BLOODY FATE of the Knights Templar Revealed | Buried: Knights Templar and Holy Grail *Marathon*

Knights Templar [Music] the crusade's most feared and mysterious Warriors rumored to possess god-given relics like the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail with armies and strongholds spanning three continents they were richer than Kings and popes and that's exactly who brought them down in 1307 the Templars were hunted to Extinction and vanished or did they could the Templars and their powerful relics actually have survived and later transformed into secret societies that still exist today two investigators are embarking on a journey to test that theory the Templars were the special forces units of that day organizations like that don't just disappear Mikey K spent years in the British military hunting down terrorists across the Middle East and Europe Garth Baldwin is an archaeologist who has conducted excavations in combat zones around the world we're investigating whether or not the Templars disappeared off the face of the Earth or did they go underground together they'll use the latest technology and tracking tools to investigate an ancient mystery what happened to the Knights Templar [Music] there we go archaeologist Garth Baldwin and Military expert Mikey K arrive in Royston England a small village 40 miles north of London after 1307 the templarsalbot vanished from the historical record almost no evidence remains of the night's true fate clues that the order survived may be buried beneath this sleepy town a flurry of recent headlines allege the Templars may have used a cave in Royston as a hideout long after history said they had been annihilated this little town here in Middle England my whole some of the best evidence that we have it could boost the working theory that the Templars went underground there you go check it out wow this is absolutely unreal I was a Templar in 1307 I'm being hunted from the military perspective everything has to be in the shadows there's no bare space on the wall is it I mean I've seen a lot of cave art this is seriously weird Templar cross yeah and another one and another one and another one among the hundreds of mysterious images one stands out the hands with the hearts on them there's one there there there there there there there experts believe that for the Templars the heart symbolizes the Holy Grail a representation of where the spiritual and the physical meet the holy grail's existence and form have been debated for centuries some describe it as a chalice the cup that held Christ's blood at the crucifixion others have said it's a stone from Beyond the Earth or ancient mystical Scrolls symbols the icons really have a strong indication that it is Templar related centuries of moisture and Decay make it impossible to carbon date the carvings but the images could help establish a timeline Royston cave expert James Robinson joins the team if we look over here there is a small figure that may represent chatea mole the last Grand Master of the tempers showing him in this particular position is being burned at the stake wearing what would appear to be a Heretics cap molay was executed for heresy in 1314 seven years after the fall of the Templars his carving could mean whoever chiseled these walls did so long after history says the Templars were gone this is where they ended maybe there was a group here hiding out under the ground royston's compelling there would have been factions of the Templars that would not have given up under any circumstances maybe it was a group that just wouldn't say die the symbols in Royston suggests that at least some Templars survived well after their alleged end in 1307. when the order disappeared they had tens of thousands of men spread over 12 countries the equivalent of billions in dollars in riches and possibly the world's most powerful holy relics if the Templars went underground they would have needed needed more than one small cave but with nearly no archives or written records of the Templars after 1307 the team will need a unique approach to investigate their true fate the Templars probably one of the most resilient organizations in the history of warfare time and time and time again they've been beaten down and they've managed to survive as a military strategist looking at an organization in crisis is the best way to truly understand their tactics in the 200 years before the Templars officially vanished they had faced multiple staggering defeats but always found a way to bounce back and Rise Again investigating the strategies and tactics the Templars used during these earlier brushes with Extinction May shed light on how the knights could have pulled off one of the greatest escapes of all time team arrives in London to consult with world-renowned Templar expert there he is Dan Jones to look at the Templars track record of surviving against impossible odds we were a serious military outfit yeah the elite Warriors of their day and they'd taken religious vows and that's quite an unusual combination because for a lot of the Middle Ages you'd either be in a killer or you'd been a man of God the idea that Warriors could also devote their lives to religion was revolutionary and instead of murdering people being a sin and preventing you going to heaven this was now doing God's work a fanatical devotion made them the elite troops within Crusader armies the Templars were born out of the Crusades a medieval world war between Christian and Muslim kingdoms across the globe all battling for control of the Holy Land the area of modern day Israel in 1119 the Templars began in Jerusalem as nine poor Knights defending Christian pilgrims the original Templars decided to set up an armed bodyguard for pilgrims on the roads around Jerusalem but they grew to become a medieval superpower the United States took 170 years to become a true world superpower but in less than 20 years the Templars exploded from 9 to over twenty thousand members with unimaginably fast riches and couldn't believe that an organization is so big so powerful so wealthful can come from nowhere some have attributed the templar's meteoric rise to possession of powerful relics like the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail this was one of the most capable most feared organizations in the world in an age where countries didn't have standing armies the Templars were a standing army but it all nearly came to an end in 1187. 1187 was the first big catastrophe for the Templars is when they lost Jerusalem and suddenly found themselves in a war for survival seven decades after the founding of the order the holy city they were sworn to defend was conquered by a massive Muslim Army from Syria and Egypt and the Templars faced Extinction it looked for a moment like there was no way back so it's all of Jerusalem was like an epic world-changing event incredibly important 1187 was history's first example of the Templars surviving Annihilation against impossible odds the question is how the strategy and tactics the Templars used to escape destruction in Jerusalem will give Mikey and Garth vital Clues into how they could have pulled off the ultimate Escape in 1307. do some sounds like the logical place to start we need to get boots on the ground Temple mount it's the intersection of the three main religions that's where God spoke to Abraham that's where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven and that's where the Bible says that the Ark of the Covenant was kept that's the place that's the center and that's where the Templars had their headquarters during their reign in Jerusalem from 1119 to 1187 the Templars converted their Temple Mount headquarters into a massive military complex they garrisoned it with hundreds of the world's most highly trained killers and reinforced its walls with a mountain of hardened limestone Fort Knox with Firepower it was the perfect place to safeguard their holy relics and it would be put to the test in 1187 when the Templars Arch Enemy the Muslim General solidan came to the holy land with an army of thirty thousand to take the city of Jerusalem back from the Christian Crusaders people said when saladin's Army was coming the ground rumbled and you could just see this of cloud of dust as they approached but a huge Crusader Army is summoned almost every Templar in the Holy Land as well the Christian Army Advanced saladin's Army cut them off the Christian Army were walking into a trap they were forced to Camp a night without water and at that point Saladin attack suffering from dehydration a Christian Army of 20 000 was slaughtered including most of the Templars Saladin assembled the remaining template on the battlefield he had them all lined up and beheaded one by one salad saladin's plan had been to wipe the order out and he wasn't that far away from succeeding within the city walls of Jerusalem only a handful of Templars remained Saladin in his army of thirty thousand were now reaching the city Gates how could the surviving Templars have escaped with the sacred relics vital to their order when all seemed lost it's a surprise that they weren't totally destroyed but they weren't thank you the Knights Templar the crusade's most feared and mysterious Warriors a medieval superpower rumored to possess the holy grail and the Ark of the Covenant history says they were hunted to Extinction in 1307. but military expert Mikey K and archaeologist Garth Baldwin are testing a different Theory that the knights escaped and eventually transformed into secret societies that still exist today using strategy and tactics developed throughout their history if I'm the commander of the Templars and I've got somewhere that I really want to protect I am not going to let anyone take me behead me and take the very thing that will allow me to expand who we are defeat is not an optional the first great test of the Templar survival tactics came in 1187 in Jerusalem the Muslim General solidan had slaughtered and beheaded nearly every Templar in the holy land and was attacking the city walls only a small band of Templars would have remained inside the city who could save the sacred relics they were rumored to possess how did they escape against impossible odds saladin's Army and there were a lot of them were attempting to smash down this Southern perimeter wall so if we want to go to the north you want to do it covertly but you don't want to take it out into the area which where the threat is coming from absolutely so if I'm a Templar Commander I'm going to take a subterranean with solidin attacking the Southern Wall the Templars needed an underground Escape path to the north this is zedekiah's cave this is a five acre nine meter deep cave zedekiah's cave is named after King zedekiah the last king of Judah according to the Bible he escaped Jerusalem during another Siege of the city 15 centuries earlier using an ancient underground rock quarry this has a history of being an Escape Route so there would have to be tunnels connecting and they would have established or re-established that route massive Labyrinth of caves sits 800 yards from the templar's headquarters much of the cave system is unexplored upon The Grandmaster Templar and I'm looking at a contingency option that's going to pull me straight away to thinking about how I can utilize that space for an exfiltration plan I think we need to get eyes on inside that cave foreign look at this wow that's seriously deep yeah it keeps going three stories below Jerusalem's Muslim quarter the team enters zedekiah's cave an underground Labyrinth the size of an ocean liner this room is just one section of the largest Quarry in Jerusalem where massive Limestone blocks used to build the city above were harvested for thousands of years could this Maze of tunnels have been used as an escape tactic by the Templars it's a big Subterranean cavity anything that's covert that can not only protect you from visibility but also protect you physically from a threat it's gold dust in in Wartime the Natural Stone defenses of the Quarry could have provided the first layer of protection for any escaping Knights as an army of thirty thousand was breaking through the city walls above we did a huge survey and we actually find coins from the Crusader period yahil Sellinger has spent the last 15 years Excavating zedekiah's cave the coins tell you that the Templars were inside this cave during that period yeah foreign [Music] the team is granted special access to off-limits areas of the cave oh point and no return watch your head dude the temperatures were very familiar with the underground of the old city in Jerusalem they understood defense better than anybody else in the medieval period and they would have investigated that cave for security reasons and potential Escape Routes little is documented about the templar's underground activity in Jerusalem but in the 19th century archaeologists found Templar artifacts in tunnels extending from beneath their headquarters on the Temple Mount toward the direction of zedekiah's cave time and erosion in the soft Limestone Bedrock of Jerusalem has erased many tunnels the Templars once walked be careful it's slippy traces of the Templars underground activity may still remain Mikey Mikey look at this look at this holy wow I know isn't that wild one that is insane bang there's this doorway and walls what in the hell is anybody doing making a wall and a threshold in a wall they can close this whole area the primary purpose of zedekiah's cave was a quarry who would build a barrier that would have made extracting heavy Stone more difficult and why the last thing that I was expecting that deep underground was unimately constructed wall it looks like it's got little slits slits that you would see in a castle slits that you could potentially fire bow and arrows through the wall definitely to me could have served some defensive purpose this is kind of a mind blower could the medieval Knights Templar have escaped their alleged destruction and lived on to form secret societies that still exist today Clues May lie in the Escape tactics a small band of Templars might have used to get out of Jerusalem with the night's Godly powerful relics as a Muslim Army of thirty thousand were smashing down the city's walls five stories Beneath The Old City Garth Baldwin and Mikey K investigate zedekiah's cave an ancient underground rock quarry the size of an ocean liner as a possible Escape Route come on you look at the book holy wow I know it's not wild cave Mikey and Garth find a wall that is out of place in a quarry that needed clear Pathways to extract massive stone blocks the whole thing with the Templars is nothing happens by mistake someone has come down here and built a piece of architecture a piece of structure for some defensive purpose the artifacts that we found is dated to the 12th Century City okay there were some busy little fellows weren't they archaeologists have not yet id'd who built the structure but it does fit the mo of the Templar era [Music] 12th century medieval castles commonly fortified their escape tunnels with similar features to four mazes gateways and barriers one tactic was known as a chicane a zig-zagging series of walls used to slow down and Ambush attackers could the Templars have retrofitted the rock quarry with similar strategies Mikey and Garth descend deeper in search of additional evidence [Music] you can feel it getting more isolated you just don't know how far these tunnels are going to keep going up together here they are there's just oh yeah seven different offshoots to the point we're standing in five stories underneath the Earth gosh oh nice you gotta see this oh that's a wall yeah wow this is incredible 100 feet beyond the First wall the team finds a second wall with similar Construction you go down even further and there's yet another