All language subtitles for Secrets.Unlocked.Series.1.Part.4.Ark.of.the.Covenant.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

(intense music)

Mastrelli: A wooden
box covered in gold,

It's said to possess
extraordinary powers

And that who ever posses
it is in turn invincible.

Given to one people,
the israelites,

It vanishes 25 centuries ago

From jerusalem and from history.

Some say it's been destroyed,

Or that it was only
a symbol, an idea.

But there are those who
claim to know

Exactly where it is.

This is where legend,
belief and archeology meet

In the story of the
ark of the covenant.

(intense music)

For centuries the
mysteries of the past

Have kept their secrets.

But there are
clues cast in gold,

Etched in stone,
written in blood.

(intense music)

We can unlock them.

(intense music)

Let's get this out of the way,

That famous movie
about a guy with a hat

And a whip looking
for the lost ark,

Despite what it says
on your old vhs,

His name does not appear
in the original title.

But what is right about both
titles is one word, "lost."

The ark of the covenant
really is lost.

It shows up in
the book of exodus

At the single most
critical moment

In history of the jewish people.

And then with a few exceptions,

It vanishes from the
pages of the bible.

Here is an object that
embodies god's unique covenant

With the israelites, created
as moses leads his people

Out of slavery of egypt,

And it's missing.

No wonder they made
a movie about it.

Romain: The exodus from egypt

Wasn't just a few
slaves escaping.

It was the first national
liberation movement in history.

Mastrelli: God writes his
laws, the ten commandments,

On to two tablets of stone.

It's his pact with his
people, his covenant.

Edwards: God needs to reconfirm
the identity of the people,

But he also needs to reconfirm
his bond with the people.

And the way that he does that
is he asks moses to go up,

And he writes, with his
finger, the ten commandments.

Mastrelli: So important
are these commandments,

That according to the bible,

God gives the
israelites a precise set

Of instructions as to
how his commandments

Must be transported
to the promised land.

The specifications call

For a box made of acacia wood,

Mounted on four legs with
two poles to carry it,

And with winged
creatures on top.

The chest was to be
covered in gold leaf

And with a lid
cast in solid gold.

Even the size is decreed in
cubits, a biblical measurement.

Romain: So it was both
commanded by god,

But also containing
the word of god,

And therefore doubly special.

Edwards: These tablets
are the very things

That are kept inside
the ark of the covenant.

This keeps the very
laws of israel.

Mastrelli: If the story of its
construction is remarkable,

What happens subsequently
is transformational.

As the israelites
wander in the wilderness

For 40 years, they
unite around the ark.

They become something more

Than an assemblage of tribes.

Romain: They left egypt as
a people, as a nation,

And they then forged
that identity,

Not just their ethnic identity,

But their religious
identity, in the desert.

Mastrelli: To this
nomadic people,

The ark stands
for god's promise,

They will have a
land of their own.

Romain: The israelites
thought of themselves

Not just as a sort of people

Out to conquer a
particular territory,

They saw themselves as a
people fulfilling a mission,

And not just a political
mission, a religious mission.

(intense music)

Mastrelli: But the old
testament makes it very clear

That the ark is far more

Than an empty
symbol of identity.

Edwards: It's a killer ark.

It can win battles.

You don't want to go into
battle without that ark.

As israelites, this
is your super weapon.

Mastrelli: In story after story,

The bible tells of
its mystical powers.

Lee: Kings are terrified of it,
people die when they touch it,

People prostrate themselves
when they see it.

Mastrelli: It performs miracles.

As the river jordan bars their
entry into the promised land,

The ark parts the waters.

During the conquest of canaan,

God commands the priests to
circle jericho carrying the ark,

And the city's defenses fall.

(intense music)

(intense music)

Mastrelli: The watershed
moment arrives with david,

The warrior king who the
bible says killed goliath.

Defeating the last of
his people's enemies,

He unites two regions to create
a single kingdom, israel.

And to symbolize the settling
of the promised land,

He brings the ark
into jerusalem.

(intense music)

Until now there has been very
little archeological evidence

Of david or his kingdom.

But 20 miles outside jerusalem,

Archeologist yossi garfinkel

Believes he's discovered
a city from david's time,

The 10th century b.C.

Mastrelli: Nothing
has been built

On this site for 3,000 years.

It's only been
partially excavated.

But among the ruins,

Garfinkel has uncovered a
giant gateway to the city

And a palace of more
than 4,300 square feet.

The most exciting
discovery happened here,

Where he found fragments of
some sort of stone vessel.

Garfinkel sent them to jerusalem
to be pieced back together.

What emerged was a box.

And over time, he has
found other similar boxes.

