The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 557: DEEP DIVE: Ark of the Covenant

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

This gripping exploration uncovers the enigma of the Ark of the Covenant, a legendary artifact that has captivated imaginations for millennia. From its biblical origins to modern-day theories, the search for this sacred relic spans continents and centuries. Discover the surprising connections between the Ark and UFO sightings, and learn about its potential technological nature. Unravel the mysteries surrounding its disappearance and the numerous claims of its discovery. Journey through history as we examine the Ark's possible locations, from Ethiopia to Scotland, and even hidden tunnels beneath Jerusalem. Along the way, encounter fascinating characters, from ancient prophets to Knights Templar and modern-day adventurers. Ponder the implications of finding this powerful object and why its location might be best kept secret. This thought-provoking tale will leave you questioning the boundaries between faith, history, and technology.

You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. Even though UFOs are seen everywhere, over the desert, over the ocean, over cities, there's no way to predict when and where they'll show up. Well, no way except for one,

build or detonate a nuclear weapon. Since the dawn of the atomic age, UFOs have been seen and photographed during nuclear weapons tests and near nuclear weapons facilities. The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most mysterious artifacts in human history. The Ark, a sacred chest made of wood and covered in gold, has been missing since 587 BC. The last known location was Jerusalem, somewhere under the Temple Mount. What does this have to do with UFOs? Well, in 2011, a UFO was hovering over the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It emitted a flash of light, then shot straight up and disappeared into the night sky. Now, this could just be a coincidence, but it could be that the craft was looking for the Ark.

The Ark of the Covenant is an object of extreme religious importance to over 2 billion people. So why would a UFO be looking for it? Because it's the most dangerous weapon of mass destruction ever created. The Ark of the Covenant, also called the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, the story has captivated us for over 2,000 years. Unlike Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant isn't a boat. In fact, the word ark comes from the Latin word arca, which just means large box or container. Like Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant was filled with items chosen by God to represent his presence on Earth.

But what is the Ark, really? A container for holy relics? Or, as Indiana Jones said, a radio for talking to God? Or is it God's ultimate doomsday machine, a superweapon for the righteous? It's said to possess tremendous power, including the ability to unleash plagues and natural disasters. As the legend goes, an army that carries the Ark before it is invincible. Or was the Ark something more mundane? The story of the Ark of the Covenant begins in the Book of Exodus and is mentioned in Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings,

Chronicles, Psalms, Jeremiah, Hebrews, and Revelations. In total, the Ark is mentioned over 200 times in the Bible. It was carried by the Israelites as they traveled through the desert on their journey to the Promised Land. The Ark would fly into the sky miles ahead of the Israelites and show them the way. It would protect them from any dangers in their path. It parted rivers, created walls of fire, caused the mighty city walls of Jericho to crumble, and reduced mountains to dust. According to the Bible, God summoned Moses to the top of Mount Sinai.

There, Moses was given two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. These tablets were to be stored in the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark also held a pot of manna, which is described as being like coriander. It also contained the rod of Moses' brother Aaron. This was the same rod that transformed into a snake in front of the Pharaoh, turned the Nile blood red, and parted the Red Sea.

God gave Moses very specific instructions on how to build it. Make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Then In modern measurements, the Ark was a little smaller than three feet by five feet. On top of the Ark were cherubim. Sometimes you've seen these depicted as angels, sometimes as winged sphinxes. The face of a man, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. Make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them.

The cherubim are to face each other. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law made from solid gold and was called the carapet, which means to atone. But the more traditional name for it translates to the mercy seat. It was called a seat because between the two cherubims, God would literally manifest to sit and talk with Moses. The Ark probably weighed about 500 pounds, maybe more, and God gave instructions on how to transport it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. God also declared it was to be carried by four priests of the Levite tribe, but they were forbidden from looking at it as they walked. The Ark of the Covenant was basically a mobile sanctuary, a place for God while the Israelites searched for the Promised Land. When it was being moved, it was always covered by cloth or animal skins. When they stopped to rest, the Ark couldn't be placed on the ground, so it was held up by poles.