constructed wall just a very top of another wall that could be part of a system this is the key to your survival if you can manipulate a monopolized tunnel Networks then when you've got big armies bearing down on you this is how you escape everything there is backfilled so all of the debris and all this stuff has been filling in and filling in and filling in so when you excavate all that out how far does that wall go down is there a doorway is there yet another tunnel that'll lead out to the Temple mount centuries of cave-ins erosion and debris have blocked this tunnel but if it once connected somewhere inside Jerusalem's walls this cave could have helped give the Templars a viable escape plan to flee the city any Muslim Invaders following the knights in the darkness would hit a wall that hurts them like sheep towards a dizzying maze of tunnels seven offshoots means an 85 chance of choosing the wrong direction buying the templar's precious time to escape with the relics the second wall could have given the Templars a final choke point to fight off any remaining pursuers and this route is just one of several possible Escape scenarios for the Templars of their relics the system of network inside attica's cave is varying from large to quite tight actually if the Templars are going to all this trouble to try and create an exfiltration route underneath the city of Jerusalem they're going to want to make sure that it's big enough for whatever it is that they want to try and drag out that holds us there you think you could get the Arc of the Covenant through that what was the size of the Ark of the Covenant according to the Bible it's 31 by 31 by 52 inches the Ark of the Covenant was one of the holiest and most prized relics to Christians Jews and Muslims alike a golden box adorned with two cherubs it was said to hold the Ten Commandments and possess Supernatural Powers capable of stopping rivers and toppling cities if you go an enemy bearing down here and they're about to Slit your throats I mean you could actually do it you need to I'm doing it for God if you're tight it would but if that was one of the objects they were protecting that again now we're learning a little bit more about Templar strategic military planning even though the cave that we're looking at was a quarry it would have definitely been utilized in a military way that's kind of the way that Warfare operates right now today they utilize what they had around them and that's exactly what the Templars I think would have done but even if the Templars escaped the city they weren't safe yet a Muslim Army of 30 000 was still in the area Templars still knew there was a threat and if the threat was coming 1187 the Knights Templar faced Annihilation after the Muslim General solidan and his 30 000 man army destroyed them on the battlefield taking no prisoners and capturing the holy city of Jerusalem a critical crisis that would change the way the Templars operated for centuries to come so like Garth Baldwin and Mikey K believe the knights Escape tactics in MO in Jerusalem May give Clues to their ultimate disappearance so you've got this small tight-knit unit protecting this sacred Relic Navy SEAL Style so I found the commander we've literally just come outside of the northern wall they've got a significant threat into haladin's Army which is about to crush them so they need to get it out of there and need to get out of there quickly time is of the essence escaping the city via underground tunnels would have been only the first phase of the Templar Escape Plan in the aftermath of the battle the Templars would have been alone in a hostile land the Muslim Army had killed over 90 percent of the Templars in the region and would be on their Trail with no backup for hundreds of miles how did these Templars get themselves and their prized relics to a safe location what we need to do now is try to understand what the second half of the exfiltration plan was I'm looking at somewhere that's secure for people's safe house we need to try and work out what those options are it's important to find somewhere within a day or half a day's distance somewhere that I can Sprint with my team to and then hold up and get a little bit of rest Mikey and Garth look at Templar castles in the Holy Land as a possible fallback plan for the knights well options North are there's a cluster there's a bunch but that's five days it's 100 miles I just don't see that happening between 11 19 and 1187 they had built up a network of defensive fortresses throughout the Holy Land but with their Manpower depleted after the battle solidan had captured most of these castles there was one stronghold near Jerusalem still in Templar control latroon latroon Castle 20 miles 20 miles from Jerusalem yes what's the terrain like there's cut valleys pointed straight there the Templars would have known how to exploit any terrain to their advantage they were one of the only military organizations in the medieval Christian world to conduct a regimen of formal training exercises they could find the mountains they could fight on the planes they could launch amphibious assaults as they did in the Crusades the Nile Delta that was part of their training medieval armies and particularly Crusader armies were not typically brilliantly organized but what the Templars brought was a disciplined Elite military force small and agile that can be bolted onto these larger armies to improve their capability moving along High Ridge lines between Jerusalem and latroon would have given the small band of Templars cover and concealment they reached the gates of the castle I think this would be a good option but it's one of the very few options it's it's the option today latroon Castle lies in Ruins but even amid the rubble ITS Tactical advantages are apparent as a military man you build up a sixth sense for the strategy of survival Templars didn't have binoculars they didn't need them the visibility is great big armies coming from this direction but at least you'll be able to see them a long way off I got my small unit SAS style Delta style getting the relics out of Jerusalem there aren't many Templars left they're running they're running not only for the lies but they're running to protect the very thing that they believe gave them special powers if you're looking at a sacred Relic you're going to want to have very very safe location visibility in High Ground are a key element to security but that's not all they're going to need latroon was far from a Secret Safe House solid and in his army knew about this Fortress and would eventually come hunting with the survival of the order's holiest relics on the line how could the tiny band of Templars have protected themselves in such a high profile location the stakes are now really high they're going to have a plan did the Templar Knight survive their alleged annihilation in 1307 and go on to form secret societies battle tested survival tactics honed during their 200-year reign may have been the key Mikey and Garth investigate the Templar Fortress of latroon a possible Tactical Safe Haven for a small group of knights that could have been on the run with holy relics after the fall of Jerusalem in 1187. so I'm coming from Jerusalem I'm a small unit SAS style protecting a high value Asset so you want to be here any big force was coming out from there you'll be able to detect it Dr Rafi Lewis is a battlefield archaeologist who has spent years investigating the ruins of latroon Castle you know this is the land of conflicts of many conflicts the Holy Land We tend to shed the blood of each other on the same battlefields and we're standing of one of the bloodiest Battlefield throughout the ages the way station of war is the way station of War High Ground overseeing a strategic Crossroads near Jerusalem latroon was a coveted site that had been fought over since Biblical times The Fortress would have been a well-known Target to the templar's Muslim enemies did the Templars have fortifications robust enough to defend it even with just a handful of men what are our parameters here that how far out is this Castle it was about 200 by 250 meters which makes it the second largest castle in the Latin East latroon was over two and a half football fields wide five times wider than the White House this massive Castle was one of the first fortresses the Templar order had built it had been used to protect pilgrims on the busy road to Jerusalem in 1187 it would have been the Templars themselves seeking protection most of the Templars left their key positions like this one in order to fight whoever was left here which would be just a few maybe a few nights those castles were made to be protected by a very small number of people like Elite military units today the Templars usually fought against Superior numbers relying on Advanced military Tech to level the playing field latroon had extra defensive walls that sloped outwards a feature known as a Talus a medieval equivalent to today's cluster bombs that gave Defenders a place to drop rocks and shatter them spraying attackers with a hail of shrapnel obviously we're not at the original height of the floor the floor should be way down below us that's just the beginning of the arch so what we're seeing is just the arch the entire rest of the room is buried the original floor of the Templar Castle is covered by 800 years of accumulated dirt and debris whatever Templar Secrets this place holds lie buried below what we need to do is we need to go get the grandparents area and radar and we need to see what's underneath this one this Castle wasn't excavated only surveyed never with ground penetrating radar this would be first time that would be the first time to use here awesome the ground penetrating radar is used by the military to find underground IEDs it can detect buried rooms and objects up to 30 feet below the surface if we had to locate the floor below the surface by hand it undoubtedly would have taken months but with GPR you can see them in five minutes and it's right there okay the GPR reveals that the original ground level is nine feet below the surface oh yeah right there see that okay see the waves right there then gets another hit indicating something even deeper underground there's something down there there's definitely something happening oh yeah it looks like this could this Village or something there would it be possible that it continues down to another surface below yeah maybe there is a floor and then a space below the floor it's so cool the GPR indicates underground walls 15 feet deep that line up with the archways and create three separate Chambers buried beneath the original ground level these are consistent with compartments once hidden under a wooden floor that over centuries would have rotted away one explanation a false floor that could have created a secure hiding place to stash high value relics as an option of Last Resort in case the castle was overrun the final contingency in a well thought out MO nothing is not considered a plan to the nth degree let's go to all the military components absolutely coming out of Jerusalem when I was on the Run I should bring him here I think that latroon is a tactical breadcrumb the Templars would have found a safe place there they could have kept things hidden they could have safeguarded what they needed to safeguard this is a good plot this is where you stop to refresh change horses and move on [Music] what we found is evidence the temp class had a sophisticated exfiltration plan what we're seeing are the tactics that the Templars would have needed 120 years later when they went underground and seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth so the next logical question on the investigation is how did they bounce a bat the Polaris found a way to survive what should have been their end escaping the Muslim Siege of Jerusalem in 1187 possibly with their holy relics using retrofitted underground infrastructure and a massive Castle repurposed as a safe house well if I was a military commander I was on the run all this has got all the perfect ingredients absolutely the castle in latroon could have provided temporary Safe Haven but three months later even this stronghold was captured by the Muslims what was the next strategic move for the knights the Templars were on their knees by the losses of 1187 they had been turned out of their base in Jerusalem that lost a lot of men but hardwired into Templar ideology was this sense that you didn't back down you didn't give up you didn't flee and so what you saw afterwards was really a determination to recover the knights had one goal take back the holy city of Jerusalem Jerusalem was the most important place on Earth for Christians so it was incredibly important that they held it safely so that thousands of pilgrims get there and visit the holy sites that Jesus had lived and died at to retake Jerusalem the Templars would need horses men Arms and Supplies and all that came with a hefty price tag the key thing to rebuilding the Templars was the money the Templars had a sophisticated Financial system in place to move riches one in battle or received from Christians donating to the Holy Wars they even pioneered an early form of checking accounts so pilgrims could deposit money in Europe and withdraw it in the Holy Land their castles became like ATMs and the Templars amassed sizable banking fees with each transaction at the height of their powers they were like a global bank like Deloitte or Merrill Lynch the temple Is wealth and was legendary a king's Ransom is not just a figure of speech during the Crusades Kings were occasionally kidnapped the temple is more wealthy enough that when the king of France was kidnapped on crusade in Egypt in the year 1250. the Templars stepped in and paid this Ransom in 30 000 pounds of silver do you want to put that in context the average automobile might weigh 3 000 pounds so we're talking about 10 of those the weight of that in silver that was the kind of like loose change that's how wealthy they were after the fall of Jerusalem the Templars kicked this banking system into high gear and the new center of this massive Templar operation the ancient city of Accra so now had the headquarters at the spot where all the resources from the West were flowing in Manpower animals weapons most particularly of all Hard Cash located along trade routes in the Mediterranean and just 100 miles north of Jerusalem Akra was the perfect place to funnel wealth and Stage a campaign to retake the holy city elevation drop that's the original ground surface and this is all built on The Old City so anything sunflower is below here under here yeah the knights couldn't risk another Massacre like Jerusalem so Akra became a testing ground for new Templar military tactics that's the Templar and Fortress it's a pretty thick walls that's the foundation that's the footer the footer for the Fortress just it just must have been just massive the fortifications the Templars built above ground were nothing compared to what they were building below under Aqua streets the Templars poured their wealth into building one of the largest Subterranean military complexes the world had ever seen could this Maze of hidden passages be a preview of Escape tactics the knights used a century later in 1307. these tunnels could indeed hold the very key to what happens in the nice Templar this season unburied everywhere you try and find Templar it's been completely destroyed or buried they were Escape experts next muscle Spa don't dying to know what's behind that there's evidence the templates were tipped off it was a massive covert operation let's go see if there's anything we're seeing how they managed to escape so this is their secret passage to the port they're moving money all over the world right around here that treasure was found wait