In the summer of 2017, I was filmed for a History channel special programme called Buried. I found myself with presenters Mikey Kay and Garth Baldwin in the Portuguese city of Tomar. This is a beautiful and enigmatic place that was once a centre of Knight Templar power. Our objective was to find proof that the Holy Grail or other treasure had been hidden away there centuries ago.
I’d visited Tomar countless times before – something of an annual pilgrimage in fact. My mother’s family is from northern Portugal so I know the country well and its Templar history. Tomar is in the middle of Portugal, in an area that was once a king of no-mans-land between the Islamic ruled south of the country and the crusader Christian north.
The Knights Templar were basically shock troops, the bravest knights who had to hold the line. If a Muslim army surged from the south intent on retaking lost territory, then they would meet the Knights Templar head on. This actually happened at Tomar and the battle between Templars and Moors (Muslims in Iberia) was so intense that the blood ran like a flood. One of the gates to the Templar fortress is still referred to as the Gate of Blood.
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Buried – History channel on the Templar Grail trail
I worked with the producers and research team on Buried for months. A really amazing experience digging into the Portuguese history of the Templars. Mikey and Garth started out in Jerusalem and followed the Templar treasure trail westwards across the Mediterranean and Spain until they reached Tomar. And that’s where I hooked up with them.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6g5f34
The Buried team struggled to get access to the Templar fortress and later convent up on the hill. The problem for the History channel guys was that a previous movie production team – that shall remain nameless – had damaged a piece of masonry – allegedly – during filming. And the authorities were in no mood to let us in.
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But as I said to the team – being half-Portuguese – you also have to wrestle with Lusitanian bureaucracy. Days and weeks in advance are not enough to get permission to film in such a location. It takes months!
Buried first aired in 2018 on the History channel and has been broadcast ever since. Try and make sure you catch this Templar epic – it’s a great view!
What happened to the series? All of the episodes are gone now and it’s been removed completely off of Apple TV.
Neale – I know it’s due to be repeated in July in the UK but not sure what has happened in the US. I did notice that the History Channel removed the episodes in mid-March. Let me see if I can find out what is going on?
A gross error in Episode 3. The cross they use to link the sites which refers to a code is Not the Templar Cross. It is the eight sided cross of the Hospitallers also known as the Knights of St John. The eight points refer to the beatitudes. The Hospitallers were also a military order that survived to the present day known as the Sovereign Military, Hospitallers Order of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta. It’s reputation as a military order wascequal to the Templars. It was also founded muchvearlier in 1045 first as a hospitaller organization to care for the poor and sick pilgrims who came to Jerusalem. It later adopted to military aspect to protect them on their way to Jerusalem.
I need to check but I think they used the cross of the later Order of Christ. The programme has not aired in the United Kingdom and I’m unable to download so not seen it yet.
I’m curious to know if the investigators digging around in the underground temples in Acre, are using a “Geiger counter” in addition to their ground penetrating radar and lidar? If the Ark off the Covenant were to have ever been housed there, it may have left some trace evidence of radiation behind as it’s thought by some to have been a weapon of nuclear power of some sort. ???
I will ask the programme makers on your behalf!
An interesting thought! I do know the team were using ground penetrating radar but not sure about a Geiger counter. I suspect not.