Enigmatic Newport Tower – Built By The Vikings, Knights Templar, Freemasons Or Someone Else?

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - An intriguing stone structure in Newport, Rhode Island, has been the subject of much controversy and debate.

Standing in the city's heart, there is a 28-foot tower that is just as impressive as mysterious.

No one knows who built the tower or when it was constructed. Several theories have been put forward. Some have suggested the tower was built by the Vikings. Others maintain it’s a legacy of the Knights Templar.

The tower has also been said to be the work of Freemasons. Native Americans, Chinese explorers, and Celts have also been credited with its construction. Despite all guesses and speculations, many still think the tower’s existence is a real scientific enigma.

Newport Tower - Image credit: Wikipedia

According to the mainstream theory, the Newport Tower was built in the mid-17^th century as a windmill. In 1948, the Society for American Archaeology investigated the tower, and scientists concluded that all artifacts discovered at the site were from the 17^th century.

Newport Tower And Its Astronomical Alignments With Planet Venus

In 20018, forensic geologist Scott Wolter established that the Newport Tower’s construction was completed long before Christopher Columbus reached the New World.

This conclusion was controversial, and many scientists are still upset by Wolter’s theory.

'Leif Erikson Discovers America' by Hans Dahl (1849-1937). Credit: Public Domain

When Wolter investigated the structure, he discovered that Venus alignments are captured in the tower, providing evidence consistent with medieval Cistercian/Templar construction practices that reflect, in part, their religious ideology.

“The capturing of astronomical alignments of the Sun, Moon, and Venus in Western European standing stone sites and churches allowed the builders to use these structures as clocks and calendars, and for determining longitude (using solar and lunar eclipses) and latitude". ¹

Did Vikings Or Ancient Chinese Build Newport Tower?

Historian Gavin Menzies argues that in 1421, Chinese sailors built the tower as either a lighthouse or an observatory. According to Menzies, at Newport, the expe­dition commanded by Admiral Zhou Wen was forced to stop. There, they stayed long enough to regroup their fleet and build a lighthouse. This structure, in his view, resembles a Song Dynasty lighthouse design from the Fijian province in southern China. His theory has not gained many followers and has been rejected by most scientists.

In 1837, Danish archaeologist Carl Christian Rafn published a book named Antiquitates Americanæ in which he proposed a Viking origin for the tower. Rafn partly based on his research of the inscriptions on the Dighton Rock near the mouth of the Taunton River. Rafn became convinced it was a Norse structure built by medieval Vikings who regularly crossed the North Atlantic in open boats.

Does The Newport Tower Have Masonic Roots?

Danish researcher Jorgen Siemonsen suggests the Newport Tower is the work of Freemasons.  According to Siemonsen circumstantial evidence points toward the fledgling Freemason movement in Rhode Island and a well-connected, English-trained architect who found work among the rich and famous of Colonial Newport.

That architect, Peter Harrison, laid out an octagon summer house in the mid-1700s for Abraham Redwood, a wealthy Newport merchant, Siemonsen said. That geometric form, closely associated with the Freemasons, is mimicked in the eight pillars of the tower, a little more than a block away, that Siemonsen speculated Harrison also designed.

Newport Tower and Channing Statue. Credit: Adobe Stock - travelview

The tower grounds, according to the Dane, could have been a “Masonic garden’’ where the fraternity conducted its rituals.

As you can see, there are many theories, each offering a very different historical account of the construction of the mysterious Newport Tower.

Many questions remain unanswered, and we still don’t know why the tower was constructed. Was it a windmill, an observatory, or a temple?

First version of this article was published on March 19, 2027

Written by - Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com

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