NARRATOR: It is the most highly coveted lost relic in the world.
KATHLEEN McGOWAN COPPENS: The Ark of the Covenant
is without question the most significant
and powerful artifact in human history.
NARRATOR: It was a weapon of extraordinary power.
ANDREW COLLINS: It was said to smite the enemies of Israel.
It was said to bring about disease.
It was said to bring down the walls of Jericho.
NARRATOR: And it provided direct communication with the heavens.
WILLIAM HENRY: It was the only physical manifestation
of God on Earth.
NARRATOR: But what happened to the Ark of the Covenant?
AMIR HUSSAIN: There’s all sorts of stories.
Is it buried somewhere?
Was it looted? Was it stolen?
NARRATOR: There are those who believe
that if the Ark is ever found,
it will provide undeniable proof of extraterrestrial visitation.
NICK POPE: The Ark of the Covenant
is the ultimate alien artifact.
NARRATOR: There is a doorway
in the universe.
Beyond it is the promise of truth.
It demands we question everything
we have ever been taught.
The evidence is all around us.
The future is right before our eyes.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
NARRATOR: Jerusalem.
January 28, 2011.
It is a quiet winter night
inside the al‐Aqsa Mosque compound,
which sits on the Temple Mount,
a site considered hallowed ground
by Muslims, Christians and Jews.
But at roughly 1:00 a.m.,
in the sky above the Dome of the Rock,
an extraordinary scene unfolds that is captured on video.
This pulsating light, which was witnessed
from multiple different sources, descends down...
(people speaking in foreign language)
...right on top of the Temple Mount,
and all of the sudden, a flash.
(people shout)
And it disappears up into heaven.
POPE: If this is genuine,
‐it’s of extreme significance. ‐MAN: Whoa!
It’s a site of immense significance
to all three of the world’s main religions.
They have all, for thousands of years, worshiped there.
It is a site where they believe
there are things of great power, maybe still hidden.
TZADOK: What happened? What was that?
There are those who interpret and understand this
to have been something technological
possibly turning on.
(people shout)
TZADOK: Activating something buried beneath.
There are many who believe that this pulsating light
was connecting with the Ark of the Covenant.
NARRATOR: The Ark of the Covenant?
The golden chest built to house the Ten Commandments?
Could this incredible UFO event have been connected
to one of the most revered
and most mysterious religious artifacts of all time?
TZADOK: Is it possible that the Ark of the Covenant
is still with us to this day?
It’s possible. We don’t know.
NARRATOR: According to the stories of the Hebrew Bible,
the Ark of the Covenant did, at one time,
reside in this very spot, and there are those who believe
it is still hidden somewhere on the site.
But this holy relic went missing more than 2,500 years ago,
and people have been searching for it ever since.
Considered the most sacred and mysterious artifact
in ancient Israel,
the Ark of the Covenant was revered by the Hebrew people
as the embodiment of God’s presence on Earth.
MICHAEL CARTER: What was so special about the Ark
was that it housed the history
of the Israelites once they left Egypt.
It reminded a people who had been slaves
in Egypt for millennia that they were not alone.
That this god was constantly with them.
NARRATOR: The story of the Ark begins in the 15th century BC.
According to the Bible’s Book of Exodus,
after the Israelites were released from Egypt,
God summoned Moses to the peak of Mount Sinai
and gave him two stone tablets
carved with the Ten Commandments.
He also gave him specific instructions
for building the Ark of the Covenant.
McGOWAN: Moses was given very specific measurements.
It was to be two and a half cubits long,
one and a half cubits wide, one and a half cubits deep.
So, we’re looking at a container
that was a little over four feet long
and about two feet wide and two feet deep.
The container must be made of acacia wood,
that it must be covered with gold.
The top of the Ark was to be surmounted by angels,
two cherubim with large wings that would face each other,
and their wings would cover the top of the Ark.
NARRATOR: The Ark was designed to be carried by poles,
inserted into four gold rings,
two on each side of the container.
JONATHAN YOUNG: It was very important
that no one touch the Ark.
It was too powerful, too holy,
and a person would die if they touched it.
It was also covered in a very elaborate way
so that passersby wouldn’t look at it.
Such was the power of the Ark of the Covenant,
that it would be dangerous even to look at it.
