The Holy Place: Saunière and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château [Paperback]

Henry Lincoln (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004

From the author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail-the basis for The Da Vinci Code-comes a deeper exploration of the secrets of Rennes-le-Chteau. In 1982, Henry Lincoln, with colleagues Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, published Holy Blood, Holy Grail (Dell), which became an immediate international bestseller. It investigated Rennes-le-Chteau, a small town in France where, in the late 19th century, Berenger Saunire's discovery of a series of parchments led in turn to a large but cursed treasure that challenged many traditional Christian beliefs-including the possibility that Jesus's bloodline still exists. The treasure's story moved back through history to the Crusades, the origins of the Knights Templar, and the Virgin Birth itself. While Baigent and Leigh moved on to different subjects, Lincoln has continued to pursue the mysteries of Rennes-le-Chteau. Dan Brown's international bestseller The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 3/03)-based on Holy Blood, Holy Grail-has re-ignited curiosity about this ancient, powerful town. In The Holy Place, Lincoln reveals through further surveys, decoding, and analysis that this area in southwest France is the site of a vast megalithic Christian masterpiece-a holy place of enormous size and importance.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Lincoln is a noted documentary filmmaker and author. He coauthored the bestselling Holy Blood, Holy Grail with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, as well as The Messianic Legacy, Key to the Sacred Pattern, and The Templars’ Secret Island. He lives in Rennes-le-Château, France. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559707674
• ISBN-13: 978-1559707671
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,010,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars worth a thought - maybe, September 19, 2007

By 

Konrad Baumeister - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Holy Place: Saunière and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château (Paperback)

Henry Lincoln has written about the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau before, and he has produced British TV specials that have been well received. His new book was to be a further investigation into that same mystery, seeing if there's still gold in that vein (and judging by all of the seriously bad books published every year on the subject, that is still plenty).

The first couple of chapters rehash the well known story of Sauniere, the two coded parchments, the tombstones and Poussin's Shepherds of Arcadia, all of which appear in every book at least feigning research into Rennes. I found the decoding work to be interesting and fairly convincing. I am no cryptologist but it seemed to make sense. That takes up to page 65.

From there, Lincoln takes a detour from which he never returns. His application of some of the 'sacred geometry' used to decode the parchments, to the geography around the villages in the French countryside surrounding Rennes, taking a cue from other books Lincoln himself disparages as truly self-delusional in nature, leads him into a maze of relationships in geographical features and distances. For the rest of the book these are layered one upon another until they seem to overwhelm the ability to make sense of any of it, and Lincoln abandons the idea, suggesting that other researchers pick up the load at that point and make something of it. No doubt someone will, and no doubt it will be published, but I seriously doubt further real insight will result.

I think that Lincoln is far from the worst researcher working on this subject, and I also feel that he is a good writer with both a sense of humor and a sense of judgement and proportion. His comments on some of the other books touching on his subject show a healthy dose of skepticism. How sad, then, that he allows his own book to be hijacked by the cartographical puzzle/temple idea. I am not saying that the distance relationships do not exist: Lincoln is very good about backing up his data with the proper maps and throws all of his research open to confirmation by the reader, which is frankly very refreshing. But it seems most likely that we are looking at a great deal of coincidence and happenstance. Lincoln cannot answer WHO or WHY to any of it, and does not really try to.

The book is not a total waste, and I cannot disprove Lincoln's research, nor would I want to. But the book is basically incomplete in that Lincoln lets his own train of thought go off into left field a third of the way through, and then leaves the reader holding a bunch of data of unknown validity or import.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Oh dear. Had this been published as fiction, how much better for it and for readers, September 22, 2006

By 

Ingrid Heyn "No man is an Iland, intire of it... (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holy Place: Saunière and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château (Paperback)

Henry Lincoln writes entertainingly. He is an able writer, but when it comes to historical research, he appears either unwilling to follow the basic tenets or unable to do so.

This often occurs when one holds a deep belief that flies in the face of factual evidence.

Read this book for its entertainment value, but not for scientific or logical evidence. To read the facts, try Putnam and Wood's "The Mystery of Rennes-le-Château", which is the result of genuine scholarly research, not faux scholarly research.

I give this two stars because, whatever one might think about the conclusions to which Henry Lincoln so readily leaps, he does write with charm and passion, albeit NOT with accuracy or reliability.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Holy Place, August 29, 2006

By 

Charlotta Ek- Åhrberg "flying star" (Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Holy Place: Saunière and the Decoding of the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château (Paperback)

If you are interested in the Sacred Geometry with the Pantagrams on the Earth, this book is outstandig. It's focus on the Geometry related to Renne Le Chataux.
It is helpful to read David Woods Genesis The first book of Revelation, before you read this book.