1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,440 Tonight, we explore one of the Bible's most powerful artifacts. 2 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,800 Anybody who is unworthy could be blinded, 3 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:14,040 or if they touch it, they'll be killed. 4 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,840 A holy relic that's been missing for over 2,000 years. 5 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,720 People continue to believe that the Ark is still out there, 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:23,480 that it still can be found. 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:28,720 Now we uncover the top theories surrounding its disappearance. 8 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:30,920 It was simply carried to Ethiopia. 9 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:33,320 It's in the Vatican's secret archives. 10 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:38,080 He hid it in anticipation of the Babylonian destruction. 11 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,400 Can a new search finally reveal its location? 12 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:44,760 I'm confident that this is the mother loan. 13 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:48,800 What became of the legendary Ark of the Covenant? 14 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,800 And can it ever be found? 15 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:03,720 The Ark of the Covenant 16 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,720 The Ark of the Covenant 17 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:12,720 Qumran, Israel, 2014. 18 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:14,720 After 16 years of hard work, 19 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:21,720 researcher Jim Barfield believes he's closing in on one of history's most mysterious artifacts. 20 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:27,720 This ancient Jewish settlement is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947. 21 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,720 But I believe it hides an even greater treasure. 22 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:37,720 I believe I've found the location of the greatest biblical archaeological discovery, 23 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:40,720 the Ark of the Covenant. 24 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:47,720 If Barfield is correct, he could solve a mystery that begins thousands of years ago. 25 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:53,720 According to the book of Exodus, the story of the Ark dates back to ancient Egypt in the 13th century BCE. 26 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:57,720 The Exodus is one of the most famous stories ever told. 27 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:03,720 Moses and the Israelites survive a plague that takes the firstborn sons of the land. 28 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:07,720 Moses leads the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, 29 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:14,720 and they move across the Red Sea, where the waters miraculously part when he holds up his magical staff. 30 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:21,720 They arrive at a mountain in which God gives them the Ten Commandments. 31 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:28,720 The Israelites build a holy vessel, a sacred box, to hold these tablets of the commandments. 32 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:30,720 It's called the Ark of the Covenant. 33 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:36,720 The Bible gives a very clear description as to what the Ark of the Covenant looks like. 34 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,720 God himself is in fact the architect of this, 35 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:45,720 and so is very precise about the measurements and the way that it has to be built. 36 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:52,720 It's made of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high, 37 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:58,720 or about 52 inches long, 31 inches wide, 31 inches high. 38 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:02,720 It's covered entirely in gold inside and out. 39 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:07,720 It has four gold rings on which poles are attached for it to be carried. 40 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:14,720 Finally, it's topped off with an ornate gold lid that has two sculptures of cherubim on top. 41 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:23,720 According to the Old Testament, the Israelites carry the Ark for 40 years, wandering through the desert. 42 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,720 Along the way, it displays great power. 43 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:34,720 In the Book of Joshua, when they reach the river Jordan, the Ark miraculously dries up the waters so that they can cross. 44 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:40,720 The first battle that the Israelites fight is against the great city of Jericho. 45 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:45,720 Israelites were commanded to circle the city seven times, blow the horns, 46 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:50,720 and then in the presence of the Ark, the walls of Jericho would fall. 47 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:57,720 The Israelites would take the city and they would gain possession of that area of the land of Israel. 48 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:04,720 Further accounts in 1st and 2nd Samuel note that anybody who is unworthy, 49 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:09,720 who even looks at the Ark, could be blinded, or if they touch it, they'll be killed. 50 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:14,720 There's also the story of the Philistines. The Philistines capture the Ark. 51 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:22,720 They're suddenly afflicted with a plague of mice or rats and with horrible boils that the Philistines get all over their bodies. 52 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:27,720 They actually end up giving the Ark back to the Israelites and along with it, 53 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:34,720 a coffer filled with gold sculptures and kind of an apology for having taken the Ark in the first place. 54 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:42,720 Eventually the Ark is brought to Jerusalem where King Solomon builds the first Jewish temple at a place called the Temple Mount. 