Is the Ark of the Covenant Really lost?

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Ark of the Covenant is an ornate golden box, supposed to have housed the original ten commandments. As well as being a sacred artefact, there are several stories detailing its immense power, used by the Israelites in warfare to destroy enemy armies and flatten entire cities. However, at a certain point in the biblical account it vanishes. Never to be seen, or heard of, again.

The location of this mythical Hebrew item is one of history's most enduring mysteries. Although many believe that it was destroyed when a Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem in 587 BCE, there’s evidence to suggest that it’s still out there – waiting to be found. Some say that it's hidden in a desert cave, another group says that it's housed in a chapel in Ethiopia, others say that it's held in an underground vault deep below Jerusalem.

Is the Ark of the Covenant reallylost? We want to investigate this matter carefully, and separate the fact from the fiction.