HUGH NEWMAN: The lid of the Ark was called the "mercy seat."
And there was said to be two cherubims on top
with their wings pointing to each other
with a gap between them.
This is actually the gap where Yahweh, or God,
was supposed to have spoken.
MCGOWAN: In Exodus 25:22, God tells Moses,
"When you build this,
"I will meet you between the cherubim,
and I will give you commands."
NARRATOR: Ancient accounts of the Ark
portray it as possessing mysterious powers
that aided the Israelites during their journey
to the Promised Land,
parting rivers, leveling mountains
and destroying armies.
But it was also incredibly dangerous to handle.
ERICH VON DANIKEN: Whatever the Ark of the Covenant was,
the object was definitely very, very dangerous.
In the second, uh, Book of the King,
you can read that several accidents happened.
A priest with the name of Uzzah touched the Ark
and like an electrical shock,
he just fell on the ground, and he was dead.
GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: In the Bible, we have multiple stories
of people not only dying
when they came in contact with the Ark,
but some didn’t die, but only died a week or two later.
And how did they die?
Because they had boils on their skin
and their hair started to fall out.
Well, that is a sign
of radioactive poisoning or radioactive fallout.
COLLINS: The most important thing about trying to understand
how the Ark of the Covenant functioned
is the fact that specific instructions
were given by God to Moses
about how it was to be manufactured.
The exact size,
how it is to be raised off the ground,
how it is to be carried.
So there was specifics here that had to be carried out,
and this tells us, almost certainly,
that we are dealing with technology.
A technology that was given either by God
or by some kind of entity or being of non‐terrestrial origin.
NARRATOR: Is it possible,
as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,
that the baffling powers ascribed to the Ark
provide evidence that it contained highly advanced
and perhaps extraterrestrial technology?
In 957 BC, construction was completed
on King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem,
built on the same site
where the Dome of the Rock stands today,
and designed with the primary purpose
of housing the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark would remain here for 350 years
and then disappear from the historical record forever.
In 586 BC,
the Babylonians, under King Nebuchadnezzar,
sacked and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon.
It was said that they carried away, to Babylon,
all of the treasures of the Israelites,
the treasures of the temple.
However, there is no mention in any account
that they took away the Ark of the Covenant.
So, what happened to the Ark of the Covenant?
CARTER: The first theory is that Jeremiah or King Josiah
took the Ark and hid it away in a cave.
There’s another, uh, piece of speculation
is that the Babylonians just took it and they desecrated it.
But if they had done that, people would’ve known about it.
POPE: The voice of God was heard though the Ark.
And for those people that believe the voice of God
was extraterrestrial, well, the Ark of the Covenant
is the ultimate alien artifact.
NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists believe that finding the Ark
will result in incredible revelations
about humanity’s extraterrestrial past
and could also facilitate direct communication
with otherworldly entities still watching over Earth today.
But does the Ark still lie hidden at Temple Mount?
Many claim the most compelling evidence
points to the Ark leaving Jerusalem centuries ago,
spirited away by a band of warrior monks.
NARRATOR: July 1099 AD.
Muslim‐controlled Jerusalem
is captured by medieval Christian forces.
The bloody siege leaves the city ransacked
by the victorious crusaders.
But spared from destruction
are two mosques that have stood on Temple Mount for 400 years.
These holy sites were saved to serve another purpose.
The Dome of the Rock is converted
into a Catholic church.
And the al‐Aqsa Mosque is given to a newly‐formed
monastic fighting force, the Order of Solomon’s Temple,
also known as the Knights Templar.
YOUNG: This was a holy order of knights
who were interested in the safety of travelers
going from Europe to Jerusalem, to the temple.
And they would guard them...
...and they would protect their wealth.
They essentially invented banking as a way to protect
travelers from highwaymen.
NARRATOR: But protecting pilgrims
was not the Templars’ only directive
while stationed at Temple Mount.
They were also charged with searching for treasure
and religious artifacts.
CHILDRESS: The Knights Templars got a commission from the pope
to actually do excavations at Solomon’s Temple.
And the Templars, uh, that is largely what they did
while they were in Jerusalem.
The story there goes that the Templars actually discovered
a secret chamber beneath the temple.