(intense music)

Mastrelli: But what was it for?

(intense music)

Mastrelli: Garfinkel believes
that these are mini arks,

And that the priests
from david's time

Used them in their worship.

Mastrelli: Based on where
the arks were found,

Garfinkel has built up a picture

Of how these early israelites
practiced their faith.

Mastrelli: These mini arks
were only seen by priests

Who made offerings before them.

Garfinkel believes that every
village might have had one.

Mastrelli: And while the bible

May be silent about
garfinkel's other arks,

It's unequivocal about the one

The israelites
built in the desert.

That the ark,
according to the bible,

Would be housed in
a great temple built

By king david's
son, king solomon.

In the bible king
solomon's temple

Gets the same kind of treatment

The ark of the
covenant received.

It's described with
so much precision

That a first year
architecture student

Can reproduce it

As a first-rate
architectural drawing.

Okay, so I'm not a first-rate
architectural student,

And this may not
be accurate down

To the last cubit,
but it ain't bad.

Back in the day of course,

Solomon used stone blocks,

Cedar wood and precious metals.

No expense spared to build

What was part temple
and part fort knox.

But it help more than the wealth
of king solomon's kingdom,

It held its soul.

(intense music)

Its mighty doors opened
not on to a vault,

But on to an inner sanctum,
the holy of holies.

No one but the high
priest could enter here.

This was where god
and the ark resided.

But it's also here that
the trail runs cold.

Even the bible has
little more to say.

Romain: Once the ark gets put
in solomon's temple,

We just don't hear
anything more about it.

Mastrelli: The
implication is that

It remained in the
temple for 100s of years,

Until disaster strikes.

In 586 b.C., a babylonian
army attacks jerusalem.

The siege lasts four months,
but eventually the city

And solomon's temple
are looted and burned.

From this point on there's
no further mention of the ark

And many scholars believe

It met the same
fate as the temple.

Romain: 586 is a watershed
date in jewish history.

That's when the temple
itself was destroyed,

Everything in it was destroyed,

Including the ark
of the covenant.

Mastrelli: It's one
logical deduction.

But the fact that the
bible fails to say

What happened to the ark

Means that there must
be room for doubt.

With no mention of it since
long before the temple fell,

Could it be that it escaped harm

And has ended up
1,000s of miles away?

Addis ababa, ethiopia.

Theologian dr. Ralph lee
is on the hunt for a book

That seems to pick
up on the ark story

Where the bible left off.

(ralph speaking
foreign language)

Mastrelli: Written 700 years ago

It records stories that had been

Passed down for generations,

It's called "the
glory of kings,"

Or "kebra negast."

Lee: The "kebra negast"
is ethiopia's national epic,

And it's a tale of
mystery and intrigue.

It fills in the gap left
by the old testament

Telling us where
the ark went to.

Mastrelli: The story begins
with the queen of sheba,

Now modern-day ethiopia, who
lived in the 10th century b.C.

Hearing of solomon's
great wisdom,

She visited him in jerusalem.

Lee: The queen of sheba and
solomon clearly hit it off well,

Because about nine months after
her return from jerusalem,

She bears a son,
whose name is menelik,

Becomes the first
king of ethiopia.

Mastrelli: Years
later, menelik goes

To visit his father
king solomon.

On his return, solomon
sends some jewish priests

To accompany
menelik to ethiopia.

These men steal the
ark from the temple,

And smuggle it out of israel.

By the time menelik
discovers what they've done,

It's too late.

Lee: The ark shifts from
israel to ethiopia

And becomes the possession
of the ethiopian nation.

And it tells us why the ark
lies at the focus of worship

In the church even today.

Mastrelli: If there's
any truth to this,

The ark was long gone

Before the babylonians
sacked jerusalem.

Today ethiopian
christians believe

It's been in this church,

In the city of axum,
since the 17th century.

But that still leaves a gap
of more than 2,000 years.

(intense music)

The next stage of lee's journey

Takes him deep into the
highlands of ethiopia,

Lake tana, ethiopia,

One of the sources
of the river nile.

Legend has it that one tiny
island here played a vital role

In the story of history's
greatest lost treasure.

Lee: This is the most
amazing sight,

This wall of rock rising
up out of the water.

I've never seen an island
like it on lake tana.

It would be a wonderful
place to hide the ark.

(speaking foreign language)

Mastrelli: A monk takes lee

To meet the abbot who
runs the monastery.

They are about to set
foot on holy ground.

(speaking foreign language)

Lee: As he puts it on, makes
the sign of the cross.

Mastrelli: These christian monks

Believe they are descended

From the jews who stole
the ark from jerusalem

And brought it here.

