1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:29,980 Transcribed by ESO, translated by — 2 00:00:29,980 --> 00:00:35,420 from the 1970s onwards, I was totally interested in current affairs. I was a journalist. My 3 00:00:35,420 --> 00:00:40,320 last job as a journalist was as the East African correspondent for The Economist. I reported 4 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:47,380 the Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia for the London Sunday Times in 1977. I was 5 00:00:47,380 --> 00:00:51,580 completely into current affairs. I had no sense that I was ever going to get involved 6 00:00:51,580 --> 00:01:00,700 in historical mysteries. But in Ethiopia in 1982 or 83, oddly enough, shortly after I'd 7 00:01:00,700 --> 00:01:08,260 seen the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, I found myself in the city of Aksum. And I'll tell 8 00:01:08,260 --> 00:01:12,220 that story in a moment. And I heard the claim that Ethiopia possesses the Ark of the Covenant. 9 00:01:12,340 --> 00:01:17,080 And this is what drew me into the exploration that led to the sign of the seal and that 10 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:21,460 has taken me a whole new direction in my life. I would never have written Fingerprints of 11 00:01:21,460 --> 00:01:27,000 the Gods if I hadn't first explored the mystery of the Ark of the Covenant. This is roughly 12 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,360 what the Ark of the Covenant would look like. And of course, it's associated with the figure 13 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:37,660 of Moses in the Bible. Where the Ark of the Covenant enters the biblical story is at the 14 00:01:37,660 --> 00:01:42,580 foot of Mount Sinai. And the instructions to build the Ark of the Covenant are given by 15 00:01:42,580 --> 00:01:48,380 God to Moses himself, supposedly the box to contain the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. 16 00:01:48,380 --> 00:01:56,980 This is how Mount Sinai looks today. And there's a Coptic monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai, 17 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:00,780 St. Catherine's Monastery. It's a very dramatic neighbourhood. I must say that there is one 18 00:02:00,780 --> 00:02:06,160 other claim for the mountain of God. It may not be the place that we call Mount Sinai today. 19 00:02:06,300 --> 00:02:12,440 And that is a place called Sarabat al-Kadam, which is in the southern part of Sinai. Interestingly, 20 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:18,180 there's an Egyptian temple of Hathor, or the remains of it, on the top of Sarabat al-Kadam. 21 00:02:18,180 --> 00:02:26,280 Santa and I have been to both places and explored them. And by the way, I'd just like to take this 22 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:34,620 opportunity to say thank you to Santa, who's been with me every step of the way. And a great photographer, 23 00:02:34,620 --> 00:02:41,780 takes all the photographs that you'll be seeing, and has shared every adventure with me, both 24 00:02:41,780 --> 00:02:48,280 underwater and above water and in war zones. And for years and years and years, I couldn't have done 25 00:02:48,280 --> 00:03:04,520 any of this stuff without Santa. And again, the Ark of the Covenant, a golden box, which we know from 26 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:14,000 the Book of Exodus is 3 feet 9 inches long, 2 feet 3 inches high and wide. It has an outer golden box 27 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:21,140 with an inner wooden box, and within that another golden box. It's carried on the shoulders of its 28 00:03:21,140 --> 00:03:32,540 bearers, who are the Levites, on carrying poles. And it is not, contrary to some views, a unique object. 29 00:03:32,540 --> 00:03:43,040 There are other objects like that. The ancient Egyptians had the Arks of the Gods, which were carried 30 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:50,180 on carrying poles, and which often took a boat-like form, but with a shrine in the heart of the boat, 31 00:03:50,180 --> 00:04:01,600 in which the image of the god sat. And an example of one of those boat-like arcs can be seen in the 32 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:09,240 Temple of Horus at Edfu in Upper Egypt. The boat has still survived, and you can see the carrying poles. 33 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:16,380 This is the essential concept of the Ark of the Covenant. And there's a curious and interesting 34 00:04:16,380 --> 00:04:23,520 etymological link. The ancient name of Luxor was Tapet, and in Ethiopia they call the Arks Tabot, 35 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:30,900 and the word is connected. This was the festival of Tapet, where these Arks were carried out. And you 36 00:04:30,900 --> 00:04:38,940 can see similar Arks in the Shrine of Tutankhamun in Kara Museum. Amongst the objects brought out from the 37 00:04:38,940 --> 00:04:47,080 entire museum is this curious box with carrying poles. Very similar idea. And the iconography of 38 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,780 the Ark of the Covenant, remember the cherubim with the wings that stretch in front of them, 39 00:04:51,780 --> 00:04:58,160 that join together on top of the Ark. That also is ancient Egyptian, whether we see this image from 40 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:04,940 the Temple of Seti I, or these figures of angelic females, Nephthites and Isis, with their wings, 41 00:05:04,940 --> 00:05:11,660 with their wings stretched forward. These are the prototypes of the cherubim on the Ark of the 42 00:05:11,660 --> 00:05:18,060 Covenant. And the Ark isn't just a box that carries the image of the gods. This is one of the things 43 00:05:18,060 --> 00:05:25,840 that really struck me about it. It's a magical box. It has powers. How do we explain these powers? What 44 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:30,300 are these powers? I mean, amongst its exploits, it stops the waters of the River Jordan when the 45 00:05:30,300 --> 00:05:37,140 Israelites enter into the kingdom. It's used as a fearsome weapon in battle. There are accounts of 46 00:05:37,140 --> 00:05:42,400 the Ark rising up off the ground, lifting its bearers into the air, so they have to let go of 47 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:48,480 it. And it rushes towards the enemy, emitting a moaning sound, and bolts of fire shoot out from 48 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:54,180 it, and the enemy are struck dead. Poor old Uzzah, when the Ark is being brought up to Jerusalem, 49 00:05:54,180 --> 00:06:00,160 it's on the back of a cart. He sees it, looks unsteady. He tries to reach out his hand to steady 50 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:07,440 it, and a bolt of fire shoots out and kills him. It's implicated in the destruction of Jericho, 51 00:06:08,280 --> 00:06:13,140 carried around the city. We often think of the focus as on the horns blowing as the Israelites 52 00:06:13,140 --> 00:06:18,080 march around Jericho, but they're carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and the walls come tumbling 53 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:24,220 down. And Ashdod, one of the most interesting examples, the Ark of the Covenant is briefly 54 00:06:24,220 --> 00:06:30,220 captured by the Philistines, and they put it on display in the city of Ashdod, and they 55 00:06:30,220 --> 00:06:35,140 make the terrible mistake of opening it. And then, rather like modern tourists, the Philistines 56 00:06:35,140 --> 00:06:42,740 file past the Ark, looking into it, and the Bible says that 50,000 of them die. And they 57 00:06:42,740 --> 00:06:50,760 die from cancerous tumours. It's very specifically described in the Bible. And you have to start 58 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:55,840 asking yourself, what is this thing? What is this thing, and why is it killing people with 59 00:06:55,840 --> 00:07:04,680 cancerous tumours? These arks of the gods in ancient Egypt were also bestowed with mysterious 60 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:12,720 powers, were also deadly and dangerous objects. And even the crowns of the pharaohs were, 61 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:19,540 said to radiate heat and energy, and you had to have special headwear to wear under the 62 00:07:19,540 --> 00:07:27,120 crown, because the crown was a dangerous thing. And then, of course, if you go down to the 63 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:32,420 crypt at Dendera, go underneath Dendera, you're going to find these mysterious objects, which 64 00:07:32,420 --> 00:07:38,800 the ancient aliens crew have made a lot about. I don't know if they're light bulbs, I don't 65 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:44,620 know what they are, but they're down in the darkest corner of the crypt. And they're a 66 00:07:44,620 --> 00:07:55,200 very strange-looking technological sort of device. And then there's the issue of the aeroplanes 67 00:07:55,200 --> 00:08:06,700 in ancient Egypt. In the Cairo Museum, misfiled in a caseload of birds, is a little aeroplane, 68 00:08:06,700 --> 00:08:14,020 which has an aerofoil section on its wings, and which has been wind tunnel tested and can 69 00:08:14,020 --> 00:08:22,520 fly extremely well. It appears to be the work of somebody who understands aerodynamics. It appears 70 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:29,520 to be a piece of technology. And it was found here, very near the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. 