All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.Ultimate.Evidence.S01E07.Aliens.and.the.Lost.Ark.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

In cultures throughout the
world, we find ancient stories

that seem to describe
advanced technology.

And for me, the most incredible
of these stories

comes straight from the Bible

and its description
of the golden chest

that was built to house
the Ten Commandments--

the Ark of the Covenant.

The Bible tells us that
the Ark also provided food

for the Israelites during their
40-year exodus in the desert.

And it was also the Ark
that was used as a weapon

to bring down
the walls of Jericho.

But just what was
this extraordinary device?

Were its powers the result
of divine miracles?

Or were they the product

of advanced
extraterrestrial technology?

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
In 2015, the simple act

of replacing a carpet
kicked off a war of words

between Israeli scholars
and the Muslim authorities

in charge of Judaism's
holiest site--

the Dome of the Rock.

When the old carpet was lifted,

it revealed ancient designs
in the floor,

a series of mysterious patterns

that Israeli scholars
believe could point

to the final resting place

of one of the most sacred
objects in the world--

the Ark of the Covenant.

Unfortunately,

before the patterns could
be photographed and documented,

workmen began laying
the new carpet.

Could the clues to the Ark's
location lie hidden,

underneath a thin layer
of floor covering?

Or is its location meant
to be a secret?

Because if it is ever found,

the powers of the Ark could
make it the most powerful

and dangerous weapon on Earth.

NARRATOR:
The West Bank.

July 2013.

Ten miles north of the Israeli
settlement of Beit El,

archaeologists unearth
clay pots, stoves

and a portion of a wall dating
back to around 1300 BC.

But the most mundane of
their findings here may also be

the most significant--

holes carved into
the solid rock ground.

Based on the location
and the date of the artifacts,

they believe these holes
may have once held

the wooden beams used
to support

the tabernacle at Shiloh.

If true, it is
the first physical evidence

ever discovered of the ancient
sanctuary built to house

what is perhaps the most
mysterious religious relic

in the world--

the Ark of the Covenant.

TSOUKALOS: The story
of the Ark of the Covenant

is one of the most fascinating

and unexplored stories
of the Bible.

The Ark of the Covenant

had some very
mysterious powers.

GRAHAM HANCOCK:
The Ark of the Covenant was what

took me out
of mainstream journalism.

I began to wonder what-what
could this thing have been?

NARRATOR: Reproductions
of the Ark of the Covenant

can be found
in churches, synagogues,

and Masonic temples
throughout the world.

It has even been featured
in popular culture.

But just what is
the Ark of the Covenant?

Mount Sinai.

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 this holy mountain

and gave him two stone tablets

carved with
the Ten Commandments.

He also gave him
specific instructions

for building
the Ark of the Covenant.

It was the box that was
constructed to contain

the two tablets
of the Ten Commandments,

which were irradiated
with divine power

because they had been touched
by the finger of God.

The covenant itself
was a contract between God

uh, and the Israelites.

"I will be your God
and protect you

provided you keep
my commandments."

Israel's end of the deal, then,

was going to be kept in the box,

which is the Ark itself.

NARRATOR:
But the Ark of the Covenant

didn't only carry
the Ten Commandments.

It was also said to be

the throne of God himself.

In the book of Exodus
in the 25th chapter,

the verse is very clear.

God says to Moses,

"V'Asu li mikdash
v'shachanti b'tocham."

"Have them make me
a holy place and I, God,

I will dwell among them."

And wherever the Ark went,

that power of God
went with them.

The Ark is built in...

a reflection of what's called
a heavenly ark.

It was built two and a half
cubits by one and a half cubits

by one and a half cubits.

So the Ark would've been
somewhere in the ballpark

of about a three-by-five-foot
rectangular box.

DOWNING: It was going to be
covered with gold

on the outside and the inside,
and was to have

two gold rings
at each of the four corners.

And it was carried with poles

that were run through the rings.

And the orders were that,
uh, the poles

should never be removed
from the rings.

And the lid
was to be made out of gold,

and on each end of the lid
were to be, uh, cherubim

or guardian angels,
basically, with wings.

NARRATOR: But why was it
so important that the Ark

be constructed to such exact
specifications?