Lee: So the ark was
here from 1,000 b.C.,

Came straight from
jerusalem to this island.

Mastrelli: According
to the abbot,

The ark was not in the
temple in jerusalem

For even a generation.

Rather he believes it was here.

His proof, the objects

That the jewish
priests who stole it

From jerusalem
brought with them.

Lee: This small stone building
in front of me is the place

Where the artifacts that came
with the ark from jerusalem

Are supposed to be stored.

It's very exciting.

(abbot speaking
foreign language)

Lee: So the abbot is stressing

That when the ark
came from jerusalem,

All the traditions and
practices of israel also came,

Particularly the
tradition of sacrifice.

So this is an iron
piece of clothing

That would have been
worn by the high priest

Making the sacrifice.

(abbot speaking
foreign language)

Lee: So this is a bronze
tray that was used

For receiving the
blood of the sacrifice.

And they would have taken
papyrus or other materials

To scatter the blood on the
different parts of the temple.

Mastrelli: Sacrifice was once
an important part of worship

At the temple.

And since it stopped as a
jewish practice 2,000 years ago,

These objects appear to suggest

That there were
jewish people here

Before the coming
of christianity.

But it's difficult to
know they're authentic.

Lee: Archeological research
hasn't really come

To this part of the
world, so we can't answer

What would be the important
scientific historical questions.

As we get closer to
the story of the ark

And where it's been in ethiopia,

In some ways, the
reality of the ark

Moves further and further away.

You grab at it, and it's gone.

Mastrelli: What lee's seen
doesn't mean the ark was here.

But it is clear evidence of a
strong, mysterious connection

With the judaism of
the old testament.

There was some kind of
catalyst for the ethiopians

To adopt all these
jewish rituals.

Could the ark have been it?

There's one place that
may have the answer.

This is lalibela.

It's one of ethiopia's
holiest sites.

Here 11 medieval
churches are carved

Straight out of the mountain.

They were built in
the 12th century a.D.

By a christian king
called lalibela.

Lee: Legend has it that

Following the
destruction of jerusalem,

King lalibela has a dream

Of rebuilding
jerusalem in ethiopia.

The "kebra negast"
has also told us

That ethiopia is
the second zion,

So the two ideas come together

In the construction
of this holy citadel.

Mastrelli: The city is filled
with the names of places

That recall the holy land.

There's a river jordan
and a mount of olives.

And though cross-shaped,

This church has some of the
features of solomon's temple,

An outer courtyard,
an inner sanctuary,

And its own holy of holies,

Where a replica of the
ark in axum is kept.

Lee: The churches of lalibela
are not just amazing structures,

But they bear the
hallmarks of judaism

That any jew from
the first temple

Would recognize themselves.

Mastrelli: And the
connection to judaism

Doesn't end here.

These christians don't eat pork,

And they circumcise their
sons on the eighth day.

No one can say why the imprint
of judaism runs so deep,

But the ancient story,
"the glory of the kings,"

May provide a clue.

Scholars know the
ethiopian ark legend

Was first written down
after lalibela was built,

And this is significant.

Lee: After the demise
of king lalibela,

All the subsequent kings of
ethiopia traced their descent

Directly to king
solomon of israel.

And it's possible that the
construction of lalibela

As the new jerusalem
inspired this idea

That's so central to
ethiopia's identity today.

Mastrelli: Either the
ark of the covenant

Lies in the axum church,

Or king lalibela simply
adopted the ark story

To legitimize his rule.

Whatever the case, the
connection to jewish ritual

Is real and still alive.

Lee: To many modern ethiopians
this isn't just an old story.

They believe that the
"kebra negast" tells us

A true story of the
real ark of the covenant

Coming to ethiopia, and that
that ark is still here today.

Mastrelli: But others are just
as certain in their beliefs.

Romain: The original ark
of the covenant

Was destroyed by the babylonians

When they destroyed
the temple in 586,

Or it just disappeared and
disintegrated beforehand.

Mastrelli: Whether the
story is true or not,

The power of the idea
behind it is unquestionable.

Lee: The ark of the covenant has
never just been a gold box

Containing the ten commandments.

It was the very
meeting place with god.

But far beyond that, its
influence has shaped the lives

Of millions of people
around the globe.

Mastrelli: If you think that's
the end of the story,

Let me apologize
for this curve ball.

There is another
reference to the ark

In one of the apocryphal
books of the bible.

It recounts how the
prophet jeremiah

Takes the ark out of jerusalem

And hides it in a cave
on the sinai peninsula.

But before you go grab
a pick and a shovel

And an airline ticket,

Bear in mind that
the reappearance

Of the ark of the covenant

Leads directly to
the end of the world.

It seems some treasures
are best left un-found.