IS STRANGE PIT ON CANADIAN ISLAND THE SITE OF SOMETHING CONSTRUCTED BY PIRATES, NATURE, OR A SECRET SOCIETY?

There are many mysteries in the world.

One of them is Oak Island.

That's off the shores of southwest Nova Scotia, a relatively small parcel (140 acres) with what they call the "Money Pit," a strange, 200-year-old underground structure that goes at least a hundred feet deep and has long been rumored to be hiding a treasure, replete with booby-traps and strange symbols.

Searchers get so far and then water floods in.

There's a reality show about it called "The Curse of Oak Island."

There are also markings that look Masonic.

Every ten feet, there's a wooden structure (layers of logs). It was discovered by a boy who saw lights coming from there in the late 1700s. It is still under investigation.

Who built this? Why? Did they ingeniously design it to flood? Might it be vastly more than two hundred years old?

Researchers attempting to decipher the codes claimed one indicated "two million pounds" buried below. The rock with the code has disappeared (some say it was used by one man as a stone backdrop in a fireplace).

Even Franklin Roosevelt was so intrigued he kept up with various excavation efforts -- all of which failed (literally) to get to the bottom of it.

Those excavating certainly have run into constant roadblocks and bad luck.

At least six people have died working on it.

Was the alleged treasure buried by a pirate -- Captain Kidd, Blackbeard -- or by a mysterious group that may go back far further and involve a secret society?

Was it built by French engineers to hide money from a treasury after the Seven Years Wars?

Some believe it's other than silver and gold -- perhaps rare documents, including one proving that philosopher Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays.

So go the theories (and legends).

Perhaps most exotic: that it was constructed by the Knights Templar and is the last resting place for the Holy Grail or even the Ark of the Covenant.

The Knights Templar often crop up. Their symbolism is used by those who promote theories involving "illuminati." In fact, the now much-publicized (and rightly disdained) "singer" at an awards ceremony Sunday (1/26/14) included Knights symbolism (in the way of a costume shaped like a Knight's cross).

The Knights started out during the Middle Ages as the wealthiest and most powerful members of the Western Christian Military Order (crusaders).

Officially endorsed by the Church in the twelfth century, and behind some of the original systems of finance and banking, the order was disbanded by Pope Clement V in 1312.

Its reputed secret initiation rites have raised the distrust of a French king (Philip IV, who was in debt to the Knights and arrested, and tortured, many of them). You can get this sort of information from Wikipedia.

Originally, they had the backing not just of the Pope but of holy men such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (for the Knights were among other things -- along with their defense of the Holy Land -- a large charity).

Did they become corrupt -- as well as secretive?

Were they forerunners of Freemasonry (their leader was known as a "grand master")?

King Philip charged them, rightly or wrongly, with apostasy, idolatry, heresy, obscene rituals and homosexuality, financial corruption and fraud, and secrecy.

Some claimed they survived as smaller, more isolated, and arcane units, leading to Masonic lodges, while others say Masons simply borrowed some of the Templar symbols and rituals.

That the Knights Templar might have discovered and spirited away the Holy Grail or Ark comes from the fact that they once occupied the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Mysteries upon mystery.

Admittedly, a strange feeling comes with some of it.

Who were the Templars?

What did they actually do?

Did they not at one time have possession of the Holy Shroud?

Have they been defamed?

As for Oak Island:

No one knows who dug it, who designed it, if designed it was; there are those who argue that it isn't even man-made: that it's simply a sink hole (although, given the structures, including coconut fiber, and a rock indigenous to Egypt, plus converging drains, that seems very improbable).

[Resources: Brotherhood of Darkness]

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