71 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:37,520 And, of course, Saqqara is just 15 miles south of Giza. Now, I'm going to go into the technological 72 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:44,520 aspects of the Great Pyramids in another talk, so I won't do that here tonight. But, honest 73 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:49,520 to goodness, if you were to look for a single object which says that there was a high technology 74 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:56,520 in ancient Egypt, that object is the Great Pyramid. And it stares us in the face. And it has 75 00:08:56,520 --> 00:09:04,520 so many mysterious characteristics which, loudly, if you're prepared to listen, speak loudly of 76 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:11,520 high technology and science. And I will go into that in another lecture that I give here. 77 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:18,520 There's a certain point where science, I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who compared science 78 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:23,520 and magic, that at a certain level science appears like magic. And that's one of the reasons why 79 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:28,520 I'm calling the sequel to Fingerprints of the Gods, Magicians of the Gods. The ancient Egyptians 80 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:34,520 had a very specific concept of magic, which they called Hekau. And it's from Hekau that we 81 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:41,520 get the word Hekau actually. And those who were reared in the Pharaoh's household as Moses 82 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:50,520 was, indeed Moses was groomed as a future Pharaoh of Egypt, would undoubtedly have become masters 83 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:57,520 of the secrets of this magic. So I think we have to accept that Moses was an initiate in 84 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:02,520 the ancient Egyptian tradition. He chose to turn against the Pharaohs and to lead the children 85 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:08,520 of Israel out of Egypt. But when he led them out, he carried with them the knowledge that he had been 86 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:17,520 initiated into. The knowledge of Kemet, of alchemy, the high technology of ancient Egypt. 87 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:28,520 And off he goes to Sinai, and up he goes up the mountain, and he meets God, and he looks God in the face. 88 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:34,520 And they tell us that when Moses comes down from the mountain, his face is burnt and shining and glowing. 89 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:40,520 And he comes down, he makes several ascents and descents, but on one of them he comes down with the blueprint 90 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:45,520 for the Ark of the Covenant, which is given in the Book of Exodus. And the blueprint is, just reads like a 91 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:52,520 scientific blueprint. It's very, very detailed and specific. And he builds this box. And what do we think of 92 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:57,520 when we think of a box that is gold, wood, and gold? I can't help thinking of a radiation shield. 93 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:07,520 Gold is an excellent radiation shield, better than lead. And eventually the Ark is built, and the tablets 94 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,520 are placed inside it. We don't know what those tablets were. There's been some suggestion. 95 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:26,520 There might have been a meteorite. And the Ark begins its journey of terror and magic. And it plays a key role in the conquest of Palestine. 96 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:35,520 And I've spoken already of the tremendous powers of the Ark of the Covenant and its role as a weapon in battle. 97 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:41,520 And the story of the Philistines at Ashdod, with the infliction of cancerous tumors on 50,000 Philistines, 98 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:48,520 is to me an absolutely intriguing account. And eventually after its return from the Philistines, 99 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:57,520 because they don't want to keep this thing that is killing them, it is carried up to Jerusalem. And that's where Uzzah is killed, 100 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:04,520 bringing it up to Jerusalem. This is in the time of King David. And we hear the account of King David dancing before the Ark. 101 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:15,520 And David wants to build a temple for the Ark in Jerusalem. In fact, he is not allowed to do so. 102 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:20,520 God will not let David build the temple, because David has been steeped in wickedness. 103 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:28,520 He has committed cruel and wicked acts. And the Bible tells us that he was not a worthy person to build the temple. 104 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:35,520 And so it's his son Solomon, upon whom falls the task of building the temple in Jerusalem. 105 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:41,520 And when you look for an explanation of what the temple is, there's only one single explanation in the Bible. 106 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:48,520 The temple is an house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. That is what the temple is for. 107 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:58,520 It is the place where the Ark will be lodged. And the Holy of Holies of the temple is another huge golden box to contain this object. 108 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:07,520 And of course, the stories of Solomon are widespread and his wisdom and his command of magical powers and his astonishing wisdom and knowledge. 109 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:20,520 And amongst the stories of Solomon, who can forget the story of the Queen of Sheba and her encounter with Solomon and the hint of a romance that comes across in the Old Testament. 110 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:27,520 Here is a depiction of the temple of Solomon and the Holy of Holies at the back where the Ark of the Covenant is placed. 111 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:32,520 Interestingly, there's this artificial lake called the Great Sea that is placed in the courtyard of the temple. 112 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:37,520 And I can't help being reminded of the sacred lakes of ancient Egypt. 113 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:46,520 And indeed, the whole setup with the columns and the sacred lake is very like the temple of Karnak in Upper Egypt. 114 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:52,520 Jachin and Boaz are the name of the temples. Any Freemasons amongst us will know this, of course. 115 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:55,520 And there's the mystery of Hiram Abif. 116 00:13:55,520 --> 00:14:04,520 King Hiram of Tyre writes a letter to King Solomon advising him that he's sending Huram Abi to work on the temple. 117 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:08,520 And the letter is documented in 2 Chronicles 2 verses 11 to 14. 118 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:17,520 And that this Hiram Abi, who the Masons call Hiram Abif, is the son of a widow of the tribe of Napthal. 119 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:24,520 And this notion of the son of the widow, the widow's son, is actually a very important part of the overall mystery here. 120 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:32,520 And he comes to do the work, a worker in brass, filled with wisdom and understanding and cunning to work all works in brass. 121 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:36,520 And he came to King Solomon and wrought all his works. 122 00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:46,520 Now, according to Masonic tradition, Hiram is murdered by three of his assistants soon after he completes the bronze work of the temple. 123 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:54,520 And this event is commemorated in the initiation ceremonies for Master Masons, in which the initiate is required to play the role of the murder victim. 124 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:58,520 And I'm quoting from John J. Robinson's Born in Blood here. 125 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:06,520 Blindfolded on the ground, the initiate hears that three murderers decide to bury him in a pile of rubble until low 12 midnight. 126 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:14,520 When they will carry the body away from the temple to symbolize the burial of Hiram Abif, the candidate is wrapped in a blanket and carried to the side of the room. 127 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:22,520 Soon he hears a bell strike 12 times and is carried from the rubble grave to a grave dug on the brow of a hill west of Mount Moriah, that's the Temple Mount. 128 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:35,520 He hears the murderers agree to mark his grave with a spring of acacia and then to set out to escape to Ethiopia across the Red Sea. 129 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:43,520 Interestingly, the wood element of the Ark of the Covenant is described as being acacia wood. 130 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:49,520 And the acacia tree was the ancient Egyptian tree of life. 131 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:55,520 There's a whole other story to tell about that tree because the acacia of ancient Egypt is rich in dimethyltryptomy, DMT. 132 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,520 But that's a different talk. 133 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,520 So the Ark is carried finally into the temple. 