Apart from the fact that the chapel was constructed in a...

Apart from the fact that the chapel was constructed in a marked pagan style with Egyptian, Hebrew, Gothic, Norman, Celtic, Scandinavian, Templar and Masonic architectural elements, and that it contains very rich examples of stone work, one of the most interesting aspects of it is that the tops of the columns are decorated with cactus and corn motifs, besides various other plants figures.

… There are so many pagan decorative elements inside the chapel that a priest, writing an account of the baptism he performed of the Baron of Rosslyn in 1589 complained, "because the chapel is filled with pagan idols, there is no place appropriate to administer the Sacrament. In August 31, 1592, as a result of pressure exerted on Baron Oliver St.Claire of Rosslyn, the chapel's pagan-style altar was destroyed.

(Tamer Ayan, "The Oldest Known Masonic Institution-the Scottish Royal Order," Mimar Sinan, 1998, No.110, pp.18-19) According to their thesis, the Templars underwent a great change while they were in Jerusalem. In the place of Christianity, they adopted other doctrines. At the root of this lies a secret that they discovered in the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, whose ruins they had set out to investigate.

The writers explain that the Templars used their purported role as protectors of Christian pilgrims visiting Palestine as a pretense, but that their real aim was quite different: …There is no evidence that these founding Templars ever gave protection to pilgrims, but on the other hand we were soon to find that there is conclusive proof that they did conduct extensive excavations under the ruins of Herod's Temple…12 The authors of The Hiram Key were not the only ones who found evidences of this.

French historian Gaetan Delaforge makes this similar contention: The real task of the nine knights was to carry out research in the area in order to obtain certain relics and manuscripts which contain the essence of the secret traditions of Judaism and ancient Egypt.13 At the end of the nineteenth century, Charles Wilson of the Royal Engineers, began conducting archeological research in Jerusalem. He arrived at the opinion that the Templars had gone to Jerusalem to study the ruins of the temple.

Wilson found traces of digging and excavation under the foundations of the temple, and concluded that these were done by tools that belonged to the Templars.