German potholer Peter Ernst is a veteran Rennes-le-Château researcher. Like no other, Ernst has explored the world that lies beneath Rennes-le-Château. The geological underground of the area has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese. There are many small and some enormous cavities to be found that are often interlinked. This has lead to plenty of speculations about there being underground structures, a vast replica of the Temple of Solomon, corridors, subterranean lakes, a UFO garage just to name a few.

The entrances are usually difficult to almost impossible to find. Some are quite well known like the old Jade mine near Rennes-les-Bains but most are unknown to even the seasoned Rennes-le-Château researcher.

Peter has probably explored more caves in the area than anyone else. He meticulously documents his underground adventures on video and has now published his second DVD containing his footage as part of his ‘Rennes-le-Château-Report’ series.

On the DVD Ernst gathered video from the expeditions he did in August 2008. We can join him while he enters the caves, loaded with gear to see where they lead. Unfortunately he doesn’t share with us where exactly they are located but given recent developments with f.e. the Trembling Stones, it’s probably all the better. The locations Ernst covers include the caves of Mary Magdalene, that recently came into the spotlight when the Bloodline group claimed they had discovered a wooden chest in one of them. Other caves we are shown are some near Rennes-les-Bains, the old Templar Commandery of Campagne-sur-Aude, the Château of Quillan, the Skeleton Cave, La Caune (Perillos) and many others. Particularly worth mentioning is his filming of an underground lake beneath Mount Bugarach. A lake like that features in the works of Jules Verne and many local legends about treasure and a secret underground world.

The commentary is in German. That doesn’t have to be a problem for the interested researchers since the names of the locations are clearly superimposed on screen and the pictures are pretty much self-explanatory.

For anyone with an interest in the legends involving the underground of the Aude, this 83 minutes of video could be a welcome addition to the collection.

The DVD can be ordered on Peter’s website through this link.

In 1996, an episode of the BBC show Timewatch was dedicated to Paul Schellenberger’s and Richard Andrew’s book the Tomb of God. In this controversial book, the authors claimed that they had found a tilted square on the three paintings that play a role in the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château. It concerns the reproductions Abbé Saunière allegedly bought in Paris in the 1890′s: the Shepherds of Arcadia by Poussin, St. Anthony by Teniers and a portrait of Pope Celestine V by an unknown painter.

By projecting the discovered geometry on the map of Rennes-le-Château and its surroundings they found a spot on Mount Cardou, in which they claimed the body of Christ had been entombed.

It was during this documentary that French author and researcher Jean-Luc Chaumeil introduced Philippe de Chérisey’s manuscript Stone and Paper, that had been unpublished until that moment and in which the Marquis de Chérisey claims that he was in fact the creator of Saunière’s famous parchments.

You can watch the video by clicking on it.

,©2007-2009 rlcresearch.com, all rights reserved. Video shown here under Creative Commons Non-commercial No Derivatives Licence. Video copyright BBC

In 1972, British script writer Henry Lincoln introduced the Mystery of Rennes-le-Château to the English speaking world through his documentary The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem. It immediately created a storm of publicity and eventually led to the production of a 2nd documentary The Priest the Painter and the Devil in 1974 and the Shadow of the Templars in 1979. This last documentary was already co-researched by Michael Baigent which later led to Henry, Michael and the late Richard Leigh writing the international bestseller Holy Blood Holy Grail.

The script and presentation of Shadow of the Templars, were done by Henry Lincoln. It was produced by Roy Davies for the BBC Chronicle series. You can watch the parts by clicking on them.