The tabernacle, the temporary structure made to house the Ark, was made of wooden pillars, supporting curtains and veils. There was an outer tent where items of worship were placed, and a separate inner sanctum for keeping the Ark. The outer tents were made of Takash skins, which experts agree were animal skins. But exactly what animal? Well, that's controversial. Some translations of Exodus call it goat skins or badger skins.

Not too strange. However, other translations say the tents were made from porpoise, manatee, and seal skins, which are not easy to find in the desert. One last translation says the Takash was made from a single enormous animal more than 50 feet long with multicolored skin and a single horn on its head. Sounds like the tabernacle was covered with the skin of a unicorn. God dictated to Moses the construction and materials used to build the tabernacle, the menorah, and other objects, but the ark was extremely dangerous. It had to be kept far away from where the Israelites camped, 2,000 cubits, or about half a mile. Not even the high

priest was allowed near the Ark unless it was to perform necessary rituals. One of these rituals was to burn incense and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat once a year on the Day of Atonement to calm and contain God. Anyone who touched the Ark would be killed instantly if they were lucky. If they weren't lucky, they would die slowly in agony. But when we analyze the way the Ark is described in the Bible, the materials used in its construction, the way it looked, the way it sounded, the way it killed people, it doesn't sound paranormal or supernatural. Actually, the Ark of the Covenant sounds like technology.

You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon, in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms.

Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed.

You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon, in search of an island, scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen.

Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant,

who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. There are theories suggesting that the Ark of the Covenant was a technological device. One theory says the Ark was an electrical capacitor. You build a capacitor by placing

two conductive plates parallel to each other with a non-conductive material called a dielectric in between. Capacitors allow something like the 9-volt battery in a taser to create electricity so powerful that you can see the bolts arcing between the prongs. The arc was built this way. The box was covered with gold on the inside and gold on the outside. Gold is a good conductor of electricity. The acacia wood in between the gold would serve as a dielectric. It's possible the arc could store and discharge electricity. The solid gold lid with the two cherubim on top would have made the positive pole in a circuit for collecting and storing static electricity. Slight movements like wind or the movement of carrying it would generate static.

This static could build inside the Ark over time. According to this theory, the Ark may have been used to generate lightning or electric shocks. These would have been seen as manifestations of God's power. There is a story in the Bible about a man named Uzzah, one of the priests carrying the Ark. During the journey, the Ark looked like it might fall. Uzzah reached out to steady it.

When he touched the Ark, he was instantly killed in a way that sounded like he was electrocuted. If the Ark were designed like a capacitor, this would explain why anyone who touched it would die, regardless of their intentions. Electricity doesn't care about religion. This would also explain the requirements of the tabernacle and why no one was allowed in the inner chamber. The tent would have been designed to generate the most static possible, lethal to anyone not trained to handle high voltage. The Ark would need to be suspended on poles. If the Ark touched the earth, it would be grounded, discharging the

stored electricity. This would also explain why the Ark didn't work sometimes. It had likely run out of power and needed to recharge. But the Ark also functioned as a weapon, protecting the Israelites from animals and clearing thorn bushes in the desert. Two sparks would appear between the cherubim, emitting an energy beam that would burn anything in its path, leaving only the smell of a sweet perfume. This behavior, and even the description of the smell, sound a lot like a discharge capacitor. If you've ever accidentally hooked a capacitor up backward, the smell is most often described as a powerful fish smell. But it can also create a sickingly sweet smell like perfume. Another theory suggests that the Ark was a machine that could communicate with God.