134 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:03,520 It's installed in the Holy of Holies. 135 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,520 A huge radiance of fulgence bursts forth from it. 136 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,520 A tremendous cloud is emitted from the temple. 137 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:14,520 And the Ark pretty much disappears from history at that point. 138 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:18,520 Hundreds of years pass without the Ark being remarked at all. 139 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,520 And the greatest mystery of the Bible is taking shape. 140 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:28,520 Because this object, which has been referred to more than 200 times in the Bible before its installation of Solomon's Temple, 141 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:31,520 is about to go absent without leave. 142 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:42,520 And when the Babylonians seize Israel and seize Jerusalem in 587 BC, 143 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,520 Babylonians are tremendous bureaucrats. 144 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:48,520 They document every treasure they take from the temple. 145 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:50,520 The Ark is not amongst those treasures. 146 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:52,520 They make no reference to the Ark of the Covenant. 147 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:54,520 It's carried off to Babylon. 148 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:57,520 The Israelites are taken off into captivity. 149 00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,520 The Ark of the Covenant is not with them. 150 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:04,520 Generally, if you ask historians, they'll say the Babylonians took the Ark in 587 BC. 151 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:06,520 But the evidence does not support that. 152 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:11,520 The evidence suggests that the Ark was gone from the temple before 587 BC. 153 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:18,520 In fact, in 626 BC, we find Jeremiah already mourning the loss of the Ark. 154 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:26,520 And speaking of a time when they shall say no more of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 155 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:27,520 Neither shall it come to mind. 156 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:28,520 Neither shall they remember it. 157 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:30,520 Neither shall they visit it. 158 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:32,520 Neither shall that be done anymore. 159 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:41,520 And I just want you to note these two regions, Ethiopia and Israel. 160 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:47,520 They do fit on the same map, but they do seem rather far apart. 161 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:54,520 Nevertheless, there are a number of intriguing connections. 162 00:17:54,520 --> 00:18:06,520 And this is Ethiopia today and these are the parts of Ethiopia connected with the Ethiopian story of the Ark of the Covenant. 163 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:14,520 And in Ethiopia, we find a mysterious set of religious circumstances. 164 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:18,520 We find a very ancient form of Christianity. 165 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:28,520 It's as though the Old Testament, in a way, has been frozen in Ethiopia and has taken on a Christian veneer. 166 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:38,520 We find sacred lakes and very strange ceremonies taking place up in the highlands of Ethiopia in the city horrors that they were witnessing. 167 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:43,520 And indeed, that aircraft was just covered in blood in the back of the aircraft 168 00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:48,520 because they were bringing in wounded troops from battlefronts all the time. 169 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:58,520 And as we fly into Axum, the pilot, you know, I'm used to this kind of long, slow approach, but the pilot just nosedives for the ground. 170 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:04,520 And explains to me later that the reason is that there's machine gun nests in the hills surrounding the city. 171 00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:08,520 And if they do a long, slow approach, they're going to get shot out of the sky. 172 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:13,520 So they just come whirling down and smack into the runway and we're landed. 173 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:19,520 And I'm in Axum and I'm seeing things like this immediately and it's the most amazing, extraordinary place. 174 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:26,520 Just that sacred lake again that we see in Axum and the reminder of its Egyptian origins. 175 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:35,520 And something else too, the obelisks of ancient Egypt, we have stele in Axum, very ancient, more than 2,000 years old, 176 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,520 made of granite, some of them weighing as much as 500 tons. 177 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:45,520 Very interesting similarities. They're not identical to the obelisks of Egypt, but they're similar. 178 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,520 And nobody really knows who made these things. 179 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:54,520 And this is the kind of guy you find around Axum, you know, very serious, heavy guys with Kalashnikovs. 180 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,520 It's an armed camp. The whole city is an armed camp. 181 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:02,520 At that point it was in the hands of the government. Later it was to fall into the hands of the TPLF. 182 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:06,520 And you see these ceremonies taking place. 183 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:12,520 And I found myself in Axum for several days and I'm witnessing all of this amazing stuff that seems to have come straight out of the Old Testament 184 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:17,520 that I'm seeing monks and they're carrying a box on their heads. 185 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,520 And I say, what's that? What's that? 186 00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:26,520 And the translator is with me, he said, well that's a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. 187 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:32,520 And I said, why? And he said, don't you know every church in Ethiopia has a replica of the Ark of the Covenant? 188 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:36,520 But we've got the original Ark of the Covenant right here in Axum. 189 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:39,520 And my ears immediately prick up. This sounds like a ninja there. 190 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:42,520 I am a much younger man in the midst of that crowd. 191 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:47,520 And I find myself fascinated. They say they've got that. 192 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:49,520 I just saw it on Raiders of the Lost Ark. 193 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,520 I'm Indiana Jones. 194 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:55,520 And I'm very excited by this and I'm going to follow this up. 195 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,520 So where is the original Ark of the Covenant? I asked them. 196 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:02,520 And they say, well it's in this area near the modern Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion. 197 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:04,520 But there's a special little chapel there. 198 00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,520 This is the replica they carry in and out. 199 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,520 But the original always stays in the chapel. 200 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,520 And that's the chapel right there. 201 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,520 Which stands by the more... 202 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:15,520 There's the new cathedral. 203 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:17,520 There's the older Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion. 204 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,520 It goes back to the 16th century. 205 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:24,520 And it stands on the ruins of the oldest Christian church in Africa. 206 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:26,520 Which actually goes back to the 3rd century. 