They claimed to have found all sorts of holy relics.
And we know they found certain things
because they became very rich very quickly.
But legend said that amongst all these things they found
was the Ark of the Covenant.
NARRATOR: On July 4, 1187,
the Knights Templar were forced to leave Jerusalem
when Muslim armies retook the holy city.
The Templars set sail for Europe, and it was rumored
that they carried with them the holy relics
they had recovered at Temple Mount,
including the Ark of the Covenant.
By the end of the 13th century,
the Knights Templar had established
a new base of operations in France.
CORNWALL: I do believe that the Templars did find the Ark
and successfully transported it to Paris,
where they were hailed as heroes for some reason overnight.
Nobles were trying to join the order.
The king of France was promoting them.
I believe the reason for that is because they succeeded
in their mission to find the Ark,
which is why they were there in the first place.
NARRATOR: The Templars used their vast wealth
to finance the construction of Chartres Cathedral,
one of the finest examples of Gothic‐style architecture
in the world.
And it was rumored that the Cathedral
had a direct connection to the Ark of the Covenant.
COLLINS: In 1966, in a book called
The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral,
Louis Charpentier claimed
that the Templars had indeed found this holy object
and had brought it back to France.
And that this had, some way, inspired
the design of Chartres Cathedral,
which embodied many principles of sacred geometry,
mathematical ideas that had been brought over
from the Sufi, and Islamic peoples of the holy land.
Sufism included a lot of ideas relating to sacred architecture.
This was how to design the perfect house of God.
NARRATOR: Some believe that the Knights Templar
actually built this breathtaking cathedral
to house the Ark of the Covenant.
And they point to one very credible source
that claims the Ark was deposited here:
the cathedral itself.
Carvings on the north portico depict the Templars
recovering the Ark of the Covenant, then carrying it off,
led by an angel with God hidden overhead in a cloud.
Inscribed in Latin text are the words:
"Here is hidden the Ark of the Covenant."
McGOWAN: There are many legends in France
about where the Ark was kept during the time period
the Templars were the guardians.
Some say it was in the crypt of Chartres Cathedral.
It’s likely that the Ark of the Covenant was moved around
to different locations in France to protect it
and to keep it from being discovered.
NARRATOR: All who have attempted to find the Ark of the Covenant
at Chartres Cathedral have come up empty‐handed.
But if the Templars truly were in possession of the Ark,
there is good reason to believe they would have moved it
at least once more, to keep its otherworldly powers
from the hands of a dangerous enemy:
the king of France, Philip IV.
CORNWALL: The Templars were incredibly rich,
and King Philip was engaged in a series of wars
that were depleting his coffers.
He tried to become their Grand Master
and they said no. They refused him.
So, he decided to take what they had by force instead.
But they did know he was coming.
It was obviously time to get the Ark out of Paris.
NARRATOR: On Friday, October 13, 1307,
King Philip of France, with the backing
of Pope Clement V,
ordered the arrest of every Templar in France.
King Philip accused the Templars of heresy,
immorality, and worship of a demonic idol.
But ancient astronaut theorists suggest that,
based on accounts of the idol,
this may be a case of misunderstood technology.
TSOUKALOS: There were rumors that the Templars
were in possession of this horrible‐looking idol
with one glowing red eye
and another eye that’s barely blinking.
Of course, a‐a technologically primitive person
would not recognize that that is a type of a machine,
but I think this was an extraterrestrial device.
McGOWAN: It was said they spoke to this demon.
That this demon would speak back to them
and give them instructions.
We know from scripture,
we know from the Bible itself
that the Ark was built as a communication device.
NARRATOR: For some researchers,
the description of a demonic idol
with glowing red eyes
that gave instructions to the Knights Templar
brings to mind the biblical accounts
of how the Israelite priests communicated with God
through the Ark of the Covenant.
TZADOK: The high priest
was required by biblical law to wear
a special type of a breastplate,
which had special types of gemstones on it.
The high priest could oscillate his voice
to create specific types of sounds.
It would cause these stones to come alive.
The stones on the breastplate would light up.
They would begin to emit rainbow colors.
So, you have light flashing off of this high priest
as he’s firing up the Ark of the Covenant.
