The Babylon Rite. Tom Knox

The Babylon Rite

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TOM KNOX

The Babylon Rite

About the Book

The Babylon Rite is a work of fiction. However I have drawn on many real historical, archaeological and cultural sources for this book. In particular:

The ancient Knights Templar preceptory of Temple Bruer, Lincolnshire, England, has long had a reputation for evil and hauntings. In the nineteenth century, a local antiquarian, Reverend Oliver, discovered medieval skeletons entombed in the walls; he concluded that these victims had been tortured, and then buried alive.

The little church of Nosse Senhora de Guadalupe, in the Algarve, southern Portugal, was the private chapel of Henry the Navigator, one of the first great European explorers. The meaning of the sculpture in the ceiling has never been explained.

The Moche culture (pronounced Mot-Chay), which flourished in the deserts of north Peru in the fifth to ninth centuries AD, is perhaps the most peculiar of all pre-Columbian civilizations. One of the stranger aspects of Moche religion was a complex ritual known as the Sacrifice Ceremony.

This book is dedicated to my brother Ross, for his endless good humour, for his stoicism and his equanimity, and for generously sharing with me his very small cup of masato beer, made from chewed manioc and human spit, in Belen Floating Market, Iquitos.

‘It seems that a new knightly order has recently been born in the Orient. They do not fear death; instead, they long for death.’

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, in praise of the Knights Templar, AD 1135

Table of Contents

2. Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian

3. Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian

4. Pan-American Highway, north Peru