The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant

by Graham Hancock

The fate of the Lost Ark of the Covenant is one of the great historical mysteries of all time. To believers, the Ark is the legendary vessel holding the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Bible contains hundreds of references to the Ark's power to level mountains, destroy armies, and lay waste to cities. The Ark itself, however, mysteriously disappears from recorded history sometime after the building of the Temple of Solomon.

After 10 years of searching through the dusty archives of Europe and the Middle East, as well as braving the real-life dangers of a bloody civil war in Ethiopia, Graham Hancock has succeeded where scores of others have failed. This intrepid journalist has tracked down the true story behind the myths and legends - revealing where the Ark is today, how it got there, and why it remains hidden.

Part fascinating scholarship and part entertaining adventure yarn, tying together some of the most intriguing tales of all time - from the Knights Templar and Prester John to Parsival and the Holy Grail - this book will appeal to anyone fascinated by the revelation of hidden truths and the discovery of secret mysteries.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Archaeology, Ancient History, Mystery, Historical

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Graham Hancock is a British writer and journalist. His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx), The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval), Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind and Magicians of the Gods. He also wrote and presented the Channel 4 documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age and Quest for the Lost Civilisation. His first novel, Entangled, was published in 2010.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting...I'm skeptical, but open

Continuing...

This book is a trip, almost literally. I never read with my rose glasses…. You know, prove it, I’ll believe it. So I went to several Ethiopian web sites, and it seems everyone in Ethiopia claims the Ark IS there. Hmmm…. So far, the main delight is the view of European history from a different, and if the author is correct, very enlightening angle. From Pope Clement V, Vasco de Gama, the Masonic Rite…. I am seeing some aspects of European history in a different light, and I admit the hook is in my mouth. As for the Ark, I’ll keep reading…. The supposition is that it has been in Ethiopia for about 2,900 years. So much can happen in 3,000 years…..

Ok, my review:

Ever see a movie that was full of excitement and action from start to almost end, and then, as if the director suddenly ran out of money, the movie just stops, ends; almost no resolution?

Maybe not; I have. That is this book. It just stops, bamb. No answer.

That doesn't make it a bad book, in fact, this book will go on my book shelf, instead of all the many boxes of books Brenda & I have packed away. This is 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', inreal life. I finished a few days after I bought the book. As above, it has great value in getting one to look at history from a different angle. Veracity? Hmmm... I checked some of the events in the book and those I checked seemed accruate; but I never found out if Sir Issac Newton was a freemason. Irony has my reading the autobiography of Ariel Sharon just after reading Sign and the Seal. He actually mentions the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, and also the issues of their beliefs and customs which are expounded on in the Sign book.

So, is the Ark of the Covenant in Africa? Great book, but no answer. The Ark travels in public from time to time, but it is always covered. The author was not allowed near it. So the Ark is there, or it isn't. I guess the future will let us know. Despite the lack of a resolution, the book it great, and pertinent to current events, or perhaps I should say it has portent. That, along with the action and history, is why I give it five stars. The Ark, if returned to Israel, would belong in a new Temple, a Temple which belongs on the Temple Mount, which is now occupied by The Dome of the Rock. That is a political time bomb.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This appears to be the first 'alternate history' book published by Hancock, a spin-off from his previous years of work in Ethiopia which benefits from the access he had to officialdom there. Reading it, one gets the impression of an unfolding revelation regarding the history of the Ark. It's all quite entertaining.

One question not addressed, however, is the fundamental one: Did an ark containing inscribed stones ever exist at all--and if it did, could a container made of acacia wood physically survive 3000 years in the environments it is supposed to have been in? Beyond this there are other questions: Could a cold-encrusted wooden box of such a size, one containing rocks, have been carried as described? How much would it have weighed?

Then there's the question of documentary sources. Here Hancock displays a naive appreciation of the bible (and of the KJV, no less!) as a reliable source without sufficient appreciation of its formulation, its textual variants, its redactions and its (frequently retrospective) socio-political functions. For instance, taking the 'bible' as he does, are we to really believe that Moses was eighty when he led his folk out of Egypt and into the desert, and 120 when he espied the promised land?

In Hancock's defense, one might say that he's simply trying, as much as one might, to defend the claims of the Ethiopian Christians that they possess the Ark, to give the most plausible account of how that might be possible. And one might admit that, within the context of religious faith, he does so. Indeed, the last paragraphs of the book appear to be an admission of this sort.