55 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:49,720 He houses the Ark inside with a special room called the Holy of Holies. 56 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:55,720 The temple is completed by around 950 BCE and for four centuries, 57 00:04:55,720 --> 00:05:02,720 the Ark in the temple becomes the center sort of strumming heart of the Kingdom of Israel. 58 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:08,720 The Ark of the Covenant was the focal point of religious devotion, 59 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:12,720 a place where God spoke to the world. 60 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:17,720 Then war breaks out in 587 BCE. 61 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:23,720 The Babylonians attack Jerusalem and finally destroy the city after a 30 month siege 62 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:26,720 and the Babylonians are absolutely brutal. 63 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:28,720 They tear down the temple. 64 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:33,720 They force Setakaya to watch every one of his sons murdered in front of him. 65 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:38,720 They then blind him so that this image is the last thing he sees. 66 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:43,720 They take him to Babylon and they make him a prisoner there until his death. 67 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:53,720 They also set Jerusalem on fire and everything burns, including perhaps the Ark. 68 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:57,720 This isn't just a Bible story. 69 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:02,720 We have archaeological evidence that the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. 70 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:08,720 Babylon loots the city before it burns and we have some records of some of the things they took, 71 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,720 but something that's never mentioned in any of those records is the Ark of the Covenant, 72 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,720 something that would have certainly been mentioned had they taken it. 73 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:25,720 So a large amount of historians believe that the Ark of the Covenant was in Jerusalem up to 587 BCE. 74 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:30,720 After that, it's almost entirely absent from the biblical text. 75 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:35,720 Is that really it? Is this immensely powerful object really gone? 76 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:42,720 After centuries of it being this kind of center of worship, all of a sudden it just disappears? 77 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,720 Nobody wants this to be the end of the Ark. 78 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:50,720 According to some ancient texts, it's not. 79 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:57,720 There's a reason why so many people continue to believe that the Ark is still out there, that it still can be found. 80 00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:59,720 There's a reason they're still looking for it. 81 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:04,720 It's because there are stories that the Ark narrowly escaped the temple's destruction in Jerusalem. 82 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:12,720 These stories come from first and second century Jewish sources, including one called the Mishnah. 83 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:21,720 And the Mishnah is actually a collection of oral traditions that claim to go all the way back to the destruction of the temple at the hands of the Babylonians. 84 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:30,720 In one such story, one rabbi, Yehuda, tells that before the Babylonian destruction of the temple, 85 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:38,720 an earlier king, Josiah, worried about the Ark and he hid it in anticipation of the Babylonian destruction. 86 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:48,720 According to Rabbi Yehuda, the Ark is hidden with a chest of gold and a sacred walking stick carried by Moses' brother, Aaron. 87 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:57,720 King Josiah also hides this chest that the Philistines sent to the Israelites along with the Ark of the Covenant in an effort to say, 88 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,720 we're sorry we stole the Ark of the Covenant from you. 89 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:13,720 Rabbi Yehuda offered the idea that the priests of Jerusalem prepared a secret underground chamber beneath the temple mount and that's where they hid the Ark. 90 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:21,720 The site of Solomon's original temple, the temple mount, has long been a powerful and mysterious location. 91 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:29,720 There are at least 35 acres of ancient rooms and over 50 tunnels that we know of under the temple mount. 92 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:33,720 Some of these date all the way back to King Solomon. 93 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:43,720 Many Orthodox Jews believe that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in one of these chambers and that one day it will be rediscovered. 94 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:53,720 It's 1970 and one theory about the Ark of the Covenant is about to be tested. 95 00:08:53,720 --> 00:09:01,720 As Israeli authorities begin excavations close to Jerusalem's western wall near the site of Solomon's original temple. 96 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:03,720 It's a major archaeological dig. 97 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:13,720 The western wall runs along the west side of the temple mount and beneath it are thousands of years of construction, structures, tunnels, artifacts. 98 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:18,720 This is a huge project planned to take a total of 18 years. 99 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:30,720 It's a project that also creates religious tension as the site is now home to the dome of the rock, an Islamic shrine built in 691 AD. 100 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:41,720 Because the temple mount is under Islamic control, you also have the political part of this which is Israelis digging into the Islamic part of the city. 101 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:49,720 And any excavation that cuts under the temple mount by the Israeli government would just be a political time bomb. 102 00:09:51,720 --> 00:10:02,720 But if you believe like many Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem that the Ark of the Covenant is hidden in the temple mount, then this excavation project is coming tantalizingly close. 