And why would God--
a spiritual being--

require a physical throne
here on Earth?

Perhaps there is an answer

in the Bible's
description of Moses

after he returned
from Mount Sinai.

BAR TZADOK: After Moses
came down from Mount Sinai,

he was glowing-- the Bible
says-- that he had to wear

a scarf over his face.

TSOUKALOS: I am fascinated
with the idea that Moses--

all of a sudden,
his appearance changed.

And, so the idea

that Moses, all of a sudden,

looked different--

we have to ask ourselves why.

NARRATOR:
Just what did Moses encounter

on Mount Sinai?

Was it God?

Or was it someone--

or something-- else?

BAR TZADOK:
God is clearly an entity

not of this earth,

and by definition, therefore,
extraterrestrial.

Where does he come from?

We must recognize that when the
ancients are speaking about God,

there is no other term

that we can use to describe

these experiences,
other than extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR:
After the Ark was built

and the Ten Commandments
placed within it,

the Israelites carried it with
them on their 40-year exodus

through the desert.

Certain people
were allowed to carry it,

and those people
were ordained priests.

Aaron, Moses' brother,

and his sons were
certainly priests.

It was a prestigious job.

But you had to know
what you were doing.

NARRATOR: But why was the Ark
considered so dangerous

that it couldn't be touched
or even looked at?

According to
the Old Testament accounts,

the Ark of the Covenant
was not only a powerful device

on its own,
it also housed a number

of other important
religious relics.

In addition
to the Ten Commandments,

it held Aaron's Rod,

the staff that could
miraculously

turn into a serpent.

It also held a jar of manna,

an edible starch which
reportedly came from the sky.

What we begin to realize is that

the Ark of the Covenant
was a sort of tool kit,

and once this tool kit
was assembled

we have the fully functioning
Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark went before them
in the wilderness

and made sure the place where

the children of Israel
were to go

would be safe and able

to provide for them
in the desert.

Anybody who's been
to the Sinai Desert--

you could hardly imagine

two to three million people

having any kind of sustenance

in a desert.

So, therefore, what the Ark

must've accomplished...

was profound.

NARRATOR: The Ark
of the Covenant was said

to have protected and provided
for the Israelites

during the Exodus.

But how?

TSOUKALOS: What we can read
in the Bible is that

they were sustained
by something called manna.

And the big question is where
did this manna come from?

Well, two engineers

by a name of Rodney Dale

and George Sassoon in the 1970s

proposed that
the Ark of the Covenant

was nothing else but a container

in which to store

what they referred to
as the Manna Machine.

The Manna Machine
was a nuclear-driven device

that dispended food, or manna,

to the Israelites.

CHILDRESS: The Ark of the
Covenant is such a mystery,

it could actually
create food, supposedly--

the-the manna
that they were eating.

It's like some kind of, uh,

super engineering,

duplicating, energy machine.

TSOUKALOS: We have a concise
description of it

in the ancient Jewish texts
of the Zohar,

which is a part of the Kabbalah

where they describe
the ancient of days.

But in reality,
"the ancient of days"

is a mistranslation.

The correct translation is:

"the transportable one
with the tanks."

Since when is God transportable

and why does he need tanks?

So, in the Zohar,
we have concise descriptions

not of God but some type
of a machine.

NARRATOR:
Did the Ark of the Covenant

really house a machine
that provided food

to the Israelites during
their 40 years in the desert?

According to ancient
astronaut theorists and many

religious scholars,
the answer is yes.

But that wasn't the only power
the Ark possessed,

for as the Ark
could sustain life,

it could also destroy it.

TSOUKALOS: Studies done by NASA
have shown that human life

can be sustained
for extended periods of time

by consuming nothing more

than chlorella algae--
the same food source

that some researchers
claim was produced

by the so-called Manna Machine.

And it has even been proposed by
some ancient astronaut theorists

that the day the Hebrews
refer to as the Sabbath

was also the actual day
on which the machine

would need to be cleaned.

But when you read through
all the different accounts

of the Ark of the Covenant,
it becomes clear

that this golden chest
did much more

than house the Ten Commandments.

It contained powers greater

than any currently
devised by man.

NARRATOR:
The Jordan River.