Anyway, I thought it was a fun read, Hancock having tied up my ongoing interests in ancient Egypt, biblical history, Ethiopian religion, the Knights Templar, the Masons and the grail literature into an eminently readable, if thoroughly suspect, bundle.

[Jed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind-blowing book! Some of the parallels he finds are stunning, among, for example, the Old Testament description of the Hebrews' celebration when the Ark of the Covenant, carried on the shoulders of the priests, was placed in Solomon's Temple & the depiction on the wall of an ancient Egyptian temple of the celebration when the priests carried a similar object in the same way & the celebration the author observed in Ethiopia when the Christian priests carried the "Ark" on their shoulders. His search on the ground & in ancient texts for clues to when the Ark was removed from the Temple in Jerusalem, & where it went from there, is exciting & convincing. All in all, an amazing book.

[Brandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, after this, I'll be as caught up as I'm going to get. It might be a while before I post again, as what I'm currently reading is an unpublished manuscript, and the book up after that doesn't look like a quick read at all.

The final book to mention at the end of what amounts for me to be a flurry of posts is Graham Hancock's The Sign and the Seal. Hancock was the East African correspondent for The Economist until he began to write freelance in the early 1980's, when he became familiar with Ethiopian culture and politics. Part of this culture is the fervent belief that the Ark of the Covenant-- yes, THAT Ark of the Covenant--is kept even today under guard in the town of Axum. The story goes that the Ark was transported to Ethiopia during the time of Solomon, who had a son with the Queen of Sheba (whom the legend asserts was Ethiopian). This son went to visit Solomon, and made off with the Ark, transporting it to secrecy and safety in Northern Africa.

At first, Hancock took this story simply for that: a story. But then, several years later, he was visting Chartres with his family when he noticed something interesting in one of the archway freizes: a carving of the Queen of Sheba with an African/Ethiopian under her foot. The carving and a few others on the cathedral piqued Hancock's interest and set him off on a journey of many years in search of answers.

The best parts of this book, the parts which make it feel like a researcher's detective novel, are Hancock's rexamination of the facts known: the Knights Templar involvement in Jerusalem during the Crusades: the Falusha, a peculiar isolated Jewish tribe of Ethiopia; the establishment of a Jewish temple on an island in the Nile which may have been a stopping point for the Ark; the convergence of the Ark and the Holy Grail in medieval literature; etc. It's fascinating to see how Hancock pulls the pieces together, and at least opens some reasonable questions about the veracity of the legend.

The worst parts of the book, though, threaten to undermine a lot of the solid foundations Hancock lays. Two specific points come to mind: the time when, near the end of his journey, he makes a terribly irresponsible disclaimer-- that he doesn't care how the academics and scholars reply to his work. In other words, he won't accept scholarly inquiry or verification of his work, although he generously provides a very long bibliography. The second glaring fault, though, seems to justify his nervousness: a long passage in the middle of the book arguing that much of the advanced knowledge necessary to create an object as powerful as the Ark depicted in the Old Testament must have been derived from an ancient, unknown, and long disappeared civilization-- Atlantis.

Is the book still worth reading even with these thinly drawn speculations at its heart? Surprisingly, I would say yes, because I feel that the rest of the book would still be strongly formed without the Atlantis interlude. I want to call that section nonsense, but maybe I would be too quick to dismiss all of his observations out of hand. Not that I believe in the Atlantis myth for a second. However, there have been many observations of knowledge and civilizations lost over the centuries. This passage was the only area where Hancock's suppositions seemed utterly incredible, even though some of the others were a reach.

Even if the Atlantis section clunks down in the middle of the book like a malformed plaything, it somehow suits the topic, however, to have such mythology at its base. For a secular Christian society, the world wobbles atop fantastic stories of all sorts, and the metaphors shift in and out of literal reality with the passing time. The story of the Ark of the Covenant--and, if Hancock is to be believed, the corresponding quests for the Holy Grail-- is the iconic myth of valor, power, and holy favor. I mean, for us children of the 80's, there are few movie scenes more memorable than the one near the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indy and Marion are tied to the posts and the Ark is opened. Faces melt, souls are released, the magic sand of the desert does not like being mocked.This may be a trivial manifestation of the myth, but it does show the power of the story to captivate us even now.