And then the Ark had rainbow light coming off of it.
NARRATOR: To this day, many researchers believe
that the idol the Templars were accused of worshipping
was the Ark of the Covenant.
But if so, what became of it?
Some suggest the world’s most sacred religious relic
ultimately ended up
hidden in a mysterious chapel
in Scotland.
NARRATOR: Paris, France. March 18, 1314.
Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and final Grand Master
of the Knights Templar,
is executed by order of King Philip IV.
But according to historical accounts,
he already had a plan in place
for the surviving Templars to make their escape
in the event of his capture.
McGOWAN: Jacques de Molay had an enormous responsibility
to protect the legacy
of who the Templars were and what they stood for.
And part of this legacy
was their guardianship of these holy relics
and, specifically, the Ark of the Covenant.
NARRATOR: King Philip set out to capture a fleet of 18 Templar ships
that were said to be docked at the port of La Rochelle
on the Atlantic coast of France.
But when the king’s forces arrived,
there was not a ship in sight.
COLLINS: The Knights Templar disappeared, as well as
many of the holy relics
that they unquestionably held in their possession.
NARRATOR: Vatican records suggest
the fleet of ships carried the escaping Templars
and their mysterious treasure to Scotland,
where they were welcomed by King Robert the Bruce.
Like the Knights Templar,
Robert the Bruce had been excommunicated by the Pope.
He was also embroiled in a bitter war of independence
against Edward II of England,
and according to the story,
the Templars joined his forces
on the battlefield.
CORNWALL: There is a wonderful legend
of knights in white
at the Battle of Bannockburn defeating, decimating
the English army.
The Templar Knights
had to have been at that battle.
NARRATOR: The Templars were revered as great warriors,
but some question whether they were aided
by a powerful weapon they may have been carrying with them,
the Ark of the Covenant.
People have asked, could this actually be used as a weapon?
Of course it could be.
I mean, can you imagine
having that kind of technology?
HENRY: There’s no question that the Ark of the Covenant
radiated a power that could be used
for military advantage.
When the Israelites carried it into battle,
it assisted them in assuring their victory.
McGOWAN: If the Ark was carried before an army,
that army would become invincible.
There are stories of the Ark killing scorpions
and serpents.
The Ark, in many ways, was protective,
it was protective of the Israelites on their journey.
TZADOK: The Ark of the Covenant would march before
the children of Israel as they went through the desert,
clearing out anything that was a danger to them.
When you’re in the wilderness, you have wild animals,
you have poisonous serpents.
The Ark would prepare the way.
How it did this we still do not know.
No one had actual visual awareness
or contact with what was happening.
All we have is the mystery
of knowing that it did march miles before the people,
preparing the way for them.
COLLINS: In my opinion, the Ark of the Covenant
functioned as a capacitor,
drawing in electrostatic energies from
the environment into its interior.
But that something was then triggering it
to radiate out some kind of electromagnetic field.
One that was so strong
that it would strike people down who came too close.
And I would say
that it contained something radioactive.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Ark of the Covenant
was a radioactive device
that could be used as a devastating weapon?
And could knowledge of the Ark’s awesome powers
be a reason that
the Knights Templar kept this dangerous object hidden
and away from the hands of their enemies?
Some researchers say that Templar allies,
the powerful Sinclair family,
understood the importance
of protecting the Ark and built
an elaborate hiding place for the dangerous object,
Rosslyn Chapel.
COLLINS: Rosslyn Chapel
is one of the most mysterious
holy places in the whole of Scotland.
Many people have likened its design,
its cruciform design,
to the layout of King Solomon’s Temple.
And this has raised the question
of whether or not
the Knights Templar
may have brought the Ark of the Covenant
to Scotland,
and that Rosslyn Chapel could have been constructed
as its new resting place.
CHILDRESS: That chapel contains a crypt
deep beneath it,
and many historians believe that the Ark of the Covenant
was kept there for a while.
McGOWAN: Rosslyn Chapel is full of Templar symbolism, including
carvings of Templar Knights and
a gravestone that belonged to another Templar.
The Templars are inextricable
with the legends of Rosslyn Chapel.
Rosslyn Chapel is really the symbol
of Templar presence in Scotland.
