Author: Stephen Klimczuk and Gerald Warner of Craigenmaddie
Publisher: Sterling Publishing, 2009
Price: £14.99 (hardback)
Isbn: 9781402762079

What compels us to investigate secrets which carry no obvious evolutionary, or personal, bene­fit? What motivates us to ponder ancient myths? Why do we peer into exclusive clubs? Why are we fascinated by Masonic and other secret societies? Curiosity and the allure of exclusivity perhaps best explain our fascination with the secret and the forbidden.

Fortunately, the authors of Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries, though possessed of a seemingly unquenchable curiosity (and impressive research skills), are unfettered by the constraints of exclusivity, and through their lively and opinionated tome we are granted armchair admission through some of the world’s most closely guarded doors.

Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries is a cornucopia of the elite, the elusive and the esoteric. In just over 250 pages, the authors take us on a tour of locations ranging from ancient shrines to military bases, some so secret that many readers will be reading about them for the first time.

Here we learn about Ethiopia’s Chapel of the Ark, perhaps the most secret of all locations. Entry is denied to all save the priest-guardian of the Ark, the Chapel’s sacred treasure being “too danger­ous” for the spiritually unprepared. Not even the late Emperor Haile Selassie was allowed inside.

We are guided around other religious sites, including the poss­ible location of the Holy Grail (Valencia Cathed­ral in Spain); the world’s smallest autonomous Orthodox Church (the Monastery of St Catherine of Sinai); a self-governing monastic state within the sovereign bord­ers of Greece which as a monast­ery is a female “no go” zone (the Autonomous Monastic Republic of Holy Mount Athos); and the headquarters of an ancient organisation which is not only a religious order and the world’s oldest order of knighthood but also a sovereign entity with its own legal and postal system (the Magistral Palace of the Order of Malta in Rome).

Any discussion of the Grail, the Ark, exotic monasteries and ancient crusading military-relig­ious orders would be incomplete without reference to the Knights Templar and their myths.

A short but splendid exposition on Templar history shines the bright light of scholastic truth into the murky world of conspiracy theories, thoroughly debunking the laughable claims of Dan ‘Da Vinci’ Brown and friends. Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic organis­ation so maligned in recent works of fiction, also emerges as a decidedly ordinary society of devout Christians most of whom appear to hold unexciting day jobs. Facts are funny things.

We are presented with fascin­ating accounts of secret military installations such as the infamous Area 51, with its alleged extraterrestrial life-forms, England’s RAF Menwith Hill and Virginia’s Mount Weather, the über-verboten location to which the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives were rushed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and which houses a complete and permanent duplicate of the United States government, including a stand-in President, Vice-President and Cabinet Secretaries as well as replicate structures for various federal departments and institutions.

A fascinating chapter details the little-known history of Wewelsburg Castle (“the Black Vatican”), the centre of Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler’s quasi-religious cult, founded to provide a spiritual dimension to the Third Reich. The demented ideology, bizarre rituals and suffering associated with Wewelsburg provides a horrifying glimpse into the abyss which almost engulfed Western civilisation.

Not everything is so serious. Chapters bursting with amusing anecdotes take us on a whirlwind tour of the world’s most famous and exclusive gentlemen’s clubs, private banks and university societies. Monarchists will enjoy the story of the Holy Crown of St Stephen of Hungary, the Holy Ampoule of the Kings of France, and the amazing Canadian travels of the British and Polish Crown Jewels (the former unconfirmed). The authors’ remarkable erudit­ion is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than through their examination of two virtually unknown royal peculiars: Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal of the Mohawks in Ontario.

The authors of this highly readable book are clearly well-connected, well-travelled and well-read. Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries is the much-needed popular introduction to a world which some readers may inhabit and to which some may aspire, which some will envy and others will despise, but about which we will never cease to be fascinated.