207 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:33,520 And the chapel itself was built by Emperor Haile Selassie in the 1960s. 208 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:39,520 Before that the Ark of the Covenant had, they said, been kept in the Holy of Holies of the Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion. 209 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:42,520 But they decided to make this special building for it. 210 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,520 And it's moved into there. 211 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,520 And again you see all these processions going on around the place. 212 00:21:48,520 --> 00:21:50,520 The place has an aura of magic and mystery about it. 213 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:51,520 Which is very hard to repeat. 214 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:53,520 Especially in the heart of a war zone. 215 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:55,520 It feels very, very special. 216 00:21:55,520 --> 00:22:00,520 So I decided I wanted to get up to that chapel and find out what was going on there. 217 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:02,520 And indeed I did. 218 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:05,520 And I met the guardian of the Ark. 219 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:07,520 Who is a monk. 220 00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,520 A monk of the Ethiopian Coptic Church. 221 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:17,520 And it's not a funny thing to be appointed guardian of the Ark. 222 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:22,520 In fact, this guy ran away when they appointed him guardian. 223 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:26,520 And they went after him and brought him back in chains. 224 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:31,520 Because once you're appointed guardian of the Ark, you never are allowed to leave the chapel again. 225 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,520 You're going to spend the rest of your life in it. 226 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:39,520 And he says to me, I ask him, can I see the Ark of the Covenant? 227 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:41,520 And he basically says, you must be joking. 228 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,520 Of course you can't see the Ark of the Covenant. 229 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:46,520 Nobody sees the Ark of the Covenant. 230 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:47,520 Except me. 231 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:52,520 And he tells me, I ask him to describe the Ark. 232 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,520 And he tells me, I say, what is the Ark of the Covenant? 233 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:59,520 And this is where this story got its hooks into me. 234 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,520 And he looks at me and there's cataracts over his eyes. 235 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:06,520 And he says to the translator, the Ark is a thing of fire. 236 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,520 And whoa, I suddenly, I get goosebumps, you know. 237 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:10,520 The Ark is a thing of fire. 238 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:14,520 And he says, look what it's done to my eyes. 239 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,520 And he says, it's making me blind. 240 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:22,520 Within a year of that, he was dead. 241 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:24,520 And a new guardian had been appointed. 242 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,520 And over a period of time, Santa and I, as we followed this story later on, 243 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:31,520 encountered a series of guardians of the Ark. 244 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,520 And they all developed cataracts over their eyes. 245 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,520 One of them actually asked us to bring him medicines from England, which might help. 246 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:39,520 And they all said the Ark did it to them. 247 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:43,520 And when we got back with the medicines a year later, he was dead. 248 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:45,520 The Ark kills its guardians. 249 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,520 This is how the mystery descends. 250 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,520 So the Ark is a thing of fire. 251 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:55,520 And we come back to the story of Solomon and Sheba. 252 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,520 Because Ethiopia claims to be the land of the Queen of Sheba. 253 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:10,520 Ethiopia says that Haile Selassie was the 225th direct line descendant of the union of Solomon and Sheba. 254 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:14,520 He was the last emperor of the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia. 255 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:18,520 They said when Sheba went to Jerusalem, those rumors of a love affair were true. 256 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:20,520 Solomon made her pregnant. 257 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:27,520 And she left Jerusalem pregnant, traveled back to Ethiopia and gave birth to their son, Menelik, 258 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:29,520 which means the son of the wise man. 259 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:34,520 And they say that as a young man in his twenties, Menelik wished to meet his father. 260 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,520 And he traveled back to Jerusalem from Ethiopia. 261 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:41,520 And he presented himself at the court and he was recognized as the son of Solomon. 262 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:46,520 And for a year, he stayed at the court in Jerusalem. 263 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:54,520 But then for various reasons, he decided to steal the Ark of the Covenant and take it away with him to Ethiopia. 264 00:24:54,520 --> 00:25:00,520 And there's an ancient Ethiopian text called the Kebra Nagas, the glory of kings, 265 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:05,520 which tells this story in great detail, how Menelik tricked the guards and stole the Ark 266 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,520 and it was carried off with him towards Ethiopia. 267 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:13,520 And he sent troops after Menelik, but he gave those troops an order. 268 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:19,520 If my son and his Ethiopians have crossed the borders of Israel with the Ark, 269 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,520 do not pursue them further. 270 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:25,520 Because that is a sign that God wants the Ark of the Covenant to go with them. 271 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:30,520 And indeed they had crossed the border and they took the Ark to Ethiopia. 272 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:34,520 And there, according to the Kebra Nagas, it has remained ever since. 273 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,520 There are a number of problems with the Solomon and Sheba story. 274 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:47,520 Particularly since there is no evidence of any high culture in Ethiopia 3,000 years ago in the time of Solomon. 275 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,520 But there's something about it which is intriguing. 276 00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:56,520 Is it possible that the Ethiopians elaborated this myth on the basis of some fact? 277 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:01,520 And that's what I began to inquire into. 278 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:08,520 This is the whole story of the theft of the Ark by Menelik from Jerusalem. 279 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:13,520 It seems outrageous and impossible, but I began to dig deeper. 280 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:19,520 And first of all I encountered, this is when I first discovered how dismissive archaeologists are of ancient cultures. 281 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:23,520 I encountered them and they said, ah, forget it, the Ethiopians are just making the whole thing up. 282 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,520 They just want to glorify their Solomonic dynasty. 283 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:28,520 There's not a word of truth to it. 284 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:29,520 Don't waste your time. 285 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:32,520 And they really annoyed me saying that. 286 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,520 I'm not going to listen to this. 287 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:40,520 I'm going to look further because this is the only country in the world that has a living tradition of venerating the Ark of the Covenant. 288 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:42,520 Nobody else has this tradition. 289 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:47,520 Every church in Ethiopia, 20,000 churches, everyone has a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and it's Holy of Holies. 