Book excerpt: This book sets out to tell the story of a unique discovery, relics of the Knights Templar which came to light in 1960 in their fortress town of Tomar in Portugal. This chance discovery of highly important pieces dating from the time of the crusades includes ritual vessels, chalices, agate inlaid with gold, alters and stonework with encoded grail symbology. Some pieces originate in the Holy Land removed in 1291 following the fall of Acre, other items may well have been taken from Constantinople in 1204 during the 4th Crusade. This profusely illustrated book contains a wealth of full -page photographs of these relics together with the background story of their discovery and how the owner has worked in secret for almost 10 years before breaking the story, researching and conserving these wonderful items. This book has been put together as an introduction to the hoard written not as an academic tome but as a means of bringing the hoard into the public domain in an easy to digest form. As part of the project the author and his friend Carl Cookson made the hit TV show "Lost Relics of the Knights Templar" shown in USA by Discovery and in Europe by The History Channel. This group of artefacts represents the only legitimate find of Templar items and with further study should enable researchers to add hard facts to what in many cases are misconceptions about the Order. The mysterious Order of the Temple vanished more than 700 years ago, they have been the subject of rumours, grail legends and theories on what treasures the once owned. Since carts left their Paris headquarters in October 1307 none of their treasure has ever been found until Hamilton White began his journey into the world of the Templars.