this is amazing this is like a highway under the ground the key to communication with the Templars is their use of symbols that was a sign for the Holy Grail what we're finding could change the course of history Portugal was born by the will of the templates they wanted it's a grand trip of their own the question is are there organizations out there today that are direct descendants of the Templars could the Templars and their powerful relics have survived and transformed into secret societies that still exist today Templars were Escape experts they always had Plan B plan C Plan D Garth Baldwin is a battlefield archaeologist who has conducted excavations on battlefields around the world Mikey K spent years hunting terrorists in the Middle East with the British military temp laws were a military organization advanced in its thinking my experience as a military strategist will help us get inside their psychology together they'll investigate this ancient mystery what happened to the Knights Templar foreign allegedly vanished off the face of the Earth in 1307. the Templars were the special forces units of their day organizations like that don't just disappear so teetered on the brink of annihilation twice before in their storied history he miraculously surviving thanks to Advanced skills and tactics owned over centuries team believes uncovering these strategies will give them vital Clues to how the knights could have escaped destruction in 1307 as a military strategist looking at an organization in survival mode is the best way to truly understand their tactics earlier in the investigation saladin's Army were attempting to smash down the center of the templar's world defeat is not an option the templar's first grade test came in 1187 in Jerusalem when the Muslim General solidan decimated the Templar Army and conquered their headquarters it's a surprise that they won totally destroyed but they weren't even uncovered evidence of a possibil escape plan which could have repurposed underground tunnels to get the surviving Knights and their Godly powerful relics to safety that holds us there you think you could get the Ark of the Covenant through that that was one of the objects they were protecting they had gotten it out but the Templars were not on the run for long 100 miles north of Jerusalem the bustling Port City of Accra known today as akko became the templar's new headquarters in less than 10 years they turned this city into a military and financial Powerhouse all with the goal of taking back Jerusalem from the Muslims this is all built on The Old City during the templar's 100-year reign in Accra from 1191 to 1291 the knights amassed a fortune equivalent to billions of dollars through donations trade and a sophisticated global banking system foreign the lessons of Jerusalem they began evolving their tactics and used much of their wealth to fortify this city with state-of-the-art military structures looking at what they did from the military perspective that evolution is going to take the investigation to the next level that's the Templar Fortress and all the blocks in all the walls around here came from that Fortress that's how substantial that thing was the Templars controlled the southern shore of the city all around them were bustling marketplaces and neighborhoods run by Italian merchants looming over them all was the four-story Templar Fortress the first layer of defense for a territory that would be in the crosshairs of their enemies pretty thick walls that's the foundation that's the footer the footer for the Fortress just it just must have been just massive The Fortress had walls over 28 feet wide seven times thicker than the granite walls of Fort Knox it was one of if not the most powerful most massive substantial fortresses in all of the Holy Land the Templars were determined to keep their gold silver and holy relics secure at all costs relics believed by some to include the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail were rumored to be the source of the templar's immense power written accounts of the time describe waves of pilgrims traveling thousands of miles to see holy relics in Opera including a cross believed to be made from a wash bin Jesus had touched with alleged healing properties these relics were incredibly valuable and really believed to have but we're now call magical properties the people respected the Templars because those people knew that the Templars had something incredibly sacred from a military perspective that's a high value Asset the hva looking at this area it's fortified where else is going to keep something that means the absolute world it would be somewhere around here the massive Fortress was only one part of the templar's sophisticated defense systems in Accra and what they built above the ground paled in comparison to what they built beneath it a lot of secret places in apple you know [Applause] [Music] Dr Eliezer Stern takes the team to a recently discovered area of what was once a massive Templar underground military complex follow me please Mikey and Garth are some of the first people outside of Dr Stern's small team to set foot down here it's pretty deep wow it must be a 20-foot drop look at this holy that's pretty wild what in the Blazers was this place this is the huge storage room under the palace this chamber is one small part of a massive Subterranean hive ancient Akra sprawled over 50 acres the size of 40 football fields today it's enormous underground is still 97 percent unexplored what would they have stored here everything that they need in order to take care of their Fortress this is the headquarter of more than 10 fortresses that they have all around the Middle East so whenever they need something they brought it from Europe through the portofaco into these Cellars and from here all over the Mediterranean the underground beneath Akra was the main artery feeding the Templar War Machine where they stockpiled horses armor weapons rations and tons upon tons of gold and silver all of it strategically safeguarded deep beneath okra streets think about the scale of operation to dig tunnels beneath a city you know that's a that's a very very time-consuming expensive project you don't do it if this isn't an important part of your military strategy among the countless storage Depots beneath the streets of Accra this Vault may have had a special purpose in this area it is supposed to be the Palace of the master of the templates The Grandmaster the grandmother the chief the big boss yes the grand Masters Palace I had to double take just to make sure that he told me that this is like being stood under the White House supreme leader of the Knights Templar answering only to the Pope his life's purpose was to safeguard the order and its sacred assets if the Ark of the Covenant or Holy Grail were in Accra this Vault would have been key to the Templar strategic plan to protect them that area itself screams hiding it screams hiding anything you don't want anybody to get to the Grand Master of the Templars is living above you the amount of protection this place is getting is probably more than most places on Earth this is amazing did the medieval Knights Templar Escape their alleged destruction in 1307 and live on to form secret societies that still exist today answers to that question may lie below the streets of Accra in modern day Israel a testing ground for the tactics and strategies the knights may have used to escape and survive long after history says they were annihilated oh Garth Baldwin and Mikey K investigate a massive underground Templar complex used to store the Staggering riches and supplies that fed the Templar War Machine during the Crusades in this area is supposed to be the Palace of the Grand Master yes this is amazing yeah this recently discovered Vault and its anta-chambers lie directly below the Palace of the Grand Master supreme commander of the Knights Templar and the man entrusted to protect the templar's most valuable treasure and Relics just think physically how much you could store here I'm a grand master I've got a high value Asset a really really valuable Relic I'm bringing that thing here yeah if this Vault held relics like the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant that may have been key to the templar's power the knights would have needed escape plans in the event the city was overrun like in Jerusalem the Templars were pathological planners there were no dead ends in a Templar structure you wanted to be able to get in and out of every place you go the team moves to another area of the Templar underground excavated by Stern so this is underground tunnel of the Templars this is incredible it's been built under the Templar quarter this 1100 foot stretch of tunnel was discovered in 1994 and connects the Templar Fortress to the harbor providing them with the clandestine highway to the Sea so this is their secret passage to the port yes this is amazing because if for example there was significant armies bearing down on Echo family Grandmaster Templar and I know that I can get an hva and through a time right into the hallway I'm going to be looking at Maritime option as my number one contingency plan coming out of that yeah during their 100 years in Accra Templars expanded their maritime operations to transport the money that had become the lifeblood of their war effort if you try and break down what moving large amounts of money around in the Middle Ages means it starts to give you an idea of the scale of Templar operations that it's heavy it's valuable you know we're talking about the medieval equivalent of armored trucks you've got to be able to guard it efficiently and effectively if you're taking wealth by boat you've got to have boats that are not going to be attacked and taken over by Pirates this network of ships designed to move high value cargo would have enabled the Templars to escape anywhere in their domain if Akra was ever seriously compromised but to safely move relics to the harbor and the ships there would need to be an underground connection between the grand Masters Vault to this tunnel such a connection has not yet been found but 97 percent of acra's underground remains unexplored so this here that looks a bit ominous what is that let's pick up this is a guard room so you got a guard poster right there this is the guard room the guard room was placed a third of the way between the Fortress and the sea and just 50 yards from the high security vaults if there is any tension any security problems they are coming down from the guard room and put iron bar engaging to this wall and block the way a porticolas every small detail they think about this is the template this is military order Port Cullis is a reinforced grate of wood or iron dropped from grooves in the ceiling by chains an emergency medieval barricade like steel lockdown doors banks used during robberies it would be a life-saving delay tactic if the Templars were pursued down this tunnel looking up and seeing the little holes where the port colors would have gone and that moment of realization that I'm looking at the ability to fortify the exfiltration route within a moment's notice was phenomenal that was effectively a control point how far does it go in uh it's only the room and it's block we don't know yet there's this buried space behind the guard room that's never been excavated and it could have been connected to some Escape Route so that's something I want to take a look at the guard room could hide a connection between the Escape tunnel and the grand Masters vault Garth and Mikey bring in state-of-the-art lidar a military technology used to survey enemy targets using pulsed laser light and sensors let's put her out we're scanning lidar uses Precision lasers to create high resolution 3D images that can reveal Tiny telling details it's so accurate that Nasa uses lidar to analyze particles and Martian dust so it's giving you a scaled internal drawing of that room we should be able to record just the minutia of texture of the blocks on the wall any deviation in the patterns of blocks so if there's another locked up room or doorway we should be able to tell that see there we go see the mortar in the blocks yeah I'll zoom in a little bit amazing because lidar is so new to the field of archeology this is the first time it has been used in Opera what is this I don't know um see that blocked off door there's a Filled Room back there wow how does the richest and most powerful military order in the world simply vanish could the Knights Templar have survived well past their alleged demise answers May lie beneath the streets of Accra where the Templars rebuilt their empire and pioneered new survival tactics in response to the devastating loss of Jerusalem in 1187. far below the ancient city Garth Baldwin and Mikey K are using lidar cutting-edge laser scanning Tech they're investigating whether a vault and tunnel system connect to form a possible Escape Route a potential contingency plan to save treasure and Relics in the event of a worst case scenario what is this I don't know um see that blocked off door there's a Filled Room back there lidar reveals a walled up portal leading to a mysterious chamber what's it filling what's on the other side of the door I don't know um no no I don't know it could be another cell yes like another cell on the other side or something like that wow the area Beyond the Door is filled with debris but it appears to lead in the direction of the grand Master's vault the Team Heads back to that area 50 yards away to investigate for signs of a connection from the other side oh my god oh look at that here we are 15 meters from the guard room they find a mysterious hole that could lead to the filled in chamber detected by the lidar completing the Escape Route so we are in Templar cavities that actually connect the guard room which sits on top of the tunnel which basically connects all of these cavities to the guard room to the extensive tunnel Network so everything's connected yes that's amazing relics work I don't want to get those the most logical way to rapidly exfiltrate them when the place is coming under threat is through this tunnel perfect compared to the suspected Escape tunnels the team found in Jerusalem Mikey look at the look at this akra's underground shows advances in architecture and planning every military organization in the history of warfare evolves the good ones that survive really understand the lessons identified from conflict you can involve your tactics you can involve your strategic planning that's exactly what the Templars were doing in Accra Templars had built a system of underground bunkers to rival any in the world flourished in the safety of okra's defenses for 100 years but in 1291 104 years after the loss of Jerusalem they would face their next great test there was a new and much more dangerous enemy for the temples in the holy land they were called the mamluks cast of slave Soldiers the mamluks had overthrown their masters to seize power in Egypt they were the first to defeat Mongol hordes in all-out war and they had assembled a quarter million man army with one objective destroyakra and drive the Christian Crusaders out of the Holy Land forever the mamluks had really swept through the Crusade Estates at an alarming rate and there was very little left and by 1291 macros Under Siege [Music] one morning bells and after started ringing the alarm went up the mamluks had brought up it was said hundreds of thousands of men to surround the city and giant catapults hammering at the enormous walls which surrounded akka through sheer weight of numbers the mamluks burst through the city walls we have graphic accounts of mamluk soldiers riding around trampling women and children beneath the Hooves of their horses slitting people open with their swords causing