290 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:48,520 Why? 291 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:49,520 It's a pre-Christian relic. 292 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,520 What's it doing in a Christian church? 293 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:56,520 So important that if the replica is removed from the church, the church is decommissioned and ceases to be a church. 294 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,520 What is going on here? 295 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:03,520 I found the ceremonies involving the replicas. 296 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:05,520 Sometimes the replicas are full-sized boxes. 297 00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:13,520 Sometimes they are flat tablets representing the tablets of stone, which are carried out in ceremonies and brought back into the churches in the same day. 298 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:21,520 The whole of Ethiopian Christianity revolves around this connection with the Ark of the Covenant. 299 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:26,520 And there are dances which are so like the dance of David before the Ark as it's described in the Bible. 300 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:32,520 The drumming, the musical instruments, everything is extremely Old Testament biblical. 301 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:41,520 Those ceremonies take place in front of the stelae in Aksum, an interesting musical instrument being held in the hands of the priests here. 302 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:48,520 And we can compare this with the imagery from the Old Testament. 303 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,520 That's called a sistrum, that musical instrument. 304 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:57,520 And of course, you can find sistrum in the Cairo Museum. 305 00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:00,520 They were used in ancient Egypt as well. 306 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:03,520 There they are being used in Ethiopia today. 307 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,520 And then there's the whole issue of the Ethiopian Jews. 308 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,520 This is where it got really intriguing for me. 309 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:20,520 Because Ethiopia has, or had until 1991, a population of indigenous Jews who are known as the Falashas. 310 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,520 They don't call themselves the Falashas. 311 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:23,520 They don't like that word. 312 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:24,520 They regard it as an insult. 313 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,520 They call themselves the Beta Israel, the House of Israel. 314 00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:35,520 And they practice an extraordinary Old Testament form of Judaism. 315 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:40,520 Since the destruction of Herod's temple, Jews have not been allowed to perform sacrifice. 316 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,520 The Talmud has become the key book of Judaism. 317 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,520 And there are no priests in modern Judaism. 318 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,520 There are rabbis. 319 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:50,520 The Ethiopian Jews have priests. 320 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,520 The Ethiopian Jews do perform sacrifice of rams. 321 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:59,520 And their book, their primary book is the Torah, the Old Testament. 322 00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:03,520 And they are pre-Talmudic Jews. 323 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:08,520 And it's very bizarre to find a community of pre-Talmudic Jews in the highlands of Africa, 324 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:10,520 in this remote outpost. 325 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,520 And I couldn't help feeling that it was connected to the story of the Ark of the Babies 326 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,520 over the railings of the Israeli embassy. 327 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:20,520 They were built in absolute panic and chaos. 328 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:21,520 And they were carried on. 329 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:25,520 And there are very few Ethiopian Jews now. 330 00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:29,520 A few of them have returned from Israel to Ethiopia again. 331 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,520 But by and large they were removed. 332 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,520 This was the kind of life that the Falashas lived before their exile. 333 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:43,520 And their most popular tourist trick, it actually, was a picture of Solomon and Sheba in bed together. 334 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:48,520 Which you can see there. 335 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:55,520 And Israel, aware of this lost tribe, were bringing them modern Judaism 336 00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,520 and brought them Torah scrolls and Talmuds. 337 00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:05,520 And we see Falasha priests with these imported objects brought from Israel. 338 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:10,520 And this is a typical sort of temple of the Falashas. 339 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:12,520 Very simple life that they lived. 340 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,520 And here's what they told me. 341 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:22,520 They said that they were the people who brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia. 342 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:28,520 And they said their ancestors, their story departs completely from the story of Solomon and Sheba. 343 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:38,520 They said their ancestors brought the Ark of the Covenant out of Jerusalem and they first brought it to an island in Egypt. 344 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,520 And there it stayed for some hundreds of years. 345 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:46,520 And then, eventually, they were driven out of that island. 346 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:52,520 And they carried the Ark of the Covenant from that island in Egypt to another island in Ethiopia. 347 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,520 And that island was on Lake Tanan. 348 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,520 And again, these two countries seem far apart. 349 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:10,520 But when we do this, we discover that there's a road running all the way between them and that road is the River Nile. 350 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:20,520 Because Lake Tanan is the source of the Blue Nile, which provides six tenths of all the waters in the Nile. 351 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:24,520 The Blue and the White Nile meets in Khartoum. 352 00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:32,520 And up here in Aswan, this is where the story really started to come together for me. 353 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:38,520 Something very interesting happened around 650 before Christ. 354 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:44,520 And that interesting thing was connected to the reign of a king called Manasseh in Jerusalem. 355 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:50,520 And Manasseh is reviled in the Bible as a man who reverts to paganism. 356 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,520 And who abandons the tradition of Jewish faith. 357 00:31:53,520 --> 00:32:02,520 And who installs in the Holy of the Holies of the Temple an Asherah, a goddess, 358 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:07,520 which can sometimes take the form of a tree, a pagan tree goddess, 359 00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:09,520 who's installed in the Holy of Holies. 360 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:13,520 Now, I began to talk to biblical scholars such as Menahim Haran. 361 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,520 And I said to him, I don't get this. 362 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:21,520 An Asherah is installed in the Holy of Holies of the Temple. 363 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:23,520 What happens to the Ark of the Covenant? 364 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:28,520 He said, I don't believe the Ark of the Covenant was allowed to remain in the Temple 365 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,520 when Manasseh installed that Asherah there. 366 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:34,520 He said those who were loyal to the worship of the Ark would have had to take it out. 367 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:38,520 It couldn't be ritually polluted in that way. 368 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:42,520 And that's when, digging further, I... 369 00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:44,520 Well, I'll come to it in a moment. 