And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the Ark cover, from between the two cherubim which are Ark's lid may have functioned as antennas, providing a large surface area for converting electrical energy into electromagnetic waves. The gold coating would allow those waves to be transmitted more efficiently. There's also a theory that the Ark used nuclear power. It contained radioactive materials such as uranium, which is found in the area. When uranium undergoes nuclear fission,

it releases a massive amount of energy in the form of heat, light, and radiation. This energy could be harnessed and used to power various devices or weapons. When the walls of Jericho came down, it was said to have been caused by the sound of the trumpets and the presence of the Ark. According to this theory, the Ark may have contained a radioactive substance triggered by sound waves destroying the city. The priests who carried the Ark had to wear a metallic breastplate and a metal apron, similar to the lead blanket used when you get an x-ray. Whenever a priest approached the Ark, he had to have a rope tied around his leg.

If the priest died, his body could be dragged away from the Ark. There's even more evidence that the Ark was radioactive. In the book of Samuel 1, the Philistines and Israelites were engaged in a fierce battle. The Israelites brought out the Ark of the Covenant, believing it would bring them divine protection and victory in battle. But God didn't command this, so the Ark didn't work. The Philistines won the battle and took the Ark to their own city, Ashdod. On the first morning, the Philistines found the idol of Dagon, their fish god, face down bowing before the Ark.

They put it back in its place, only to find it bowing before the Ark again, shattered to pieces this time. As soon as the Ark arrived, the people in the city became infected with painful tumors on their skin. And it was so that after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great discomfiture. And he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and emeralds broke out upon them. Emeralds are tumors that sound a lot like radiation burns. Then illness swept through the city that sounded like radiation sickness. The Philistines believed that the Ark was cursed and moved it to another city, Gath. But tumors and sickness happened there. Then they moved it to Ekron. The tumors followed. Finally, the Philistines sent the Ark back to the Israelites,

along with gold and incense. They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it go back to its own place. The Ark was eventually moved to Jerusalem, where a temple was built. The Ark was then placed in the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the temple. The Ark remained there for over 300 years, playing a central role in Israelite religious life. And then suddenly, it was gone. In 587 BC, after a 30-month siege, Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army. The Babylonians looted the temple's treasures and burned the building to the ground. They kept meticulous records of everything they took from

Jerusalem. Even though the Ark of the Covenant was stored in the temple, it wasn't on the list. And that's where the Ark disappears from history. So if the Babylonians didn't take it, who did? And where is it today? Some people think the answer lies on the infamous copper tablet. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, most were made of papyrus and contained religious stories not found in the Bible. But one of the scrolls was very different. It was made of copper. According to Ark Hunter Jim Barfield, the Copper Scroll does not contain the Word of God. The Copper Scroll is not a Bible story. On that copper, they have hammered instructions to find treasures from the Temple

of Solomon, which I believe includes the Ark of the Covenant. Barfield believes that while the Babylonians were attacking, the treasures of the Temple of Solomon were quietly taken out of the city. Among those treasures was the Ark of the Covenant. The Book of 2 Maccabees says that the prophet Jeremiah did exactly this. Under the Temple Mount is a vast network of tunnels. Even though miles of tunnels have been explored, none were found that would serve as an escape route from the Temple. But in 2007, that changed.

A new tunnel was found that runs from the Temple Mount to the Kidron Valley, well outside the city. From Kidron, the Ark could have been taken to a town called Qumran. This also happens to be the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The Copper Scroll lists 64 places in and around Qumran where treasures might have been hidden. One place is described as Steps, east, 40 cubits long. Buried under those steps, according to the Copper Scroll, is over 1,000 pounds of silver. Barfield found the steps.

Then he found another location that describes a well and a courtyard. Under the courtyard is buried 33 tons of polished gold. He found the courtyard and the well. Jim Barfield brought his evidence to local authorities and asked for permission to dig at the site, but he was refused. Later, he went back with a metal detector tuned to look for gold and silver. When he got near the location,

the metal detector went crazy. Again, he asked for permission to dig. Again, he was refused. Barfield was certain that there was a third site containing even more treasure, including the Ark. Using the first two locations as waypoints, he drew a straight line to a cave in a nearby hill. The cave appeared to be sealed shut, intentionally. Barfield took a stone sample from the cave entrance and had it tested in a lab.

