Original subtitles

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.

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