370 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:47,520 But we have this story of Josiah, who's a successor to Manasseh, 371 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:49,520 who cleansed the land of idols. 372 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:54,520 And interestingly, Josiah, speaking between 640 and 609 BC, 373 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:58,520 says unto the Levites that taught all Israel which were holy unto the Lord, 374 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:01,520 put the holy Ark in the house of Solomon, 375 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,520 which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, did build. 376 00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:06,520 It shall not be a burden for your shoulders. 377 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:13,520 Josiah is clearly feeling in 640 to 609 BC that the Ark of the Covenant is out of the Temple, 378 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:17,520 that the Levites have somehow carried it out and he's asking them to put it back. 379 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:19,520 So where did it go? What happened to it? 380 00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:25,520 And why wasn't it still in the Temple in 587 BC when the Babylonians arrived? 381 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:30,520 And that's where this area becomes incredibly interesting. 382 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:32,520 Aswan in Upper Egypt. 383 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:34,520 I don't know, has anybody been to Aswan? 384 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:35,520 I bet a number of you have. 385 00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,520 Well, you'll be aware of the island of Belafentine, 386 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:42,520 which stands in the Nile, in the middle of the Nile at Aswan. 387 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:47,520 And on the island of Belafentine in 650 BC, 388 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:53,520 at exactly the time that we have the abominations of Manasseh taking place, 389 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,520 weirdly, a Jewish temple is built. 390 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,520 And this is an archaeological fact. 391 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:01,520 This is the island of Belafentine. 392 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:06,520 And this is the area where the Jewish temple stood. 393 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:09,520 And this is the German Archaeological Institute, 394 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:14,520 who, by the way, are the same team who are now excavating Gobekli Tepe. 395 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,520 They were the ones who did the excavation of the Jewish temple on the island of Belafentine. 396 00:34:20,520 --> 00:34:22,520 And it is recognized as a huge anomaly. 397 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:24,520 This is the first temple period. 398 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,520 There was only to be one temple. 399 00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:32,520 You don't have another temple outside of Jerusalem in the first temple period. 400 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:35,520 The temple is a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 401 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:40,520 If a temple is being built on the island of Belafentine, and it's a Jewish temple, 402 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:44,520 and it has the same dimensions as the Temple of Solomon, which we know that it did, 403 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,520 then you begin to wonder, why? 404 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,520 And I decided to put the dots together and say, 405 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:51,520 perhaps it was built to house the Ark of the Covenant. 406 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,520 Perhaps that Falasha story is true. 407 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:57,520 Perhaps their ancestors did flee Jerusalem with the Ark. 408 00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:02,520 And they go because there had been a long-established Jewish community on this island. 409 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:08,520 They served the Egyptians as a military force on the southern border of Egypt. 410 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:13,520 And it would be an obvious place of refuge, a place to flee. 411 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:22,520 Well, the Jewish temple remained intact from 650 BC down to about 400 BC. 412 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:25,520 And then it was destroyed. 413 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,520 The local Egyptian population rose up against it. 414 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:29,520 Why? 415 00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:34,520 Because the Jews of the temple were sacrificing rams. 416 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,520 Who is the patron deity of Elephantine? 417 00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:38,520 Who? 418 00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:40,520 A ram-headed deity. 419 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,520 You can see the tension. 420 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:45,520 That's when the Jewish temple is destroyed. 421 00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:48,520 There's no evidence that the Jewish population were massacred. 422 00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:50,520 They just disappeared from history. 423 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:54,520 I don't think they went north into a hostile Egypt. 424 00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:59,520 I think they went south, following the Nile river system, 425 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:05,520 until eventually they came to a refuge in the highlands of Ethiopia. 426 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:11,520 This is the Blue Lama Falls, which shows you something on the force of the Nile, 427 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:13,520 flowing out of Lake Tama. 428 00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:24,520 And on Lake Tama, we see papyrus boats, very like the simple boats that the ancient Egyptians used on the Nile. 429 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:27,520 And we find these amazing monasteries on Lake Tama, 430 00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:32,520 with, again, Coptic Christian monasteries with incredible traditions. 431 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:39,520 And it's here that I discovered that one of the islands, an island called Tarnakirkos, 432 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:43,520 has a strong association with Judaism. 433 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:50,520 And, indeed, a monk in one of these monasteries tells me the Ark of the Covenant is on that island. 434 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:57,520 So, I hire a boat, and we go off, this is another one that I remember. 435 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:03,520 We go off to Tarnakirkos Island, and there I meet the monks who are Christian monks, 436 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:07,520 and I find the remains of interesting carved pillars. 437 00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:13,520 And the monks tell me that, actually, no, we don't have the Ark of the Covenant, but we did. 438 00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:17,520 The Ark of the Covenant was here for 800 years, they said. 439 00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:18,520 We were Jews then. 440 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:23,520 Then the Ark was taken to Axum by force in the time of King Ezana. 441 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:25,520 King Ezana is a known historical figure. 442 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:31,520 He reigns about 200 or 300 years after Christ. 443 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:35,520 And he is the king who converts Ethiopia to Christianity. 444 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:42,520 They say that he came, took the Ark from them, took it to Axum, the place that it still is today. 445 00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:48,520 So, suddenly, all the ceremonies that I had seen in Axum and the whole tradition of the Ark of the Covenant in Axum 446 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,520 began to make a whole lot of sense to me. 447 00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:56,520 And it became very important for me to get back to Axum. 448 00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:05,520 This was now 1990. 449 00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:07,520 By then, the tables had turned. 450 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:11,520 Megister was still in power, but he didn't have Axum anymore. 451 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,520 Axum was in the hands of the Tigray People's Liberation Front. 452 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:20,520 So, Sata and I, we had to go to the TPLF. 453 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:24,520 And we had to say, we want you to take us to Axum. 454 00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:27,520 And they said, okay. 455 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:29,520 But it's difficult. 