations, this book still contains numerous errors and contradictions.

The book refers to a group of Jews that moved to and settled in America where Jesus visited them. Some segments of the Book of Mormon contain sections copied directly from the King James version of the Bible - the Bible that was most popular at the time and used by Joseph Smith. One example is Mark 16:15-18 which is quoted nearly word-for-word in Mormon 9:22-24. In addition, the book mimics the literary and linguistic style of the King James Bible. Linguistic experts have stated that the entire book is written by one man, and is not written by a combination of authors (the prophets as claimed by Smith).

The Book of Mormon discusses metals being used in weapons, coins, and buildings. It mentions things such as chariots, swords, scimitars, and breastplates. It talks about crops of wheat and barley. It mentions the donkey, cattle, oxen, horse, pig, and elephants. It also talks about the use of linen and silk. There is absolutely NO archaeological evidence to support any of this.

The Book of Mormon claims that those who lived here used a calendar consisting of a seven-day week. Yet none of the archaeological evidence has ever produced any such calendar. The calendars that have been found mostly used a 20-day period, repeating over and over.

The most compelling proof that Joseph Smith was perpetuating a fraud is the Book of Abraham. In 1835 Smith was able to use his Urim and Thummim to translate some Egyptian scrolls that he was given access to (at that time no one could read hieroglyphics). Upon inspection, Smith declared that they contained the Book of Abraham. He promptly translated the lot and it was accepted as scripture by the church. The scrolls vanished and everyone thought the story would end there. But it didn’t - in 1966 the original scrolls were found in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The scrolls turned out to be a standard Egyptian text that was often buried with the dead. To this day the Book of Abraham is a source of discomfort for the Mormon religion.

OAK ISLAND TREASURE

If I told you that there was a buried treasure on an island just off the coast of Nova Scotia, you might believe me. After all this area of North America was a favourite stomping ground for pirates in the 18th century.

If I told you that the treasure was buried in a deep pit, you might respond, "Of course, that was it to make sure no one but the pirates found it".

But what if I told you that the treasure pit was, to date, almost 200 feet deep, protected by an elaborate set of booby traps (underground channels to an ocean beach over 500 feet away), has been the subject of countless excavations since 1795, costing millions of dollars, and the death place of six treasure hunters, and they still haven’t found the treasure… If you answer: "That’s the treasure pit at Oak Island", you are correct!

The story of Oak Island, Nova Scotia,is said to be one the most frustrating and intriguing mysteries of all time.

The story of the Oak Island treasure pit is fascinating and complex. It is a story of mystery, greed, controversy and very little humour. The Oak Island treasure has been sought by many individuals and corporations for over 200 years. It has attracted all strata of explorer from: the three teenagers who first discovered the site; to Franklin D. Roosevelt, a former US President, whose company Old Gold Salvage group searched in 1909; to the swash-buckling actor Errol Flynn who wanted to search Oak Island in 1940, but was discouraged when he found the search rights belonged to a company owned by fellow actor John Wayne.

The story of the Oak Island Treasure Pit has been written about in numerous books. To date the treasure has not been uncovered, but tantalizing glimpses of what are purported to be part of the treasure have been reported. The following are a sample of some of the theories on who buried the treasure on Oak Island:

• the most popular theory is that of the early 18th century pirate Captain Kidd, who frequently visited the region of Oak Island for rest and relaxation and to repair his ships. He seemed to have a habit of burying part of the treasure he plundered far and wide.
• the most bizarre theory is that the treasure is the original works of William Shakespeare/ Sir Francis Bacon buried on the site in the late 16th century. This theory is based on the evidence of a piece of parchment paper brought up from the pit by one of the treasure hunters.
• equally strange is the theory of the crown jewels of France which went missing in 1791 and were said to have been smuggled to Louisburg (north of Oak Island in Cape Breton). Since Louisburg was frequently attacked by the British when the French owned it, the jewels were considered unsafe and were transported to Oak Island.

The theories go on but no one knows for sure the origin of the Treasure Pit.

Excavation of the Pit has never been successful because of the booby traps which were set to protect it. In the mid-1860s, while excavating at the 90 feet level, the treasure hunters encountered soggy ground. This was not too surprising because the Pit was only 500 feet from the coast line and high tide of the ocean was about at the 32 foot level. At 93 feet the wetness was more pronounced. At 98 feet they struck an extra hard surface. They took the rest of day off and the next morning found that the shaft of the Pit was filled with sea water to the 32 foot level. We now know that the miners had inadvertently opened a series of channels to the beach which had been installed as a booby trap to protect the treasure.

Many attempts have been made over the years to discover how the booby trap works. Coffer dams have been built on the nearby beach, thought to be the source of the water flow… but to no avail.

In the over 200 years that adventurers have searched for the Treasure Pit of Oak Island, they have encountered oak log platforms every ten feet or so to the thirty foot level. From there, a drill probe used in 1849, encountered multiple layers of charcoal, putty and coconut fibre. At the 98 feet level, a spruce platform guarding two oak chests containing loose metal pieces (pieces of eight?) was discovered.