complete chaos the Grand Master of the Templars William of bonjour was killed in the bloody onslaught the Templars prepared for a Last Stand in their Fortress second in command via bold godan may have been charged with a special Mission saving the night's powerful relics we have one very good account of the fall of Akra written by a writer normally known as the Templar of Tire he saw everything unfold gaudan became the new acting Grand Master with a quarter million man looks in the streets above now was the time to enact the templar's Doomsday strategy using their underground complex as an escape Network according to the Templar of Tire gaudan took a squadron of his best men and headed for the port to escape by boat now we don't know very much about Theobald godown our best theory is that he took with him the most valuable items that the Templars had been holding at their headquarters gaudan's Escape would have been made during the most chaotic conditions imaginable as the entire city tried to evacuate there's only one way out of Akra during the season that's by sea and so what happened was an emergency evacuation you had people falling into the sea and drowning possessions would have had to be thrown overboard to make more room for people it was like the fall of Saigon this is a real scene of human chaos modern archaeologists have recovered 20 Merchant and civilian shipwrecks from the chaotic fall of Akra including a trove of Italian gold coins but so far nothing from the Templars the Templar of Tire gives few details about how many Templars got out in how many boats or what kind of treasure they were carrying but the fleeing Warriors may have left a trail behind during the chaos of battle did they drop an anchor or treasure to lighten the load could there be a Templar shipwreck in the watery depths there are many holes in the historical record of the secretive Templars so even the smallest find could have huge significance Garth and Mikey deploy the latest generation of side scan sonar a breakthrough Maritime search and rescue technology this is the first time it has been used to search this Harbor they're joined by Dr Kobe charvette a marine archaeologist who has explored these waters for years and Reagan Lipinski a side scan sonar expert who assists the Coast Guard and military police with underwater investigations and so we can cover a pretty good size area uh the boat's just going to move forward we're going to go back and forth sidescan sonar uses sound waves to create three-dimensional images so detailed they can reveal the license plate of a car 150 feet below the surface excellent let's see what it sees we're looking for anything that was dropped or dumped off the boats as they're trying to get out of there the Templars had more treasure than anyone even knows because their records were burned when they were escaping they probably lost more treasure than most these people had ever known you know so I think there's probably some treasure out there somewhere let's go ahead and drop the tow fish in let's see what it sees the team is searching the bottom of the ancient city of akra's Harbor the scene of a dramatic Templar Escape in 1291 a small band of knights is rumored to have smuggled The templar's Godly relics out of the city by boat as a quarter million Muslim soldiers approached Battlefield archaeologist Garth Baldwin and Military expert Mikey K will survey the sea if any Templar boats sank or threw something overboard forensic Clues to the templar's Escape tactics may still lie on the sea floor we're looking for anything that the Templars dropped as they're trying to get out of there the team deploys the Next Generation side scan sonar technology which has never been used in these Waters we're literally I don't know half a mile up the old city based on the position of a tunnel the Templar is used to access the harbor in secret the team has strategically picked a quarter square mile area of the bay where a Templar boat would have fled for the Open Sea you can see we're already starting to get some a boat slowly trolls the grid back and forth as the side scan sonar pings the sea floor 36 feet below sending images back that could reveal remnants as small as a coin now everything we see on here is considered an anomaly if it's not the ground it is an anomaly the general rule of archeology is that one of these things is not like the other if you're looking at a group of objects and one stands out from whatever else is is there then it's probably significant see that line that's that's something more than say modern trash that would be there two hours later the scan hasn't turned up any traces of a Templar artifact I'm looking at the screens thinking we may not find something yeah it could be an anchored it definitely could be far out an anomaly is detected on the Harbor floor at a depth of 36 feet and 500 yards from the city just out of range of enemy archers on the shore it's like eight nine feet long and there's an eyelid at the top so it could be a section of an anchor with some of it buried in the in the silt Locker deploy Market deployed the Target acquired the team prepares to dive down and hopefully recover an artifact let's go see if there's anything [Music] as I'm descending it becomes apparent that the visibility isn't particularly that good there's nothing coming up that even resembles what an anchor could be and then in the periphery I see Kobe waving at me so we all started following him Kobe takes out his knife and he starts scraping this thing and he's scraping all the crustacean and the growth off of it and it's black I have yet to see a black rock from around here [Music] history says the Knights Templar were hunted to Extinction in 1307. Mikey K and Garth Baldwin are pressure testing a different Theory that the Templars survived using Escape tactics learned during their 200-year reign at eventually transformed into secret societies that still exist today 36 feet below the surface of the harbor a bizarre anomaly could be forensic evidence of one such Templar Escape as Akra fell in 1291 we're diving down to the position where the supposed anchor was couldn't find it but we find a piece a one chunk of rock looks like octagonal because it's got flat sides [Music] the local Stone here it's the Kuka it's a kind of a Sandstone or Limestone this one is a kind of fishiest or granite a stone which is not from this the area or from the country and it's typically for ballasts Templars would have used those stones for about us might be this type of ballast Stone was used for stabilization in Venetian galleys fast maneuverable sailing vessels that were the Templars boat of choice for war and transport the temple is a very sophisticated in their military hardware they were wealthy enough to buy the best of everything and Italian Merchants had the best galleys that would be able to transfer massive amounts of wealth and goods from one side of the Mediterranean to the other galleys rented or purchased from the venetians could be deadly weapons fit with battering rams and even catapults they had oars in addition to sales to ensure maximum velocity but if the ships needed to move faster the ballast Stones were thrown overboard the most interesting thing is that we are in the entrance channel to the harbor this is not the place where you are throwing ballast or any other stuff and unless you are in a very in danger you're jumping ballast outside and cutting an anchor you're you're hauling ass a ballast Stone outside the city walls as far as it was does support a scenario that that we know took place we'd like to have found more but sometimes that's just in the nature of archeology but it does support the concept and the scenes that we're thinking about that you know the Templars are getting the hell out of there the ballast Stone supports the theory that the Templars were escaping with heavy cargo like gold and silver or even the Arc of the Covenant the Templars would have flung anything including themselves off the ship to save it off the fall of Akra their evacuation marks the end of an era it was the end of the Crusades the order is in total retreat in the holy land is falling but it wasn't the end of the template the once Unstoppable Knights were entering a time of uncertainty now more than ever they would need to continue refining their survival tactics print for those tactics may have began with Theobald godan the new Templar Grand Master who may have been entrusted with saving the order's holiest relics in the heat of battle One account tells us that once the Templars under theobaldan had left akker that they reached Cyprus this was really the nearest Safe Haven with the Templars bases in the Holy Land wiped out by the Muslim mamluks Cyprus was the nearest friendly Christian kingdom when you look at the map and you look at the options that the Templars had Cyprus from a military perspective is a no-brainer Cyprus is in the eastern Mediterranean a day sale from Accra and the site of five Templar strongholds but even this Safe Haven was far from truly safe as a busy trading Hub Cyprus attracted seafarers from around the world friends and enemies alike after the fall of Akra the major ports were jammed with refugees a chaotic situation easily infiltrated by Pirates and Muslim spies written accounts confirm godan arrived in Cyprus but give no details of how he could have brought the world's most valuable holy relics safely ashore amidst the chaos we know that they have knocked out of a Monaco there wasn't very many of them so on The Grandmaster Templar I'm thinking covert I'm thinking that I want to be able to take the hva bring it from sea to land and do it without many people being around Mikey was stationed on Cyprus as a royal Air Force pilot and knows the island well look up the west of the island up towards pathos here he goes pathos I know from flying over this area quite extensively that there would be potentially some awesome caves an awesome Coastline where you could actually get an hva in quite secretively Mikey pinpoints an area on the western side of the island called Pathos in 1291 it was sparsely populated but near the site of an isolated Templar Outpost it's out there I think the key thing for us is working out whether you can get a boat in on there and how dangerous that might be look at this brachova infill this is perfect the Knights Templar were allegedly wiped out in 1307 Mikey K and Garth Baldwin are investigating whether they could have survived using battle-tested Escape tactics and eventually transformed into secret societies that still exist today according to a written account from the Templar of Tire a small band of Templars escaped the catastrophic fall of Akra in 1291 and sailed to Cyprus possibly with powerful holy relics but nothing is known about how the knights pulled it off Mikey and Garth are testing the feasibility of the Templars executing a high-risk covert Landing the Templars have been knocked senseless in Echo so it was a small team that was coming out of there there was a lot of risk coming in through the main Port so the contingency plan would be operating covertly I'm thinking if it's a big boat little plus had this is about as close as I want it going to be getting yeah arsenal were galleys bought from the venetians but maneuvering a ship the length of two modern day semi-trucks along the along the rugged in Shallow Coastline was risky if you're bringing something in like the Ark of the Covenant that's not an insignificant piece of cargo the most vulnerable part of this mission is transitioning from sea to land he's been doing this at night no moon no and no motor there would have been no calm moment until they have their treasure and the relics here in a secure location so finding somewhere completely out of sight or they had security and and you know space to regroup would have been essential the galleys were outfitted with small shore boats for Beach Landings The Templars perfected this kind of amphibious approach 50 years earlier during the seventh Crusade when the knights rode stealthily up the Nile to attack Egypt but tiny defenseless row boats made the Templars and their relics vulnerable targets all right he's uh he's left a little bit good okay lift her up okay let's go in oh my God the team discovers a deep Inlet and a sea cave 10 miles from a remote Templar Outpost this stretch of Coastline could hide dozens more caves like this providing the Templars many options it's a giant Cavern you could stay there if you had to for a little while and regroup a landing site like this would be an ideal place for a small band of warrior monks to link up with reinforcements from the land while staying out of sight of any potential enemies using Limestone caves fit the Templar Mo seen in Jerusalem we saw Limestone caverns in zedekai's cave without a doubt those would have been utilized by the Templars and Cyprus as they were in Jerusalem if they were trying to bring something in Perfect Space absolutely absolutely perfect space perfect access to the beach if you get compromised let's go look at the Expo route oh yeah no way gosh yeah this is complete shielding from the ocean shielding from the land you get a ceiling you now are hidden from the ocean if you tuck into the cliff you're hidden from above just allows your team to rest up take a breath take a pause and get ready for the next phase it doesn't get any better for a cover up after the fall of Agra the templar's most secure strongholds were back in Europe the likely Final Destination for holy relics but a covert Landing in Cyprus would have been a key stopover in a masterful Escape strategy forged from 200 years of military tactics learned in The Crucible of the Crusades let's go the Templars are kicked out of Jerusalem they come to akko they turn this place into their Opus of planning they've learned what their best Escape Routes would be and how they could build them they quarried a tunnel from their Fortress to the marina it's possible they took everything with them their relics they took their Treasures they got out of here on their Ships coming into a cave undercover you go for security to security maybe they had evolved into this organization this group with so many skills that they could exploit all the resources they needed they didn't need to bring anybody else into it to keep everything secret to get to where they were going next and survive 15 years after landing in Cyprus the Templars would vanish from the face of the Earth could the covert tactics they honed in Jerusalem and Accra have given them the edge to pull off one of the greatest escapes of all time next unburied below the streets what do you make it up there's evidence the temple has got tipped off gone from basically being a Navy SEAL or SAS operation we're now talking CIA wow right around here that treasure was found we these coins look Templar it's just unreal Raiders of the Lost Ark one of the ways in which an organization can work in the shadows is a secret means of communication the symbols of the Templars link up all these things that we've been seeing cross marks the spot what is the symbolism behind that window The Grail the Holy Grail two investigators are pressure testing a theory that the Templars survived past 1307 and went on to form secret societies that still exist today they would have never given up ever that's how soldiers work Garth Baldwin is an archaeologist who has conducted excavations on battlefields around the world Mikey K spent years hunting terrorists in the Middle East with the British military should we expect that they just put down their weapons and capitulated that doesn't make sense to me this is about the Templars Going Underground together they'll investigate this ancient mystery what happened to the Knights Templar foreign says that the Knights Templar