The results were interesting. I decided that I would take a sample of this stone and send it off to a lab in Skokie, Illinois, where we had it examined. And they find that it is man-made mortar in a common mixture and formula from that time frame. Why would somebody seal a random hill with concrete? When he took the metal detector to the sealed cave, it measured five times the amount of metal that was detected at Qumran.

Jim Barfield is firmly convinced that this is the location of the Ark of the Covenant. To this day, permission to dig has not been granted. Many Ark historians believe that if the Ark was in Qumran, it's not there anymore. They believe the Ark was taken by a Catholic military order called the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. You might know them as the Knights Templar. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest.

While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat.

There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna.

There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen.

Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon, in search of an an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. During the Crusades, a new Catholic military order emerged,

the Knights Templar. From the start, the Templars were shrouded in secrecy and mystery. They were also shrewd in finance and politics. They convinced both the Pope and Jerusalem's leaders that they would protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy City. But once the Knights Templar established their headquarters on the Temple Mount, they started digging. And they weren't after treasure. The Knights were obsessed with religious relics, and there was no greater prize than the Ark of the Covenant. The Templars were known for using caves and tunnels.

Recently, a structure was found in a cave system called Zedekiah's Cave. This fortification was a guardhouse, built to defend the Knights Templar if they had to escape the city. Legend says they found the Ark and took it to their European headquarters in France, the famous Charger's Cathedral. There it stayed for several hundred years. By the 14th century, the Knights Templar had lost most of their military power, but had become wealthy through banking.

King Philip of France had found himself deeply in debt to the Knights. In 1307, he convinced the Pope to move against the order and seize their assets. On Friday the 13th, October 1307, the Knights Templar were declared outlaws. Any found were arrested, tortured, and often executed. But when the Templars heard rumors that King Philip and the Pope were moving against them, they relocated the Ark yet again, this time to Scotland,

where the Knights were welcomed by King Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated by the church and was sympathetic to the knights. When the Knights Templar arrived in Scotland, they allied with the wealthy and powerful Sinclair family. Together, they decided to build a place to keep the Ark of the Covenant safe. There's a lot about Roslyn Chapel that connects to the Ark and the Holy Land. There are Templar motifs and sculptures all around the grounds. The chapel is laid out just like the First Temple of Solomon, but on a smaller scale. It has an inner Holy of Holies, where the Ark could have been kept

far away from the politics and wars in Europe. That is, until World War II. The Nazis were obsessed with the occult and religious relics. It's well documented that they searched for the Spear of Destiny, also known as the Holy Lance. This spear is said to have pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross during his crucifixion. They also looked for the Holy Grail, the cup that Jesus used during the Last Supper. They sought the Shroud of Turin, the cloth used to wrap the body of Jesus after his crucifixion.

The Germans wanted the Menorah, a seven-branched candelabrum created during the Exodus. And of course, they sought the other object created during the time of Moses, the Ark of the Covenant. After they conquered France, the Germans engaged in major archaeological digs at Charter's Cathedral and other suspected locations of the Ark. After France fell to the Nazis, American President Roosevelt arranged for the contents of Roslyn Chapel to be moved to the Americas where they could be better defended. So the Ark was sent from Scotland to New Scotland, also known as Nova Scotia, specifically to Oak Island. While this is just a legend, there is a complex system

of caves and tunnels on Oak Island. But there are two questions that have never been answered. Who dug the tunnels, and what were they hiding? There are stories of the Ark ending up in Rome, where it supposedly sits on one of the 50 miles of shelves in the Vatican's secret archives. Some say it was at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, but was lost when the Basilica burned. According to the Apocrypha, a collection of 15 books written between 400 BC and the time of Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah burned the ark on Mount Nebo where Moses died. It was also in the same document that the prophet Jeremiah, having received an oracle,

ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and seen the inheritance of God. Jeremiah came and found a cave dwelling, and he brought there the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense. Then he sealed up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the way, but could not find it. When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared, The place shall remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory This would make sense. If God was going to tell anyone to remove the Ark from the temple in Jerusalem, it would have been his prophet.