But the discoveries do not stop there. Continued drilling, in 1897, found that there were, below the 98 foot oak chests, layers of wood and iron, a 30 foot layer of blue clay (a hand-worked watertight mixture of clay, sand and water) , a seven foot deep cement vault at 153 feet and an iron barrier at 171 feet.

Early on in the hunt for the Treasure, an inscribed stone (which has been lost over time) was found face-down in the Pit. There have been various interpretations made of the inscription. Below is a drawing of the inscription:

The most commonly accepted translation is as follows:

Today, Oak Island is owned by two individuals who still search of the treasure.

Who knows, maybe some day we will know the true story of the mystery of the Treasure Pit of Oak Island.

ATLANTIS - The Lost Empire

Atlantis is one of the world's greatest mysteries. To many, its very name evokes a mystical sense of familiarity and lost memories. It is said to be the lost Atlantic continent, the first home of civilisation, an earthly paradise, struck down by a natural catastrophe at the height of its power, and now lying deep under the ocean, with only the tops of its mountains protruding from the ocean floor.

To others, Atlantis is merely a legend, invented by Plato, the Greek philosopher, as a backdrop for two of his dialogues: Timaeus and Critias.

Another belief is that Atlantis was a true precursor of the early civilisations and not located in the Atlantic at all, but instead occupying some other location, like the Greek islands of Crete or Santorini, as opposed to the Azores, Madeira, or the Canary Islands.

The name Atlantis derives from atlas, the giant Greek God who is said to have supported the sky. In Greek, Atlantis means "Daughter of Atlas".

PILLARS OF HERCULES

One popular assertion from Plato is that Atlantis was ‘beyond the Pillars of Hercules’. These are almost unanimously thought to be the outcrops either side of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The mythology of the Straits of Glbraltar is neat and explanatory. Geographically speaking, they represent a narrow stretch of water separating the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. And mystically, they separate the known world from the unknown.
To the north and south of the Straits are two large promontories - the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe and the Abyla on the African coast. These are the pillars separating the narrow strait. But according to legend the two promontories were much closer. Indeed, they were a closed gate. Until, that is, the mighty Hercules stood by the rocks and pushed them apart, thus allowing the waters to flood in.

ATLANTIS AND COLONISATION

The ancient Greeks were great colonisers, founding many Mediterranean cities which exist to this day. And bearing this adventurousness in mind, we can see the myth of Hercules separating the straits as a desire of the ancient Greeks to learn more, shedding light on what is dark; a noble pursuit that was later to find additional expression in their great philosophers, of which Plato was one of the greatest exponents. In this sense, Atlantis can, therefore, be seen in a place where our knowledge is ‘dark’, rather than physically beyond.
And it is, perhaps, in the same magnificent spirit that Atlantis rose to popular consciousness in the 19th century, during a similar time of great expansion and colonisation. This was the time of the great European empire building, and the time when America first expressed its wish to be a superpower, going on to eclipse Europe.
We can here see why some people would be eager to realise the existence of a great lost civilisation, divorced from all the other races on Earth. And to this we must also add the publication, in 1859, of Charles Darwins ‘Origin of Species’. With God in decline, a new theory of human origins was abroad - that we had evolved through natural selection, and western society was its higherst expression.
Such an idea infused Victorian society in the 19th century. With the Industrial Revolution well advanced and the European empires coming very much into being, the Victorians saw themselves as the apex of the evolutionary story. And with such sentiments, it is not difficult to see the inspiration for the literal profusion of ideas concerning Atlantis. The American and the western European was retracing the greatness that existed in the deep, dark past?

IGNATIUS DONNELLY

Due to this popular awareness, when Ignatius Donnelly published his ‘Atlantis: The Antediluvian World’ in 1882, it created immense interest. Donnelly, an American Congressman, created many of the controversies and views concerning Atlantis that survive to this day. Principle among these was his idea that at one time Atlantis existed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, until its destruction in a cataclysm.
Positing an earthquake as the most likely reason for its destruction, to Donnelly, Atlantis had acted as a form of bridge between cultures either side of the Atlantic, the island itself being the primary source of those cultures.
Donnelly found evidence for this idea wherever he looked. For instance, throughout the Atlantic there are small islands which are, infact, the tips of undersea mountains. To Donnelly these are all that is left of the mountains that used to be above sea level, forming part of the Atlantis homeland.
Similarly, evidence of his idea of Atlantis as the primary source of culture could be seen throughout the ancient world, in the similarities of cultures, architecture, writing skills and other achievements from the Incas to the ancient Egyptians. He also posited the idea that the sudden appearance of these cultures could only be explained by the sudden disappearance of their mother culture.