A 200-mile border separating

the present-day
kingdom of Jordan

from Israel and the West Bank.

In 1400 BC, this waterway

represented one of
the final obstacles

to the wandering Israelites'
long-awaited entrance

into the Promised Land.

DOWNING: The Ark of the Covenant
comes into its own

when Joshua's given the task

of, uh, leading Israel
across the Jordan River.

And the story is that
the Ark of the Covenant

would go first and be carried

into the Jordan River.

Some energy came forth
from the Ark...

causing the waters
to literally stop

and ascend,
and therefore creating

dry land for the entire
children of Israel

to pass on,
off into the Holy Land.

NARRATOR: But if this
Biblical story is true,

what kind of power
could the Ark of the Covenant

have possessed that would cause

a raging river to stand still?

DAVID WILCOCK:
What if the people

who wrote these stories
were simply reporting on

what they actually
were seeing?

If that's true,
then the Ark of the Covenant

clearly represents a technology
that is more advanced

that anything we have now.

You want to part water,
maybe a good way to do it

would be with high-speed winds.

If you blow enough air,

you can get the water out of
the way and you can actually,

maybe even,
form those two walls of water.

CHILDRESS: There's some kind
of technology that they're using

and it's so that they can
accomplish their goals

and continue on their journey,
and they're able

to use this extraterrestrial
technology to do it.

NARRATOR: According
to the Bible's book of Joshua,

the Ark of the Covenant
once again

proved a powerful ally
when the Israelites

arrived on the western banks
of the Jordan River,

set on conquering
the seemingly impenetrable

walled city of Jericho.

The reputation of the Israelites
preceded them.

People were terrified.

They have heard the rumors

of the power of this great
and awesome Ark.

They now come
to the city of Jericho.

The people
were commanded by God:

march around the city walls.

They march around the city once,
on the first day.

The next day,
they do the very same thing.

The third, fourth, fifth
and the sixth days,

the same thing.

On the seventh day,
they march around

and then they blow the trumpets

and all the people shout.

BAR TZADOK: Between the marching
of the feet,

the sounding of the ram's horns,
the shofar,

and with some power,
not described, from the Ark--

it enabled the big, stone,
mighty walls

of the city of Jericho

to somehow be vibrated

with a earthquake-type force,

which caused them to collapse.

When I hear that they had to
walk around Jericho seven times

and then the trumpets
were the ones that

allowed for those walls
to crumble...

one would have
to ask yourselves:

was there something else to it?

DENNIN: Knocking something down,
like a wall, with pressure,

is not inconceivable.

So you could imagine
trying to do this.

Now, when you look at things,

think of standard examples
that we experience.

When the space shuttle lands,
we get the sonic boom.

And you can feel it
rattling the walls

and you can actually hear it.

[sonic boom thunders]

That's far away.

Imagine getting the sonic boom
closer to the object.

You might be able to do
significant damage to the wall.

NARRATOR: Could the Israelites
actually have witnessed

an advanced technology,

beyond even our own
modern capabilities?

A machine that could
instantly part waters

and bring down stone walls?

Some ancient astronaut theorists
believe the best evidence

that the Ark of the Covenant
may have held alien technology

can be found by studying events
that took place

300 years after
the sacking of Jericho,

when the Ark was stolen.

There are many strange things
associated with

the Ark of the Covenant,
but the one that very few people

are aware of is that, believe it
or not, there actually is

is a connection to creatures
that resemble unicorns.

This comes straight
from the Torah,

in which it is written
that in order

for the Ark of the Covenant
to be moved,

it had to be covered
with the skin from an animal

called a Tahash,
and the Torah tradition says

that this was an animal
with a single horn

growing out of its forehead.

It is written that Moses
was given the secret

of where the Tahash
could be found

so that he could acquire
their skins to cover the Ark.

But even more interesting
is the fact that the Ark

sometimes seemed
to have a mind of its own

and did not always
function in the favor

of those who wielded it.

NARRATOR:
According to the book of Samuel,

when the Israelites
went to battle

with the mighty Philistine army

around 1100 BC, they brought out
the Ark of the Covenant

to aid them once again.

But God had not

given them instructions
to do so.