were exterminated from the face of the Earth in 1307. but the team believes the order may have survived by using Advanced military tactics they honed throughout their early reign previously in the investigation wait what is this Mikey and Garth uncovered evidence of covert Escape Routes used by the Templars during key battles in Jerusalem and Accra by using hidden tunnels this is their secret passage to the port a Global Network of safe houses and covert operations oh my God if they were trying to bring something in Perfect Space the Templars could have escaped destruction with powerful relics in tow after studying 200 years of the order's survival tactics the team will investigate the most crucial moment in Templar history the night's alleged final destruction launched by the king of France in October 1307. Mikey and Garth returned to consult world-renowned Templar expert Dan Jones to understand the events that led up to the templar's moment of Reckoning in 1307 things start to go seriously wrong for the order of the temple just look at the losses that have been stacked up in a really short period of time although the Templars still controlled hundreds of castles and had standing armies across Europe they had lost the holy land their purpose and Mission they were supposed to be defending the holy land and when the Holy lands lost people are starting to say hey it was on their watch and the Optics are bad you've lost the holy land and yet all over the West you have these extremely wealthy Timber houses making a lot of money and who will be saying that they were corrupts their only allegiance to God hope the night's unchecked power and enormous wealth became a threat to the kings of Europe to the template's support base started to wane Their donation base started to fall away friends are becoming enemies now more than ever the Templars would need to safeguard the wealth and Relics that some believe were the source of their power after the fall of their great fortresses in the Holy Land the templar's most secure stronghold was their Castle in Paris site of their Central Treasury with 165-foot Towers massive walls and a vault rumored to hold billions in gold and silver it was the ideal place to protect sacred relics many have theorized this Fortress housed the Holy Grail Paris had always been a safe Sanctuary to the Templars French kings were some of their biggest supporters during the Holy Wars but that was all about to change King Philip of France is in dire need of money and wealth to prop up a failing French economy and he finds the solution in the Templars King Philip the man who would bring the Templars down had a simple plan arrest the knights and seize their money they see this coming do you think there's certainly a window for tip-off which is between the 14th of September 1307 which is when the orders went out to the king's officials who were supposed to be acting on them and the 13th of October when those orders were opened Dawn and people came and knocked on the door so there were people who knew something was up and something was coming in September of 1307 the king and his men drafted up orders to have every Templar in France arrested in one month's time if the Templars learned of this plan it would have given them 30 days Head Start a month to save everything they could including their treasure and Relics according to the history books this treasure has never been found what happened to all the wealth that was in the Paris Temple at that time is not clear it didn't leave a trace you can't follow the the path of the money through this story it just sort of punishes where did the wealth go we know it's not in Paris that had to go somewhere any action the Templars would have taken would have absolutely been covert if you're a sharp military outfit it's all about survival you always have contingency plans if the Templars did manage to smuggle out their treasures and Relics it would have been a crucial first step to rebuild and evolve into a new order like the Freemasons or the Illuminati so could they have done it a big question is where are you going to go what is going to provide you with an element of safety of security you have very strong historical links between Northeastern France and the Templars that's where networks of families had always provided Personnel donations there's lots of Temple properties they're going to go to a place where they're familiar and where they have allies and that place was the Champagne region located 150 miles Southeast of Paris the Champaign region is the birthplace of the first nine Templars those Deep Roots could have made champagne Ground Zero for an operation to save Templar treasure and Relics from the grasp of the French King there's extensive facilities and farms and people that they can trust because they're at home if someone comes into the community that isn't known people know about it absolutely absolutely 100 everything's gone Underground and that's going to make the investigation harder but I think that's that's now the mindset that we have to have right up until the end of 1307 the Templars controlled 12 bases called commanderies in the heart of Champaign Mikey and Garth suspect these commanderies could have been used as hubs for smuggling the templar's greatest Assets in the weeks leading up to the arrests but today most of the commandries lion ruins the team splits up to cover more ground Mikey heads to the commandery davalur one of the last withstanding structures commandries were a powerful part of the Templar War Machine generating cash to fund the Holy Wars turning a hefty profit on Farm Goods like grapes wine and wool that has been in its original state of approximately it's from 1170 1170 1170 yeah historian Francois gilet has been studying the Templars in the region for 20 years this community of Templars was very small it was only five or six people and they had underneath the 40 people working for them in the critical month before the King's Men rounded up the Templars carts rumbled in and out of the commandery full of wool and wine bottles an ideal cover to conceal treasure concealing value Goods in normal trade routes that's something that's been done throughout the centuries Hezbollah prolific at it the Islamic State so if you want to start interweaving carts of wealth in between daily trade that would have been something which would have been quite smart to do and hard to detect the Templars had used similar Escape tactics during the siege of Accra teen years earlier repurposing sea trade routes to escape the city the importance of this place is because during the trial it discovered that the last emperor that was arrested was arrested here it's the last empire so very last Templar arrested yeah yes if this was a location where the Templars would have come and brought wealth it had to have somewhere where you could conceal hide somewhere that was subterranean twelve feet below the Templar sleeping quarters of the commandery's chapel an ancient Wine Cellar could hold Clues to the templar's smuggling operation this is from the temporary period and it's the old caves oh what's that all right what's this stones naturally fell and opened again an old space that was existing but then it gets to a point where this is literally this this rock here is is Subterranean Rock that's just been hammered through there's no door there was never a door here suggesting this could have been a false wall that collapsed after centuries I'm looking at where the entrance was meant that that was really well concealed wow there's columns that are holding the place here what is above us there's nothing that has been built above is there any records any archives as to what this space was used foreign in terms of a covert operation that to me is a huge alarm Bell what about if the Templars wanted to conceal something [Music] Francois things that it has been used as a hiding space did the medieval Knights Templar survive their alleged destruction and go on to form secret societies that still exist today the team is investigating a possible covert operation in 1307 to save their treasure in the final weeks before King Philip had them arrested champagne birthplace of the founding Templars 12 feet below the Templar commandery davalur Mikey K explores a newly discovered chamber that could be evidence of a Templar smuggling Network this place was really well concealed perfect place to keep something that you don't want other people to find coins wealth maybe even relics in September of 1307 the Templars may have been tipped off that the king of France planned to arrest them and raid their Paris vault in one month's time but there's no evidence the king ever got his hands on their riches the clock ticking the Templars may have used hidden underground caches like this to smuggle their treasure and holy relics to safety these guys were military guys they just they knew how to exploit anything and tunnels that was what they're all about the Templars we'd use this in case they were compromised that was really well concealed some of the treasure might have been bought and the reason I say some is because after 200 years someplace had accumulated a serious amount of wealth all records of the templar's treasure vanished but based on the dimensions of the Paris Temple some have theorized they had hundreds of tons enough to fill dozens of modern-day semi-trucks yes this is a perfect place to bring wealth it wouldn't have been able to house the amount of wealth that the temp loss had coming out of Paris but there were 11 more Templar commanderies in the region could they have formed a network of hiding places 20 miles away near the regional capital of qua Garth searches another possible location the Templars could hide their Fortune of silver gold and holy relics we're heading to see the first commandery of Hugh de Paul who was the original Templar Knight and first Grand Master 1998 a stash of silver coins was Unearthed at the Templar commandery de pan is this physical evidence the Templars were smuggling riches through champagne today nothing is left standing of this former Templar base Garth meets up with historian tieri lawa to survey the ruins there have been excavations there from the state they located some foundations so here was the chapel yeah and several barns farming drove the medieval economy the fertile Champagne region was the Crown Jewel of the templar's financial Empire making the nearby town of Tua where the goods were traded in silver and gold the Wall Street of medieval Europe today the way to measure gold is still the trois ounce the Templars owned an enormous property portfolio that created a vast amount of money to fund The Crusade the Templars weren't just fighting men they were also at support staff accountants estate managers you could join the Templars and just basically run a farm Templar Farm bosses in the Champaign region would have known every inch of the roads and warehouses the Templars used to move their products if the templates are needing to move relics or even just treasure injecting a relic into a shipment and then putting extra men on it is not going to seem unusual right around here that treasure was found we uh someone came and stored or hid the treasure within the grounds of the commodity so right here where we stand following the archeology 750 coins some of them silver the coins were found by an amateur treasure hunter in an unlikely place buried in the courtyard outside the building if the Templars had a covert smuggling Network in place why would they leave it behind in their backyard in 1307 50 horseback riders came here and arrested the Templars that were here they broke down the door and this we know is and the tempers were imprisoned if it was a Templars maybe it was the last minute when they knew they were going to be arrested they were trying to stash money to hide their assets and there was no way out so maybe they had no choice but to just bury it in the ground yeah Garth investigates the 750 coins found buried at the commandri de pan it's one of the largest medieval coin hordes ever found in France this evidence of the missing Templar treasure from their Paris vault wow it's just unreal 1307 King Philip of France was planning to arrest the Templars and steal their riches from their main vault in Paris the knights may have been tipped off a month before the Crackdown giving them time to smuggle their treasure and Relics to safety Garth Baldwin examines a cache of 750 coins found buried at a Templar base in the Champaign region the level of detail is amazing if the coins were in use during King Philip's Reign they could be remnants of the smuggling operation and it reads philippus Rex which means Philip King of France these kinds of coins were used by Templars at the time to trade and to market the goods that they produced it's the type of currency that was the most available at that time in France I'm looking at them underneath the microscope and it's like you can see the ring from the stamp on them boom it's mid 1200s to 1290 these coins are in circulation when the Templars knew they were going to be arrested it's just unreal 750 coins would have been just a tiny fraction of the templar's massive treasure the fact that these coins were buried suggest a hasty response to a threat is this a sign of a final Act of desperation or could the small parcel of coins be a window into a larger Templar strategy to save their riches you know how cunning the templates are yeah we know how much the templates are the temple has had load of wealth you write all that together and you come to the conclusion I think that what we're seeing in the Champagne region would have likely been replicated all over France diversifying taking their wealth and splitting it into 100 500 pieces putting it in places where they know the networks that would have been a pretty excellent strategy given the threat that the temple has been basically the Templars were trained to operate in small Special Forces style units by splitting treasure among small teams called cells and sending them to diverse locations if one was caught the rest would be uncompromised the same tactics were used by the French Resistance to smuggle guns and Contraband in World War II Going Underground into various cells I found the Templars that's exactly the type of approach that I'd be taking the Templars had allies all over France in 1307 giving the many options for cells to operate but there are no reliable records indicating other locations where treasure may have gone one prominent Legend claims some was hidden beneath the town of gizor 50 miles Northwest of Paris gizor lines up perfectly with a suspected Templar smuggling tactic it lies on one of medieval France's busiest trade routes lots of merchants and lots of Travelers would have been using that road it would have been great cover to blend into the masses whereas if you're by yourself on the road somewhere and the King's out looking for people you're gonna get picked off for centuries Smugglers have done the same thing Legends of Templar riches hidden in gizor have attracted treasure hunters for centuries a groundskeeper named Roger lamois even claimed to have glimpsed a secret Templar stash beneath the town's Castle in 1946. but numerous excavations including one by the French military have come up empty-handed treasure hidden under the castle itself is unlikely in 1307 it belonged to the Templars Arch Enemy Francis King Philip IV like everywhere in France before the arrests the eyes of the King's Men would be watching but the Templars could have used a familiar tactic to avoid detection below the streets of the Town lie underground medieval tunnels the team meets up with local historian Francois levay basement Renovations in a local home revealed this Subterranean passage in 1992. we're