PSEUDO-SCHOLARS

Ignatius Donnelly was one of the first modern pseudo-scholars. Mocked and derided by most serious researchers, they are often believeable and always popular. In Donnelly’s case, his persuasive writing went on to prompt British Prime Minister Gladstone to attempt to get Parliament to fund a ship to trace the sunken coastline of Atlantis.
Today, we know that much of Donnelly’s evidence was untrue. But this should not be used as an excuse to ignore pseudoscholarship in its entirely.
For instance, the list of great pseudo-scholars of the past include Charles Darwin (a lifelong amateur), Gregor Mendel (the discoverer of genetics and a monk), and the great Sir Isaac Newton himself; his real search was not so much scientific, but to find the ‘great spirit of the universe’.
Of course, not all pseudoscholars are as successful as this trio. Indeed, many of them do write absolute hogwash. You may even decide that I fit this last category. But at worst, such writers at least fuel the experts to define more completely, and at best, they can begin entirely new sciences.

LEWIS SPENCE

Donnelly began an Atlantian tradition of speculation, deep theory and occasional lunacy, which continues to this day.
One principal writer in this vein was Scottish newspaper editor and editor of ‘The Atlantis Quarterly’, Lewis Spence. After writing studies of the mythologies of Egypt, Babylon and the early Americas, in the 1920s he turned his attention to Atlantis, which he decided had covered most of the Atlantic Ocean in the Miocene period, ending ten million years ago. At this point it disintegrated into smaller islands and, from 25,000 to 10,000 years ago, disappeared completely.
Studying the Atlantic coast of Europe, Spence decided that the early humans such as Cro-Magnon Man had actually migrated from the western side of Atlantis, near the Americas. Only in this way can we see Cro-Magnon Man as the real invader he was, going on to wipe out Europe’s indigenous Neanderthal Man.
Taking his evidence from a wide variety of sources, including archeology, anthropology, geology and mythology, much of this is totally discredited, but this did not stop the speculation, sometimes coming from scientists themselves.

THE AZORES, STUPID

One such scientist was Austrian physicist Otto Muck. Opting for the Azores as the location of the destroyed Atlantis, he argued that in 8500BC the sunken continent was lost when a large asteroid struck the Charleston coast of North America.
Some most unusual evidence of something strange about the Azores did, infact, surface in 1898, when a telegraph company used grappling equipment to mend a broken Transatlantic cable 500 miles north of the Azores.
French geologist Pierce Termier was sent samples from rocks brought up from the sea bed. Identifying them as basaltic lava, they did however show evidence of volcanic activity ABOVE sea level in the recent geological past.
No real evidence has been found to link an asteroid collision to the destruction of a large Atlantic island, but this has not stopped some amazing disaster scenarios to irritate scientists.

DISASTER SCENARIOS

Typical was Austrian engineer Hans Hoerbiger. Fascinated, by astronomy and mythology, he put mythologies of a malevolent Moon down to the fact that Earth had been struck by the Moon in the past.
However, this was not our present Moon. This, Hoerbiger, was convinced, was just a ball of ice. But in the past, Earth had had a second Moon, a captured comet, which caused a great flood and other disasters when it exploded.
Many Atlantis theorists have associated this much discredited disaster scenario with the destruction of Atlantis. And the same can be said for the ideas of psychoanalyst, Emmanuel Velikovsky.
Fascinated by Sigmund Freud’s idea that Moses was also the Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaton (a pharaoh who briefly introduced into Egypt the idea of a single God), Velikovsky became intrigued by early mythologies.
In particular, the disasters such as the Flood arrested his attention. In 1680 a comet had approached Earth, and the scientist W Whiston had put forward the idea that on a previous encounter this comet had caused the Biblical Flood.
Velikovsky tended to agree with this idea, and went on to formulate a cosmology in which a comet had several times approached Earth, causing all Biblical disasters, and accounting for the destruction of Atlantis, before finally settling down to become the planet Venus.

IN CONCLUSION

Of course, none of these ideas can now be backed up by real science. For instance, the Moon is not made of ice, Venus is a definite planet. But in the world of Atlantian speculation, anything goes.
But my central point here would be, and why not? For instance, academia must always be challenged, otherwise all we will ever have for knowledge is consensus, and consensus can cripple knowledge.
Similarly, archaeology has made many advances in their techniques due to their need to disprove certain pseudoscholars. So if for no other reason than this, pseudoscholarship, and Atlantology in particular, has a valid role.
But most importantly, Atlantis makes us expand our minds - gives us the idea that knowledge is not complete. It keeps alive the thirst to inquire - an inquiry that led to the ideas and ideals of the modern world in the first place.
Whether theory or fantasy, Atlantis remains one of the central symbols of the thinking mind.

I do hope you have enjoyed reading this article, as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Perhaps you have your own theories on the whereabouts of Atlantis that you may like to share and discuss.

I look forward to hearing from you.

KNIGHTS OF TEMPLAR

When the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple were founded in 1118-1119 in Jerusalem, it was a 'poor order' whose primary function was the protection of pilgrims along the main roads between the coast at Jaffa and the inland city of Jerusalem. But an important transformation took place when this nascent Order came under the patronage of St Bernard of Clairvaux, nephew of André de Montbard, one of the founding group of the Templars. Until his conversion at the age of twenty, St Bernard himself had been destined for a knightly career, and when he came to patronize the Knights Templar that Order was imbued with the ideals and convictions of the knightly class of Burgundy. ..

