If Dan Brown would ever decide to write a sequel to his Da Vinci Code, and feature a new order, easily rivaling the Knights Templar in their ancientness shadowy operation, he could do no better than picking the Freemasons, who trace themselves back to the builders of King Solomon’s temple. Much of their history before the building of the first Grand Lodge in London is shrouded in mystery, but afterward they became popular enough to include notable personalities from every walk of life, and spawn new auxiliary orders.

On this day, September 26, in 1872, the “Shriners” order of American Freemasons opened their first temple in New York. They named it Mecca, for the Muslim holy city.

The Muslim motifs are not to be taken seriously: the Shrine orders do not profess belief in Islam (though every member of the larger Freemasons group must believe in a Supreme Being to join). The Shriner movement was founded by three men who wanted a more cordial social setting for the order, and one of whom came up with the idea of an Arabian theme after taking part in an elaborate musical play given by a Middle-Eastern diplomat in France.