As part of a recent restoration programme, Fort de Roovere, the largest fort on the line required the addition of an access bridge. The fort is surrounded by a moat and was originally built without a bridge so it was a challenge to create one that would be discreet. RO & AD architects’ solution was to build a ‘sunken’ bridge that follows the line of the fort slope and sits almost flush with the soil and the level of the water, making it practically invisible as you approach the fort.

Within two decades of the victory of the First Crusade (1095-1099) a group of knights led by Hugues (Hugh) de Payens offered themselves to the Patriarch of Jerusalem to serve as a military force. This group – often said to be nine in number – had the mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims who were en route to the Holy Land to visit the shrines sacred to their faith.
Somewhere between the years of AD 1118 – 1120, King Baldwin II granted the group quarters in a wing of the Royal Palace on the Temple Mount (the Al Aqsa Mosque). It has been generally accepted that, for the first nine years of their existence, the Templars – as they came to be known – consisted of nine members.
Although it has been widely speculated that the Templars wished to keep it this way to cover their secret mission of digging for buried treasure on the Temple Mount, the simple fact remains that the lifestyle adopted by the Order was not to everyone’s taste. As such, the Templars had difficulty in recruiting members to their cause in the early years. In the year 1127 the Cistercian abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote a rule of order for the Templars that was based on his own Cistercian Order’s rule of conduct. Additionally, Bernard did a great deal to promote the Templars.
Perhaps Bernard’s greatest contribution to the Order was a letter that he wrote to Hugues de Payens, entitled De laude novae militae (In praise of the new knighthood.) This letter swept throughout Christendom drawing many men, of noble birth, who joined the ranks of the Templar Order. Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars with land and other valuables. While it is true that the Templars were not permitted, by their rule, to own much of anything personally, there was no such restriction on the Order as a whole. As such, the gifts of land were accepted and put to immediate use by the Templars, who farmed the land generating additional wealth.

Over the years the Templars rose from their humble beginnings to become the wealthiest of the Crusading Orders – eventually garnering the favour of the Church and the collective European monarchs. This wealth, generated in the West was put to immediate use in the East to buy arms and raise armies. Although the Templars are regarded as the greatest of the medieval military Orders, the record shows that they lost more battles than they won. Despite a brutal win/loss record, the Order did play an important role in the Holy Land.
However, after two centuries of defending the Christian faith, the Order met its demise when Philip IV – known as Philip le Belle (the Fair) – sought to destroy the Templars. Historians are generally in agreement that Philip was motivated by greed rather than his belief that the Templars were corrupt. Regardless of his motivations, Philip had the Templars arrested on October 13, 1307. The Templars were tortured and confessions were given. These confessions included:
Trampling and spitting on the cross
Homosexuality and Sodomy
Worshipping an idol

Philip was successful in ridding the Templars of their power and wealth and urged all fellow Christian leaders to do the same thing. In 1312 the Templars were officially dissolved by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. Although the Templars were not found guilty of the crimes they were charged with, it was felt that the reputation of the Order had fallen to so low a state as to warrant dissolving the Order.
On March 18th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake, for having recanted his earlier confessions of guilt.De Molay is said to have cursed King Philip and Pope Clement as he burned, asking both men to join him in death within a year. The story is an apocryphal legend; however, it is one that has come to be widely accepted. Although there is no historical truth to the de Molay curse story, both Pope Clement V and Philip IV followed de Molay to their graves within the year.

The Roman and Celtic silver and gold coins were entombed under a hedge in a large mound of clay, weighing three quarters of a ton and measuring 140 x 80 x 20cm. Experts predict they are of Armorican origin – modern day Brittany and Normandy – from a tribe called the Coriosolitae who were based in the modern-day area of St Malo and Dinan. They have dated the coins from 50BC, the Late Iron Age, and believe they would have been buried underground to be kept safe from Julius Caesar’s campaigns.

This is because the armies of Caesar were advancing north-westwards to France at the time, driving tribal communities towards the coasts. Some would have fled across the sea to Jersey, finding a place of refuge away from Caesar’s troops. The only safe way to store their wealth was to bury it in a secret place. Dr Philip de Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert at Oxford University, said each individual coin in the ‘extremely exciting’ find was worth between £100 and £200.

In the distant XVI and maybe in the XVII century, led by an experienced captain,passenger ship flew over the waves heading back via the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. As the ship approached the Cape – a violent storm raged. The team turned to the captain with a request to moor and wait out bad weather. But the captain refused. Perhaps he was drunk or even lost his mind. He promised the team that by all means,they will go around the cape. Those who disagree with the decision of the captain set a goal to neutralize the desperate captain. But it so happened that the captain of the rebels outwit, catching the leader of the revolt and fed fish with him.

