BODIES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR FOUND NEAR RIVER JORDAN

DISCOVERY TOUTED AS BEING EQUIVALENT TO FINDING THE HOLY GRAIL


There's virtually nothing anywhere on the net about this story, bar a few paragraphs in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney. With the connection to the madness surrounding anything related to the Da Vinci Code, you'd think this would have been newsworthy.

If I find links to online stories, I'll post them, but for now this is about all the news there is, courtesy of the Telegraph.

The first bodies of the Knights Templar, the mysterious religious order at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, have been found by archaeologists near the River Jordan in northern Israel.

British historian Tom Asbridge yesterday hailed the find as the first provable example of actual Knights Templar. The remains were found beneath the ruined walls of Jacob's Ford, an overthrown castle dating back to the Crusades, which had been lost for centuries.

They can be dated to the exact day -- August 29, 1179 -- that they were killed by Saladin, the feared Muslim leader who captured the fortress.

"Never before has it been possible to trace their remains to such an exact time in history,' Mr Asbridge said. "This discovery is the equivalent of the Holy Grail to archaeologists and historians. It is unparalleled."

But were any of the bodies holding a little cup in their hands?

Who were the Knights Templar? What did they do? Why are they so prominently featured in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code? Well, they practically wrote the plot for Brown nine hundred years ago.

They believed that Jesus Christ had conceived three children with Mary Magdalene, who moved to France after the crucifixion. Their progeny married into royalty; hence, there existed members of the French nobility who had divine blood in their veins. The Knights Templar eventually dedicated themselves to protecting the lives of these descendants of Jesus, the Merovingians.

Go here for a brief account of their history.