The Da Vinci Code is the name of a mystery novel written by American writer Dan Brown, released in the year 2003 by Doubleday publications.

Academics believe that the novel is founded on the contentious idea that there exists a conspiracy inside the Roman Catholic Church to hide the real story of Jesus Christ. The novel has been the cause of sudden widespread curiosity in conjecture involving the legend of the Holy Grail and the function of Mary Magdalene in the past of Christianity. As per the core of the novel, the Vatican is aware of its falsehoods, but will keep denying it to maintain its stronghold.

The novel became a huge success, its sales attaining a number that could compete with the popularity of the Harry Potter series.

 In Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, the plot mainly turns on the idea that Jesus didn't live and die exactly as said in the Bible, but actually married Mary Magdalene and had children, the descendants of whom survive until the present day. The Catholic Church, and especially the Catholic sect Opus Dei, want to suppress this knowledge as it would undermine all their teaching and thus their power. An American professor of Symbiology (the study of symbols) and a French code-breaker manage to find out the truth, partly by examining a Leonardo Da Vinci painting, "The Last Supper", which supposedly holds the key to all this.

The book caused a lot of excitement because, though fiction, it was partly based on a book by two actual historians. It seems most of their findings turned out to be untrue; but the fact of the book's existence, and other things such as the fact there really is an Opus Dei sect etc, caused a lot of gossip about whether the novel could also be true. Some people think the Church overreacted in issuing denials, since few people believed the story anyway.