456 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,520 And we said, we'll do anything. 457 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:33,520 You've got to take us there. 458 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,520 They said, okay, go to Khartoum. 459 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:40,520 We'll alert our local representative in Khartoum. 460 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,520 You see him, and we will fix up for you to go into Ethiopia. 461 00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:48,520 Now, the way it worked, the government was still in control, the Ethiopian government. 462 00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:53,520 Anything that moved on the roads during the day was shot from the air. 463 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:54,520 They had aircraft flying over. 464 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:57,520 Anything moving on the roads was fired upon. 465 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:02,520 Tigray People's Liberation Front took us from Khartoum across the desert. 466 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,520 I had paperwork, Sata didn't. 467 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:06,520 So, they disguised Sata as an Ethiopian woman. 468 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:10,520 And they said that she was pretending to be dumb, so that she would just look Ethiopian 469 00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:13,520 but not ever speak to the Sudanese troops. 470 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,520 We got through about 20 checkpoints. 471 00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:16,520 We got to Kassala. 472 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:20,520 We went across the border at night into Tigray. 473 00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,520 And then began an amazing five-day journey. 474 00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,520 Driving up into the highlands of Ethiopia with the Tigray People's Liberation Front. 475 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:28,520 We were fired upon. 476 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:31,520 At night, we know we were fired upon because we saw the Tracer coming up. 477 00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:34,520 And the guys stopped the cars and got out. 478 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:36,520 And typically, Tracer is not loaded every round. 479 00:39:36,520 --> 00:39:38,520 It's loaded every fifth or sixth round. 480 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:42,520 So, it was rather alarming to see the Tracer coming, winging at us. 481 00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:44,520 And they would drive at night. 482 00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:48,520 And then, come dawn, they would find a stand of trees. 483 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:50,520 They would pull the vehicles into the trees. 484 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,520 They would take branches and they would sweep up the tracks of the vehicles 485 00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:55,520 for a long distance back from the trees. 486 00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:59,520 And then, we would camp all day amongst the trees. 487 00:39:59,520 --> 00:40:02,520 And you could see the spotted planes flying overhead. 488 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:03,520 And then, night would fall again. 489 00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,520 We'd get back on the road and we'd continue and continue and continue. 490 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:08,520 I actually kissed the ground when we got to Axum. 491 00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:11,520 It was an amazing adventure. 492 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:13,520 Fantastic, fantastic journey. 493 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,520 And again, we found ourselves amidst these incredible ceremonies 494 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:21,520 that take place in Axum and the men with guns following the processions 495 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:23,520 and the replica of the Ark. 496 00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:27,520 And there, I found a fallen steeler. 497 00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:33,520 And it has upon it this device, which just looks exactly like the Ark 498 00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:37,520 from the tomb of Tutankhamun. 499 00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:44,520 And to cut a long story short, I talked, of course, to the Guardian again. 500 00:40:44,520 --> 00:40:47,520 Once again, he would not allow me in the temple. 501 00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:48,520 In the temple. 502 00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,520 But to cut a long story short, I don't think Steven Spielberg was right. 503 00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:54,520 I don't think the Ark's anywhere else is in America. 504 00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,520 I think it's in Ethiopia. 505 00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:02,520 And oddly enough, Steven Spielberg, I'm going to finish this talking about five minutes. 506 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:06,520 Steven Spielberg made another film in Indiana Jones involving the Holy Grail. 507 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:13,520 And I just want to touch upon the Holy Grail and its relationship to the Ark of the Covenant. 508 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:23,520 Because the earliest references to the Holy Grail are found in Chrétien de Troyes, the Conte de Grau, 509 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:27,520 in which the Grail is a golden vessel, a golden cup. 510 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:32,520 And in Wolfram von Essenbach, in which the Grail is a stone. 511 00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:39,520 So let us consider the symbolism of a golden cup or a golden vessel with a stone inside it. 512 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:47,520 That's the same symbolism as the Ark of the Covenant, which is a golden vessel with a stone inside it. 513 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:54,520 And I began to find many other intriguing parallels between the Ark and the Grail. 514 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:59,520 Possible, like Hiram, is the son of a widow. 515 00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:12,520 And, kind of long story short, my research suggests that the medieval quest for the Holy Grail was a coded reference to a real quest for the Ark of the Covenant. 516 00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:19,520 And that it's intimately connected with the Knights Templar, who many, not all Freemasons agree on this. 517 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,520 In fact, Freemasons are quite divided over this issue. 518 00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:29,520 But quite a number of Freemasons do believe that Knights Templar were the progenitors of Freemasons. 519 00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:33,520 Now, the Grail tradition begins in 1182 with Chrétien de Troyes. 520 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:41,520 Jerusalem, where the Templars had their headquarters on the Temple Mount, was recaptured by Salahuddin in 1187. 521 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:48,520 And Wolfram wrote his Grail quest between 1195 and 1200. 522 00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:58,520 Here's an image of what the Temple of Solomon would have looked like back in 2,900 years ago or so. 523 00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:05,520 And here's an image of the exact same place today, which is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, 524 00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:20,520 where we see the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque standing on the exact location where the Temple of Solomon stood 2,900 years ago. 525 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:27,520 And again, the Temple of Solomon, and here the Dome of the Rock. 526 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:32,520 Amazing piece of Islamic architecture. 527 00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:41,520 And there's the rock after which it's named, which lies in the floor of the Dome of the Rock, 528 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:45,520 and which forms the floor of the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Solomon. 529 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:49,520 In other words, that's ground zero for the Ark of the Covenant. 530 00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:53,520 That's what the Ark of the Covenant stood on in biblical times. 531 00:43:53,520 --> 00:44:02,520 And underneath it is the famous Well of Souls, a very spooky and mysterious place directly beneath the rock. 532 00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:12,520 Well, the Templars had exclusive possession of the entire area from 1119 until 1187. 533 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:20,520 And there's a great mystery surrounding the fact that these Templar knights are just given the Temple Mount 534 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:24,520 and take control of it for 70 years. 