The situation of a chest believed to contain the Ten Commandments has long been a mystery, but now an authority believes he can pinpoint its hiding place.
Archaeologist Dr Chris McKinny has proposed a brand new theory that implies the lost Ark of the Covenant resides within the City of David — and he has a plan to prove it.
In accordance with the Bible, the sacred relic, described as an ornate, gold-plated picket chest, was built by the Israelites shortly after they fled Egypt across the thirteenth century BC, with Moses placing the Ten Commandments inside.
Some Biblical historians imagine the relic was then kept contained in the Holy Of Holies: the innermost chamber of the traditional Temple Of Jerusalem, seen only by the high priest of the Israelites on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Nonetheless, in the course of the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BC, the Bible said the Ark vanished and not using a trace.
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Though McKinny doesn’t claim to have discovered the Ark of the Covenant or to know its exact location with certainty, he has proposed the Ark could possibly be hidden inside underground spaces within the City of David, just south of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Researchers now plan to scan the City of David using powerful technology designed to detect buried metals and hidden chambers deep beneath the surface, Every day Mail reports.
McKinny and his team imagine that this technology could detect the Ark, if it still exists, because it is alleged to be plated with gold each inside and outside.
Nonetheless, he stressed that this stays more of a long-term possibility and theory moderately than an energetic excavation project.
The idea comes from his documentary Legends of the Lost Ark, which was released on April 7, where the archaeologist explores three major theories on what could have happened.
In accordance with McKinny, each of those accounts suggests that the Ark was deliberately hidden to guard it from invading forces to reserve it from being destroyed or captured, and all feature Jeremiah on the centre of efforts to safeguard the relic.
The primary theory, often called the Mount Legend, suggests the Ark was hidden beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Advanced scanning tools could potentially digitally discover tunnels, chambers and concealed spaces beneath Temple Mount which could aid on this search.
In accordance with McKinny this might help gain greater insight into one in every of archaeology’s biggest blind spots because traditional excavation using ‘the spade or the trowel’ is essentially forbidden.
A second legend, often known as the Rock Legend, depicts the prophet Jeremiah hiding the Ark at a mysterious rocky site positioned between two mountains.
The third and oldest legend, also known as the Mount Nebo Legend, claims as an alternative that Jeremiah carried the Ark to a cave or tomb on Mount Nebo.
Despite this, the precise location described within the texts still stays unclear.
In a recent interview, McKinny said he’s ‘excited and longing for what’s going to come from that,’ while acknowledging that significant religious, political and logistical barriers still stand in the best way of such work.
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