They were slaughtered while trying to stop real raiders from the Lost Ark – an artifact so powerful and sacred they were never allowed to see it.
The poignant mass murder of at least 800 people in an Ethiopian church in Tigray highlighted the apparent whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant, one of the greatest mysteries in religion and the stuff of movie legend.
The ark – a large, gold-covered wooden box that is said to contain the Ten Commandments of Moses – was kept in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem for centuries, but disappeared after Jerusalem was sacked in 586 or 587 BC, according to the Old Testament .
Since then, its whereabouts have remained unknown – with rumors that it was stolen by the Knights Templar and hidden in a rebuilt French cathedral, and that it was buried next to Alexander the Great in Greece.
However, the Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia have long maintained that the Ark was held in a chapel in the Church of St. Mary of Zion in the sacred northern city of Axum.
Legend has it that the ark was brought to Ethiopia in the 10th century BC after it was stolen by the staff of Menelik, son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel – who believed the theft was permitted by God because none of his men were killed.
The ark is said to be so dangerous that it was always covered while it was being moved – and in Axum, only virgin monks ordained keepers are allowed to look at it.
There have never been photographs of it, only illustrations based on the description from Exodus chapter 25, verses 10-21, of an “acacia wood” chest covered in gold and carried on two poles.
Even the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is “ forbidden to see it, ” then-head, His Holiness Abuna Paulos, told Smithsonian Magazine in 2007. “The keeper of the ark is the only person on earth to have such unparalleled honor. , ”He said at the time.
The guardian “prays constantly by the ark, day and night, burning incense for it and paying homage to God,” the then high priest of Aksum told the magazine.
Only he can see it; all others are forbidden to see it or even come close to it. ”
Thousands gather at the Zion Church in late November to celebrate the day Ethiopians believe the Ark of the Covenant was taken there – one reason so many people were there during the November massacre, which was only recently reported.
“When people heard the shooting, they ran to the church to lend support to the priests and others who were there to protect the ark,” Getu Mak, 32, a university professor, told The Times of London. “Certainly some of them were killed for that.”
Reports of the destruction and looting of priceless artifacts by troops raised fears that the Ark might be the target. “Everyone was afraid it would be taken … or just disappear, including me,” Mak told the British newspaper.
It was not immediately clear how the ark of the church was saved, nor what happened to the guard.
Some historians also claim that the sacrifices were made to defend a worthless replica.
Edward Ullendorff, a late professor at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), previously told the Los Angeles Times that he had seen the ark during World War II and that it was “a wooden box, but he is empty “.
“Middle to late medieval construction, when these were manufactured ad hoc,” he said in the 1992 interview, saying that the mystery surrounding it “was primarily to preserve the idea that it is a revered object.”
Before his death, Ullendorff told fellow professor Tudor Parfitt that “it was in no way different from the many arks he had seen in other churches in Ethiopia,” Parfitt told Live Science in 2018.
“It wasn’t old and certainly not the original Ark,” said Parfitt.
Ethiopians have long brushed aside such reports, but insisted that people be shown counterfeit to protect the real ark, with their faith as strong as ever.
“When you attack Axum, you attack first of all the identity of Orthodox Tigrayans, but also of all Ethiopian Orthodox Christians,” said Wolbert Smidt, an ethnohistorian specializing in the region. “Axum itself is considered a church in the local tradition, ‘Axum Zion.'”
With pole wires