535 00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:30,520 And there's powerful evidence that the Templars were the first archaeologists 536 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:34,520 because they tunneled extensively underneath the Dome of the Rock. 537 00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:40,520 And some of those tunnels were rediscovered in the 19th century, I warrant. 538 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:42,520 There's no disputing it. 539 00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,520 The Templars were digging under the Temple Mount. 540 00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:46,520 What were they looking for? 541 00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:48,520 What is the heart of Templars? 542 00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:49,520 Why did they call the Templars? 543 00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,520 Because there's a point that's the president of the Temple of Solomon. 544 00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:54,520 The Temple of Solomon is key to them. 545 00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:58,520 The Temple of Solomon is the house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. 546 00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:00,520 I don't think it's stretching things too much to suggest 547 00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:03,520 the Templars would have been very interested in the Ark of the Covenant. 548 00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:08,520 And that that may have been their entire raison d'etre for being in Jerusalem 549 00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:16,520 because they certainly weren't protecting pilgrims on the road between Jerusalem and the coast. 550 00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:20,520 So there's the north porch of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, 551 00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:24,520 which is a piece of Gothic architecture made by the Templars. 552 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:30,520 And here's the north porch of Chartres Cathedral, a very similar piece of Gothic architecture. 553 00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:38,520 And in the north porch of Chartres Cathedral, we find an interesting story about Solomon and Sheba. 554 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:42,520 We also find Melchisedic holding the Grail Cup, by the way. 555 00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:46,520 And we find the Queen of Sheba perched on an African figure, 556 00:45:46,520 --> 00:45:52,520 very strongly indicating a connection with Africa and the Queen of Sheba. 557 00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:58,520 And we find an image of the Ark of the Covenant on one of the pillars. 558 00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:04,520 And it's being drawn on a cart towards the figure of the Queen of Sheba. 559 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:08,520 And underneath it is this rather curious Latin inscription, 560 00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:14,520 which basically says, here is hidden the Ark of the Covenant. 561 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,520 It was a really exciting moment, actually. 562 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:22,520 Because it seemed to be suggesting that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in Ethiopia. 563 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:24,520 I doubt further. 564 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:29,520 An Ethiopian king was exiled in Jerusalem during the time that the Templars held the Temple Mount. 565 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:31,520 His name was Lalibela. 566 00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:36,520 He was in Jerusalem from 1160 until 1185. 567 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:41,520 He returned to Ethiopia with a mysterious supporting force. 568 00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:44,520 And he overthrew his rival. 569 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:46,520 And he became king. 570 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,520 And he built a series of churches. 571 00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:53,520 Or rather, those mysterious men who came with him built a series of churches. 572 00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:59,520 And in Ethiopian legends, these churches are supposed to have been built by angels. 573 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:05,520 And I couldn't help wonder whether those builders of the churches of Lalibela were the Knights Template 574 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:08,520 with their advanced skills as masons. 575 00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:14,520 Here's the whole complex of the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia today. 576 00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:16,520 An amazing place to visit, by the way. 577 00:47:16,520 --> 00:47:22,520 Absolutely outstanding, stunning works of construction and architecture. 578 00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:24,520 This is the Church of Bento Georges. 579 00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:26,520 You see how it's done. 580 00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:30,520 They cut out the whole trench to separate the core body of the church. 581 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,520 They formed it in the shape of a cross. 582 00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:34,520 And then they hollowed it out inside. 583 00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:35,520 It's a complete, fully functioning church. 584 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:37,520 It's all cut from solid rock. 585 00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:44,520 Every one of the churches of Lalibela are hewn out of solid rock. 586 00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:47,520 Some of them cut into the sides of mountains. 587 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:50,520 Some completely freestanding. 588 00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,520 And amongst them is St. Mary's Church. 589 00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:56,520 St. Mary was a key figure for the Knights Templar. 590 00:47:56,520 --> 00:48:01,520 And as we get inside St. Mary's Church, we find some very interesting things. 591 00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:06,520 We find the swastika, which is an important image for the Knights Templar. 592 00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:21,520 And we find interesting imagery on the ceiling, including this figure on a Templar cross inside the Star of David. 593 00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:34,520 What's that doing on the roof of a Christian church dedicated to St. Mary in Lalibela, built during the heyday of the Knights Templar? 594 00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:47,520 And the real picture for me, there's a painting dating back to that period of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the walls of the St. Mary's Church in Axton. 595 00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:50,520 And what do we see on top of the domes of the Al-Aqsa Mosque? 596 00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:52,520 The crosses. 597 00:48:52,520 --> 00:49:01,520 This tells us that this is an image of the Al-Aqsa Mosque when it was the palace of the Knights Templar, painted right inside that church in Ethiopia. 598 00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:06,520 And here's this column in St. Mary's Church. 599 00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:13,520 And there's a very secret writing behind the drapery that lies in front of the column. 600 00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:21,520 And several times I tried to persuade Ethiopian monks to tell me what that writing said. 601 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:24,520 Ethiop is a country where money, you know, goes a long way. 602 00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:27,520 But none of them would part with it for money. 603 00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:30,520 They wouldn't tell me. They were very honorable. 604 00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:39,520 And then one day for no money at all, one old priest told us what the writing said. 605 00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:46,520 He said, I don't understand it. It's not written in my language. I can recognize the letters. 606 00:49:46,520 --> 00:49:54,520 And he said, Sator, Arepo, Tenet, Opera. 607 00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:59,520 And that is the Templar Magic Square. 608 00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:18,520 When we follow them, peace. 609 00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:23,520 This rule says, Oh my God, that's true. 610 00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:28,520 Who will be the ones that don't want to end up Ugh, Werner Huang? 611 00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:32,520 What's the name? 612 00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:36,520 When we follow our flag, we'll follow the link in theización related to the literacy protocol. 613 00:50:36,520 --> 00:51:06,500 Thank you.