Angered by their presumption
that they could use the Ark

as a weapon without his orders,

he awarded victory
to the Philistines,

who captured it as a trophy.

The Bible records
very strange things

then started to happen.

Death, sickness broke out

amongst the Philistines.

Now, in ancient times,

they had no understanding
of energy

or what we would maybe
consider something similar

to a radioactive sickness.

They considered this
to be displeasure of the god.

They placed the Ark
next to a statue

of one of their gods, Dagon.

And they leave,
and when they come back,

they see that Dagon's head
has been decapitated

and his hands
have been taken off.

So they say, "We got to get rid
of this thing."

DOWNING:
And so they loaded

the Ark of The Covenant
on a cart

and sent it off in the direction
of an Israeli village

called Beth Shemesh.

But, of course, everyone
ran up to look at the Ark.

And as a result,
the Bible says, 70 men died

when they looked at the Ark.

For those who have been fans

of Raiders of the Lost Ark

and remember the last scene
when Indy is shouting,

"Don't look,
don't look, don't look!"...

...that's where
that story comes from.

NARRATOR:
The Old Testament contains

numerous other examples
of the Ark's devastating powers

and ultimately depicts it
as a deadly device

capable of striking down anyone

who does not
follow God's rules.

BAR TZADOK: When Aaron--
who was the high priest--

his two sons approached,
to give an offering...

it stated that, literally,
two beams of fire

came forth from the Ark
and went up their nostrils

and burnt them from the inside,

leaving their entire
outsides intact.

NARRATOR:
Beams of fire...

burning people from inside?

Why would an instrument of God

contain such deadly powers?

If the Ark of the Covenant
was truly divine,

why would it strike down

two people who were simply
trying to make an offering?

TSOUKALOS:
Wherever it showed up,

people would,
all of a sudden, die.

In my opinion, it was
a storage container

that housed some type
of a nuclear device.

And having a nuclear device
in the hands of

a technologically
primitive society

would result
in people dying left and right.

Naturally,
people would refer to that

as the wrath of God,

when, in reality,

it's nothing else
but the wrath of atomic power.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible,

as ancient astronaut
theorists suggest,

that the Ark of the Covenant

actually contained
a nuclear device--

one that was
brought to Earth not by God,

but by visitors
from another planet?

MARTELL: It's possible
that the Ark of the Covenant was

was some type of super weapon

that was being controlled or
guided from an extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR:
Was the Ark of the Covenant

actually a sophisticated,
high-tech device

that was so advanced

that the ancient Israelites
were unable to control it?

Perhaps.

But of all the Ark's
alleged powers,

there was one
that was the most incredible:

its ability to communicate
directly with God.

NARRATOR:
Petra, Jordan.

At the summit of Jebel Haroun,

a small white dome
marks the tomb of Aaron,

the brother of Moses.

According to the Hebrew Bible,

Aaron was chosen by God

to be the first high priest
of the Israelites,

a title that came
with enormous responsibility.

RABBI ED FEINSTEIN:
Aaron, Moses's brother,

served as priest of the people.

And then, following Aaron,

the line of the priests
followed his genealogy.

They were the ones designated
to carry the Ark,

and they were the ones permitted

to come close to it in worship.

CARTER: The attire
of the priests was beautiful,

but it was also there
for their protection.

They had to wear a miter.
They wore a breastplate.

They had to wear a long robe.

They had to keep certain areas
of the body protected:

the head, the lungs,
the heart, the genital area.

NARRATOR: The space between
the angels on the lid of the Ark

was known as the mercy seat,

upon which the image of God
would allegedly sit

when communicating
with a Levite priest.

But did the Israelites
really witness

an otherworldly presence
between the two angels?

And if so, was it literally
the image of God

or something else?

Based on the numerous accounts
of the Ark's awesome power,

some ancient astronaut theorists
have proposed

that it may have been
an electrical capacitor,

a device used for storing
and transmitting energy.

Some of the stories
that have come out of history

about the Ark of the Covenant--

that it erupted in sparks
and flames

and people would touch it
and die instantly,

or that it leveled cities--

and many people have theorized
that this is some type

of actual
large energy capacitor.

"Capacitor" is exactly
the right word to use.

It relies on static electricity.

It's the simplest device.

You just need two conductors
with an insulator between them.

