They were killed trying to stop the warriors from the lost ark in real life – an artifact so powerful and holy that they were forbidden to ever see it.
The mass murder of at least 800 people at an Ethiopian church in Tigray has highlighted the whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant, one of the greatest mysteries of religion and film legend.
The ark – a large wooden chest, covered with gold, said to hold the Ten Commandments of Moses – was kept in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem for centuries, but disappeared after Jerusalem was thrown out in 586 or 587 BC.
Since then, its location has remained unknown – with rumors including that it was stolen by the Knights Templar and hidden in a rebuilt French cathedral, as well as that it was buried with Alexander the Great in Greece.
However, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians have long claimed that the ark was kept in a chapel at St. Mary’s Church in Zion, in the northern holy city of Axum.
According to legend, the ark was brought to Ethiopia in the 10th century BC, after being stolen by the staff of Menelik, the son of the queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel – who considered that the theft was allowed by God because none of his people were killed.
It is said that the ark is so dangerous that it was always covered while it was being moved – and in Axum, only virgin monks ordained to be its keepers are allowed to look at it.
There were never any photographs of him, only illustrations based on the description in Exodus chapter 25, verses 10-21, of a box of acacia wood covered in gold and carried on two pillars.
Even the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is “forbidden to see it,” then his boss, His Holiness Abuna Paulos, told the Smithsonian in 2007. “The keeper of the ark is the only person on earth who has that unparalleled honor.” he at that time.
The guardian “constantly prays by the ark, day and night, burning incense before him and paying tribute to God,” Aksum’s high priest told the magazine.
“Only he can see it; everyone else is forbidden to look at them or even approach them ”.
Thousands gather at Zion church in late November to celebrate the day Ethiopians believe the Ark of the Covenant was brought there – one of the reasons so many people were there during the November massacre, which was reported only recently.
“When people heard the shots, they ran to the church to support the priests and others who were there protecting the ark,” Getu Mak, 32, a university lecturer, told The Times in London. “Certainly some of them were killed for doing so.”
Reports of the destruction and looting of invaluable artifacts by troops have led to fears that the ark will be targeted. “Everyone was worried she would be taken … or she would just disappear, including me,” Mak told the UK newspaper.
It was not immediately clear how the church ark was saved or what happened to its guardian.
Some historians also insist that sacrifices were made to defend a worthless retort.
Edward Ullendorff, a late professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, previously told the Los Angeles Times that he saw the ark during World War II and that it was “a wooden box.” , but it is empty ”.
“Late medieval-medieval construction, when they were made ad hoc,” he said in a 1992 interview, saying the mystery surrounding it was “mainly to maintain the idea that it is a revered object.”
Prior to his death, Ullendorff told fellow professor Tudor Parfitt that he “did not differ in any way from the many arches he had seen in other churches in Ethiopia,” Parfitt told Live Science in 2018.
“It wasn’t old and it certainly wasn’t the original ark,” Parfitt said.
Ethiopians have long since dismissed such reports, but insisted that people have been shown falsehoods to protect the true ark, with their faith as strong as ever.
“If you attack Axum, you are primarily attacking the identity of the Orthodox Tigers, but also of all Ethiopian Orthodox Christians,” said Wolbert Smidt, an ethnohistorian specializing in the region. “Axum itself is seen as a church in the local tradition, ‘Axum Zion.'”
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