103 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:07,720 One such believer is Rabbi Yehuda Getz. 104 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:14,720 Rabbi Getz is not affiliated with this dig, right? This is an Israeli government scientific excavation. 105 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:17,720 But Rabbi Getz wants to find the Ark of the Covenant. 106 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:27,720 And in the middle of that excavation Rabbi Getz realizes that they are close to where he believes the Ark of the Covenant might be. 107 00:10:28,720 --> 00:10:33,720 So Rabbi Getz gathers up some workmen and begins a secret excavation of his own. 108 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:38,720 Getz chooses a spot called the Warren Gate which leads straight under the temple mount. 109 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,720 He's had 11 years to prepare for this moment. 110 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:54,720 He's reviewed archaeological reports, ancient maps, he's consulted with experts, and he is convinced that this is the closest possible location to the Holy of Holies chamber that once held the Ark. 111 00:10:55,720 --> 00:11:02,720 After some weeks of digging, Muslim worshipers in the Al Aqsa Mosque hear all kinds of banging going on under their floor. 112 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:11,720 And so the Muslim guards go down to see what's going on and they encounter a group of Israeli young people smuggling dirt out of these tunnels. 113 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:21,720 A violent confrontation ensues between these amateur excavators armed only with shovels, hose, and pigs and the guards rushing in from all sides. 114 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:26,720 Israeli police have to come to quell a full-scale underground riot. 115 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:34,720 In 1982 the government orders the tunnel to be resealed and it remains cemented shut to this day. 116 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:40,720 Rabbi Yehuda gets claimed that at the end of the tunnel that he dug he could see something. 117 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:45,720 Something golden and something glowing. Is it perhaps the Ark of the Covenant? 118 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:50,720 We may never know how close Rabbi gets got to the Ark of the Covenant. 119 00:11:50,720 --> 00:12:04,720 But those tunnels are still there and maybe if sometime the political situation changes in Israel we might be able to access them and perhaps reveal that the Rabbi was right all along. 120 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:14,720 Others believe that whatever Rabbi gets spotted in 1981 it wasn't the Ark because that relic was moved centuries earlier. 121 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:22,720 After the Babylonians destroyed the first temple let's just assume that the Ark is safely underneath the Temple Mount. 122 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:28,720 And as years go by other conquering people come and go and the Ark is still there. 123 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:35,720 Eventually the Jews are allowed to return to Jerusalem and they build a second temple on the same site. 124 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,720 And then a new sheriff comes to town. 125 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:44,720 In 63 BCE the Roman Empire conquers the entire Eastern Mediterranean region. 126 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:49,720 And when the Jews rebel against Rome Rome decimates them. 127 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:58,720 The Romans destroy the second temple in 70 AD and they dismantle it stone by stone taking its treasures back to Rome. 128 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:03,720 Some believe one of those treasures is the Ark. 129 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:13,720 There are many artworks and writings from the Romans describing the many spoils from the Jewish war. 130 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:17,720 The Ark of the Covenant is not shown among any of them. 131 00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:21,720 But did the Romans know that they captured the Ark if they captured the Ark? 132 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:24,720 Well they didn't know what they captured in the temple. 133 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,720 They called the menorah the great candelabrum that the Jews had built for the temple. 134 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:30,720 They just call it a candlestick. 135 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:40,720 With or without the Ark the temple spoils are paraded around the city of Rome before they are put on display in the ironically named temple of peace. 136 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:49,720 That faces the Colosseum which is at that time being built and largely funded by spoils from the Jewish war. 137 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:53,720 The temple of peace stands in Rome for nearly 500 years. 138 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:58,720 After that if the Ark is there we don't know where it goes. 139 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:04,720 Rome is invaded by barbarians and falls in the year 476 AD. 140 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:13,720 For hundreds of years it seems that the Ark has just disappeared until the 12th century when it is mentioned in a book. 141 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:18,720 It's supposedly still in Rome but it is not at the temple of peace. 142 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,720 The book is called the descriptio lateran inso-sicliziae. 143 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:26,720 It's written by John the Deacon and he works at the Lateran Basilica in Rome. 144 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:32,720 And he claims that this is where the Ark of the Covenant is being kept. 145 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:42,720 It's the oldest church in Rome founded in the year 324 AD while the temple of peace is still standing and it's only located a half a mile away. 146 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:54,720 Some theorists believe that after Constantine legalizes Christianity in the Roman Empire in the year 312 this church is built right away to house the Christian relics of Rome. 147 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:58,720 Around 1160 this is exactly what John the Deacon writes. 