The Forgotten Empire and the Ark of the Covenant
An ancient African kingdom has been said to hold the secret of the Ark.
There’s a church in Ethiopia where a single man stands guard over a sacred relic.
No one else is allowed to see it — not even the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Some say it’s the Ark of the Covenant, the legendary chest that once held the Ten Commandments. Others claim it’s a medieval replica.
But why is it so closely guarded? And why has it remained hidden for centuries?
To understand the mystery, you have to go back to the ancient kingdom of Aksum.
At its peak, between 100 and 600 CE, Aksum was one of the most powerful civilizations in the world.
In the third century CE, the Persian prophet Mani ranked it alongside Rome, China, and Persia as one of the four great empires of the time.
Aksum’s wealth came from gold, ivory, and control over the Red Sea trade routes. Adulis, Aksum’s main port on the Red Sea, was described by ancient writers as a bustling hub where Roman and Greek ships exchanged exotic goods.
Aksumite merchants traded as far as India and China. The empire’s coins were some of the first ever minted in Africa and have been found thousands of miles away in India.
By 330 CE, King Ezana converted to Christianity, making Aksum one of the first Christian states, right as Rome was doing the same under Constantine.
The city of Aksum grew into a thriving center of culture and faith, marked by towering stone obelisks. Some still stand today.
But Aksum’s dominance wouldn’t last forever.
The rise of Islam in the 7th century changed the balance of power in the region. As Arab forces took control of the Red Sea coastline, Aksum lost its most important trade routes.
The crazy part is that decades earlier the Aksumite King Armah had given asylum to members of the new religion.
After the Prophet Muhammad and his followers faced persecution in Mecca, Muhammad advised some of his followers to seek refuge in Aksum.
Around 615, this migration saw a small group of Muslims, including members of Muhammad’s family, flee across the Red Sea to Aksum.
King Armah welcomed them and refused to hand them over to the Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, despite the arrival of envoys demanding their return.
Supposedly, King Armah was moved by their recitation of verses from the Quran, particularly those about Jesus and Mary. In return, the king granted them Aksum’s protection.
Some of these refugees later returned to Arabia, while others remained in Aksum for years. But as Islamic power spread Aksum lost access to the trade routes that made it rich, and the empire fell into a steady decline.
Despite Aksum’s decline, one thing has endured: its legends.
One of the most intriguing is the story of the Queen of Sheba, known as Makeda in Ethiopian tradition.
She traveled to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon, according to the Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century Ethiopian chronicle.
What happened next depends on who you ask. Some say it was a political meeting, others say it was something more.
Ethiopian tradition says she and Solomon became lovers and that led to the birth of Menelik I, the first emperor of Ethiopia and the founder of the Solomonic dynasty.
For centuries, Ethiopian rulers traced their bloodline back to Solomon himself, blending biblical elements with royal history.
But that’s just the setup. The real twist comes later.
The Kebra Nagast claims that when Menelik I came of age, he traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father Solomon, which puts us in the 10th century BCE.
The Ethiopian tradition claims that King Solomon invited Menelik to stay and rule alongside him, but Menelik wanted to return home.
Solomon ordered a group of Israelite priests to go with him. Unhappy about leaving, these priests allegedly stole the Ark of the Covenant and left behind a replica in its place.
Menelik only discovered the theft on the journey home, but an angel reassured him that this was all God's will. By the time Solomon realized what had happened, Menelik had already taken the Ark to Aksum, where it has supposedly been ever since.
There are issues with the chronology and the conflicting timelines of Aksum and Israel. But the biggest problem is that our primary source (the Kebra Nagast) was written some 2,400 years after the time of Solomon. Naturally, people have tried to prove and debunk this legend.
During WWII, Edward Ullendorf, a history professor, said he saw the purported ark while serving as a British Army officer in the region. He described it as unremarkable and probably of later construction than biblical. He said it was most likely a replica made in the Middle Ages.
He died at age 91 in 2011.
One of the most famous attempts to uncover the truth came from Graham Hancock, whose 1992 book The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant dives deep into the legend.
Hancock spent years chasing the story across Ethiopia, digging into religious texts, oral traditions, and firsthand accounts.
His conclusion? There’s a strong case that the Ark, or at least something believed to be the Ark rests inside the Church of St. Mary of Zion in Aksum.
At this point, there’s only one person alive today who knows for sure.
The church has a single guardian, a monk whose entire life is dedicated to protecting the Ark. Once chosen, he never leaves the church grounds, and he speaks to no one about what he has seen.
Some reports say these guardians experience declining health over time, either from the burden of their isolation or from something more mysterious — depends on whom you believe.
When one guardian dies, another is chosen, and the cycle begins again.
Does the real Ark of the Covenant rest in Aksum?
Or is it just a legend, passed down through generations?