..and YES.. the Templars did possess the Holy Grail!!

It has been generally accepted that, for the first nine years of their existence, the Templars consisted of nine members.

Although it has been widely speculated that the Templars wished to keep it this way to cover their secret mission of digging for buried treasure on the Temple Mount, the simple fact remains that the lifestyle adopted by the Order was not to everyone's taste. As such, the Templars had difficulty in recruiting members to their cause in the early years.

Later owing to the Cistercian abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux's letter that swept through the entire Chritendom, nobles were drawn to the order.Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars with land and other valuables.

While it is true that the Templars were not permitted, by their rule, to own much of anything personally, there was no such restriction on the Order as a whole.

Over the years the Templars rose from their humble beginnings to become the wealthiest of the Crusading Orders - eventually garnering the favour of the Church and the collective European monarchs.

However, after two centuries of defending the Christian faith, the Order met its demise when Philip IV - motivated by greed - sought to destroy the Templars.

On March 18th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.Legends hold that De Molay cursed King Philip and Pope Clement to join him in death within a year - and so they did!

Grand Masters

Within the Templar hierarchy, the Grand Master was absolute ruler of the Order and answerable only to the pope. Although his position was a powerful one, he was still obliged to live by the same Rule of Order that those under him swore to obey. However, the Rule did grant him a fairly extensive entourage:

• 4 horses
• 1 Chaplain Brother
• 1 clerk with 3 horses
• 1 Sergeant Brother with 2 horses
• 1 gentleman valet with 1 horse
• 1 farrier
• 1 Saracen scribe
• 1 turcopole
• 1 cook
• 2 foot soldiers
• 1 turcoman
• 2 knight brothers as companions

They were -

Hugues de Payens
Robert de Craon
Everard des Barres
Bernard de Tremeley
Andrew de Montbard

Bertrand de Blancfort
Philip de Milly (Nablus)
Odo de St Amand
Arnold de Torroja
Gerard de Ridefort

Robert de Sablé
Gilbert Erail
Philip de Plessis
William de Chartres
Peter de Montaigu
Armand de Périgord
Richard de Bures

William de Sonnac
Reginald de Vichiers
Thomas Bérard
William de Beaujeu
Theobald Gaudin

Jacques de Molay

Legends and relics

  The Knights Templar have become associated with legends concerning secrets and mysteries handed down to the select from ancient times. Rumors circulated even during the time of the Templars themselves. Freemasonic writers added their own speculations in the 19th century, and further fictional embellishments have been added in modern movies such as National Treasure and Kingdom of Heaven, best-selling novels such as Ivanhoe and The Da Vinci Code, and video games such as Assassin's Creed, Hellgate: London and Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars.
Many of the Templar legends are connected with the Order's early occupation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and speculation about what relics the Templars may have found there, such as the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.That the Templars were in possession of some relics is certain. Many churches still display relics such as the bones of a saint, a scrap of cloth once worn by a holy man, or the skull of a martyr: the Templars did the same. They were documented as having a piece of the True Cross, which the Bishop of Acre carried into battle at the disastrous Horns of Hattin. When the battle was lost, Saladin captured the relic, which was then ransomed back to the Crusaders when the Muslims surrendered the city of Acre in 1191 They also possessed the head of Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon.The subject of relics also came up during the Inquisition of the Templars, as several trial documents refer to the worship of an idol of some type, referred to in some cases as a cat, a bearded head, or in some cases as Baphomet, according to one theory a French misspelling of the name Mahomet (Muhammad).

The supposed idol worship was included in the charges brought against the Templars leading to their arrest in the early fourteenth century.This accusation of idol worship levied against the Templars has also led to the modern belief by some that the Templars practiced witchcraft.

There was particular interest during the Crusader era in the Holy Grail myth, which was quickly associated with the Templars, even in the 12th century. The first Grail romance, the fantasy story Le Conte du Graal, was written in 1180 by Chrétien de Troyes, who came from the same area where the Council of Troyes had officially sanctioned the Templars' Order. In Arthurian legend, the hero of the Grail quest, Sir Galahad (a 13th-century literary invention of monks from St. Bernard's Cistercian Order), was depicted bearing a shield with the cross of Saint George, similar to the Templars' insignia. In a chivalric epic of the period, Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach refers to Templars guarding the Grail Kingdom.A legend developed that, since the Templars had their headquarters at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, they must have excavated in search of relics, found the Grail, and then proceeded to keep it in secret and guard it with their lives. However, in the extensive documents of the Templar inquisition there was never a single mention of anything like a Grail relic,let alone its possession by the Templars. In reality, most scholars agree that the story of the Grail was just that, a fiction that began circulating in medieval times.

One legendary artifact that does have some connection with the Templars is the Shroud of Turin. In 1357, the shroud was first publicly displayed by the family of the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney, the Templar who had been burned at the stake with Jacques de Molay in 1314. The artifact's origins are still a matter of controversy. In 1988, a carbon dating analysis concluded that the shroud was made between 1260 and 1390, a span that includes the last half-century of the Templars.Disagreement over the proper dating continues.