about 200 yards on foot from the entrance of the castle a Subterranean operation close to the King's Castle would have been risky but the Templars may have found allies in the locals who resented the king for heavy taxes these locals could have provided the Templars with cover I mean when the French people don't like government don't like an inviting course the front of a reputation performing a resistance aren't they yeah really the Templars were weren't stupid they were smart men that they would use the bases in the vicinity such as sellers to hide the treasure now that's a possibility how far down does this go this is about five meters below the ground yes if you want to follow the keystones and everything else the construction you can you could definitely link to Templar or Crusade these Barrel vaulted arches match the design of many Templar Escape tunnels in Accra their former capital in the Holy Land he says mind your head what do you make of that boy would it have been one person's house would have included these or was it the neighborhood the whole neighborhood of sellers themselves any way that these could be connected he believed so for the simple reason that in 1946 when they rebuilt the town after the bombings of the war they found underground Crossroads of tunnels there was a real significant network of tunnels found just 50 meters outside of the castle grounds literally right under the king's nose in early October of 1307 these tunnels may have provided safety for the Templars but all that would change on Friday the 13th in the ninth Templar evolve into secret societies that still exist today in 1307 they would face their greatest test Friday the 13th of October 1307 I don't think anybody saw the scale of what they're about to do to the temple is coming I mean this was genuinely like World shocking stuff despite a possible tip-off a month earlier the ultimate Day of Reckoning was crushing King of France deployed thousands of men across the kingdom to round up every Templar they could coordinated through sealed instructions the raids hit every Templar house at precisely the same moment for maximum surprise in just hours the most powerful military order in the world was decimated the knights who were caught endured months of brutal torture Templar leadership I kind of assume that they're going to be able to talk their way out of this but they were outmaneuvered and outdone just by the sheer aggression of Philip's assault France was the epicenter of the attack on the knights but soon all of Europe would follow suit King Phillips strong-armed Pope Clement V to take up the charges of heresy against the order Pope issued broader arrest orders and in the months and years that followed Templars were rounded up in every Catholic Kingdom the Templars were charged with heresy and Corruption under torture Templars confessed to blasphemy in idol worship during their initiation rights is a Witch Hunt it's driven by black propaganda it's medieval fate news the Templars were put on trial in many cases killed The Saga dragged on for years and wouldn't end until 1314 when the last Grand Master Jacques de mole was burned at the stake the Templars have existed for 200 years and no one had stopped them the fall of Jerusalem hadn't stopped and the full of akka hadn't stopped them they'd fought in some of the most miserable losing causes in the whole history of the Crusades and that survived but what brought them down was the Betrayal of the king of France a stab in the back but was it really the end of the Templars or did they survive like they had done time and time before could they have escaped the arrests of 1307 there were undoubtedly people who escaped we have evidence of several escape from France it's just we don't hear very much from the ones that did get away because they got away and it was it was not a bad idea to keep keep their heads down out of more than 3 000 Templars in France on the day of the arrests only 600 are accounted for the rest vanished Without a Trace possibly covering their tracks with King Philip's men on the hunt nowhere in France would be safe so where could they go and with little in the written record how can they be tracked today by the CIA or MI6 one of the ways in which an organization can work effectively in the shadows or Underground is a secret means of communication earlier in the investigation the team discovered one potential form of covert communication evidence the Templars were using coded symbols after their fall coated carvings cover the walls of Royston cave a suspected Hideout for fleeing Templars post 1307. like the Freemasons and other secretive groups the Templars used symbols the code has never been fully cracked but it permeated every aspect of their operations right down to their uniforms one version of their iconic cross the cross of eight Beatitudes was rumored to hide mathematical proportions the Templars used to design their symmetrical buildings Clues to the templar's escape plans be encoded somewhere in their symbols what other Secrets might they hide one of garth's contacts has a theory that could be x marks the spot it's based on the geographic location of strongholds drawing lines between Templar strongholds in Spain reveals the image of a Templar cross so precise and intricate it would take a computer to draw today directly in the center lies a Templar monastery The Hermitage of Saint Bartholomew this small and remote Outpost is unusual unlike most Templar sites it has no apparent military or economic function the locations at the center of the Cross yes completely out there you know a religious fanatic so I don't think it's beyond the Realms of possibility that they would have applied some sort of religious symbol to a geographic layout a map pointing to neighboring Spain is no surprise the arrests there were slower to be carried out giving the knights a brief window of safety the Spanish kingdoms didn't want to get rid of the Templars they needed them in their Wars against the Muslim Moors that had been raging for centuries the templar's hell's important Frontier castles they joined in campaigns of Conquest so there was a real debt of gratitude owed to the Templars in this region when the Templars are being attacked in France there's much more reluctance in the kingdoms of Spain to join in a temporary Safe Haven in Spain is plausible the giant Cross could be a clue to its location when it comes to the temp loss we know secret communication would have been absolutely fundamental after 1307 when they went underground they were very big on the symbols the most obvious one being the cross and because of that Spain Peaks my curiosity I think it's one of the best leads that we've got created hundreds of years before satellite or GPS is this cross a fluke of geography or a treasure map to Templar secrets medieval Knights Templar survived their alleged destruction and live on as secret societies that still exist today Mikey and Garth are testing the theory that many Knights found temporary Safe Haven in Spain after escaping torture and execution in France in 1307. there is little in the written record of the templar's Escape but they may have left Clues to their fate in elaborate symbols found across Europe here in Spain a map connecting Templar strongholds reveals a Templar cross pointing to a remote monastery could this x Mark the Spot of where surviving Templars escaped from France with their treasure and Relics the symbology leading us to the potential location it's something that your your heart wants to go with but your head it's kind of like you know the precautious one the building itself is small and only lightly fortified seemingly offering little protection to Templars on the Run but a trained military eye reveals the site's hidden potential this whole area is enclosed this is a bunker oh yeah concealed deep in a canyon in one of the least populated regions of Spain camouflage could have been the first layer of strategic protection for the monastery the sheer walls of the canyon make access for an attacking Army difficult and the only Road in is guarded by the Templar castle of Lucero a mile away at the Canyon's mouth it's a perfect location a to put a castle B to Monitor and give early inw indicators and warnings to any threat that might be approaching the valley there's a lot of caves the high Canyon walls are riddled with dozens of caves ideal for camouflaging Templar Defenders from a tactical perspective you could put people all over the side of that can you could put archers all over the side of that Canyon devastating effect it would be like the Templar equivalent of having snipers set up all over the place you're going to have quite a few Templars in this region at that period in time because the arrests haven't started there's a castle on the way in which produces or gives you this integrated defense network you've got this huge huge natural feature this Canyon it's a lot of limestone a lot of places to hide stuff caves in this Valley range in size from small Pockets to 50 foot high Caverns this is straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark providing many hiding spaces as a final contingency if the site were ever compromised the Templars without doubt could have had tunnels here whether they're naturally formed because of the lifestone or whether they had to smash tunnels themselves the team has seen evidence of Templars manipulating Limestone cave networks from the Escape tunnels in Jerusalem to the covert sea caves in Cyprus to the secret Hideaway below the streets in Royston England we've seen this time and time and time again because they knew that that's how they could protect whatever it was that they held there a system of camouflage defenses could make this a plausible Hideout for fugitive Templars the theory that led the team here that the site's location is marked by a perfectly formed cross on a continental scale May point to a deeper purpose is impossible symbols expert Angel Alma Sunday Gracia has written three books on the Templars in the region is the mystery is like how could you put them at the time have this knowledge could some form of advanced technology have enabled the Templars to create a map like this assassins during their time in the Holy Land the Templars were in contact with the Assassins an Islamic cult said to safeguard secret ancient wisdom that had been suppressed by mainstream Islam and lost to the wider world for centuries like the mathematics that had been used to build the pyramids a lot of people would argue that the Crusades are this moment of as well as great conflict of great interchange the sharing of ideas between East and West mathematics and science medicine technology architecture you know the whole sort of gamut of human intellectual development during the Templars time higher knowledge was dangerous a threat to the authority of the church in medieval times magic and science were the same thing and to them if you knew things you must have gotten it by some sort of sorcery or magic and they said what you were doing was Witchcraft and that you should be burned possession of forbidden knowledge may have been one reason the pope turned on the Templars after the arrests in 1307 hundreds of Brothers across Europe admitted under torture to worshiping an idol called Baphomet experts believe the Hebrew spelling of the word hides an ancient encryption for the word wisdom could the Templars have been safeguarding ancient knowledge and does this Monastery contain more secrets the Templars would have died to protect did the medieval Knights Templar transform into secret societies that still exist today [Music] a coded map possibly created with forbidden ancient knowledge LED Mikey and Garth to a remote Templar Monastery in Spain that could hold answers coded in its symbolic carvings so what is the symbolism behind that window right there with the star and the hearts we start with the five point start five big hearts another five small ones right in the center of all you can see the Pentagon this Five Point start was the Seal salomon's Seal Solomon Seal has always been considered the symbol of protection their first temple was this Temple of Solomon the Templars adopted it the Freemasons use it even today according to Medieval Legend Solomon built his Temple using his special seal a pentagram that gave him Supernatural powers and coated within the pentagram was also the golden ratio a geometric pattern Da Vinci called Divine proportion that repeats itself in nature as it's said to be the secret formula for everything from the Great Pyramids to Mona Lisa to stock trading and all of that has some every one of those has meaning the heart is Templar code for the Holy Grail the same symbol the team found in Royston cave but this window is unique one of the only known instances of the pentagram with ten hearts in a Templar Church the combination representing knowledge with the Grail suggests a special significance to this monastery important maybe the Hermitage of Saint Bartholomew is the spiritual center of the Templars in Spain not all the Temporaries have the knowledge to interpret those Secrets or those symbolisms only a few of them but this place was built for those ones that was a sign for the masters of the other those guys who had the the knowledge this is pretty big because this for the first time we're now starting to hear that there's a different level of knowledge with inside the Templar order there's a hierarchy there only few people at the very top of the hierarchy had that knowledge and that's big because if you're trying to keep power then you keep it within a specific number of people so it doesn't get diluted key leadership had been arrested post 1307 the leadership that were involved may have been their secret security a secluded and secret Refuge used by the Templars Elite mirrors the mo of secret societies today Bohemian Grove is an annual meeting of world Power Players dating from 1878 to the present who convene for a spiritual awakening in the seclusion of California's Redwood forest while plotting the future of world affairs Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon both attended before they became presidents many attendees are also known Freemasons this the site of secret Templar Summit meetings could an inner circle of Templar Elite have plotted the future of the order here in 1307. a plan to continue on in secret with the power of occult knowledge and sacred relics whatever the answer this Monastery wouldn't have been safe for long the popes of ice was tightening and soon every Templar in the Spanish kingdoms would be rounded up and arrested there's no doubt in my mind the Templars were resilient the Templars were tenacious the big question is why would they have relocated themselves in order to regenerate the order [Music] next on buried in Portugal this is always the myth of the Holy Grail they didn't get stomped out they continued on they evolved Horsemen was born by the will of the temples the Port of the ground and they're not going to stop it is a symbol of the power 10 plus 2.0 now going out and creating new empires is there anything around here that would suggest that the Templars could have started working in the shadows are there organizations out there today that are direct descendants of the template could the Templars and their powerful relics have survived and transformed into secret societies that still exist today Templars they were the zealots of the zealots the entire life is that Devotion to God they've never given up ever Garth Baldwin is an archaeologist who has conducted excavations on battlefields around the world Mikey K spent years hunting terrorists in the Middle East with the British military sophisticated military capability covert operation networks that they built they were going