You've got the outer gold,
a very nice conductor,

and then, if you open this up
and look to the inside,

you'll see a second electrode.

So what that's
gonna look like, okay,

you have the outer side
of your ark.

That's gonna, say,
charge positive.

Then you have your inner wall
of the ark coated in gold.

And then you have an insulator
in between.

That's just the wood
you make the ark out of.

Now, what you got to do
is get negative charges

here on the inner side.

And the question is,
how do I get my positive

and negative charges
onto my ark?

This is where the cherubs
come in.

You have one sitting
on top here.

That's attached
to the outer side.

And you can put charge on it
and get your positive charge.

The other cherub
is gonna be sitting here.

It won't be connected
to the outer layer,

but it'll come in from a rod
and connect to the inner side.

And this is where we'll put
our negative charge.

So what that looks like,
over here at the ark,

is this cherub

will not actually be attached
to the outer conductor.

There will be
an insulator there,

and then it can have a rod
that goes through

and attaches
to the inner conductor.

Now, the Israelites claimed to
have actually been able to see

the presence of God
between the two cherubs,

a representation of God.

Now, if they weren't actually
seeing a representation of God,

could this arc of energy
have been

some type of other energy device
that they were seeing?

So, when we're thinking
about the Israelites seeing

the image of God
between the two cherub wings,

one of the things
to keep in mind, I think,

is how the image of God
was often described.

We have smoke, fire...

there's very rarely
an actual, like,

visual picture of a person.

And so, if you picture what arcs
of electricity will be doing,

there will probably be
a little bit of smoke,

um, there will be
the really bright light,

there'll be a crackling noise.

That could certainly
be something that would be

interpreted as an image of God.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that accounts of God's presence

atop the Ark were actually
describing electrical discharge?

And if so,
might someone or something

have been sending
electrical signals

through the Ark of the Covenant

to communicate
with the Israelites?

Ancient astronaut theorists
believe such a notion

is not only possible,
but all the more plausible,

given the biblical
descriptions of a device

known as the breastplate
of judgment.

According to the book of Exodus,

it was worn by the priests
when entering the Tabernacle

and was adorned
with 12 sacred gemstones

called the stones of fire,

which represented
the 12 tribes of Israel.

And according
to detailed accounts

from sacred texts
known as the Talmud,

these gemstones played
an important role

when communicating with God
through the Ark.

Somehow there would be
a pulsating sound

emanating from
on top of the cherubim.

And these pulsating,
high-pitched sounds

would cause vibration in
the stones on his breastplate.

The stones would actually start
to light up.

It was like some
extraterrestrial Morse code

that was being received
from the Ark of the Covenant.

NARRATOR:
Jerusalem, 995 BC.

Nearly a century
after the Philistines

returned the Ark to Judah,

King David transports it
to the capital city

with plans to build an enormous
temple in order to house it.

FEINSTEIN:
It's Solomon, David's son,

who built the Temple
of Jerusalem

and installed the Ark
in the inner sanctum,

the Holy of Holies.

NARRATOR: Once installed
in the temple in 955 BC,

the mysterious Ark continued
to serve the Israelites

for another three
and a half centuries...

until, suddenly...

it vanishes from history.

FEINSTEIN:
The book of Kings

describes the destruction
of the city of Jerusalem;

says nothing about the Ark.

It disappears from the
literary history in the same way

that it disappeared
from material history.

NARRATOR:
But what happened to it?

Was it stolen?

Destroyed?

Or was it deliberately hidden?

There are those who believe
they know the answer,

and that not only does the Ark
still exist

but they are confident
it will return.

When I read what the Bible says
about the high priest

communicating with God
through the Ark,

wearing a breastplate
with gemstones that lit up,

it's hard not to envision this
as a technological device.

But the description
doesn't end there.

The high priest would
also inhale a secret mixture

of incense, which would open up
synapses in the brain.

But why should contact with
the divine require a wooden box,

a breastplate that lights up,

and the burning
of special incense?

That is
what we're about to find out.

NARRATOR:
Mount Tsurugi, Japan.

Every year, Shinto worshippers
ascend this mountain,

6,000 miles
from the Jewish Holy Land.

