Mike from Albuquerque, NM: What elements of the story are based on historical fact? Were the locations based on known history or were they arbitrary choices?
Raymond Khoury: Mike, the history of the Templars is based on fact, in that they were defeated at Acre, rounded up a few years later in Europe, accused of heresies, and a lot of them were burnt at the stake (slowly over hot coal, actually, which sounds even more horrific). Everything in the book about the gnostic gospels and the way the Bible came to be, about Jefferson, that’s all true. What I made up is the specific adventure of Aimard, Martin and their band of Templars, the notion that they were entrusted with “something” and what it was — and the decoder, that’s fiction. For the locations, I looked at what we know about the route Templar galleys would take — typically, sailing from Southern Italy, along the coast, down to Acre — and worked from there, choosing locations that would work dramatically and would also be believable, in the sense of having islands nearby that they could reach. Nora from Crawfordsville, IN: You may think this a specious question, but it is sincere.
