Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia – and the Templars

The Ark of the Covenant is kept in a church in Ethiopia, an ancient country in east Africa. Eight hundred years ago, the Knights Templar attempted to steal it from the Ethiopians. They in turn pleaded with the pope in Rome to deal with these troublesome knights. This led directly to their fall.

That is a theory that has circulated for several years in esoteric histories of the Knights Templar. As ever, the question is whether there is any truth in these claims. So let’s take this theory apart piece by piece.

Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo (meaning “unity” or “one”) Church claims that the Ark of the Covenant is located at Axum, Ethiopia, in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. This belief derives from the Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings), a 14th-century Ethiopian national epic, which states that the Ark was brought to Axum by Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

The Kebra Negast details how Maqeda, the Queen of Sheba, visited King Solomon in Jerusalem. He got her pregnant. The resulting son – Ebna-Lahakim – grew up in his mother’s kingdom (possibly Yemen, Eritrea, or Ethiopia) but then journeyed to Jerusalem to meet his father as a young man. What happened next is subject to differing accounts. Solomon either offered him the Ark of the Covenant – which seems implausible – or he stole it. Theft seems more credible.

That meant breaking into the Holy of Holies, the room in the Temple in Jerusalem where God was literally believed to live. Grabbing the Ark, Ebna-Lahakim made his way back to Ethiopia where he became an emperor – Menelik I – the first in a very long line of emperors that ended with Haile Selassie being overthrown in 1974. Rastafarianism, a religion originating in Jamaica that blended Christianity with African spiritualism, states that Haile Selassie was a divine figure, the Lion of Judah, and the embodiment of God, known as Jah.

The Ark’s presence in Axum is deeply intertwined with Ethiopian religious and national identity. It’s believed to be a symbol of the country’s sanctity and the divine mandate of its rulers. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, where the Ark is said to be housed, is a major pilgrimage site, attracting visitors seeking to connect with the Ark’s sacred power and learn more about Ethiopia’s unique place in biblical history.

Every Christian church in Ethiopia is modelled to resemble the Temple in Jerusalem – and to celebrate the presence of the Ark at Axum. In the middle is a holy of holies (“meqdes), where a replica of the Ark of the Covenant is kept; then a holy place (“qedest”) where communion is given: and finally, the qene māḥelet where priests, acting like the Levites of ancient Israel, chant praises to God.

The Knights Templar, the Ark, and Ethiopia

We now get a story articulated most recently in Graham Hancock’s bestselling book, The Sign and The Seal. In his account, the Ark was removed from the Temple in Jerusalem, around 650 BC, during the reign of King Manasseh of Judah. This ruler is a hate figure in the Old Testament because he restored the worship of other gods and it’s inferred that he engaged in child sacrifice to the deity, Moloch. Manasseh either ordered the removal of the Ark as he installed other gods in the Temple, or the Levite priesthood spirited it away from Jerusalem in disgust at the king’s policies.

The Ark spent two centuries in a specially constructed temple on Elephantine Island in Egypt. It was then taken up the Nile to Lake Tana in Ethiopia where it was placed on an island: Tana Kirkos. There it remained for 800 years. After which, it came into the hands of the Ethiopian Christian church, which took the Ark to Axum, where it remains.

Fast forward two thousand years from King Solomon and we arrive in Jerusalem during the Crusades. The Knights Templar were formed around the year 1118. They were based on the Temple Mount, believing the area to be the site of the original Temple of Solomon, long destroyed by the Babylonians. The Ark had been missing already for 1,500 years.

Hancock draws on a variety of sources to back up his Templar theory about the Ark. After examining the Kebra Negast, Arthurian legends (Parzival in particular), iconography at Chartres Cathedral, the legend of Prester John, the testimonies of Ethiopian monks, and local legends – he concludes that the Templars attempted to seize the Ark from Ethiopia.

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In this audacious act of holy larceny, they were assisted by a renegade Ethiopian prince, Lalibela, who turned up in Jerusalem in the year 1165. He had fled his homeland after his half-brother, Harbay, had tried to kill him. Harbay was now on the throne in Ethiopia while Lalibela was reduced to being a refugee. He shared his miserable tale with the Templars, pointing out in passing that the Ark was in Ethiopia. The knights’ ears pricked up given their keen interest in holy relics.

READ MORE: The Templar discoveries under the Temple of Solomon

So, the Templars conspired with the disgruntled prince to help him take the Ethiopian throne from Harbay while they would make off with the Ark. Despite complaining letters from Harbay to the crowned princes of Europe about the threatening knights, Lalibela seized power with Templar help. But the Templars don’t appear to have got their hands on the Ark. Indeed, some knights were still in Ethiopia over a century later helping the locals to build churches – with the treasure out of their grasp.

Hancock believes that at some point, the Ethiopians got fed up of the Templars eyeing up the Ark and sent a delegation to the Pope begging him to bring the knights to heel. And pointing out that if the Templars took the Ark, it would make them incredibly powerful. So mighty in fact that they could pose a serious problem for the King of France.

The Pope at that time, Clement V, was firmly under the King of France’s thumb. He reported back to King Philip who took the Ethiopian warning extremely seriously. We’re then asked to believe that this warning from Africa set in motion the trials of the Templars and their destruction – or at least played a part in beginning this process.

If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!