NARRATOR: While millions of people are convinced
that the Knights Templar recovered
the Ark of the Covenant at Temple Mount
and hid it somewhere along their journeys,
likely in France or Scotland,
there are just as many who believe
that it was taken out of Jerusalem
long before the Templars even existed.
And some profess to have seen the Ark
and witnessed its ethereal powers
with their own eyes
in a most unlikely place:
Ethiopia.
NARRATOR: Aksum, Ethiopia.
November 2020.
Pro‐government troops storm the ancient sacred city,
searching out soldiers aligned with the region’s
former ruling party, the TPLF.
It is one episode in a conflict
that has been raging for weeks,
but this time, the soldiers target Aksum’s holiest site,
the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.
Incredibly, hundreds
of civilians race to the defense
of the church and prevent the soldiers
from gaining access.
A staggering 800 are reportedly killed in the process.
But more than the church itself,
they were protecting the extraordinary religious artifact
that is said to be held inside,
the Ark of the Covenant.
HENRY: There are many who believe that the Ark is in Aksum.
In fact, it’s believed by millions
of Orthodox Christians that the Ark of the Covenant is there.
NARRATOR: Although many researchers believe
there is strong evidence that the Knights Templar recovered
the Ark of the Covenant during their excavations
at Temple Mount,
others say that the Ark had been removed from Jerusalem
centuries before the Templars even arrived.
The main proponents of this theory are the
Christians of Ethiopia,
who believe the Ark was brought to Aksum
nearly 3,000 years ago,
where it has continued to exert its strange powers ever since.
One version of the fate of the Ark of the Covenant
is contained within a Ethiopian holy book
known as the Kebra Nagast.
It’s a story involving King Solomon,
who had the Ark,
and his meeting with the Queen of Sheba.
And it was said that they had a liaison,
and that a son was born to the Queen of Sheba
by the name of Menelik.
And that, eventually,
Menelik traveled from his homeland of Ethiopia
to visit his father Solomon in Israel.
NARRATOR: According to the story,
when Menelik left Israel,
he and his men secretly took the Ark with them.
The details of their journey back
to Ethiopia once again illustrate
the otherworldly power
of the Ark of the Covenant.
They first go from Jerusalem to Gaza,
and then from there they travel into Egypt
with the Ark of the Covenant.
And then the Ark of the Covenant
is made to fly their wagon,
and they then fly across the Red Sea
to the Saudi Arabian Yemen side of the Red Sea.
This is all detailed in the Kebra Nagast.
This book is thousands of years old.
It is clearly described that Solomon’s son
were flying with the Ark of the Covenant.
They were not on the ground, they were flying
over Egypt.
Some temples were destroyed
because of the noise and the trembling.
They were flying and came to Ethiopia.
The Ark of the Covenant was then put in a special church
built for it in Aksum.
One Ethiopian Coptic priest
is allowed to live
in that special church
and only he
is allowed to view the Ark,
and he is essentially, while he lives,
the custodian of the Ark of the Covenant.
NARRATOR: The guardian of the Ark
chooses who will be his successor when he dies.
The job is both highly coveted
and highly dangerous.
NEWMAN: The guardians who’ve been there
generation after generation protecting it
have gone blind.
They’ve had radiation poisoning. They’ve got cancer.
So, it seems that the Ark may have had radioactive qualities,
which actually cause harm to people
if you’re in the vicinity of it for too long,
and this echoes the original stories
saying it was some all‐powerful device.
VON DANIKEN: The same description you find in the book
of the kings of the Ethiopians, the Kebra Nagast,
there they say, the inside of the Ark
is not from this planet.
NARRATOR: Some believe that the ailments suffered
by those said to guard the Ark
at the church in Aksum
provide compelling evidence that they are, in fact, protecting
an otherworldly technology.
But there is still another,
even more audacious theory regarding
what happened to the Ark of the Covenant
and a man who claims to have found it.
NARRATOR: Johannesburg, South Africa.
1985.
British scholar Tudor Parfitt
is giving a lecture on his academic specialty,
the history of ancient Jews who settled in Africa.
During his lecture,
Parfitt is intrigued by a group in the audience.
They’re dressed in traditional African garments,
but wearing what look like Jewish skullcaps.