Legend says that this treacherous act angered God. And it so happened that in a moment he parted the heavens with a bright flame, from which there was a dark shadow descended on the deck of the ship. The captain decided to use weapons of and discourage an approaching shadow. Gun in captains hands burst into smaller particles. Unmoved and undaunted voice of shadow sentence uttered. “You are cruel and heartless master. Now the wine you will be bile, and food – iron. You will be cursed forever. “After these words, men become half-decayed skeletons, and the captain – Flying Dutchman. God is in no hurry to forgive him.

The Flying Dutchman flies in all the maritime spaces. Ghost ship – a forerunner of certain death for the ship. Sailors today are afraid of ghost ship, so nailed to masts horseshoe – for luck.

Correctly believe that the above story has some historical background. Everyone knows that the actual facts lose their “edge” under cover of time.

The basis of the legend is taken from a true story which took place in 1641 with a merchant vessel. It has tried to round the Cape in search of a suitable location for settlement, which was to become a point of rest for the ships of the East India Company. A strong storm did not stop the energetic captain.The captain longed to get on the eastern side of the cape and make it a going even if it takes time until the end of the world. The Devil heard his words and decided to help. Giving eternal “life.”

There is another option, more real at the end of 1770, the island of Malta moored ship the whole team. Including the captain were infected with yellow fever. Grand Master of the Order of Malta ordered to tow the ship from the port, together with a cross on it 23 people. The vessel sailed to Tunis, but there have already been warned and do not let the ship into port. In Naples, where the crew was cast off later. Sailfish are also not allowed. The same thing happened in France and in England. The team was slowly dying.

Flying Dutchman nearly met the British ship “Bacchante” in 1881, on board at that time was a young prince. Everything was ok. Fate gave the prince a long life. Prince became King George V.

Mythical ghost ship was seen even in the XX century. In March 1939, he was seen by South African swimmers. On that day, it was written about it in many newspapers.

Very often, in the seas and oceans meet a ship without a team of sailors and the captain. To explain these findings is difficult.

What’s going on with teams of ships? There are many hypotheses about this, since the exotic – the kidnapping of extraterrestrial beings, the transition of people into a parallel world, another dimension, attacking sea monsters, but there are quite possible: mass poisoning or epidemic, or the crew was washed overboard, pirate attack, or of a powerful ultrasound radiation.What happens in reality? That is something we probably do not know. The ocean is very well kept secret.

One of such creations that are manmade yet totally outstanding is Mont St. Michel of Europe. This setting is present on the borderline that is present between Normandy and Brittany and probably one of the most visited place in the entire Europe.

Mont St. Michel is basically an islet that is present in the northwest side of France in the Gulf of Saint Malo. It is a connection between two lands in a unique pattern. The place surrounding this great landmark has small houses, shops and cafes on towards the lowest slope and towards the higher end there are plenty of monastic buildings situated, a lot of these buildings belonging to 13th century. The architecture is amazing and considered to be one of the most creative and greatest examples of Gothic era. The overall islet of Mont St. Michel is centered by the abbey church which is present about 240 feet about the sea level at the peak.

This place holds great importance because of being so old and modernized at the same time. During the passage of time, there were many chapels and churches that were created in the region and they got modified by people and the conquerors. All the buildings represent rich art history being created from granite but a few of them have limestone implied as well.

Within 15th century, it held Romanesque parish church around the abbey, a 14th century barbican was also present that was used for abbey’s defense movements and mechanisms. Mont St. Michel was built within a strong rock that is about 84 meters high; the architecture and formation was done through pure granite which is why it has resisted the temperature and climate changes for so long and still looks as durable as it would have been in the past. The historic purpose of this landmark would have been protection of the abbey church and some other regions around but for now, it is considered to be one of the greatest places to visit in the entire France for your trip to get much insightful and memorable.

10. 1 November 1755 – Lisbon
Magnitude 8.7
The near-total destruction of Lisbon and the deaths of a quarter of the city’s population were caused by an earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fire, that was felt in north Africa, France and northern Italy. In the age of enlightenment, the cultural impact of the quake spread even further afield as the horrors of Lisbon provided inspiration for sensationalist artworks and philosophical tracts. Voltaire penned a poem on the catastrophe and scientists found a wealth of written first-hand accounts to advance their understanding of the physical world.

9. 13 January 1906 – coast of Ecuador
Magnitude 8.8
Emanating from the ocean off Ecuador and Colombia, the quake generated a tsunami that killed between 500 and 1,500 people along a coastline from Central America to San Francisco. To the west in Hawaii, rivers suddenly drained about 12 hours after the first shocks, then were submerged as a series of successively larger waves flooded the coast.