The Baghdad Battery

In 1936, while excavating ruins of a 2000-year-old village near Baghdad, workers discovered mysterious small vase. A 6-inch-high pot of bright yellow clay dating back two millennia contained a cylinder of sheet-copper 5 inches by 1.5 inches. The edge of the copper cylinder was soldered with a 60-40 lead-tin alloy comparable to today's solder. The bottom of the cylinder was capped with a crimped-in copper disk and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. Another insulating layer of asphalt sealed the top and also held in place an iron rod suspended into the center of the copper cylinder. The rod showed evidence of having been corroded with an acidic agent.

German archaeologist , Wilhelm Konig, examined the object and came to a surprising conclusion that the clay pot was nothing less than an ancient electric battery.

The ancient battery in the Baghdad Museum, as well as those others which were unearthed in Iraq, are all dated from the Parthian occupation between 248 BCE and 226 CE. However, Dr. Konig also found copper vases plated with silver in the Baghdad Museum, excavated from Sumerian sites in southern Iraq, dating back to at least 2500 BCE. When the vases were lightly tapped, a blue patina or film separated from the surface, which is characteristic of silver electroplated onto copper base. It would appear then that the Parthians inherited their batteries from one of the earliest known civilizations.


In 1940, Willard F.M. Gray, an engineer at the General Electric High Volatage Laboratory in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, read of Konig's theory. Using drawings and details supplied by German rocket scientist Willy Ley, Gray made a replica of the battery. Using copper sulfate solution, it generated about half a volt of electricity.
In 1970s, German Egyptologist, Arne Eggebrecht built a replica of the Baghdad battery and filled it with freshly pressed grape juice, as he speculated the ancients might have done. The replica generated 0.87V. He used current from the battery to electroplate a silver statuette with gold.
This experiment proved that electric batteries were used some 1,800 years before their modern invention by Alessandro Volta in 1799. It also seems that the use of similar batteries can be safely placed into ancient Egypt, where several objects with traces of electroplated precious metals have been found at different locations. There are several anomalous finds from other regions, which suggests use of electricity on a grander scale.


The Riddle of "Baghdad's batteries"

Arran Frood investigates what could have been the very first batteries and how these important archaeological and technological artefacts are now at risk from the impending war in Iraq.




Biblical clues

It was in 1938, while working in Khujut Rabu, just outside Baghdad in modern day Iraq, that German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig unearthed a five-inch-long (13 cm) clay jar containing a copper cylinder that encased an iron rod.

The vessel showed signs of corrosion, and early tests revealed that an acidic agent, such as vinegar or wine had been present.In the early 1900s, many European archaeologists were excavating ancient Mesopotamian sites, looking for evidence of Biblical tales like the Tree of Knowledge and Noah's flood.
Konig did not waste his time finding alternative explanations for his discovery. To him, it had to have been a battery.
Though this was hard to explain, and did not sit comfortably with the religious ideology of the time, he published his conclusions. But soon the world was at war, and his discovery was forgotten.


Possible uses

Some have suggested the batteries may have been used medicinally.
The ancient Greeks wrote of the pain killing effect of electric fish when applied to the soles of the feet.

The Chinese had developed acupuncture by this time, and still use acupuncture combined with an electric current. This may explain the presence of needle-like objects found with some of the batteries.
But this tiny voltage would surely have been ineffective against real pain, considering the well-recorded use of other painkillers in the ancient world like cannabis, opium and wine.
Other scientists believe the batteries were used for electroplating - transferring a thin layer of metal on to another metal surface - a technique still used today and a common classroom experiment.
This idea is appealing because at its core lies the mother of many inventions: money.
In the making of jewellery, for example, a layer of gold or silver is often applied to enhance its beauty in a process called gilding.

MACHU PICCHU

-THE LOST CITY

Machu Picchu is a city located high in the Andes Mountains in modern Peru. It lies 43 miles northwest of Cuzco at the top of a ridge, hiding it from the Urabamba gorge below. The ridge is between a block of highland and the massive Huaynac Picchu, around which the Urubamba River takes a sharp bend. The surrounding area is covered in dense bush, some of it covering Pre-Colombian cultivation terraces.
Machu Picchu (which means "manly peak") was most likely a royal estate and religious retreat. It was built between 1460 and 1470 AD by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, an Incan ruler. The city has an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest, so it likely did not have any administrative, military or commercial use. After Pachacuti’s death, Machu Picchu became the property of his allus, or kinship group, which was responsible for it’s maintenance, administration, and any new construction.

Machu Picchu is comprised of approximately 200 buildings, most being residences, although there are temples, storage structures and other public buildings. It has polygonal masonry, characteristic of the late Inca period. About 1,200 people lived in and around Machu Picchu, most of them women, children, and priests. The buildings are thought to have been planned and built under the supervision of professional Inca architects. Most of the structures are built of granite blocks cut with bronze or stone tools, and smoothed with sand. The blocks fit together perfectly without mortar,although none of the blocks are the same size and have many faces; some have as many as 30 corners. The joints are so tight that even the thinnest of knife blades can't be forced between the stones. Another unique thing about Machu Picchu is the integration of the architecture into the landscape. Existing stone formations were used in the construction of structures, sculptures are carved into the rock, water flows through cisterns and stone channels, and temples hang on steep precipices.

