According to the Scotsman Newspaper of Wednesday January 4th, visitors to the historic Rosslyn Chapel, situated 7 miles south of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, have almost doubled in the past year. This increase in interest has been due to Dan Brown's best selling novel the "Da Vinci Code". , Brown's book was first published . in early 2004 and has since sold more than 17,000,000 copies worldwide. The subsequent and eagerly awaited film of the book directed by Ron Howard and starring Hollywood mega box office name Tom Hanks is scheduled to hit your screens in May of this year. The film crews have already completed filming in the nearby village of Rosslin. They in fact did it last summer, but the numbers of visitors will be swelled once more by the movie which is sure to be a blockbuster.

Some claim Rosslyn Chapel to be one of the most mysterious places in Scotland which has more than its fair share of mist shrouded castles and haunted houses. The Chapel was built by Sir William St. Clair, the Prince of Orkney in 1446. This tapestry in stone is a construction which seems by its dimension to have been intended to be much larger than it is. Rosslyn Chapel provides the backdrop for the conclusion of Brown's novel because of its connection to the Knight's Templar. This order, founded in 1118, which was shortly after the First Crusade. The principal function of this order of Knights was to defend the holy city of Jerusalem. However, some believe that the Knights Templar had an even more important function and that was to act as guardians of the Holy Grail.

History tells us that these knights were wiped out in 1307, when they were arrested to a man on a charge of heresy and put to the sword. The real reason for this extermination was attached more to the secular rather than the spiritual world. The order of knights had grown extremely rich as a result of their crusading duties and had started offering banking services to the wealthy of Europe. King Philip IV of France had asked the knights for a loan to finance his wars, but they thought him a bad risk and refuse. This was a very bad decision as Philip the Fair, insulated and angry decided to wreak his revenge. This he did, with Papal help as the Pope had just recently moved to Avignon. The Knights were destroyed and Philip enriched himself by seizing their lands and assets. Clearly the business of banking was a dangerous affair in those far off days. Dan Brown's book contends that the Knights were not completely destroyed and survive to this day. I wonder if he is right.

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