BAR 21:03, May/Jun 1995
Did the Ark Stop at Elephantine?
Was the Ark of the Covenant taken from Solomons Temple in Jerusalem during the reign of King Manasseh in the seventh century B.C.E. to an island called Elephantine in the Nile River? Was it housed there in a Jewish temple much like the one King Solomon built?
These are the contentions of Graham Hancock in his bestseller, The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant.1 According to Hancock, more than two centuries later the Ark of the Covenant moved on from Elephantine on the Nile to Ethiopia, where it still resides in a secluded sanctuary chapel in Axum.2