The houses had steep thatched roofs and trapezoidal doors; windows were unusual. Some of the houses were two stories tall; the second story was probably reached by ladder, which likely was made of rope since there weren’t many trees at Machu Picchu’s altitude. The houses, in groups of up to ten gathered around a communal courtyard, or aligned on narrow terraces, were connected by narrow alleys. At the center were large open squares; livestock enclosures and terraces for growing maize stretched around the edge of the city.

The Incas planted crops such as potatoes and maize at Machu Picchu. To get the highest yield possible, they used advanced terracing and irrigation methods to reduce erosion and increase the area available for cultivation. However, it probably did not produce a large enough surplus to export agricultural products to Cuzco, the Incan capital.
One of the most important things found at Machu Picchu is the intihuatana, which is a column of stone rising from a block of stone the size of a grand piano. Intihuatana literally means ‘for tying the sun", although it is usually translated as "hitching post of the sun". As the winter solstice approached, when the sun seemed to disappear more each day, a priest would hold a ceremony to tie the sun to the stone to prevent the sun from disappearing altogether. The other intihuatanas were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors, but because the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, it remained intact. Mummies have also been found there; most of the mummies were women.

Few people outside the Inca’s closest retainers were actually aware of Machu Picchu’s existence. Before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, the smallpox spread ahead of them. Fifty percent of the population had been killed by the disease by 1527. The government began to fail, part of the empire seceded and it fell into civil war. So by the time Pizarro, the Inca’s conquerer, arrived in Cuzco in 1532, Machu Picchu was already forgotten.

Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, a professor from Yale. Bingham was searching for Vilcabamba, which was the undiscovered last stronghold of the Incan empire. When he stumbled upon Machu Picchu, he thought he had found it, although now most scholars believe that Machu Picchu is not Vilcabamba. Machu Picchu was never completely forgotten, as a few people still lived in the area, where they were "free from undesirable visitors, officials looking for army ‘volunteers’ or collecting taxes", as they told Bingham.

THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS

WHAT MYSTERIES DOES IT CONCEAL?

Even today, almost five thousand years after its completion, the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt is a technical masterpiece. But its builders lift no plans that might explain how it came to be built.

It was intended to be recognised from a great distance, and the closer you come, the more you are drawn into its spell. The Great Pyramid was probably built around 2580 BC on the instructions of Pharaoh Cheops, on the Giza plateau southwest of modern Cairo, capital of Egypt. It is the largest of a trio of pyramids at the Giza site. But to this day, even with the most modern scientific methods, experts have not been able to solve all the mysteries of this impressive building.

Built on a square ground plan with a side length of 230 m, and an original height of almost 47 m (138 m today), it covers an area of over 5 ha and has a volume of around 2,600,000 m³. The number of stones used is enormous, and each one weighs several tons.

The descriptions provided by two Greek historians - Herodotus in 440 BC and Diodorus in 50 BC - probably adapted early accounts of the actual system that was used to build this structure.

Herodotus based his ideas on the assumption that the Egyptians had constructed wooden machines to assemble the blocks in sections - from the base of the pyramid to its top. Diodorus thought it more likely that the Egyptians had built earth ramps to haul the stones into place.

The quest for the answer

During the Middle Ages, people believed that the builders of the pyramids were able to float or use flying carpets. In modern times, archaeologists have come to rely on written texts, which are considerably more reliable.

Facts and fantasy

Historians and archaeologists believe that the pyramids were built asmonumental burial chambers for the kings of 3rd to the 13th dynasties (about 2670- 50BC). Also, each pyramid always seems form part of an extended complex of an extended complex of funeral architecture.

Some think the geometry of the pyramid reflects the technological know-how that the Egyptians
had acquired up to the time of the biblical floods. Others, however, want to see in it a prophetic code for the most important dates in world history.


New perspectives


Those who desperately try to find secrets where there are none can easily find themselves in a position where they miss the real mystery. For a long time, serious Egyptologists have confirmed again and again that the Great Pyramid is really a shrine.

Three chambers, which are connected to one another by means of a network of underground passages, have so far been identified .

The largest, the King's Chamber, contains the coffin in which the mortal remains of Pharaoh Cheops could have lain. Today the coffin is empty, but it might have been ransacked by the Muslim leader, Caliph AIMamun,who entered the holy chambers inthe 9th century. It is true
that there are cracks in the ceiling of this room which stem from the time prior to the death of Cheops; surely the pharaoh would not have wanted to be buried in a place that was threatened
by collapse? If the corpse did not find its last resting place in this room, the pyramid could have been a giant cenotaph - an empty royal shrine - buitt for the honour of the departed pharaoh alone.