PARFITT: They explained that they were
the Lemba people,
and that they were Jews.
The story that they told me was rather compelling,
and they invited me to go with them to their villages,
which I did.
And I was convinced by what I saw
in these little villages that there was something
profoundly Semitic about this group.
(speaking native language)
NARRATOR: Although the Lemba are native to Zimbabwe,
they not only observed
Semitic dietary laws and cultural practices,
they claimed to be descendants of Jews
who fled the Holy Land thousands of years ago...
Jews known in history as the ten lost tribes of Israel.
And according to the Lemba,
their ancestors brought a mysterious object
into Africa from the great temple in Jerusalem.
In his book, The Lost Ark of the Covenant,
Parfitt recounts the description of the object,
called the ngoma lungundu,
as a wooden drum
used to store sacred objects.
PARFITT: They would often tell me about
the ngoma lungundu, the‐the drum which thunders.
It’s quite similar to the Ark of the Covenant.
Like the Ark of the Covenant,
there were carrying rings on each corner.
Like the Ark of the Covenant,
it had the reputation of being a murderous weapon
that they carried into war,
and it assured victory in combat.
So, in lots of ways,
the, uh, ngoma
seemed to be
very similar to the idea of the Ark of the Covenant.
HUSSAIN: Not only is there this secret object that’s lost,
it’s a sacred wooden object that’s carved,
that has rings on it
that poles are put through to transport it.
Let’s look at the Ark of War, as it’s known in Deuteronomy,
and let’s think about this, uh, ngoma,
this‐this drum that thunders.
This idea that this drum speaks with the voice of God.
The Ark of the Covenant is the presence of God.
Could they in fact be one and the same object?
NARRATOR: According to the Lemba,
the ngoma lungundu had been kept in a cave for centuries
before mysteriously disappearing.
But could the powerful object they described
have really been the lost Ark of the Covenant?
And were the Lemba truly the descendants
of the ancient Israelites?
In 1997,
thanks to advances in DNA technology,
Tudor Parfitt and a group
of British scientists are able to identify
a specific genetic signature for descendants
of ancient Israelite priests called kohanim,
who were entrusted by Moses’s brother Aaron
with the full knowledge
of the Ark of the Covenant’s hidden powers.
HENRY: We know that it was the
descendants of Aaron who are responsible
for caretaking and operating the Ark of the Covenant.
Recently, geneticists have discovered
that that lineage continues up into the modern day.
Now, if the Ark of the Covenant
were brought into our world today,
it would make sense that we would need
the descendants of Aaron
to once again operate the Ark.
NARRATOR: To Parfitt’s astonishment,
when members of the Lemba undergo DNA testing,
they are found to have the genetic signature
of the kohanim,
called the Cohen Modal Haplotype.
PARFITT: We were looking for the Cohen Model Haplotype
among the Lemba,
and we found the Lemba
to be relatively rich
in the Cohen Model Haplotype.
Once it seemed that the priestly tribe of the Lemba was
the same as the priestly tribe of the Jews,
then the question of the ngoma became
very much more interesting to‐to me.
NARRATOR: Parfitt spent much of the next decade
traveling across Africa and the Middle East,
following every lead in search of the ngoma lungundu.
In 2007,
he was ready to give up the search,
but decided to follow one last lead
to a small museum in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.
HUSSAIN: He goes to the museum, and he goes
into one of the storerooms,
and it’s almost straight out of a movie.
PARFITT: I looked around the various places
where things might have been deposited,
and to my considerable surprise, I found it.
HUSSAIN: It’s an old piece of wood,
but he’s amazed because one of the first things he notices
is the scorch marks.
It’s been burned exactly like the story
that says, oh, at a, at a particular point in history,
there was a fire that came out of this that actually
killed the people who were standing, uh, beside this.
NARRATOR: Critics complained that the crude wooden object
did not resemble the biblical descriptions of the Ark.
But Parfitt points out that, according to Lemba tradition,
the original wooden box was destroyed in a fiery explosion,
and this smaller object was reconstructed
from a piece of the original artifact.
One could imagine that there have been a succession of Arks,
which have been used,
but worn out and were rebuilt,
and which finally led
to the Ark, which, today, is to be found
in a small museum in Harare.