to achieve their mission together they'll investigate this ancient mystery what happened to the Knights Templar foreign [Music] October 1307. the alleged destruction of the Knights Templar began with a wave of mass arrests the knights were hunted imprisoned tortured and executed most believe this marked the end of the order but new evidence tells a different story earlier in the investigation Mikey and Garth found signs many Templars could have escaped with their treasure and hope right around here that treasure was found wait and found Safe Haven in Spain so what is the symbolism behind that window The Grail the Holy Grail but by 1312 even Spain would prove deadly the pope convicted the Templars of heresy yeah surviving nights all over Europe were given a choice renounce the order or die it's around Europe the temple has had been round up and declared to be disbanded it's over some believe ashes of this dying order the Templars would rise again some glass were resilient some clothes were tenacious the big question is why would they have relocated themselves in order to regenerate the order with enemies everywhere where could they go some say they went North to Scotland joining Robert the Bruce in his War for Scottish independence in 1314. others claim they fled East into the Alps and helped transform Switzerland from a remote Backwater to a banking Powerhouse but their greatest Refuge of all may have been to the West in Portugal there's this sort of glimmer of hope that the Templars could have been raised again the Templars may have had the ultimate contingency there a king they could control it was part of a Game of Thrones the knights had been playing since before Portugal was even a kingdom and it would set the stage for a new era of Templar Revolution at a remote Monastery in Northern Portugal Mikey and Garth meet up with historian Ricardo vermeo according to history this Monastery had no known ties to the Templars but many of its records were lost in a fire in the 1800s I I think this was covered for a long time a few years ago when this collapsed nobody could see this when these ancient walls crumbled a few years ago a window into a shadowy chapter of Templar history was revealed depending of the light conditions you can see it more obviously or not sometimes it's much more difficult to see today we can see it clearly bizarre subtle this is really subtle all this one is in a place where it isn't supposed to be but it's there the official belief is the Templars were never the monastery this cross here is is an absolute counter to that narrative what makes this place so special why here because probably this is the place where our fast King was educated in 1139 just as the Templars were reaching their height across the middle east in Europe Portugal's first king afonso Enrique won Independence through war and bloody Rebellion against the Spanish Kingdom many scholars believe the Templars were secretly behind the plan this Monastery wasn't officially founded until 1155. but medieval records show Alfonso grew up and was educated on these lands several decades before an education that may have put him under Templar influence educated by who by the first Templars were sent to Portugal by Saint Bernard Alfonso's Uncle Saint Bernard of clairvaux was one of the most powerful men in Europe in the 12th century who just happened to be the Visionary behind the rise of the Templars Bernard of clavos the architect of the template the Templar rule which was in part written by Bernard of clavoe sort of contained the Templar DNA it laid out everything when you pray what you say how you fight every single detail of Templar life was summed up in the rule of the temples it's like the blueprint for the order Bernard may have had even bigger plans for Portugal the first Templars arrived there in the 1120s when the Future King Alfonso was just a boy the rumor is that Bernard had secret plan to found the country Portugal was born by the will of Saint Bernard and was the temple-born nation Alfonso had ripped Portugal away from a lawful ruler a Spanish King making enemies across Europe but in 1143 his uncle Bernard the grand architect of the Templars may have used his power with the Pope to legitimize the king once on the throne King Alfonso would give a third of his land to the Templars first donations of our first came to the order of Temple is signs I am your brother in the order and in the nation wow by signing as a brother afonso signaled he and the Templars were inseparable Alfonso's first Charter for the New Kingdom of Portugal contained an anagram whose letters spelled not portugali as Portugal was known then but Portugal which meant Port of the Grail a possible reference to the templar's most sacred Relic the Holy Grail he was a kind of Templar in secret Bernard's dream was to create a Templar Nation they would never be openly accepted it was an age where only monarchs were seen as rightful rulers the Templars would have needed a king as a front man had the Templar set up one of the world's first Shadow governments in Portugal an alleged strategy of secret societies today it wasn't the only time the Templars meddled in governments he worked behind the scenes to overthrow Christian rulers in the Holy Land in 1186 and 1229 they were getting rid of Kings they were trying to overthrow legitimate governments they were pursuing their own military strategy and tactics against the goals of the government at the time could wielding secret power be the key to resurrecting their fractured order even after the fall of the Templars their shadowy influence on the kings of Portugal would hold in 1319 King Dinesh sat on the throne the sixth King in afonso's bloodline seven years after the pope outlawed the knights King Dinesh quietly gave former Templar property to a newly established military order a group that bore an eerie resemblance to the Knights Templar the orders that came out from the pope to wind up the Templars couldn't just be ignored after a few years once everything had died down King Denisa Portugal set up the order of Christ Bears continuity of personnel there's continuity of property the uniforms changed the names change although historians have argued about this you can see if you want to the order of Christ as 10 plus 2.0 where the order of Christ the Templars under a new Alias and could it be a step on their Revolution to secret societies after the arrests of 1307 the Knights Templar were outlawed by the Pope the order was allegedly annihilated but mysteriously thousands of knights vanished along with their treasure and Relics a short decade later there were signs the Templars were Rising again in Portugal under a new alias once everything had died down King Denise of Portugal set up the order of Christ by 1319 1320 what you really had was a kind of refounded Portuguese Templars members of the order of Christ took vows identical to the Templars poverty Chastity and obedience the big question in the whole investigation is how and if the Templar survived and to come to Portugal and to find out that the Templars may have transitioned into the order of Christ that's something else was this truly The Rebirth of an order that was once a world superpower or was it merely a group of knights fleeing persecution was a poor pastoral outpost on the edge of the known world barely able to Mint its own coins so the order of Christ may have seemed like an insignificant band of knights to the Pope when he gave King Denise the go-ahead to form the order King Denise took a lot of the membership of the Templars and put it into the order of Christ up to and including the master of the Portuguese Temple as a man called Vasco Fernandez who was given a position of high Authority in the New Order stealthy maneuvering King Denise ensured the safety of even the most high-profile Templars and he was about to ensure their most valuable military assets 19. King Denise sent a long list of items to the pope for his approval buried in the fine print was a key request that the city of tumar Portugal's former Templar headquarters be given to the New Order the king's Sly request was granted and the Order of Christ seized control of the entire region included in the deal was Almer all Castle a massive former Templar Fortress that guarded access to the city of tumar seeing this from miles away is a symbol of the power I mean this is a good reminder of who actually controls this territory right Mikey and Garth meet Colonel Pablo Albuquerque a historian for the Portuguese Army to trace the next step of the orders evolution as we pulled in off that boat and then you look up and the first thing that went through my mind was that if somebody's yelling take the hill to me I'm thinking hell no there's no way the hill is this high and then there's a castle on top of it imagine trying to attack that oh you know Cactus and brambles that's in barbed wire yes you know that's why the effect was so difficult to attack that we have no records of anybody trying to yes no one tried almoral Castle was built by the Templars in the 1100s to help the Portuguese fight invading Muslim Moors but by the time the order of Christ moved in the Morris had been repelled from Portugal for 70 years this is a place with a hugely fortified Castle so what was their plan who were their enemies who were their threats oh my goodness wow about 15 kilometers the Ridgeline yes that's an incredible view yeah Apple River you have another small castle and you can see yet another Templar Castle cardigan card is right there and I can see them so I know that a couple guys with like torches you could make signals with smoke in fact was a network of fortifications to cover the territory after Mart along with cardiga castle almoral castle formed part of a chain of strongholds a defensive ring around the order of Christ's headquarters into Mar this is an integrated network of Defense exactly that exactly this series of Defense positions they learned those lessons in the holy land and they're putting into operation obviously here Christ would have all learned their most important lesson of the templar's deadly betrayal in France in 1307. trust no one if you're trying to regrow your organization albeit under a different brand audify castles that have Integrated Network capability that's one key component rapidly responding to a threat before the threat becomes overpowering the Tomar region would have been the perfect setup for a long-term rebuilding strategy what do you think do you think the Templars became the order of Christ yes here it's just a fact yes is a fact with formidable fortifications and a new headquarters in a land whose hidden name was the port of the Grail it seems this was not a group of knights simply fleeing to Portugal in fear they had bigger plans the question is what were they tumar Portugal headquarters of the order of Christ a possible Alias for the Templars 2.0 Mikey and Garth are investigating whether the templar's re-emergence here was the next step in their transformation to a secret society a few decades after their fall the order of Christ just popped up in place of the Templars they didn't get stomped out they continued on they evolved by 1357 50 years after the official end of the Templars the order of Christ was by all outward appearances a Pious order of knights loyal to the Pope but far from the eyes of the Vatican they were quietly consolidating power retaking former Templar military strongholds all across a land whose hidden name was Portugal the port of the Grail look at it the whole family is covered in crosses through your breast every step you think they're um they're trying to tell us something this was Templar was the order of Christ defending Templar Secrets here though we have to understand the psychology of a long-term regeneration growth plan are they working in the shadows and what is the ultimate objective the order of Christ took over the former Templar Castle in tumar expanding it into a military compound that would eventually reach 4.8 million square feet but their most important sanctum lay far Outside The Fortress walls Santa Maria de Olive church had deep ties to the Templars who buried several Grand Masters inside you've got the walled Castle a very Fortified Area and then outside of that by about a kilometer you've got a church it just seemed odd that the two were disconnected the team meet up with local expert joao fiandero the Templars are transitioning to the order of Christ yes is there anything around here that would suggest that the order of Christ could have started working in the shadows we have to understand at the time there was no town here the town was inner walls up there people lived inside of the the the the walls so anything that they wanted to do they probably would be more out of ice here than inside and the child that is named Santa Maria de salivaish all these trees here we have the Mount of Olives the place where Christ was with communion with his brothers the church is named after Jerusalem's Mount of Olives where Jesus met with the disciples his most trusted Inner Circle could this church have served a similar purpose for the order of Christ also this is not a bell tower originally this was a surveillance Tower from all times fascinating the order had covert security features in place signs this small church was for much more than just worship church was the mother Church of the Christ father this was a consecrated place for the Masters to come have ceremonies assemblies meetings in the Solomon star in the pentagram is the same symbol the team found at a remote Monastery in Spain that was a sign for the masters of the other those guys who had the knowledge some experts believe the pentagram is the mark of secret knowledge used by a clandestine group of high-ranking Templars they were really the elite the symbol is also revered by the Freemasons a group long rumored to be controlled by a top-secret Inner Circle whose darkest plans are kept from even Rank and file members could an inner Brotherhood of the order of Christ be the missing link between the Templars and the Masons safeguarding power and knowledge behind a wall of secrecy look at this it's out of order you know it's out of symmetry with everything else exactly why'd these Big Stone is there anything else like it in the church nope nope nope nope you don't have nothing simulating the church local Legend claims this stone blocks the entrance to a web of tunnels below the town connecting this church to the orders headquarters on the hill such tunnels would have provided clandestine access so you would have here in the access to give and the castles over there exactly in the other side tunnels are absolutely critical to organizations that are cover and operating in the shadows like an Acura that is a format and a template that we have seen time and time and time again with the Templars recent construction projects have revealed evidence that the tunnel's existence in 2008 this whole area here was in archaeological movement because they wanted to build the new bridge that is there and so they found here really something where and of course they covered what's the top I think it is around here they were taking pictures at the time we have here you see look at that the opening is that a tarp on it exactly see the red and the white building yes that's it right there and that's there and then those three Windows those narrow Windows exactly like that what are the daughter of Christ using them for they would use it for the power of movement communication especially to get out or in certain relics in certain things they don't want to show to everybody the order of Christ or long rumored to have had the Holy Grail in tumar but their Inner Circle may have been safeguarding even more powerful Templar secrets secrets they would use