Even after so many centuries of digging and exploration, the Pyramid of Cheops still harbours plenty of surprises: in recent years, a German engineer, Rudolf Gantenbrink, probed the secrets of some of the narrowest passages - as yet unreachable by human explorers - with the help of a
remote-controlled robot camera. Gantenbrink discovered an enormous door at the end of a shaft. But he was never able to find out what lies hidden behind the door.

IRON PILLAR , DELHI

Standing at the center of the Quwwatul Mosque the Iron Pillar is one of Delhi's most curious structures.Dating back to 4th century A.D, it highlights ancient India's achievements in metallurgy. The pillar is made of 98 per cent wrought iron and has stood 1,600 years without rusting or decomposing.

It stand 7.3 m tall, with one meter below the ground; the diameter is 48 centimeters at the foot, tapering to 29 cm at the top, just below the base of the wonderfully crafted capital; it weighs approximately 6.5 tones, and was manufactured by forged welding.It bears an inscription which states that it was erected as a flagstaff in honor of the Hindu god, Vishnu, and in the memory of the Gupta King Chandragupta II (375-413). How the pillar moved to its present location remains a mystery.

Mystery of Delhi's Iron Pillar

The pillar is now located in Delhi, although one knows almost for certain that it was moved to that place from somewhere in Madhya Pradesh about a thousand years ago. Who had the pillar moved to its present location, and why, is unknown. The most densely argued chapter however is on the corrosion-resistant nature of this iron pillar, the P-content and the S-content of the low carbon mild steel of which it is made, the process of rust protection, the color of whatever rust there is, spectroscopic analysis, are all themes, something that has led to its being widely regarded as a 'miracle' of technology, given the times in which the pillar was forged and erected.

Mystery unraveled

On July 18, Experts at the Indian Institute of Technology have resolved the mystery behind the 1,600-year-old iron pillar in Delhi, which has never corroded despite the capital's harsh weather.

Metallurgists at Kanpur IIT have discovered that a thin layer of "misawite", a compound of iron, oxygen and hydrogen, has protected the cast iron pillar from rust.

The protective film took form within three years after erection of the pillar and has been growing ever so slowly since then. After 1,600 years, the film has grown just one-twentieth of a millimeter thick.

The high phosphorous content is a result of the unique iron-making process practiced by ancient Indians, who reduced iron ore into steel in one step by mixing it with charcoal.

Modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, use limestone in place of charcoal yielding molten slag and pig iron that is later converted into steel. In the modern process most phosphorous is carried away by the slag.

It has also come to light that the pillar was erected by Kumara Gupta of Gupta dynasty that ruled northern India in AD 320-540.

GILGAMESH

The ancient mesopotamian hero, Gilgamesh, is the earliest symbol in world literature of the search of immortality. Did this extraordinary man really live??


Gilgamesh, according to the Sumerian king list, was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), the son of Lugalbanda, ruling circa 2650 BC. He is also the central character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which says that his mother was Ninsun, (whom some call Rimat Ninsun), a goddess.


Gilgamesh is described as two-thirds divine and one-third human. According to another document, known as the "History of Tummal", Gilgamesh, and eventually his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, located in Tummal, a block of the Nippur city. In Mesopotamian mythology, Gilgamesh is credited with having been a demigod of superhuman strength who built a great wall to defend his people from external threats.


The epic of Gilgamesh is much older than Homer's Iliad or the great Indian epic the Mahabharata.Gilgamesh is said to have ordered the creation of the legendary walls of Uruk. An alternative version has Gilgamesh, towards the end of the story, boasting to Urshanabi the ferryman that the city's walls were built by the Seven Sages. In historical times, Sargon of Akkad claimed to have destroyed these walls to prove his military power.

Gilgamesh is the hero of the epic but also a tyrannical ruler whose subjects groan under the cost of his many wars.In order to rid themselves of their king, his people try to get him to fight ENKINDU- a creature , half salvage and half man, whom the gods have created as his equal opponent.A single combat takes place which ends in a draw and the two men became inseparable friends.

Fragments of an epic text found in Me-Turan (modern Tell Haddad) relate that Gilgamesh was buried under the waters of a river at the end of his life. The people of Uruk diverted the flow of the Euphrates River crossing Uruk for the purpose of burying the dead king within the riverbed.


In April 2003, a German expedition discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its King Gilgamesh. Despite the lack of direct evidence, most scholars do not object to consideration of Gilgamesh as an historical figure, particularly after inscriptions were found confirming the historical existence of other figures associated with him: kings Enmebaragesi and Aga of Kish.


If Gilgamesh was an historical king, he probably reigned in about the 26th century BC. Some of the earliest Sumerian texts spell his name as Bilgamesh. Initial difficulties in reading cuneiform resulted in Gilgamesh making his re-entrance into world culture in 1891 as "Izdubar". In most texts, Gilgamesh is written with the determinative for divine beings (DINGIR) - but there is no evidence for a contemporary cult, and the Sumerian Gilgamesh myths suggest the deification was a later development (unlike the case of the Akkadian god-kings).


