Archeologist thinks new tech could reveal where the Lost Ark is hidden at last

NY Post ^ | 4/21/26 | Alex Oliveira

[Libloather]

Paging Indiana Jones!

An American archeologist thinks he may know where the lost Ark of the Covenant is hidden, and is hoping to mount a search to find it.

Dr. Jones — err, Professor Chris McKinny — believes the Lost Ark may be waiting beneath the City of David, an archeological site just south of the Dome of the Rock which is considered to be one of the oldest sections of Jerusalem, the Daily Mail reported.

McKinny — an associate professor of biblical archeology at Lipscomb University in Tennessee — drew on biblical and historical texts to zero in on his hypothesis, and is hoping to deploy a high-tech device known as a muon detector to scan deep beneath the ground from the City of David to the Dome of the Rock to test his theory.

Muon detectors track subatomic particles that come from cosmic rays striking the atmosphere. The particles penetrate deep within the Earth, and allow people to map structures otherwise hidden beneath the ground.

Scans of the City of David have already revealed unexplored openings beneath the area, and the Ark — said to be plated in gold — would likely appear clearly on muon scans because of its gilded composition, according to McKinny.

The Ark has been missing since about 587 BCE when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians, and the Ark’s keepers hid it to prevent it from being destroyed or falling into enemy hands.

Legend says the golden chest carried the tablets of the Ten Commandments given to Moses by God, and was used by the Israelites as both a tool of protection and a powerful weapon that could topple city walls or afflict enemies with deadly plagues.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; History; Local News
KEYWORDS: archeologist; ark; lost; tech

[Libloather]

It's always in the last place you look.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

off topic but I just found out today that the city of Newark used to be called New ARK like Ark of the covenant?!

[lee martell]

If the subject is Noah’s Ark, I thought that had already been found near Turkey.

[Flaming Conservative]

Every single time!

[fidelis]

2 Maccabees 2:1-8:
1 One finds in the records that Jeremiah the prophet ordered those who were being deported [to Babylon] to take some of the fire, as has been told, 2and that the prophet after giving them the law instructed those who were being deported not to forget the commandments of the Lord, nor to be led astray in their thoughts upon seeing the gold and silver statues and their adornment. 3And with other similar words he exhorted them that the law should not depart from their hearts.
4 It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. 5And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance. 6Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it. 7When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: "The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. 8And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated."

If the Ark of the Covenant is anywhere it is in a cave on Mt. Nebo where it was placed by the prophet Jeremiah at the time of the Babylonian Exile.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Don’t look, Marion!

[roving]

How many times have they found it so far?

[Rockingham]

Assuming that the Ark was originally interred on Mt. Nebo, it seems likely to have been retrieved after the Babylonia exile and eventually secreted elsewhere, almost certainly in or near Jerusalem. After all, one effect of the Babylonian exile was to unsettle Jewish religious practice and governance. In such a chaotic environment, the faction controlling the Ark might well have kept it hidden lest it be taken or misused by a rival faction or by the Romans after they arrived.

[fidelis]

Assuming that the Ark was originally interred on Mt. Nebo, it seems likely to have been retrieved after the Babylonia exile and eventually secreted elsewhere, almost certainly in or near Jerusalem. After all, one effect of the Babylonian exile was to unsettle Jewish religious practice and governance. In such a chaotic environment, the faction controlling the Ark might well have kept it hidden lest it be taken or misused by a rival faction or by the Romans after they arrived.

Of course those and other scenarios are possible, but I don't know of any documentary or other evidence for them. According the account given in 2 Maccabees (which states that the account there was taken from other records, probably now lost to us), Jeremiah, when he hid the Ark and the other Temple implements in the cave on Mt. Nebo, set very specific conditions for when they would be found again.

[fidelis]

How many times have they found it so far?

Many have claimed to have found it, but no one has ever produced physical evidence. The Ethiopian Church has long claimed it was taken to Ethiopia at the time of the Exile and keep it in a locked shrine (where, suspiciously) no outsiders are allowed to enter.

[ByteMercenary]

It is in Warehouse 13 ...

[Antihero101607]

Adam Schiff has it in a secure vault with his evidence of Russian collusion, and alleged nudes of President Trump.