History Channel Tonight: Underground Apocalypse

Thursday Night 1/31/08, the History Channel will run Cities Of The Underworld: Underground Apocalypse.

For billions of people across the globe, Jerusalem is considered ground zero for Armageddon. And while most of the world's population considers it a holy land, it's also one of the bloodiest cities the world has ever known. From a hidden occult city built by the Knights Templar to the hiding place for the Dead Sea Scrolls, the evidence of the apocalypse is buried all over the holy city. Host Don Wildman has special access to a sacred stone said to keep the world from ultimate chaos, and finds evidence of John the Baptist's apocalyptic sermons... he's heading into a vast underground that ignited the violent visions of the end of the world.

Color me skeptical on the "occult city" of the Templars, but we'll see. It reruns Friday, February 1st at 2:00 AM, and Saturday, February 16th at 4:00 PM

Da Vinci Code Movie Props Auction at Lincoln Cathedral

From the Press Association today:

Lincoln Cathedral said it plans to sell 43 wall hangings that were used to turn it into Westminster Abbey for the Hollywood film.
The cathedral said it is also selling five statues that it put on display with the 8ft hangings after filming finished.
Westminster Abbey controversially refused to allow stars Tom Hanks and Sir Ian McKellen the chance to act out the final scenes from the adaptation of Dan Brown's bestselling novel. At the time it claimed the book was "theologically unsound".
The proceeds from the latest sale will add to Lincoln Cathedral's coffers. It was reportedly paid £100,000 when it was used as a location for the film in August 2005.

Templars in Hellgate London

A longtime (I'll say - since high school!) buddy called tonight and mentioned that he's lately been playing a PC game, Hellgate London, which has as part of its central story line a post-apocalyptic group of Templar warriors:

A post-apocalyptic London has been overrun by hordes of terrifying demons, leaving the city desolate and scorched by hellfire. Those who were unlucky enough to survive now gather in the only sanctuary left, the Underground, banding together in order to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and ultimately save the bloodline of humanity.

It is no surprise that these sole survivors come from three of society’s most elite factions, each of whom are masters of a robust number of skills and weapons essential to demon-thrashing.

The Templar, a secret society preserving the rites of the original Knights Templar, mix futuristic technology with ancient artifacts to create powerful weapons and armor perfect for short-ranged and melee attacks.

Apparently, those "ancient artifacts" include lots of all-seeing eyes and Masonic squares and compasses.

And for the esoterics in the audience:

The Cabalists are students of the dark arts and edges of science which often leaves them standing right on the line between good and evil. Their mystifying spells make them suited for mid-range combat.

Da Vinci and the Holy Grail in Iceland!

The Iceland Review Online is reporting that the Holy Grail might just be lurking in a subterranean dome under the ice of an Icelandic mountain pass.

Architect Thórarinn Thórarinsson and Italian "cryptographer" Italian cryptographer Giancarlo Gianazza believe the Holy Grail and other lost objects may be located in the Hrunamannahreppur district in southwest Iceland.

Gianazza believes to have found important clues to where the Holy Grail is hidden in poems by Dante and artwork by Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance painters. His research has led him to conclude that the treasure is located in a five-meter-large secret underground dome by Skipholtskrókar near the Kjölur mountain pass.

Their theory is that the Knights Templar (naturally) came to Iceland in 1217 to find a hiding place for the Grail and other great gobs of loot. Medieval Icelandic scribbler Snorri Sturluson supposedly helped the knights dig this elusive underground dome in Iceland’s rugged mountains.

The clinching evidence appears when you superimpose a small section of Da Vinci's The Last Supper over a map of the area, and voila! They sort of, kind of match up, maybe, if you click your heels together and make a wish three times.

Something tells me they are riding on the wings of a grant, or looking for investors. Just a guess.