Historical or not, Gilgamesh became a legendary protagonist in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

THE GLOZEL CONTROVERSY

Over half a century ago, a hoard of ancient objects were unearthed at Glozel in the French region of Allier set off a furious argument among archeologists.Were the objects found, a total of some 3,000 artefacts, variously dated to Neolithic, Iron Age and Medieval times, remnants of an advenced civilisation or some not-so-clever fakes?


FRAUD OR FIND OF THE 20th CENTURY ???

Émile Fradin, a shrewd peasant lad of 17 years, dug up a number of curiously inscribed brick and clay tablets in a field at Glozel, France on March 1, 1924. Immediately the "Glozel Finds" attracted world wide attention. French archeologists announced that they were important relics of the Stone Age, wrote monographs.

Fradin,along with his grand-father, was working in a field known as “Duranthon”.Émile was holding the handles of a plough when one of the cows pulling it stuck her foot in a cavity. Freeing the cow, the Fradins uncovered an underground structure with walls of clay bricks and 16 clay floor tiles, containing human bones and ceramic fragments.The clay pots found were broken by him quickly in the hope of treasure. But not a single coin was found.He then carried on searching and dug out several other vessels, and clay tablets with mysterious charcters inscribed on them.He reproted this to a teacher with an interest in archeology.

Soon the news spread and it caught the attention of Antonin Morlet, a Vichy physician and amateur archaeologist. Morlet visited Clément and was intrigued by the findings.He believed that some findings might even date from the Magdalenian period (12,000-9500 BC), as they involved bone harpoons and depictions of reindeer, though to be extinct since 10,000 BC. Yet when the writings were studied on other objects , the earliest known form of writing was then established at 3300 BC, and that was in the Middle East.

Antonin Morlet identified Glozel as a transition site between both eras, even though it was known that the two eras were separated by several millennia.

No wonder therefore that French archaeological academia were dismissive of Morlet's report; after all, it was published by an amateur – a doctor – and a peasant boy – who could perhaps not even write properly? The amateurism dripped off their conclusion, for it challenged their carefully established and vociferously defended dogma on several levels.

Despite such allegations, Morlet unearthed thousands of objects over a period of two years, all of varied forms and shape, including a hundred tablets carrying signs and approximately fifteen tablets carrying the imprints of human hands. Other discoveries were sexual idols, polished stones, dressed stones, ceramics, glass, bones, etc. How Fradin could possibly have made thousands of objects, the likes of Vayson de Pradenne never explained…

Furthermore, two other tombs were uncovered in June 1927. One contained 67, the other 121 objects and human remains. It seemed that Glozel was soon to be accepted as a major archaeological discovery. At the meeting of the International Institute of Anthropology in Amsterdam, held in September 1927, Glozel was therefore the subject of heated debate.

A commission was appointed to do further investigations and arrived in Glozel on November 5, 1927. During their three day excavation, the archaeologists uncovered various artefacts, but in their report of December 1927, the commission declared everything, with the exception of a few pieces of flint axes and stone ware, as fake.

But neither side of the controversy were willing to compromise. As a result, the matter remained unresolved until the 1970's, when a new research methods could provide much more precise dating .However even they could not resolve the the mystery surrounding the Glozel finds.

Studies show that the clay tablets are barely 2000 years old and date from Gallo -Roman times, while some bones are as old as 15,000 years.And the some inscribed stones and bones are from Stone Age!!

Hence some believe that Glozel could not be a genuine pre-historic site.They suggest that someone collected objects of various origins.While others who believe in the authenticity claim that the finds have been proven to be ancient.
During the 1980s, France's Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs commissioned new excavation work at the site.

But until new records are found, the quarrel is unlikely to be resolved.

THE HERO OF ALEXANDRIA

The multi-talented Hero was a mechanic ,mathematician and scientist whose inventions inspired everyone from the Arabs to Leonardo da Vinci.Nineteenth century scientists were astonished to find he had even built a working steam engine !!

For centuries it was unclear if he actually lived.But now the historians are certain that he was active during the 1st century AD.

He is said to have invented the screw lathe - a machine for cutting screws ,water clock and fire extinguisher pump..

Hero wrote extensively, on several branches of geometry, land surveying, mechanics and optics. His works include: "Geometry", "Definitions", "Stereometry", "Engines of War", "Winches", "Ballistics", "Reflections". Many of his works have been lost, while others survive in fragments in Greek or Latin.

Five complete works survive: "Pneumatics" and "Automata" in Greek and "Mechanics", "Metrics" and "Dioptra" in Arabic.Hero is best known today for his famous mechanical "Fountain", and for his formula for finding the area of a triangle from the length of the sides. His most important invention, however, was the aeolipile, a steam-powered engine.

INSPIRATION FOR MANY

Hero wrote down his works and ideas and large part of his writings survived.

The Byzantines , Aramaeans, Persians and especially the Arabs copied his work.His work is said to have provided inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci as well.

His steam engine was reconstructed by John Landels, the english classicist.

Hero was known for his amazing mechanical ingenuity in the ancient world, to include his contributions in military technology and theater.By the standards of modern technology, even though his steam engine is inadeqaute, he deserves all our admiration!