to reshape the world the Order's new cross contained coded hints to their ambitions four pillars represented a new kind of crusade spreading to the four corners of the Earth the Templar mission on a global scale the order would soon have over 450 outposts and strongholds covering two-thirds of the world and this tiny Sanctuary named for the Mount of Olives would become the mother church that ruled them all did a secret inner Brotherhood of Knights Templar form secret societies that still live on today Portugal headquarters of the order of Christ the new incarnation of the Templars where the order of Christ goes it takes scraps of Templar DNA that are left after the catastrophe of 1307 and brings them to life after fortifying their new base of operations the order's Inner Circle was meeting behind closed doors in tumar laying bold plans to reshape the known world before the alleged end of the Templars in 1307 Portugal had no formal Navy [Music] decades later with the order of Christ in place they were plotting sea voyages to destinations that didn't exist on any official map Medieval Europe maps were crude and extended little beyond the Mediterranean voyages into Open Sea were considered suicide so how did the order plan to cheat death in uncharted waters the tremblers had access to knowledge that's been lost possibly Scrolls of books and things that they found underneath the Temple mount [Music] many believe that when the Templars were in Jerusalem they spent nine years digging beneath the Temple Mount where it was rumored they found the Ark of the Covenant mystical Scrolls and lost Maps passed down from ancient civilizations like Babylon and Egypt could these lost world maps and ancient technology have helped the order as they sailed into the unknown navigating across water on a on a globe you have to have really advanced mathematics Portuguese Sailors had access to the astrolab it's a navigation tool to chart courses across Open Seas it was something that the ancient Egyptians had and if the Portuguese acquired that it might help explain why the order of Christ had such success navigating an astrolabe is a sophisticated instrument developed in ancient Egypt that measures the position of the Stars Portuguese were the first in history to use it for sailing the open ocean their early voyages launched the age of discovery a period of extensive European exploration from the 50th to the 17th century a time when new worlds were discovered and Empires were built Templar crosses emblazoned on their sails the order planted their flag across two-thirds of the world Templars 2.0 the order of Christ now going out and creating new empires they're not just that they're the leading members of their society the people that were involved in this were and you'll know these names Henry the Navigator right Magellan yeah Vasco de Gama all of them are order of Christ they took Crews and ships and Order of Christ soldiers overseas and they took over huge areas for the glory of Christ and the enrichment of Portugal Prince Henry the Navigator was the order's first Grand Master with Royal Blood his navigation School launched a generation of explorers Vasco de Gama was the first European to reach India by sea Magellan was the first to sail around the Americas and into the Pacific these were three characters that was responsible for changing the course of history for changing the course of geography for discovering new lands new worlds if these guys were coming from the Templars that's incredibly powerful it's rumored that even Christopher Columbus may have stolen his place in history from the Templars they say that Columbus stole a map that was Templar or order of Christ that he got his hands on that and that's what led him West but long before Columbus reached America the order of Christ had already built an Empire with colonies and trade routes spanning from India to Africa to the Indies and eventually the new world the amassed a fortune in Golden spice turning tiny Portugal into the world's first global economic superpower but their true Mission remained the same as the Templars we take the holy land they just changed the name and it continued and the secret of nature just got bigger the Order's new power gave them a stealthy new weapon economic Warfare instead of clashing with the powerful armies of Islam on the battlefield the Portuguese used their ships to disrupt the spice trade in India wreaking havoc on the Muslim economies in the Middle East that depended on it the ensuing economic chaos led to the downfall of the Muslim mom Luke's in 1517. payback for the defeat the mom Luke's handed the Templars in Okra 225 years before every military capability in the history of warfare evolves with the transition of Templars to the order of Christ had transitioned from a night on a horse to now of Maritime vessel that was looking to conquer their enemies the knights perfected this economic subterfuge a strategy that may still Inspire secretive organizations today like the Bilderberg Group a hush-hush international cabal of political and business Elites every year Bilderberg holds top secret meetings where they allegedly conspire to manipulate world economies this is amazing the evolution is quite incredible the Knights Templar had built a military and banking superpower light years ahead of its time Templar Secrets the order of Christ had built a worldwide trade Empire that lay the groundwork for global capitalism how would they continue to evolve and what other powers would they harness who knows where their boundaries lie by the 1500s the second coming of the Knights Templar the order of Christ was a world superpower running an Empire that spanned one and a half million square miles from India to Brazil the order of Christ they have everything they have wealth power lands strongholds and they knew how to get more powerful the master puppeteers of This Global organization were taking the secrecy of the Templars to new extremes what did they have what did they know what did they do this you know they kept secret from history because secrecy was a part of the organization and it leaves them open to a speculation about what else they were hiding you know what other kind of sordid rituals were taking place behind closed doors that we don't know about Priceless maps that had launched them to the new world were considered State Secrets but even more closely guarded were hush-hush initiation rituals that some say endowed the knights with occult powers and may have echoes in secret societies today if they have those secret initiations and ceremonies they need hidden places to worship Mikey and Garth investigate expert claims that the order of Christ conducted top secret rituals and tunnels below the city of tumar remnants of those tunnels connect in marados Montes park next to the orders headquarters its name means the forest of Seven Hills echoing the Seven Hills of Jerusalem where the order believed Heaven and Earth met so I'm assuming there's a there's a lot of these kind of networks around here yeah I mean it's it's all Limestone so the thing is it's quite easy to carve and develop them with their own mind works Mikey and Garth are joined by Portuguese Templar and Order of Christ expert Tony McMahon some of those times have collapsed some of those tunnels the entrances have been cemented over for whatever reason uh some of the towns have been lost what type of things are the tunnel's being used for essentially squirreled away the richest started templates found in Jerusalem all conducting their initiation ceremonies and and the idea being that those might have been based on the sects like their scenes famous for being the mystical Jewish sect who wrote The Dead Sea Scrolls at the time that Jesus was alive the Templars they may have encountered the kind of Theology of their scenes when they were out in the Holy Land known for their mystical rights and knowledge scenes performed an initiation right known as raising the Dead the initiate was confined to a cavern for several days without food or water reaching a near-death state this provoked an out-of-body experience and the initiate would rise again with a higher state of consciousness these scenes through the initiation rights purify themselves for God there was no need for salvation through popes and Bishops it was the closest thing to the real Jesus Christ based on the Lost Gospel of Philip many claim this Resurrection ritual was handed down from the essenes to John the Baptist who then taught it to Jesus would have indicated that the Templars religious practices were much more original Christianity which is a big deal because they would have been considered radicals with the only legal form of Christianity defined by the Vatican such devotion was punishable by Death but the order had long turned away from the popes who had betrayed them in 1307 seeking new Enlightenment on their own terms if they had a direct line to the Divine through rituals it would mean there was no power above them except God himself [Music] this one doesn't actually go anywhere are there any that um actually plow right into the hillside King's throne Mikey heads to the King's throne a defunct water Tunnel built as part of a massive expansion of the order's headquarters rumored to have been used for initiation rights all right whoa now this looks pretty Eerie there are a load of flies inside there I could possibly go wrong this is a deep tunnel all right I'm stood in here kind of looks like it's for water let's see if it's for water why doesn't this still up there probably aware about 50 meters into the hillside now there's something that smacks you right in the face which is this isn't just for water could the true purpose of this Cavern be disguised behind its everyday use there's a lot of questions about this According to some experts the order's initiation rights may have taken place in tunnels whose shape represents wombs or birth canals signifying the initiates reborn state the descriptions resemble rumored initiation rights of the modern Skull and Bones society started at Yale In 1832 its members include a founder of the CIA both Bush presidents and a key member of Obama's cabinet bonesmen are said to lie naked in a confined coffin in order to die to the Barbarian world and be reborn in the Divine company of the Brotherhood ah I don't know how but those two walls have come together there right at the very end the tunnel starts coming together I can see right behind it that there's another cavity there is definitely a passage beyond that I'm six foot six I'm too big I just can't get under it or over it but I can see beyond it so the question for me is what was it for did this tunnel deliver water or higher consciousness did the order find a way to channel the power of God in secret and to what end those who went through the raising of the Dead ritual was said to be able to see the past and the future the templar's past had been to the east in Jerusalem but many believe their future would be to the West the Templars are probably one of the most resilient organizations in history having seen what we've seen we've come to the conclusion that they became under threat they always had a contingency plan to move to another organization and to re-emerge as something that was bigger that was better that was more powerful that was more knowledgeable Templars always had powerful enemies with every deadly encounter they evolved and survived solidan in his Muslim Army tried to destroy them in Jerusalem in 1187 the center point of their world is about a pole the Templars came back building a massive military complex in Accra and the most sophisticated banking Empire the world had ever seen it's just unreal Pope and the King of France tried to annihilate them in 1307. the night slipped undercover and re-emerged in Portugal the Port of the ground using ancient secrets to guide their ships they built a superpower that spammed the globe from the Far East to the world the ethos of the Templars it's an organism and they just keep going [Music] 1529 Pope finally cracked down on the order of Christ expelling members and forcing reforms that put a leash on their power but the Templars had already evolved their ultimate survival tactic secrecy under a cloak of stealth silently infiltrating the ranks of society they could be untouchable no one could attack them if they didn't know who they were or how they operated and their power could only grow the investigation started in the Middle East and it's taken as slowly West with a good understanding of who the Templars were what brought them down where they managed to become resurgent and it's sailing off to conquer new worlds the investigation needs to follow those ships now westbound far to the West in America possible signs of the templar's trajectory can be seen in the layout of our nation's capital the streets of Washington DC form a pentagram Solomon's seal a Templar symbol Mikey and Garth uncovered in Spain and Portugal it's the same symbol revered by the Freemasons a group whose members include George Washington Benjamin Franklin and FBI founder J Edgar Hoover one of their Legends is that there's some connection between the Templars to what is now the Freemasons it's down from Solomon's Temple a reference to both the biblical Temple and the templar's original headquarters on the Temple mount the Mason's role in founding America is indisputable 32 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were known or suspected Masons the Masonic symbol that adorns the back of the dollar bill speaks to an even greater ambition its words novus ordo seclorum translate to a New Order of the Ages which some suggest could reference A New World Order of Templars this is about the idea of the Templars Going Underground they had an agenda which was way bigger than controlling territory that was way bigger than taking control of Jerusalem possible Templar connections exist with countless secret societies coincidences too big to ignore Thomas Jefferson wrote secret messages using a code from the rosicrucians a group whose Rosy cross symbol appears in the Templar headquarters in Portugal Skull and Bones uses the same symbol the two on the flags of Templar ships are there organizations out there today that are direct descendants of the Templars think that they Incorporated all the things they've been learning and they evolved the connections between these shadowy groups remain obscured by centuries of myth and secrecy the truth remains to be proven and their powerful relics remain to be found and perhaps that is the greatest accomplishment of the Knights Templar there's a reason we're sitting here talking about the Templars and not the Teutonic Knights or the hospitals or any of these other military orders that existed at the same time as the Templars the Templars exert a kind of hold our imagination that almost no other medieval organization can match part of that is their Fame part of that is their deeds the things that they achieved and then you plug into that the dramatic and scandalous end of the order it just creates this cocktail of excitement though this endlessly fascinating organization they have been for hundreds of years and they still speak to us

Channel: HISTORY

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, history documentary, documentary, history channel full episodes, documentaries, history channel documentaries, buried: knights templar and the holy grail, buried: knights templar and the holy grail show, buried: knights templar and the holy grail full episodes, full episodes, season 1, Holy Grail, Buried, crusades, warriors, Mikey Kay, Garth Baldwin, buried marathon, knights templar marathon, knights templar documentary

Id: p_oCsrBTgCA

Length: 170min 12sec (10212 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 09 2023