There is a point near the end of the book when Hancock resigns himself to never actually seeing the true Ark. He realizes that he will have to be satisfied with the many symbolic replicas easily approachable at churches throughout Ethiopia. According to popular belief, THE Ark, of course, is jealously guarded, and although everyone knows of its existence, they know through faith, and not through being allowed to verify through facts and witness. There is a moment when that is enough. The strength of the story has carried through more than a thousand years, and there are still people who want to believe it so badly that they will dedicate their lives to protecting it. For at this point, the story and the artifact become one and the same.

[Yigal Zur · Rating 4 out of 5]

great story of looking for the lost arc which disappeared from jerusalem. ethiopia is full with secrets from the time of queen Sheba and this is the greatest mystery. Hancock went on a real journey to solve some of the intriguing secrets there. great tale

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I experienced a sense of déjà vu when I first picked up this paperback: black cover, red titles, a yellow band with the legend “the explosively controversial international bestseller” emblazoned across the front. Back home I realised why. The design was a rip-off of (or, if you prefer, a loving homage to) The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent et al from a decade before. Oh dear – more hype and more tripe, I sensed, for Holy Blood, Holy Grail was a real dog’s dinner of a few facts, a lot of fiction and huge dollops of sensationalist speculation.

In essence the book is, as it subtitle proclaims, “a quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant”. This artefact, popularised by the first of the Indiana Jones films, was ordered by Moses to be built near Mount Sinai after the exodus from Egypt. Modelled on Egyptian royal furniture, it functioned both as a container for the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments and as the seat of the invisible Israelite god Yahweh. Ensuring victory in battles for the Promised Land, it was placed in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem around the middle of the 10th century BC. And, after some subsequent references in the Old Testament, it simply disappears.

It is at this point that most crank theories begin. The ark is a giant storage battery. Or an alien spacecraft. It’s hidden in Atlantis. Or any combination of these. And it is then that I lose interest.

Twenty years ago Graham Hancock’s book seemed different. Yes, there are speculations about the Ark’s function, about Atlantis and so on, but it appeared at first that this ex-journalist had his feet firmly on the ground. His research suggests that in the reign of the apostate Manasseh (who flourished in the mid-seventh century BC) the Ark was removed from Jerusalem and taken to be housed in a purpose-built temple on the Egyptian island of Elephantine, on the Nile near Aswan. Two centuries later it was transported south into Ethiopia to an island on Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. For eight centuries it remained there in the midst of a long-established Jewish community (the Falasha people) until the country’s emperor converted to Christianity in the fourth century AD. Then it was removed to another Ethiopian town, Axum or Aksum, and placed in a new structure, the church of St Mary of Zion, where it remains as a vigorous and living tradition to this day, despite famine and civil war. And at the Ethiopian New Year (18th-19th January) replicas of Moses’ stone tablets, normally housed in the most secret part of every church, are carried in procession by the priests to tumultuous receptions.

As far as I could see there was nothing inherently implausible in this reconstruction, and much to recommend it. History, archaeology and common sense are not distorted by it, and the thirteenth-century legend that it was brought to Ethiopia by the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba can be seen as an enthusiastic attempt to explain its presence there. But, even if this reconstruction is true, what are we to make of Hancock’s further assertions, that the Ark of the Covenant is also the Holy Grail?

I must confess that my heart sank when I saw paraded the list of interested parties: the builders of Chartres, St Bernard, Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Knights Templar, the Freemasons and a few others besides. Haven’t we met these characters, the usual suspects, too frequently in decades past, and doesn’t each new theory claim to unite them all into an integrated secret history?

Hancock invites us to consider and re-assess some familiar motifs. In the eleventh century the Templars reportedly spent more time involved in archaeological activity on the site of the Temple than in protecting pilgrims – if remotely true, it was with little result. Then they appear to have shifted interest from there to Ethiopia, at a time when the Christian emperor of that country was establishing diplomatic relations with the Mediterranean world. Their emblem, the croix pattée, now appears there for the first time. Around that period elaborations of the Grail story (Parzival and Der Jüngerer Titurel) not only have Templar-like knights as guardians of the Grail but also set its last resting place in the land of “Prester John”, a legendary Christian emperor somewhere in the East. The sacred object is most often described as a stone, particularly one that had “fallen from heaven”, and Moses’ tablets of stone, some unnamed scholars have suggested, may have been part of a meteorite.