They carry an elaborate
gold-clad chest that,

like the Ark of the Covenant,

is believed to contain
the spirit of God.

Scholars in Japan look at, uh,
the Old Testament...

they also look at the kind of
mythical foundational texts

of Japan like the Kojiki

and see certain similarities.

And they like to think
that these similarities

are not just coincidences

but actually suggest
ancient connections.

Part of this theory is that
these lost tribes of Israel

brought the Ark to Japan,

and it ended up
at a sacred peak, Mount Tsurugi,

and it lays hidden

in the limestone caves
underneath it.

NARRATOR:
Could the Ark of the Covenant

really be hidden in Japan?

And might this explain
why Shinto worshippers

perform a ritual
that's eerily reminiscent

of the ancient Israelites
carrying the Ark

through the desert?

One Japanese historian
named Takane Masanori

was so confident
that the Ark of the Covenant

was hidden in Mount Tsurugi,

he actually performed
excavations of the mountain

in the 1930s.

JONATHAN YOUNG:
Excavations were started in 1936

on the peak or near the peak
of Mount Tsurugi,

and this research went on
for some decades.

And then it was all shut down,

and the area
is now a national park,

so further research is banned
for environmental reasons,

so we won't know.

The Ark of the Covenant
has not been found in Japan,

but the legend continues.

NARRATOR: Is it possible
that a lost tribe of Israel

made their way thousands of
miles across the Asian continent

and brought the Ark to Japan?

It is just one theory
out of many.

Some biblical scholars suggest

that Israel's high priests,

anticipating the destruction
of the city,

stashed the Ark deep in a cave

under Jerusalem's Temple Mount,
for protection.

It is also believed that,
centuries later,

the Ark was discovered
in its hiding place

and was taken away to safety

by a group known
as the Knights Templar.

McGOWAN: There are certainly
legends throughout Europe

and specifically France

of where the Ark of the Covenant
ended up.

Some say it was buried beneath
Chartres Cathedral in the crypt.

Some say it was buried
in the Languedoc region

near Rennes-le-Château.

And we know that the Nazis
excavated in depth

in these mountains looking
for the Ark of the Covenant.

NARRATOR: But some believe
the Ark's journey didn't end

in France, and that, eventually,

it was taken even further
to the north.

MIKE BARA: There's been
a rumor, for years,

that the Templar treasure
was actually taken

through France by the Templars.

And the story goes that it was
then taken to Rosslyn Chapel

in Scotland, for safekeeping.

NARRATOR: Could the Ark
of the Covenant still be hidden

somewhere in Rosslyn Chapel?

Or might it have been,

as some ancient astronaut
theorists suggest,

taken far away,
to North America...

where it was hidden
deep underground

and still lies buried?

Perhaps.

But there are those who believe

that the Ark
isn't hidden at all.

They claim its whereabouts
have been well-known,

and well-guarded,
for hundreds of years.

Aksum, Ethiopia.

The Church of St. Mary of Zion.

A solitary monk, who is not
allowed to leave the grounds,

is charged with guarding
the church's holiest relic.

It is a job
he has devoted his life to

and one he will keep
until his death.

HANCOCK:
There's a cathedral there

called the Cathedral
of St. Mary of Zion.

And I started talking to
the monk who guarded the chapel.

And-and he told me

that lying in that chapel
was the true,

the original,
Ark of the Covenant.

Now, at first it seemed to me
like an incredibly tall story.

But as I began to look into it,

I realized
that there was something

to the Ethiopian claim.

For example, why was there

an ancient Jewish population
in Ethiopia?

It was like they were frozen
in amber from an earlier time

and-and-and caught in Ethiopia.

And I got to know a succession

of three different guardians
of the Ark.

Once appointed as guardian, they
have a very short life span.

They die very quickly.

And one of them, in particular,

pointed the issue
of his eyes to me,

and the way that the cataracts
were creeping over his eyes.

And I said,
"What is causing that?"

And he said,
"It's the Ark of the Covenant

that's causing that."

He said,
"The Ark is a thing of fire."

And there was such truth
and power in his words

that I began
to feel very strongly that

the Ethiopians could indeed
have this object.

NARRATOR: Could the Ark
of the Covenant really reside

in a church in Ethiopia,

in a location so publicly known
and so modestly protected?