The Ark isn't mentioned in the Bible again after the temple's destruction. Maybe because it was safe, hidden away until it was needed again. been his prophet. The Ark isn't mentioned in the Bible again after the temple's destruction, maybe because it was safe, hidden away until it was needed again. A group called the British Israel Association of London was convinced the Ark of the Covenant was buried on Tara Hill in Ireland. According to Irish legend, an Egyptian princess named Tia Teffi married the Irish king Emron. Tia Teffi brought the Ark to Ireland in the 6th century, and it was hidden in her grave after she died. Limited excavations were made in 1900, but Irish nationalists put a stop to them by 1902, and no Ark was ever found. Biblical scholar Michael Sanders believes the Ark was given to an Egyptian pharaoh called Shishak in the Old

Testament in exchange for sparing Jerusalem. There isn't an an Egyptian Pharaoh called Shishak in the Old Testament in exchange for sparing Jerusalem. There isn't an Egyptian Pharaoh called Shishak, but Sanders believes this was just his Hebrew name. Using other information from the Old Testament and comparing it to known Egyptian history, the only Pharaoh who fits everything is Ramses III. The mortuary temple of Ramses III has beautiful carvings of all his conquests. Among them is an ornate golden box

being carried on golden poles with a winged sun hovering above it, a biblical cherubim. According to history, Ramses III built a temple on the edge of the desert between Egypt and Jerusalem. The temple's purpose was to receive tribute from the kingdom of Judah, which may have included the Ark. The Palestinian Minister of Antiquities and Archaeology

granted Sanders permission to survey the city of Jahariyya. Here he found even more evidence that an Egyptian temple had been built there. A 19th century explorer named Edward Robinson described the remains of a great ancient tower in Jairia. One of the features Robinson described was a perfectly cut, nine-foot-long stone. Sanders found the stone and determined the wall it was part of was much older and more precisely made than the rest of the city's ruins. He had found the temple. But after taking the new evidence back to the minister, his request to dig under a cornerstone of the ancient Egyptian temple was denied. To date, no excavation in Jihariya has been approved.

Researchers from Tel Aviv recently unearthed a 3,000-year-old temple near the modern-day town of Bet Shemesh, about 30 kilometers west of Jerusalem. Here they found what they believe are the remains of ancient Beth Shemesh, spelled slightly differently, where the Ark was returned to the Israelites. Inside the 28-foot-wide temple sits a massive stone, held off the ground by large rocks, like an altar. The Levites took down the Ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold

objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day, the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. This is the same city where the Israelites got curious and looked inside the Ark, causing the deaths of 50,000 people. The fate of Beth Shemesh is unknown, but the researchers found evidence the temple was later plundered by the Philistines and intentionally desecrated, and there was no sign of the Ark. In 1982, amateur researcher Ron Wyatt made a bold claim. He had found the Ark of the Covenant. His version of events said the Ark never left Jerusalem. It had been hidden in an underground tunnel directly beneath the hill where Jesus was crucified.

He said the location of the Ark and his discovery of it had been foretold by prophecy. And he, Christ, gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Nothing written on those tables could be blotted out. The precious record of the law was placed in the Ark of the Testament and is still there, safely hidden from the human family. But in God's appointed time, he will bring forth these tables of stone

to be a testimony to all the world against the disregard of his commandments and against the idolatrous worship of a counterfeit Sabbath. Wyatt reported first finding a stone he believed to be the corner of a first century church. Then he found four post holes cut into the bedrock, the anchor holes for wooden crosses used for Roman crucifixions. His team continued digging beneath the post holes and discovered a network of caves and tunnels. Inside one of the caves was the Ark. And once we found that place, I knew that, well, basically that I needed to get inside that escarpment because there were

several indications that it was just a system of tunnels and chambers and that I needed to basically just go chamber by chamber tunnel by tunnel and whatever systematically go through there until I found the Ark of the Covenant or until I didn't find it and so anyway we found it on January 6th, 1982 at approximately two o'clock in the afternoon. And so when I found it, it was in a situation that I had not anticipated or expected. That was that it was in a chamber that was totally filled with what appeared to be debris. And what turned out to be a bunch of materials of furnishings of the first temple, covered first by animal skins, then that covered by boards, and then these covered by stone. Just whatever they could get their hands on looked like.