148 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:06,720 He says that the Ark of the Covenant and many other temple treasures are stored in the Lateran Church beneath the altar. 149 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:11,720 600 years later the Ark is mentioned again in papal records. 150 00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:19,720 In 1745 the Pope at the time, Benedict XIV, has three sacred objects moved from the Lateran Treasury. 151 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:26,720 There's the staff of Moses, there's Aaron's rod, and lastly there's the Ark of the Covenant. 152 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:38,720 Now this is the last mention of the Ark in Rome, but some theorists believe that the Ark has remained in the possession of the Popes ever since and they think it's in the Vatican's secret archives. 153 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:53,720 Hidden beneath St. Peter's Square the archives have an estimated 53 miles of shelves holding thousands of years worth of church documents and artifacts. 154 00:15:53,720 --> 00:16:00,720 They have the correspondence of Martin Luther, they have Henry VIII's request for a marriage annulment. 155 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:03,720 Who knows what else is in the Vatican archives? 156 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:05,720 Could the Ark of the Covenant be down there? 157 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:15,720 But let's be very clear, no Pope, no church official has ever claimed that the Vatican has possession of the Ark of the Covenant. 158 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:56,720 What the Ethiopians say, according to their religion, is that these Ark hunters focused on what happened following the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC are all on a wild goose chase. 159 00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:06,720 The Ethiopians believe that actually the Ark left Jerusalem about 350 years earlier than the destruction of the temple. 160 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:12,720 And it wasn't lost in a war and it wasn't destroyed, it was simply picked up and carried off. 161 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:17,720 And it ends up being carried all the way to Ethiopia where it remains to this day. 162 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:23,720 According to this tradition, the Ark leaves Jerusalem during the reign of King Solomon. 163 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:32,720 In the Bible's first book of Kings and second Chronicles, there's a story of King Solomon who greets in his kingdom a queen. 164 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:41,720 While she's known as the Queen of Sheba and her origins were actually unknown, modern day historians associate her with the land of Ethiopia. 165 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:49,720 In the Bible, the Queen of Sheba comes to Jerusalem to test the wisdom of the mighty King Solomon. 166 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:55,720 She brings him gold and all kinds of presents and having discovered that he is everything she's heard. 167 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,720 Queen of Sheba returns to her kingdom in Africa. 168 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:11,720 But the Ethiopian texts like to elaborate on this story that the Queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon and by the time she returns, she's pregnant with Solomon's baby. 169 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,720 And she gives birth to a son and names him Menelik. 170 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:27,720 Menelik is raised in Ethiopia and when he comes of age, his mother, the Queen of Sheba, decides it's time for him to go to Jerusalem and meet King Solomon, his biological father. 171 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:33,720 So they meet for the first time and Solomon is really favorably impressed with this young man. 172 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:36,720 He asks Menelik to stay and to become his heir. 173 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:41,720 Menelik declines, returning to Ethiopia as his mother's heir. 174 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:52,720 When Menelik returns to Ethiopia, he's shocked to discover that along with his supplies, he finds the Ark of the Covenant. 175 00:18:52,720 --> 00:19:01,720 Now, Ethiopian accounts vary as to whether this was a gift from Solomon or whether someone in his entourage stole it. 176 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:08,720 But the Ark of the Covenant is there in Ethiopia and they believe the Ark is rightfully theirs. 177 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:19,720 Unlike, say, the story of the Philistines taking the Ark for themselves, nothing bad happens to these Ethiopians for having the Ark of the Covenant there. 178 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:27,720 There's no plagues, there's no tumors, there's no walls collapsing and no instant death for the people who gaze upon it. 179 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,720 Instead, Menelik's kingdom thrives. 180 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:43,720 Menelik's family line, which claims to be the Solomonic dynasty, flourishes for 2,000 years and to this day, the church that they founded claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant. 181 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:47,720 Every aspect of Ethiopian Orthodoxy has the Ark at its core. 182 00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:58,720 There are tens of thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox churches in the world and every one of them to be consecrated must have a replica Ark of the Covenant inside its holy of holies, 183 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:00,720 its inner sanctum chamber. 184 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:14,720 On special occasions, the Ark of the Covenant replica can be brought out and paraded around, but even it remains covered because even these replicas are thought to have tremendous power. 185 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,720 But with so many replicas, where is the real Ark? 186 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:25,720 In Aksum, a town 20 miles from the Eritrean border is the Cathedral of Our Lady Mary of Zion. 187 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:34,720 The Cathedral is part of a complex of buildings that represent the holiest place on earth for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. 