Greeks Claim to Have Found Both the Ark of the Covenant and Alexander's Tomb

In a very short posting today on the Focus Information Agency website, a claim has been made that both the Ark of the Covenant and the tomb of Alexander the Great have been found on the Greek island of Thasos. (I usually don't post entire articles, but since this one is so short...)

"It is believed that the tomb of Alexander the Great and the Ark of the Covenant have been found on the Greek Island of Thasos, announced Russian Grekomania.ru, which is information partner of the Greek Minister of Culture and Tourism. Head of the research group Pitia Nikolaos Kumardzis announced that the findings emerged during amateur excavations. According to him, some unexpected results were reported during the excavations on Thasos Island. Greek researchers are convinced that the findings really are the tomb of Alexander the Great and the Ark of the Covenant."

Given Greece's financial troubles of late, if they really did have the location of the Ark and the tomb of Alexander, now would be the time to trot them out. We'll see if anything else makes the headlines on this story in the next few days.

 Google Map Location of the Island of Thasos

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Ethiopian Patriarch to Announce the Ark of the Covenant is in Axum

Thanks to Goggle "Translate" and "Alert", I came across an intriguing article in the Italian Adnkronos news site. Adnkronos snagged an exclusive interview with the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Ethiopia. The Patriarch, Abuna Pauolos, has been in Rome for the last week at something like a G8 summit for religious leaders. During the interview with Adnkronos, the Patriarch announced that the time was right to show the world the truth about the Ark of the Covenant.

The truth being that the Ark does actually rest in Ethiopia.

The Ark has long been thought by some to be resting in Saint Mary of Zion Church in Axum. The legend goes that the son of Sheba and King Solomon came to Jerusalem and stole the Ark from under the noses of the Temple leaders. After some bouncing around Egypt, the Ark was taken to Ethiopia where it has been hidden ever since.

Until now, this has been something of a fairy tale in the legend of the Ark. Graham Hancock did some convincing research in his book, The Sign and the Seal on the theory. The Ethiopians themselves have never quite hidden the fact that the Ark rests in their country either. During the festival of Timkat, mock-ups of the Ark are paraded around Axum.

The Patriarch went on to say that on the 19th of June he would be meeting with Pope Benedict to apprise him of "the situation" in Ethiopia. Patriarch Pauolos is planning to hold a press conference this Friday in Rome where he will announce that Ark will be placed in a museum in Axum for the world to see. The possibilities of the announcement are no less than staggering. One of history's greatest enigmas might come to an end on Friday.

I'm still curious why Patriarch Pauolos would wish to apprise Pope Benedict of his announcement. The Vatican has made no moves at this point to publicly acknowledge meeting between the two Holy Men. There must be some reason Pauolos would inform the Catholic Church of the truth of the Ark. There also must be some reason as to why now? Why after centuries of hiding the Ark away, are there plans on putting the Ark in a museum.

Friday might just prove to be a very interesting day...

Has Tudor Parfitt's Ark of the Covenant Been Stolen?

On 17 Mar 08, a report came through on the Huliq web site that Tudor Parfitt’s Ark of the Covenant had been stolen. The story claims that an Ephraim Sadiki went to see the Ark at the Harare Museum, and was turned away on two separate occasions. The first he was simply told he could not see it, the second visit he was told the Ark had disappeared. Sadiki got the impression that the Ark had been stolen. The article’s author went to Harare and according to him, “was given the same treatment.”

Keep in mind that Huliq is a user based news reporting site. This means that just about anyone can submit a new story and the Huliq staff will review it for publication. Unlike “regular” media outlets, the onus of factual stories is on the author not the publisher. This format does create the possibility for inaccurate reporting, just like reading a blog has to be weighed for factual content.

One would think that given the buzz earlier this year about Parfitt’s Ark, some more follow up from the media and academia would have happened. The news wires have been largely silent about Parfitt’s Ark since the airing of the History Channel program that chronicled his theory. Any news relating to the Parfitt’s Ark has been relegated to TV listings for repeats of the History Channel Documentary.

There are four possibilities that exist regarding the piece in Huliq.

1. It’s a fabrication.

2. The Harare Museum staff simple did not want to be bothered with folks banging down their door to see the Ark and made up a ruse to keep the masses away. This seems unlikely; there would be a profit motive for Museum officials to display the Ark. “Hey kid, give me a dollar and I’ll let you see the Ark of the Covenant”, comes to mind.

3. The Ark has been sold to some unnamed collector or institution and the Museum doesn’t want to admit it. Parfitt even mentions in the documentary that the folks at the Harare Museum wanted to sell the piece to him. If the Huliq report is accurate and the Ark is not there, this seems the most likely scenario.

4. The Ark was actually stolen. Art and artifact theft is a big business across the world. All one has to do is to go to the Saztv web site to get a scope of this type of theft. That is unless the Israelis sent in commandos to steal the Ark. That seems as likely as ninja assassins storming Edinburgh Castle to steal the Stone of Destiny, but is a possibility…

So where is the Ark? Is it still resting in Harare or is it some collector’s den? I don’t know the answer to that question. I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground for the last month for any other related news, and there’s’ been nothing. The only thing I’m sure of at this point is that no one else is talking about it.

Today Show Interviews Tudor Parfitt on Discovering the Ark of the Covenant

The Today Show's Matt Lauer interviews Professor Tudor Parfitt from London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Parfitt has been in the news recently with the announcement that he has found the Ark of the Covenant in Zimbabwe. Well, sort of. Parfitt believes that there were many Arks that were actually a type of drum. The History Chanel is running a documentary on Parfitt tonight at 8:00 and 12:00 EST, and will rerun on 22 Mar 08.

Graham Hancock: Raider of the Lost Ark

For all of you Graham Hancock fans out there, here's a documentary Graham did about his search for the Ark of the Covenant. You can also find out about his work in his book Sign and the Seal


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