If so,
why has there been no proof?

Is it an elaborate hoax?

Or is there
perhaps another reason?

And could that reason be based

on one of the other audacious
theories concerning the Ark,

that there are more
than one of them?

BAR TZADOK:
The Torah speaks that

there are actually two arks.

There was one ark,
which was built by Moses

when he first came down
from Mount Sinai.

And only later do we find
in the book of Exodus

was the commandment given for
a ark to be built by Bezalel.

That was the ark
that stayed in the Tabernacle.

NARRATOR: If the Ark really was
a technological device,

as ancient astronaut theorists
believe,

might there really have been
more than one of them?

And if so, might the various
myths and legends about the Ark

and its whereabouts
all be plausible?

Perhaps.

But whether
there is one ark or many,

two other
important questions remain:

what was the Ark's true purpose?

And what would happen
if it ever returned?

NARRATOR: The Dome of the Rock.

Jerusalem.

This Islamic shrine sits
atop the Temple Mount,

once the site
of King Solomon's Temple,

and the last known location
of the Ark of the Covenant.

In 1981,

a small team of Israeli workmen

secretly tunneled
under this hotly disputed site.

Rabbi Yehuda Getz,

the preeminent Rabbi
of the Western Wall,

supervised the highly prohibited

and politically inflammatory
excavation.

There was a pretty big
problem with this,

because that is the number one

sacred site for the Muslims
as well,

and these men
believed strongly enough

that the Ark of the Covenant
had been located there,

that they were willing
to take such great risks to try

to locate the Ark
of the Covenant themselves.

NARRATOR:
When Arabs on the Mount

heard noises
from the cistern below,

they confronted the work crew

in what became a dramatic
subterranean standoff.

Police separated the two sides

and ordered the tunnel
to be resealed.

To his dying day,

Rabbi Getz believed
he was just 40 feet away

from finding the original
Ark of the Covenant.

But could such
an audacious claim be true?

Might the Ark
really still be located

where it was
thousands of years ago,

at the site
of the Jews' most sacred temple,

one of the holiest places
on Earth?

BAR TZADOK: There's
a very interesting prophecy

in the book of Zechariah
that states

that there's gonna be
a tremendous earthquake

in Jerusalem.

The Mount of Olives is to split.

It is said that this earthquake

is to be caused by some type
of a sonic vibration

created from under the earth

and that the powers
from under the earth

are then gonna arise out
of this chasm with the Ark.

This is then considered to be,
A: the return of the Ark,

and B: the famous, of course,
coming of the Messiah.

HENRY: All three
of the big three religions

have prophecies
about the end-time arrival

of a messianic figure.

And what we're told
is that angels

will help bring the Ark
of the Covenant back to Earth.

NARRATOR: Could the lights seen
over the Temple Mount indicate

that some sort
of extraterrestrial reactivation

of the Ark was taking place?

And if so, might we be close

to finally rediscovering
this ancient relic

and finding the source
of its incredible power?

TSOUKALOS: If that device
were ever to be found,

then that will forever change
the course of human history,

because, if we look at our past,

it already has changed
the course of human history.

BARA:
If the Ark could be found

and if it could be retrieved,

the possibility exists that its
technology could be understood

and exploited
and possibly even used

to reconnect
with whoever created it.

If they were, in fact,
extraterrestrial beings,

then the reality is we might
have a direct phone line

to the E.T.s.

We, as a culture, as a species,

we seem to use most
of our technology for war.

And so it would be like giving
a three-year-old a loaded gun.

We can barely deal with
the technology that we have now,

so maybe it's good that,
for now, it's hidden.

TSOUKALOS: Does the Ark
of the Covenant still reside

at the Temple Mount?

Or does it lie elsewhere,

perhaps halfway
around the world,

safely hidden so that mankind
will not abuse it?

One thing is certain:

when the Ark of the Covenant
is finally found,

the ancient astronaut theory
will no longer be just a theory.

It will be a fact.

And mankind will discover that,

in addition to the existence
of an Almighty God,

its history
has also been influenced

by a very different form
of extraterrestrial visitation,

one that seeks
to guide us forward

until the day comes
when we finally make contact.