188 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,720 It's the equivalent of the Roman Catholic Vatican. 189 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:43,720 The new Cathedral building was constructed in the 1950s by the emperor, Hylis Alassi. 190 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:51,720 It's adjacent to the old church, built in the 1500s on a site that had been in use since the 4th century. 191 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:58,720 So in between two buildings, there's another smaller one and the small one is the one that's really important and it's known as the Chapel of the Tablet. 192 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,720 And here is where the Ethiopians believe that the Ark of the Covenant is kept. 193 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:20,720 The Chapel of the Tablet was built in 1965 because, according to legend, of a divine heat that was emanating from the Ark that was so hot, it actually cracked the stones of the old church that sat next door. 194 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:27,720 So the Chapel of the Tablet is a more fortified home for the safekeeping for the Ark of the Covenant. 195 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:32,720 It's one of the most heavily secured chapels that you would ever come across. 196 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:38,720 There is only one person who can actually enter into that building and he's known as the Guardian Monk. 197 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:40,720 The Guardian Monk serves for life. 198 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:42,720 He needs to be a virgin. 199 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:49,720 He takes an oath of celibacy and he spends his entire life in service to the Ark of the Covenant, 200 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,720 making prayers and offering up incense before it. 201 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:58,720 He's not allowed to stray more than 10 feet from the building in which the Ark sits. 202 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:03,720 He's essentially bound to it, a life in service to this holy relic. 203 00:22:03,720 --> 00:22:07,720 Before a Guardian Monk dies, he appoints his own successor. 204 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:12,720 It's a cycle that has continued, unbroken for generations. 205 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:18,720 Of course, some are suspicious that all of the secrecy that surrounds the site means precisely that the Ark isn't there. 206 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,720 It could be that this Ark is simply another replica. 207 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:30,720 But on the rare occasions when these Guardian Monks are interviewed, they state with absolute certainty that this is the Ark of the Covenant. 208 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:36,720 They believe it as do tens of millions of followers of Ethiopian Orthodoxy worldwide. 209 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:41,720 I think it's safe to say that there is something very precious in this Chapel. 210 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:48,720 Whether that is actually the Ark of the Covenant is ultimately impossible to say. 211 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,720 But there may be an opportunity to find out soon. 212 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:56,720 A new Chapel of the Tablet is currently being built behind the present one. 213 00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:02,720 It's slightly larger, it has thicker walls, it will also have an ornate silver dome on the top. 214 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:09,720 As soon as this new Chapel is completed, whatever object is inside the current Chapel will have to be brought out. 215 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:15,720 Undoubtedly, they'll do it as quickly as possible under as much secrecy as possible. 216 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,720 If it's the Ark of the Covenant, maybe we'll finally get a glimpse of it. 217 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:21,720 And with it, some answers. 218 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:47,720 Starting around 1872, some people who call themselves the British Israelites begin organizing. 219 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:53,720 First in England, then in other parts of the British Empire, and eventually also in the United States. 220 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:59,720 They believed that they were descended from the ancient Israelites, the same people who built the Ark, 221 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,720 lived in Jerusalem, and were exiled after the Babylonian destruction. 222 00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:08,720 Led by three British nationalists, the group begins researching a possible connection 223 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:14,720 between the ancient Israelites and the British Anglo-Saxons. 224 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,720 I think it's a self-serving effort. 225 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:24,720 If we can prove our ethnic or social group is descended from God's chosen people, 226 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,720 then that makes us that much more superior. 227 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:32,720 But, sure enough, they believe they found a connection. 228 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:38,720 The oldest records and texts about the Israelites settling in the Promised Land 229 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,720 said that they were divided into twelve different tribes. 230 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:46,720 The number twelve may or may not be historically accurate, 231 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:52,720 but we do know that by the time that the Romans had occupied that territory, 232 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:58,720 after the Jewish war around the year 70, the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, 233 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,720 he says at that point only two tribes still remain. 234 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,720 The other ten are in dispersion. 235 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:12,720 According to the British Israelites, these ten lost tribes of Israel migrated to Europe. 