HUSSAIN: It’s this amazing story because here’s Tudor Parfitt,
this great, respected academic,
who’s now announced that he has discovered
the Ark of the Covenant.
That makes international news, and there’s great debate.
PARFITT: If one is to think that the Ark
exists anywhere, why not in Africa?
Makes a lot more sense than many other places
where it has been imagined to be.
The Lemba were very straightforward about their Ark.
They said, at a certain point, it was destroyed.
We made another one.
But what I do think is that this, uh,
object is probably the closest thing
that has ever been found
to the original Ark of the Covenant.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that an ancient wooden object on display
in a museum in Zimbabwe
represents the last remnants of the Ark of the Covenant?
Some researchers believe the otherworldly
technology that the scorched wooden vessel
is alleged to have held still exists,
and it will soon be found, not in Africa,
but back in its rightful home
on Temple Mount.
NARRATOR: Mount Scopus, Israel.
Here, in northeastern Jerusalem,
lie 9,000 tons of soil
illegally excavated and removed from Temple Mount
in 1999 by the Islamic religious trust.
Excavations are not permitted
on the sacred space of Temple Mount,
but because this soil has already been removed,
both experts and volunteers have been able to sift through it,
and, incredibly,
it has produced hundreds of thousands of ancient artifacts.
Might clues pointing to the existence
of the Ark of the Covenant and, perhaps, its location,
be found in the soil from Temple Mount?
TZADOK: In modern‐day Israel,
many have tried to go under Temple Mount,
and it is well known that there are secret catacombs,
and that there are passageways that have been blocked off,
which lead to many, many secrets.
What is down there, who can say?
POPE: Temple Mount is a site
where many people believe
there are things of great power,
maybe still hidden.
It’s a site of immense significance
to all three of the world’s main religions.
HUSSAIN: The importance of Temple Mount is really interesting.
For Jews, when Isaac is offered up
for sacrifice by Abraham,
this happens on the Temple Mount.
It then gets connected
to the Christian tradition that comes later.
For Muslims,
this spot is important because this is where
the prophet Muhammad ascends up to heaven.
There very much is this idea
that there’s a holiness in this spot.
Observant Jews aren’t even supposed to walk
on the area of the Temple Mount
because the space is so powerful.
The idea is that the presence of God is here.
NEWMAN: Interestingly, this is the actual site where,
in 2011, there were multiple reports of
strange lights seen above Jerusalem.
(men exclaiming)
NARRATOR: If the event recorded on video over Temple Mount
on January 28, 2011,
was, in fact, related to the Ark of the Covenant,
as some ancient astronaut theorists suspect,
could it be evidence that the Ark still resides there?
Many people think it was fake,
but we have too many witnesses from too many sources
that can prove that this actually happened.
It gives us to speculate
that, indeed, the Ark
was sending and receiving signals
from some actual, tangible place,
from which we will have contact in time to come.
NARRATOR: As far as ancient astronaut theorists are concerned,
whether the Ark of the Covenant lies beneath Temple Mount
or is hidden thousands of miles away,
one thing is certain,
it remains the world’s most important lost relic.
CHILDRESS: I think it’s very possible
that the Ark of the Covenant does still exist.
And I feel that it’s likely that at least some people
actually know where it is.
TSOUKALOS: The Ark of the Covenant
is one of the greatest pieces
in the ancient astronaut theory
because there was an actual physical object
that had a connection
to the so‐called celestial realm.
So, I mean, the Ark of the Covenant is one of the most
enduring ancient mysteries of all time.
HENRY: The Ark holds the promise
that it will bring a new revelation with it.
It could completely transform our civilization.
This is the potential power with the Ark of the Covenant.
TZADOK: The Ark might actually be the proof
that we have been seeking throughout human history
of our forgotten past
and our greater potential of contact
with the greater universe and world.
Indeed, if we could have the Ark
and operate it
and make contact,
who would we be talking to?
What would we be opening up?
NARRATOR: Could an otherworldly device
of unfathomable power
that our ancestors encountered thousands of years ago
still exist somewhere on Earth today?
Perhaps the Ark of the Covenant will soon be revealed
to humanity once again,
and within this sacred box, we will find
the undeniable proof of our celestial origins.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS