LAST STAND in the Holy Land | Buried: Knights Templar & the Holy Grail (S1, E2) | History

the knights templar the crusades 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 have survived and transformed  into secret societies that still exist today   templars were escaped 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   templars 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 the knights templar 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 the knights had teetered on the brink of  annihilation twice before in their storied history   miraculously surviving thanks  to advanced skills and tactics   owned over centuries the 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 no   the templar's first great 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 weren't   totally destroyed but they weren't the team  uncovered evidence of a possible escape plan   which could have repurposed underground  tunnels to get the surviving knights   and their godly powerful relics to safety  that hole just there you think you could get   the arc of 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 akra known today as  akko became the templars 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 learning 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 a military  perspective their 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 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 the holy land   the templars were determined to keep their  gold silver and holy relics secure at all costs   these 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 his relics were incredibly valuable  and really believed to have what we'd 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 templars 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 nato you know me 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 that must be a 20-foot drop look at this holy [ __ ] it's pretty wild what in the blazes was this place this  is the huge storage room under the palace   this chamber is one small part of a massive  subterranean hive ancient okra sprawled over   50 acres the size of 40 football fields today  its enormous underground is still 97 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 port of ako   into these cellars and from here all over the  mediterranean the underground beneath okra 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's   streets think about the scale of operation to dig  tunnels beneath the 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 akra   this vault may have had a special purpose  in this area it is supposed to be the palace   of the master of the temples the grand master  the grand man 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's 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 akra   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 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 anti-chambers lie directly   below the palace of the grand master supreme  commander of the knights templar and the man   entrusted to protect the templars  most valuable treasure and relics   just think physically how much you  could store here huge massive treasure i'm a grand master i've got a high value asset  a really really valuable rally i'm bringing that   thing here yeah if this fault held relics  like the holy grail or the ark of the covenant   that may have been key to the templars 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 if i'm the grand master   templar and i know that i can get an hva out of  through a tunnel right into the court i'm going   to be looking at maritime option as my number  one contingency yeah coming out of that yeah during their 100 years in akra the  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 template operations 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 master's vault to this tunnel such a connection has not yet been found but  97 of akra's underground remains unexplored   so this here that looks a bit ominous what  is that this big gap 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 four  colors every small detail they think about this   is the template this is military order a port  collis 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 use 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 portcullis   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 wanted to take a look at   the guard room could hide a connection between  the escape tunnel and the grandmaster's 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 in 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 zoom in a little bit amazing because  lidar is so new to the field of archaeology   this is the first time it has been used  in akra what is this i don't know um see that blocked out 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 akra   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 i don't know it could be another cell 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 were kept in there   and i want to get those relics out of there  the most logical way to rapidly exfiltrate them   when the place is coming under threat is  through this tunnel it's perfect compared   to the suspected escape tunnels the team found  in jerusalem mikey look at the look at this okra'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 evolve your tactics   you can involve your strategic planning that's  exactly what the templars were doing in accra   the templars had built a system of underground  bunkers to rival any in the world they flourished   in the safety of akra'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 templars   in the holy land they were called the mamluks cast  of slave soldiers the mamluks had overthrown their   masters to cease 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 destroy akra and drive   the christian crusaders out of the holy land  forever the mamluks had really swept through the   crusader states at an alarming rate and there was  very little left and by 1291 macros under siege one morning bells and acres started  ringing the alarm went up the mamluks   had brought up it was said hundreds of  thousands of men to surround the city they had 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 sliding people  open with their swords causing complete chaos the grand master of the templars william of  bonjour was killed in the bloody onslaught   as 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  accra written by a writer normally known as the   templar of tyre he saw everything unfold  godan became the new acting grand master   with a quarter million man looks in the streets  above now was the time to enact the templars   doomsday strategy using their underground complex  as an escape network according to the templar of   tyre godan took a squadron of his best men  and headed for the port to escape by boat   now we don't know very much about theabold go  down our best theory is that he took with him   the most valuable items that the templars  had been holding at their headquarters   godan'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 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 charvet 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 sized area 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 now 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 boat sank  or threw something overboard forensic clues to   the templars 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 a next-generation   side-scan sonar technology which has never been  used in these waters we're literally i don't   know half a mile off the old city based on the  position of a tunnel the templars 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 imaging wicked the 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 archaeology 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  there that was something metal it didn't appear   that it was anything 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 screen  thinking we may not find something what is that that is definitely  a man-made object wow it could be an anchor 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 eyelet at the top so it   could be a section of an anchor with some of  it buried in the in the silk marker deployed   marker deployed with a target acquired the team  prepares to dive down and hopefully recover   an artifact let's go see if there's anything down 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 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   and 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 of one chunk of rock looks  like octagonal because it's got flat sides the local stone here it's the cool car it's  a kind of a sandstone or limestone this one   is a kind of a schist or granite a stone which  is not from this the area or from the country   and it's typically for ballast templars would  have used those stones for ballast 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   templars were 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 sails 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 harbour this is   not the place where you're throwing palace  or any other stuff unless you are in a very   in danger you're dumping 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 the nature of archaeology   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 ark of the covenant   the templars would have flung anything  including themselves off the ship to save   it after the fall of acro their evacuation marks  the end of an era it was the end of the crusades   the order is in total retreat and the holy land  is falling but it wasn't the end of the templars   the once unstoppable knights were  entering a time of uncertainty   now more than ever they would need to  continue refining their survival tactics   the blueprint for those tactics may have began  with theobold 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 theobald godan had left akka 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 sail from aqra 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 had   knocked out of him and echo there wasn't very  many of them so i'm the grand master 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 paphos there we go i know   from flying over this area quite extensively that  there would be potentially some awesome caves and   awesome coastline where you could actually get an  hva in quite secretively mikey pinpoints an area   on the western side of the island called  paphos 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 for a cover 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 tyre 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 ecco 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 that the templars   had this is about as close as i  want it going to be getting yeah   the fastest ships in the templar arsenal were  galleys bought from the venetians but maneuvering   a ship the length of two modern-day semi-trucks  along this rugged and 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 imagine doing this at night  no 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 where 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 rowboats made the  templars and their relics vulnerable targets   right there to the left look at that  all right he's uh he's left a little bit   good okay lift through 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 zedekiah'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 uh x filter oh yeah no way guys 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 coca hop  after the fall of akra the templars 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 temples are kicked out of jerusalem they come  to acco 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 the 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 under cover   you go from 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   just 16 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 on buried secret below the streets there's evidence the temples were tipped off  gone from basically being a navy seal or sas   operation we're now talking cia the samples had  a lot of wealth where did it go wow right around   here that treasure was found wait these coins  look templar it's just unreal this is straight   out of readers of the lost ark one of the ways in  which an organization can work in the shadows is   a secret means of communication ah 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 you

Channel: HISTORY

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Id: z91mViu8jtI

Length: 43min 24sec (2604 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020