236 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,720 According to this theory, they called themselves Isaac's sons, 237 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:20,720 and from Isaac's sons we derive the word Saxons. 238 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:25,720 We know that Saxons definitely settled in the British Isles in around the mid-fifth century. 239 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:32,720 Saxon presence there is not disputed. In fact, we owe a large chunk of the English language to the Saxons. 240 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:37,720 But did they come all the way from Jerusalem, and did they bring with them the Ark of the Covenant? 241 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,720 If that's true, well, where is it? 242 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:44,720 Because they believe that the lost tribes ended up in Britain, 243 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:51,720 the British Israelites start combing through history books and mythological materials looking for clues. 244 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:58,720 And they find a book of ancient Irish history mythologies called the Labour Gabbala-Iran. 245 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:02,720 To them, this book is the missing link that connects them to the Ark. 246 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:12,720 The Labour Gabbala-Iran describes a Far East princess named Teyatefi, who comes to Ireland and marries King Ereman. 247 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:19,720 Travelling with Princess Teyatefi are an old white-haired man and his servant whose name is Bra. 248 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:27,720 The British Israelites believe that this old man was Jeremiah, accompanied by his servant Baruch, his scribe who wrote down his story. 249 00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:35,720 In the book of 2nd Maccabees, it says that the Prophet Jeremiah escaped the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem 250 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:40,720 and took with him the Ark of the Covenant and a couple of other temple vessels. 251 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:48,720 The British Israelites believe that Prophet Jeremiah brought the Ark of the Covenant with Teyatefi, Ireland. 252 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:54,720 The British Israelites search the Bible for clues to Teyatefi's identity. 253 00:26:54,720 --> 00:27:00,720 When they destroy Jerusalem, the Babylonians capture King Zedekiah and murder his sons. 254 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:04,720 But according to the book of Jeremiah, his daughter is spared. 255 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:10,720 This daughter, who is named Tamar, the British Israelites believe is actually Teyath. 256 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:19,720 So as the theory goes, this entourage of people is the same group who arrive with all the stuff together in Ireland. 257 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:21,720 They have brought the Ark of the Covenant. 258 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:26,720 Tamar slash Teyatefi marries, becomes a Queen of Ireland. 259 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:35,720 And when she dies, she's buried along with the Ark in an ancient sacred center that was her kingdom, now known as the Hill of Tara. 260 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:40,720 The Hill of Tara is one of Ireland's most precious national monuments. 261 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:47,720 It's a place that rival stonehenge as one of many important Neolithic sites in the British Empire. 262 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:54,720 It's the legendary seat of the ancient Irish monarchs, a place that humans have associated with great power for thousands of years. 263 00:27:54,720 --> 00:28:03,720 Archaeologists at Tara have found large earthen structures, ceremonial stone monuments and hundreds of ancient burials. 264 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:09,720 Teyat, Tamar, Tara, some people think that the site is named for the Queen who brought the Ark there. 265 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:17,720 Once the British Israelites develop their theory, they want to excavate the site, convince that they're going to find the Ark there. 266 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:24,720 In 1899, British Israelite archaeologist Walton Adams and Charles Groom come to the site of Tara. 267 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:30,720 The group convinces the owner of the land, Gustavus Briscoe, to let them begin digging for the Ark. 268 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:36,720 So they get to work and they're excavating for months and months and nobody's really paying attention to them. 269 00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:42,720 But eventually some Irish nationalists catch wind of what's going on and they are furious. 270 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:49,720 The British Israelites only care about one thing, the Ark, and they're not very careful about how they do their business. 271 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:54,720 So they're causing untold destruction to a major cultural icon. 272 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:59,720 Nearby landowner Sir John Dillon keeps a detailed account of the excavation. 273 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:10,720 Sir John Dillon sees them taking out bones, Roman coins, and they're just discarding it like it's rubbish and he's mortified by what they're doing. 274 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:19,720 If this is allowed to continue, they are going to succeed in laying waste to probably Ireland's most significant sacred site. 275 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:27,720 By January of 1901, a full-scale media campaign is launched to try and halt the digging. 276 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:36,720 National heroes like the writers George Moore and WB8s join in the chorus to save Tara and eventually they succeed. 277 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:47,720 These British Israelites abandon their quest for the Ark and the site is now owned by the Irish government, which is never going to let them search for the Ark again. 278 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,720 It's an incredible story. 279 00:29:49,720 --> 00:30:02,720 They're combining the Bible with Irish mythology to place the Ark of the Covenant, one of the most powerful objects in the world, in one of the most powerful places in the world. 