Hisako Watanabe awoke slowly.
An iPod was ringing in the darkness — a tinny, familiar ring. She fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on. Squinting at her surroundings she saw the sagging bunk with Joe fast asleep overhead and several strangers passed out from too much beer and Spanish spirits out cold in their bunks nearby.
Where the hell am I?
The sounds of pedestrians in the alleyway outside her 4th story window brought her back to Hostel One Centro. Slowly the fog began to lift. Hisako tapped her finger on the snooze button. Joe?
“Joe?” she whispered. “are you up?” Dazed, Joe looked over the bedside down at Hisako. It was 7:00 am. He had been asleep only for 4 hours, too much blogging.
“We’ve got to get up and get down to the station by 8 to meet Junko”, she stressed. “She’s coming in from the suburbs to meet us on the platform for Line 1 in just an hour from now. We’d better get moving.” Joe still felt fuzzy. Junko? His eyes focused now on a pamphlet crumbled up on his bed.
Segoiva – We’ve got a big aqueduct
The aqueduct is a towering 28m piece of Roman architecture that has withstood the elements for 2000 years, watering the throats of kings and commoners for millenniums. On cooler afternoons, Segovians wander beneath the giant arches and sip on coffee at one of a myriad of shops flanking the plaza.
Hisako, Joe, and Junko saw no Segovians today. The blistering hot weather had brought instead tourists from the world over. The plaza was covered with them — hundreds of bodies all facing the same direction, gazing up at the abandoned aqueduct. Gazing across the plaza, past the arches, the three could see the spire of the building that housed the knight’s tomb – the real reason they had come to this spot.
The Priory of Sion vowed that the tomb beneath the temple must be protected forever, so the truth would never die. In order to protect the tomb within the ruins, the priory created a military arm – a group of nine knights called the order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. More commonly known as the Knights Templar.
The afternoon sun beat down upon the three as they slipped into the shadow of the colossal alcatraz precariously perched on the ledge above them. In front stood the 12 sided church of the Knight’s Templar – doors barred and a harsh wind casting clouds of sand and dust into the air. High up in the belfries the ancient bells groaned to life and struck 4 o’clock and Hisako watched with knotted forehead as the giant wooden doors creaked open.
A waft of stale air and cigarette smoke rushed out to greet the visitors and Hisako’s eye’s adjusted to the dark interior.
“How much for….” but she cut herself off as the attendant waved her and the two others through despite signs posted on the door declaring a 2 euro entrance fee. The cavernous space inside had smooth walls despite the 12 sided exterior and Hisako quickly scanned the interior looking for clues.
There it is.
Embedded in the gray granite floor, a thin polished strip of brass glistened in the stone…. a golden line slanting across the church’s floor. The line bore graduated markings, like a ruler. It was a gnomon, Hisako had been told, a pagan astronomical device like a sundial. Tourists, scientists, historians, and pagans from around the world came to La Vera Cruz to gaze upon this famous line.
The rose line.
She followed the golden line through the interior of the church until a point where it intersected with a much fainter, stone groove angling away at a 73 degree angle from where she was standing. No coincidence in that angle, she thought, remembering what she had read about in the Divinci Code and Divinci’s painting of the Last Supper. She changed her course and pursued the groove beneath pews and stools until she nearly bumped into a heavy wooden door set in a recess behind the pulpit.
Normally locked, the caretaker of the church had had one too many drinks the night before and had forgotten to check everything thoroughly before leaving for home the night before. Weary that she was treading on thin ice, Hisako took a glance around to see if everyone else was occupied and then she gently pried open the door and slipped in.
Hisako caught her breath when a sudden burst of hot air slammed into her face as soon as she was inside the pitch black corridor. Feeling out with her toes she bumped into what felt like a step and gingerly lifted her left foot and cautiously shifted her weight. The step held and emitted only a small sigh. Moving slowly, she began inching her way upwards until she began to see a faint glimmer of light above her. The steps coming easier now, she picked up her pace and nearly stumbled back down the spiral staircase when she reached the landing. The dry Spanish countryside spread out in all directions with the city of Segovia standing prominently to the south.
Excited, but mystified, Hisako cast her eyes downwards in the hope of figuring out why she had just risked her neck. A small, waist-high walled encircled her the spire and she ran her fingers across the granite.
Then she saw it. The same grooved line like in the floor below. Positioning herself behind the end of the line closest to her, she lifted her gaze and her eyes widened. There before her, in perfect alignment with the groove, were the three tallest spires in the city (one from the alcazar, two from the cathedral) and at the end – the aqueduct.
Suddenly, it all made sense in her mind. The Knights Templar were not just the military arm of the Prior of Sion, they were in fact the Roman army. The alignment of the alcazar, church, and aqueduct revealed a thread throughout history that historians had been investigating for years. First the aqueduct dating back to Roman times, followed by the church, and eventually the kings of Europe. The finding was beyond anything she had imagined and she quickly turned and hurried back down the stairs before Joe or Junko noticed she was missing.
In her dorm room, Hisako couldn’t sleep. She stared up at the bunk that Joe was once again sound asleep in and pondered where she could continue deciphering the puzzle. She had done a bit more researching when she had gotten back to the hostel on Google maps and had extrapolated out the line she found from the Knights Templar church to the aqueduct. The line had cut mostly east but also several degrees to the south.
Straight through Giza.
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A little disclaimer – all this is fictional and credit should go to Dan Brown where I lifted passages from his book … although we did go to Segovia and had a wonderful time with Junko seeing the aqueduct and the Knights Templar church.
You can view more of the mystery and a few touristy shots in the Segovia gallery.
