Original subtitles

(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.