280 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,720 But without any kind of proof, it's just that, a story. 281 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:15,720 Over the years, theories have placed the powerful Ark of the Covenant everywhere from Ethiopia to Ireland. 282 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:20,720 But historians remain skeptical that it could have traveled so far from Jerusalem. 283 00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:25,720 If the Ark existed and survives, it's probably somewhere in the Middle East. 284 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:35,720 With the Babylonians closing in around the destruction of the temple, the Jews would not have had very much time, and so the best thing to do would just have been to hide it. 285 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:44,720 It's not like they can take it on a long voyage. They would have probably had to carry it on foot. It probably didn't travel very far. 286 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:49,720 So you're definitely left with a limited radius in which to look. 287 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,720 Could they even have gotten the Ark out of Jerusalem? 288 00:30:52,720 --> 00:31:03,720 Some theorists note that before the Babylonians actually laid siege to the city, they actually surrounded it for a couple of years, and it would have been impossible to have smuggled anything in or out. 289 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:08,720 But in 2007, a new discovery challenges that thinking. 290 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:20,720 A team of archaeologists, Ronny Reich and Eli Shoukron, discovered what they call an escape hatch, a tunnel running from the Temple Mount all the way down outside of the city. 291 00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:32,720 The tunnel has walls that are up to 10 feet tall. That's plenty of space for a group of priests to have smuggled out considerable numbers of objects, including the Ark of the Covenant. 292 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:42,720 This tunnel leads under the city walls to the Kedron Valley, so now we have a possible escape route for the Ark of the Covenant. 293 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:48,720 The discovery of this tunnel connects a lot of the biblical dots of the story of the Ark. 294 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:57,720 The Book of Second Maccabees suggests that Jeremiah, the prophet, takes the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple Treasures out of the city. 295 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:05,720 So here's the big question. If this tunnel is the Ark's escape path leading to the Kedron River, where does it go from there? 296 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:11,720 According to Ark Hunter Jim Barfield, there's only one possible answer. 297 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:20,720 The Kedron River heads east and then it branches off into the Coomron River, which leads past an ancient settlement also called Coomron. 298 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:33,720 Coomron is famous because that's where the Dead Sea Scrolls are found. I've been studying Coomron for 25 years, and I believe that it's the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant as well. 299 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:40,720 The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls here in 1947 stunned both the scientific and religious communities. 300 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:55,720 This is one of the biggest archaeological finds in history. 981 manuscripts, some over 2,500 years old, found buried and sealed inside 11 caves. 301 00:32:55,720 --> 00:33:04,720 It's hard to overstate their importance. Here we find the oldest surviving manuscripts of many parts of the Hebrew Bible. 302 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:10,720 There's a bunch of other writings in there as well that give us all kinds of important historical information. 303 00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,720 So as an archaeological find, the Dead Sea Scrolls are huge. 304 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:22,720 Most of the scrolls are papyrus or parchment, and most of them contain stories and scriptures. 305 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:29,720 But one of them, discovered in 1952, is made of copper. It dates back to the first century. 306 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:41,720 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. 307 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:57,720 The Copper Scroll lists 64 places where various items are hidden, including hordes of gold and silver. But the text is vague and difficult to decipher, possibly to prevent outsiders from discovering the location of these sites. 308 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:13,720 The text gives a number of directions to landmarks that only locals would likely have known, like it's in the salt pit under the steps or in the cave of the old Washer's Chamber on the Third Terrace. 309 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:23,720 Barfield was a fire investigator for 23 years. After dedicating his life to solving mysteries, he turns his attention to this one. 310 00:34:24,720 --> 00:34:32,720 I made it my mission to decode the Copper Scroll and find the Ark of the Covenant, and now I believe I'm on the verge of a breakthrough. 311 00:34:32,720 --> 00:34:39,720 So there's a compelling trail of evidence that leads Barfield to Cameroon in search of the Ark. 312 00:34:39,720 --> 00:34:51,720 There's a tunnel leading out of Jerusalem straight to a waterway. They've done excavations all along this path, and they've found coins, pottery, evidence that ancient Jews were in that area. 313 00:34:51,720 --> 00:35:05,720 The waterway leads to Cameroon, which is known as a place of safekeeping, full of caves in which were found hundreds of priceless artifacts, including the Copper Scroll, a treasure map written in Hebrew, found in Cameroon. 314 00:35:05,720 --> 00:35:15,720 It doesn't explicitly say in the Copper Scroll that the location for all these hidden treasures is Cameroon, but it makes sense that you might want to look there. 315 00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:26,720 In 2007, I was ready to visit Cameroon. I had my own replica of the Copper Scroll. I had satellite maps and all the information that I could gather from the biblical text. 316 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:35,720 But when I got there, I had no idea what I might encounter. Was I wrong about all this? Was it wild, goose chase? There's only one way to find out. 317 00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:51,720 In 2007, investigator Jim Barfield's search for the famed Ark of the Covenant brings him to the ancient Jewish settlement of Qumran, Israel. 