8. 27 February 2010 – off Bio-Bio, Chile
Magnitude 8.8
The region around Concepción has been recorded as a centre for seismic shocks since the 16th century, but few have been as devastating as the early morning quake that generated a Pacific-wide tsunami and cost the lives of 521 people. With a further 12,000 injured and more than 800,000 left homeless, Chile was left reeling at the scale of a disaster that would cost the nation $30bn by the end of 2010.

7. 26 January 1700 – North Pacific coast of America
Magnitude 9 (estimated)
The only North American account of one of the continent’s largest earthquakes comes from the oral history of native Americans near Vancouver island which describes how the large community of Pachena bay was wiped out by a huge wave. Across the pacific, the quake was accurately recorded by Japanese observers of the large tsunami that struck Japan on 27 January 1700. The power of that inundation has been used by historians and seismologists to pinpoint the magnitude of the Vancouver quake.

6. 13 August 1868 – Arica, Peru (now part of Chile)
Magnitude 9
Hawaii also felt the force of the tsunami created by this pacific basin earthquake, but here the destruction was just as heavy in South America with the city of Arequipa destroyed and 25,000 killed. The quake was felt as far away as La Paz in Bolivia. Four hours after the first shocks, waves as high as 16 metres inundated the coast and carried one US gunboat two miles inland to rest precariously on the edge of a 60m cliff.

5. 4 November 1952 – Kamchatka
Magnitude 9
The volcanic Russian peninsula was near the epicentre of the quake, but it was the Hawaiian islands that took the brunt of the tsunami that caused a million dollars’ worth of damage as waves scoured the coasts, ripping boats from their moorings and, in Honolulu harbour, lifting a cement barge before throwing it down on to a freighter. No deaths were recorded, unless you count the six cows lost by one unfortunate Oahu farmer, who was left cursing an event that had occurred more than 3,000 miles away.

4. 11 March 2011 – Near the east coast of Honshu, Japan
Magnitude 9
At least 15,703 people killed, 4,647 missing, 5,314 injured, 130,927 displaced and at least 332,395 buildings, 2,126 roads, 56 bridges and 26 railways destroyed or damaged by the earthquake and tsunami along the entire east coast of Honshu from Chiba to Aomori.
This quake was initially assessed a 6.8, and the seismic data will show anyone the epicenter was inland, not at sea.
So it started a 6.8, then got upgraded to a 7.9, then got upgraded to an 8.4, then got upgraded to an 8.8, then got upgraded to a 9.0, and had the epicenter put out in the ocean.
Now many are saying it was a 9.1 which would bump up MYG011′s number to 1200 from 1070, and it is all based on tsunami effects, not seismic data.
One problem with people grasping how big a 9.0 is, is exponential charts which will hide how much energy is really being released behind confusing gradient marking. To answer the need for clarity, I got out the calculator and produced a chart that shows you how big a 9.0 earthquake is on a linear scale. Make sure you expand and scroll it, it is 5,000 pixels tall. Due to its large vertical height it opens on the left side of the screen and is almost invisible until you expand it. Confusion over how GIANT a 9.0 really is has helped the elite scammers enormously in their lie. There is simply no way much of anything will remain standing, yet as the tsunami rolls in…

3. 26 December 2004 – Off the west coast of northern Sumatra
Magnitude 9.1
The deadliest tsunami in history was felt in 14 countries across Asia and east Africa, triggered by a “megathrust” as the Indian tectonic plate was forced beneath the Burmese plate. Indonesia was the worst affected with an estimated 170,000 of the nearly 230,000 dead. With many of the victims’ bodies missing, the eventual death toll took a month to establish. Some the world’s poorest communities lost more than 60% of their fishing and industrial infrastructure.

2. 28 March 1964 – Prince William Sound, Alaska
Magnitude 9.2
The Gulf of Alaska was devastated by the Prince William Sound earthquake that caused landslides in Anchorage and raised parts of outlying islands by as much as 11 metres. The resulting tsunami reached heights of 67 metres as it swept into the shallow Valdez inlet and was responsible for most of the 128 deaths and $311m worth of damage. The massive water displacement was felt as far away as the Louisiana Gulf coast and registered on tidal gauges in Puerto Rico.

1. 22 May 1960 – Chile
Magnitude 9.5
The world’s most powerful earthquake left 4,485 people dead and injured and 2 million homeless after it struck southern Chile in 1960. The port of Puerto Saavedra was destroyed in the ensuing tsunami, which caused $550m worth of damage in Chile and killed a further 170 people as five-metre waves hit the coasts of Japan and the Philippines. A day later Volcán Puyehue in Chile’s lake district spewed ash 6,000m into the air in an eruption that lasted for several weeks.