It looked like it had been done in a hurry. It looked like they just grabbed everything, whatever they could get to fill the place. And I was still a little fuzzy on why that would be done, but I don't see that I need to know everything. When God does something, I just know it's done perfectly. Ron Wyatt claims divine interference prevented the Ark from showing up in any of the pictures or videos he made in the chamber. When he returned to get more evidence, he was confronted by four angels. The angels told Wyatt it wasn't time for the world to see the discovery yet, but they said a time was coming when the inhabitants of the world will have a universal religious law enforced upon them.

There is one other story about a 1909 expedition to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, and it reads like a Hollywood movie. British explorer Monty Parker sent out to find the Ark, joined by a Swiss psychic, a Finnish poet, an English cricket champion, and a Swedish adventurer who had been a steamboat captain on the Congo. The story has it all, twist turns, curses, disasters. It really needs its own episode to get into, so if that's something you'd like to hear more about, be sure to let me know on Discord. Suffice to say, they didn't

find it. But there is evidence that the Ark isn't hidden away in a cave or a tomb or a secret chamber. It's not hidden at all. For hundreds of years, the Ark has been in plain sight, inside a church in what might sound like an unlikely place for a Jewish artifact. The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia.

You sailed beyond the horizon, in search of an island, scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. In the Bible, in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, is the story of the Queen of Sheba. She was a wealthy and powerful queen who ruled over the Aksumai Kingdom, located in what is now Ethiopia and Yemen. The Queen of Sheba heard of the great wisdom of King Solomon of Israel and traveled to Jerusalem to meet him.

After witnessing the splendor of his kingdom, the Queen of Sheba returned home. And that's the last account of the Queen of Sheba in the Bible. But there's more to the story. The Kebra Nagast is an Ethiopian text that's at least 700 years old and is considered by many Ethiopian Christians to be historically reliable. The text contains an account of how the Queen of Sheba not only met King Solomon, but had a son by him named Menelik. At the age of 22, around 950 BC, Menelik went to Jerusalem to meet his father. While there, Menelik's companions stole the Ark and replaced it with a replica. Solomon and Menelik discovered the switch,

but only after Menelik was flying back home. There was nothing Solomon could do about it. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum claims to possess the actual Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is never seen by outsiders. When the Holy of Holies was built around the Ark, the hallways were intentionally made too small, so the only way to remove the Ark is to destroy the church. Only one priest at a time serves as the guardian of the Ark, and only that priest is allowed to see it. The priest lives in the church for the rest of his life. Being the custodian of the Ark is a great honor, but it's also a death sentence.

Priests who guard the Ark have a very short lifespan. Once appointed guardian, they typically live no more than two or three years. And before they die, they develop cataracts and go blind. These symptoms are consistent with exposure to high levels of radiation. High in the mountains of Ethiopia, there's another location that may have been home to the Ark. The ancient city of Lalibela. Here there are 11 churches that weren't built from the ground up, but carved from the top down, some as deep as 150 feet into solid stone. In the 12th century, King Lalibela had a dream

where God instructed him to recreate Jerusalem by carving 11 monolithic churches out of solid rock. As the legend goes, over 24 years, men worked on the churches by day and angels continued at night. To carve down into stone, there'd be no way of knowing if there'd be problems below until you dug into them. Caves, aquifers, soft stone, or deposits of sand could have ended their efforts, but there's no evidence of any failed attempts. Inside the churches, there's Jewish symbolism carved into the ceilings and walls, but there are also Templar symbols. Each church has a large