318 00:35:51,720 --> 00:36:00,720 Qumran was destroyed by the Romans, very similar to what happened in Jerusalem. But unlike Jerusalem, the Romans didn't take all the treasures. 319 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:13,720 Nearly 2,000 years later, the Ditsy Scrolls remained waiting to be discovered. And I believe still hiding at Qumran are the temple treasures of King Solomon and the Ark of the Covenant. 320 00:36:14,720 --> 00:36:19,720 Barfield narrows his search based on instructions in the Copper Scroll. 321 00:36:19,720 --> 00:36:36,720 Location 1 on the Copper Scroll describes 17 talents of silver service vessels. That's around 1,200 pounds or $340,000 of pure silver. But of course, it's priceless as an archaeological find. 322 00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:43,720 This copper scroll says it's at the steps heading east 40 cubits long. That's about 65 feet. 323 00:36:43,720 --> 00:36:48,720 In Qumran, Barfield is only able to find one location with steps heading east. 324 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:58,720 When I get there, I measure the steps and they are exactly 40 cubits long. And I am absolutely convinced that those service vessels are buried at that location. 325 00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:07,720 Remember, this is Barfield's first visit out there. He's not part of any dig. He's just really trying to line things up. 326 00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:12,720 Next, Barfield turns his attention to finding location number two. 327 00:37:12,720 --> 00:37:28,720 A second location on the Copper Scroll says, in the dry cistern at the great ruin courtyard of the Peristyle, in the soft sea floor is hidden polished gold. In front of the uppermost opening are 900 talents. That's an incredible 33 tons of polished gold. 328 00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:42,720 So now Barfield is looking for a cistern and a courtyard, but he's still not sure that the Copper Scroll is referring to places in and around Qumran. He believes though that the sites keep lining up for him. 329 00:37:42,720 --> 00:37:51,720 And when I found the location of the cistern, it was easy to determine because there was a great courtyard there that matched the description of the Copper Scroll. 330 00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:58,720 Barfield is excited and he believes that he's found the 33 tons of polished gold in this location. 331 00:38:08,720 --> 00:38:20,720 Locations one and two are lining up, but my ultimate goal is to find location number three, which could hold the Temple Treasures of King Solomon and the Ark of the Covenant. 332 00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:33,720 The Copper Scroll describes this location as being at the north end of the Hill of Koh-Lit. Whatever the ancient Jews used to refer to as the Hill of Koh-Lit, it's been lost to the sands of time. 333 00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:41,720 I realize that the hill couldn't be within Qumran because there's no hills within the ruins of Qumran, but there are several nearby. 334 00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:49,720 Barfield studies satellite imagery to identify a potential candidate for the Hill of Koh-Lit. 335 00:38:49,720 --> 00:39:01,720 Not only does Barfield find a hill that seems to match, when he gets there, there appears to be a cave that's sealed shut. To him, it doesn't look like a natural rock formation. 336 00:39:01,720 --> 00:39:05,720 He believes the cave's location may also be a clue. 337 00:39:05,720 --> 00:39:12,720 When I looked at this location on my map, locations three, two, and one were in a perfectly straight line. 338 00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:19,720 It was as if whoever wrote this document was leading me to this specific location. 339 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:24,720 Barfield is eager to prove this cave is hiding something. 340 00:39:24,720 --> 00:39:39,720 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. 341 00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:43,720 Why would somebody seal a random hill with concrete? 342 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:52,720 So James Barfield takes all of this evidence and requests the permission of Israeli authorities to conduct a dig. 343 00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:59,720 They don't go that far, but they do allow him to return in 2014 with a parliamentary delegate named Moshe Feiglen. 344 00:39:59,720 --> 00:40:03,720 This time, he's able to bring in more advanced equipment. 345 00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:07,720 What we decided to do was buy an industrial metal detector. 346 00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:20,720 Before I went back, we took that metal detector and I buried 30 pounds of silver in my front yard to get a baseline to make sure that while we were seeing, we could judge it against whatever we might find at Khumron. 347 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:32,720 Back in Khumron, we scanned the courtyard of the parish though, and as we got close, we just flipped the edge with the 33 tons of gold we buried, and the readings just went off the charts. 348 00:40:33,720 --> 00:40:40,720 And when we get to location number three, the metal detector confirms my suspicions that this is the mother load. 349 00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:53,720 According to Barfield's results, the metal detector finds five times the amount of metal in location number three than the 33 tons of gold posited for location number two. 350 00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:58,720 I've already proven that something is down there, now we've got to dig it up and see what it is. 351 00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:06,720 The copper scroll, the biblical text, the map, the mortar, the metal detector readings, all of these lead me with no doubt. 352 00:41:06,720 --> 00:41:10,720 In this sealed cave are the greatest treasures of Israel. 353 00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:16,720 When they finally give us permission to do the excavation, we're going to be face to face with the Ark of the Kremlin. 354 00:41:21,720 --> 00:41:27,720 Jim Barfield is currently lobbying the Israeli Congress for permission to excavate at Khumron. 355 00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:34,720 If he's successful, there's a chance that the search for the Ark of the Covenant may one day be over. 356 00:41:34,720 --> 00:41:40,720 I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries.