Templeofmysteries: 18 books

One of the truly great minds of all time, the 15th-century Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci was uncannily ahead of his time, giving the world not only the Mona Lisa and his other extraordinary works of art, but also designs for a helicopter, military tank, submarine, bicycle - and even the sewing...

Mystery surrounds virtually every aspect of the Templar story, from their origins in the aftermath of the First Crusade, through their rise to supreme wealth and power - dominating medieval Europe for nearly two centuries - to their abrupt and dramatic suppression. Ferociously punished for alleged...

Whether or not The Illuminati – an elite body claiming an ancient pedigree – does exist, it is important that growing numbers of people nonetheless do believe it exists. So does it exist? If so, is it a force for evil or a force for good - or, as some would have it, a conspiracy aimed at making...

It is the hiding place of the Holy Grail, or a great secret that will rock the Church. It is a place of hidden treasure and dark knowledge. It is the place where Jesus is buried... These are just some of the many theories now current about the village where a Victorian priest became strangely - and...

Of all the New Testament characters, few - other than Jesus himself - have exerted such an enduring fascination as Mary Magdalene, believed by the Church to have been a reformed prostitute. Yet her never-ending appeal is odd for one who appears so briefly - and then so elusively - in the Bible: so...

Modern hoax or the most powerful and secretive cabal in history? Opinions on the mysterious Priory of Sion - in its native French, the Prieuré de Sion - are polarised between these two extremes. If the Priory of Sion's claims are true, it has existed for almost 1,000 years and has counted...

It was in the early hours of Sunday August 31, 1997, in a tunnel at the Place d'Alma in Paris, that Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed along with her lover Dodi Al Fayed and their driver Henri Paul. Dodi's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived. The family of Henri Paul not only had to...

THE 40th anniversary of one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century was marked on November 22, 2003 – with the mystery, frustratingly, no closer to being solved. Despite the welter of conspiracy theories that have attached themselves to the assassination in Dallas, Texas, of President John...

On August 5th 1962 the world was shaken by the announcement that Hollywood icon and universal sex symbol Marilyn Monroe was dead. Apparently she had taken an overdose of barbiturates and was discovered by her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, late the previous night. Details surrounding her death were strangely...

'If Charles Manson is ever let out into society, hide your children! I think we may have another Hitler on our hands' - so ran a message posted on an internet notice board in 2002 as Manson again came up for a parole hearing – it wasn't granted. 33 years after the crimes he was sentenced for Manson...

The MysteryWhat is it that brings so many people to this out-of-the-way chapel? Not only is Rosslyn Chapel (or, to give it its official title, the Collegiate Church of St Matthew) a stunning example of late medieval architecture and the stonemason’s art, but it contains many clues that it is more...

FIRST written more than 10 years ago, Sons of the Widow has been updated to take account of new developments in Freemasonic research – but its general theme remains unaltered. Modern day Freemasons persistently maintain that Freemasonry is not a secret organisation, but an organisation with secrets....

For centuries belief that the Shroud of Turin really bears the likeness of the crucified Jesus Christ had to be a matter of faith alone. Then in 1898 it was photographed for the first time, and suddenly the negative image revealed an astonishingly life-like wealth of detail of a tall bearded man horribly...

IntroductionThe first doubts about the official version were raised by Professor Spann's autopsy, which suggested that Rudolf Hess had been strangled with the cable, rather than hanging himself with it - which of course means that somebody else was involved.Background - The prisoner of...