stone altar, about three feet wide and five feet long, the perfect size for the Ark. An Armenian geographer, Abu Salih, traveled to Ethiopia in the 12th century and claimed he saw the Ark being carried by white men with red hair. Portuguese missionary Francisco Alvarez visited Lalibala during the 16th century, where he was told that churches were carved by white men, a legend already centuries old. The theory suggests that Templars worked with Lilibia to design and build the churches as fortresses to house and protect the Ark. If the Templars took the Ark to Lilibia, or whether the Ark was taken to the church of Our Lady Mary of Zion remains to be seen. Until the Ark is found and shown to the world ark hunters will never stop looking for it even though the ark of the covenant is a religious artifact ark hunters aren't necessarily religious the search for the ark interests people from all over the world

and perhaps even beyond it the location of the ark of Covenant has been a mystery for over 2,000 years. That's plenty of time for confusion and contradiction to arise. Even the Bible portrays the Ark behaving differently at various times. It acted like a high-voltage capacitor that electrocuted Uzzah when he touched it. It behaved like a heat ray that boiled away water when the Hebrews crossed the Jordan River. Then it functioned as a powerful sonic weapon that brought down the walls of Jericho. Maybe it was all those

things, depending on the need of the moment. But then the question becomes, what was the power source? If people near the Ark really did break out into tumors, boils, and cataracts, it sounds like the Ark housed an intensely radioactive device, a device that could be tuned to specific functions,

including use as a weapon. If that's true, where did Moses get it? And how did this technology exist thousands of years ago? It's been suggested that the tablets containing the Ten Commandments were made of uranium, which exists in vast quantities in the deserts of the Middle East. Only when it's refined does the radiation become harmful, and it's unlikely that the Israelites had the technology for uranium enrichment.

Now, about the cataracts developed by the priests in Ethiopia. Cataracts can develop one or two years after high radiation exposure, that's true. But it's also true that people who live at high altitudes are at greater risk of cataracts. The thinner atmosphere offers less protection from the sun's harmful rays, which can damage the eyes. The city of Aksum, where the ark is supposedly housed, is almost 7,000 feet above sea level, making it one of the highest altitude cities in the world. And there are other problems with the Ethiopian claim. Edward Ullendorf, a professor of Ethiopian studies at the University of London,

said in a 1992 interview that he personally saw the Ark held within the church in Aksum. This was in 1941 while he was serving as an officer in the British army. He said they have an empty wooden box. It wasn't ancient and certainly wasn't the original Ark. Every Christian church in Ethiopia has a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, as do many churches around the world. Professor Ullendorf assumed the Ark at Aksum is just one of those replicas. But the professor didn't provide any proof that he actually saw the Ark at Oxum is just one of those replicas. But the professor didn't provide any proof that he actually saw the Ark. So like so many stories about the Ark, we have nothing to go on but the word of the person telling the story. The story of the Knights Templar hiding

the Ark at Roslyn Chapel in Scotland is one of my favorites. But the chapel wasn't built until 1446, almost 150 years after the Templars were disbanded. Defenders of the Rosslyn stories say the Ark was kept somewhere else until the chapel was built, then was placed there. It's still a great story, but there's no proof of any of that. There's also a new development regarding the Knights Templar's possession of the Ark. Templar Grandmaster Timothy Hogan claims that they have it. In fact, he says they have six of the ten known Arks of the Covenant. I recently did an episode about the Knights Templar and go into Timothy Hogan's story in more depth.

