DREAD: The Unsolved - The Ark of the Covenant - S3 E2

Fifty-two by thirty-one by thirty-one. Built with acacia wood. Gilded entirely in gold. Four gold rings attached to the corners. Pieces of gold-inlaid wood will be inserted through these rings as carrying handles and should never be removed. A gold lid on which a seat flanked by two gold cherubs will be placed. These instructions were supposedly given to Moses while he was camping on Mount Sinai. This ornate box was built to store the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were chiseled. More than a thousand years later, scientists, adventurers, and biblical scholars are still searching for the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant has a complicated history. We could look at ancient accounts from the Bible and other religious texts to get an idea of ​​their travels. After being carried by the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert, he appeared at the Battle of Jericho. Carried by a group of priests and an armed escort, he circled the city seven times before a loud shout tore down the walls of Jericho. The Ark continues to appear in biblical narratives. He is captured by the Philistines and God kills a man for touching him, among other things. The final location of the Ark in the biblical texts is Jerusalem.

King Josiah supposedly ordered the Ark to be brought there. About fifteen years after the Ark was brought to Jerusalem, Babylon sacked the city and took everything in the temple where the Ark was supposedly kept. After that, things get confusing. Some people claim that the Ark was taken out of Jerusalem and taken to heaven for safekeeping. I can find mention of the biblical John witnessing the Ark in heaven. But some theologians claim that the Ark seen in heaven is the original Ark, while the earthly Ark pales in comparison. Leaving the Bible I want to see where the Ark of the Covenant resides today, if it exists.

But before that, why do we want to find it? How important is a box with two stone tablets today? Well, if you are to believe most biblical accounts, the box contains, in some way, God. Or he did it when the Israelites promoted him. Some current religions believe that, outside of archaeological interest, the Ark is useless because it no longer contains God. The Lemba people of South Africa and Zimbabwe claim that the Ark is the voice of God and a powerful weapon that can be used to sweep away enemies. In popular culture, the Ark is often a weapon capable of eliminating entire armies or, in the case of Indiana Jones, melting some Nazis.

In the biblical stories the Ark is very ambiguous. It is carried into battles, but it is unclear whether it is used as a weapon or simply as a testimony of faith. Others have claimed that the Ark can bring plagues on enemies, bless companions, and lead to victory in battles. Many places have been given as the supposed resting place of the Ark. One of the most attractive places for some is, curiously, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has claimed that the Ark was taken to the church while a fake Ark was left in the Jerusalem temple. British writer Graham Hancock wrote an entire book in 1992 in which he theorized that the Ark was smuggled down the Nile River to Ethiopia, where it resides today.

Edward Olendorf, a retired professor of Ethiopian studies, came to inspect the alleged Ark in 1941 while stationed in Ethiopia. "They have a wooden box, but it is empty, from the mid to late Middle Ages, when they were made ad hoc." This is Olendorf talking about the fashion during the Middle Ages of peddlers selling fake biblical relics. "Many, many, many churches and holy places today claim to have some biblical relic or another." In 2009, the patriarch of the church made an announcement that he would finally reveal the Ark to the public. He never did. He said he could attest to his condition.

I guess his status is "still there." The writer Louis Charpentier has stated that the Knights Templar took the Ark to Chartres Cathedral in France. Chartres Cathedral is already famous for supposedly housing the robe that the Virgin Mary wore during the birth of Christ. The theory posits that the Knights Templar, having recaptured the Holy Land in 1118, began searching at the ancient location of the temple, where the last mention of the Ark is in biblical texts. After finding it, the Ark was taken to the newly built Chartres Cathedral. What evidence is drawn to prove that it is a pillar? , part of Chartres Cathedral, known as the "Portal of the Initiates".

On this pillar there is a bas-relief of an Ark on a wheeled cart. The church has never officially said anything about the connections between the Ark and Chartres Cathedral. Some Templar theories go even further and claim that as the Templar frenzy was waning in the 14th century, when the Templars were being arrested, the Ark was moved to Scotland for protection. In Scotland, Rosslyn Chapel is a lightning rod for strange rumors and outlandish theories. The founder and builder of the church was said to be a Templar grand master who hid the Ark along with many other religious artifacts in a secret vault somewhere on the chapel grounds.

As recently as 2019, the Knights Templar – yes, they still exist – requested non-invasive searches of the grounds to try to find the Ark. The current head of the chapel is not interested. The Ark is either a weapon, God himself, or something completely foreign. It is the Holy Grail of religious artifacts if you discard the Holy Grail itself. Discovering it today would be an important archaeological find on par with the discovery of the first dinosaurs. But what do you think? Is the Ark out there, where is it? Is it even real? I want to hear your theories in the comments or on Twitter @

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You can send me your Ark theories at [email protected]. Thanks for watching.