Capilla de Rosslyn is located just six miles south of Edinburgh, the ancient capital of Scotland. Built in the fifteenth century by William Sinclair, the Earl of Rosslyn, Niven Sinclair states that William “built the Rosslyn Chapel” at a time when books could be burned or banned, so he left a message for posterity carved in stone. It is claimed that William’s grandfather made a voyage to America almost a century before Christopher Columbus. The interior is a visual feast of carved stone that one hardly knows where to begin. Foliage and strange figures hang everywhere on the walls, arches, and ceiling. The overall effect seems clearly intended to be Christian, but a keener inspection reveals that many carvings have symbolic origins in very different ideologies, some decidedly pagan. There lies the head of a “green man,” an ancient Celtic god of vegetation, gazing from within the carved foliage, and over Rosslyn’s most famous structure, the “Apprentice Pillar,” a chain-link of dragons nibbling at the roots of what has been interpreted as the “tree of life.” There are also references to the Hebrew Old Testament, and legends relating to the Templars and Masonic tradition. Let us walk to the center of the chapel and look up; the grand Rosslyn vaulted ceiling is divided into five sections. Four of them have a floral theme. But the fifth section is different from the others. Instead of flowers, it is full of stars! In one corner a bearded head with the hand raised open at the side. Niven Sinclair has described it as the head of Christ with his hand raised in blessing. Three rows above Christ’s head are the “sun in all its splendor,” and at the top, from the adjoining corner of the starry vault, sits the moon emerging. Toward the eastern end of the chapel lie two pillars that together form the base of what has made Rosslyn the most enduring legend of a mason’s apprentice being killed by his master. The legend says that the master mason, who had traveled to Rome to study the form of a pillar he intended to duplicate at Rosslyn, upon returning found that his apprentice, inspired by a dream, had completed the work before him. In a fit of jealousy, the master struck and killed his apprentice with a single blow to the head. While the two pillars are worthy of admiration, the Apprentice Pillar clearly eclipses the Master’s. Rosslyn Chapel was founded on Saint Matthew’s Day, September 21, 1446, and officially dedicated to this saint on the same day in 1450. September 21 marks the autumnal equinox, when the sun rises precisely east of Rosslyn. In general it is claimed that the chapel was built by the Templars, who, on Friday the 13th of October 1307, while pursued by King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V, managed to escape with their fleet carrying the Templar treasure and the secrets of the temple, arriving in Scotland where they aided King Robert I in his battle for independence against the English