He said Templars smuggled the Arks from Egypt and Jerusalem up into France, Scotland, and finally to the Americas. He also says the time is coming when the Ark and many other ancient artifacts will be revealed to the Americas. He also says the time is coming when the Ark and many other ancient artifacts will be revealed to the world. So I guess, like everyone else, we'll just have to wait and see. Locations like Oak Island, the Vatican, Ireland,

and other alleged hiding places of the Ark are just stories. There's no hard evidence to support any of these locations. Ron Wyatt's claim of finding the Ark and leaving it hidden at the request of angels is dubious. He was not an archaeologist and had no formal education to be considered an expert in antiquities. Wyatt claimed to have found Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel, the Blood of Jesus, and more than a hundred other biblical relics and sites. Scientists, historians, biblical scholars, other creationists,

even the leaders of his own church have dismissed his discoveries. Despite the overwhelming denial of all of Wyatt's claims, he still has a large following, many of whom were willing to donate money to his cause. Now, before you pull out your wallet, ask a few questions first, because extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence. The mainstream view is that the Ark probably existed. Remember we talked about the menorah, created at the same time as the Ark? In 70 AD, Emperor Titus of Rome marched on Jerusalem.

After a five-month siege, Roman soldiers breached the walls and poured into the city. They looted and burned everything, including the second temple. Titus was hailed as a conquering hero, and a monument was built in his honor, the Arch of Titus, which still stands. It depicts the spoils of war carried off from the temple in Jerusalem. Among the spoils is the menorah. Also depicted is another object being carried by the soldiers. It looks like a large box. Some claim this other object is the Ark. It's not. This is the Table of Showbread,

also known as the Table of the Presence. This was a large table made of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. On the table were placed 12 loaves of bread that were replaced every Sabbath. What's interesting about the table is that God gave Moses instructions to build it at the same time he gave instructions to build the menorah and the Ark of the Covenant. All those objects were stored in the same place, the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem. If the Ark of the Covenant still exists, the most logical place for it to be is in a cave or tunnel hidden somewhere deep under the Temple Mount.

But permission to dig will not likely ever be granted. The site is considered sacred by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Any damage to the site would be seen as an affront to these religions or worse, a provocation. It's a common story in every country. Evidence of the Ark is presented and the government denies the request to dig for it. No one in control seems to want to know where the Ark really is, and maybe that's for the best. Zechariah was a prophet who lived during the time of the second temple in Jerusalem. Many of his prophecies are related to the return of the Ark of the Covenant. The return of the Ark is also mentioned in Revelation.

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the Ark of his Covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. The return of the Ark happens at the end of the world. That might sound dramatic, but think about what would happen if the Ark was discovered by Muslims, Jews, or Christians. What people would be the best stewards of the Ark?

Everyone would want it. But whose decision is that to make? The discovery of the Ark could be a spark that ignites war in the region, possibly escalating to World War III. And the next thing you know, the end-time prophecies are coming true. Like so many others, I'm fascinated by the Ark of the Covenant. I'd love to know where it is. But for now, the location of the Ark of the Covenant remains a mystery.

And for all our sakes, let's hope it stays that way. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. This has been The Y Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do me a favor, leave the podcast a nice review. That lets me know to keep making these things for you. And like most topics I cover on The Y Files, today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to learn more about, go to the Y Files dot com slash tips and special thanks to our patrons who make The Y Files possible. I dedicate every episode to you and I couldn't do this without your support. So if you'd like to support The Y Files, consider becoming a member on Patreon. For as little as three dollars a month, you get all kinds of perks. You get early access to videos without commercials,

you get first dibs on products like the Hegelfish Talking Plushie, you get special access on Discord, and you get two private live streams every week just for you. Plus, you help keep the Y-Files alive. Another great way to support is grab something from the Y-Files store. Go to shop.thewyfiles.com, and we've got mugs and t-shirts and all the typical merch, but I'll files alive. Another great way to support is grab something from the Y file store, go to shop that the Y files.com and we've got mugs and t-shirts and all the typical merch, but I'll make you two promises. One, our merch is way more fun than anyone else. And two, I keep the prices much lower than other creators. And if you follow the Y files for a while, you know, it's important to me to keep the cost to you as low as possible. All right, those are the plugs and that's the show.

Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.