There’s more. After the downfall of the historical Templars it’s claimed continuity was maintained by two traditions: one is the Order of Christ – Portuguese Templars under another name – and the other is represented by the Freemasons. Prince Henry the Navigator, Grand Master of the Order of Christ, was very keen to establish diplomatic relations between Portugal and Ethiopia, while Vasco da Gama’s pioneering voyage around Africa in 1497 was in part an attempt to make contact with Prester John by a different route.

Meanwhile, it is often argued that the Templars survived in Scotland to pass on their secrets to another clandestine organisation, the Freemasons. It is noteworthy, Hancock observes, that the eighteenth-century Freemason James Bruce of Kinnaird travelled to Ethiopia, allegedly to “discover the source of the Nile” even though the Portuguese had already achieved this goal a century before. And it is significant that Bruce was instrumental in bringing copies of the Ethiopian Ark legend back with him to Europe.

I read this book two decades ago thinking that a précis doesn’t do justice to this intelligent and, it seemed to me, largely honest book. Here we had an author who, by his own account, risked his life to travel in war-torn Ethiopia and other parts of the Middle East. Why? All he wished to do was to ask the Ethiopian guardian of the Ark if he might have a glimpse of what obsessive research tells him is the prototype of the Grail (granted, this was a long shot given that the Axum priesthood have always kept their secret from prying eyes). An armchair archaeologist has to take on trust what an explorer describes, and The Sign and the Seal seemed to be more than just another sensationalist claim bolstered by hunches.

And yet I constantly got the impression that this breathless history would have done better as a novel than an historical study. Hancock’s interests in the supernatural, the paranormal and ‘lost’ knowledge come to the fore in his subsequent books; and as this book already exhibits clear pseudohistorical traits by cherry-picking of bits of arcane lore to mix in with travelogue, its conclusions are to me fatally compromised. There is also the odd conceptual merging of two distinct objects in Hancock’s text, the Ark itself and the Tablets of Moses which the Ark contained, so that we get the impression that the precinct of St Mary of Zion in Axum contains both Ark and tablets even though the church (or rather, the Chapel of the Tablet) only claims one tablet.

A more reliable and scholarly guide is Roderick Grierson and Stuart Munro-Hay’s The Ark of the Covenant (Phoenix 2000) which corrects many of the historical claims made by Hancock. The authors also draw attention to the unfortunate side-effects of Hancock’s book which are that this once obscure site is increasingly subject to outside pressure, with rumours that “international spies and intelligence networks have decided to steal the Ark of the Covenant”.

Wouldbe Indiana Joneses are continuing to muddy the waters, ensuring that the silt of myth remains trapped in suspension in the river of history. But at least the Indiana Jones films made it clear that the Ark and the Grail are completely separate.

http://wp.me/s2oNj1-ark

[Bo'kem Allah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Graham Hancock. I learned a lot about Ethiopia, Khemet, Freemasonry & Knights Templars, as Graham Hancock searches for the Arc of the Covenant. This was truely an eye opener for me. At the time I read it, I was a Rastaman seeking a deeper understanding of the importance of the Arc. This book served as a slap in the face to a delusional youth looking for validation of my religious ideology. I walk away from this book with a new outlook. Religious ideology is NOT based on truthful, factual, information.

[Bradley McCann · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read, if exasperating in places when Hancock pulls out his frailer theories, i.e. that Moses built the Ark with ancient advanced technology that was responsible for its ability to perform miraculous feats, etc. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the detective-hunt quality of the book and found the final, very personal, passages expressing the culmination of Hancock's search affecting.

[Euan Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got bored halfway because analysis so dense and graham makes so many leaps but I respect the passion and research and thoughtful retrospection of his own character

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graham Hancock makes me chuckle. As such, I picked up The Sign and the Seal as a bit of light reading, and I most certainly was not disappointed. In this book, Hancock weaves an intricate tapestry that ties together such disparate subjects as Freemasons, the magicians of ancient Egypt, the Knights Templar, Ethiopian Jews, and many many more.

The aim of this research? An effort to prove that the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant is a small town in Ethiopia.

I won't lie to you - the book is a fairly compelling page-turner and no mistake. Hancock's painstaking investigation into the origins of the Jewish community in Ethiopia, among others, seems quite well thought-out and intriguing; if Hancock didn't have such disregard for "mainstream archaeologists," I think he'd do a great job. Sadly, Hancock tends to gravitate towards fantastic and unprovable theories and explanations, and also tends to belittle anyone who follows a more "orthodox" approach to archaeology.

All in all, a great read. Just don't make the mistake of being convinced of his pseudoarchaeology. I think the following quote really says all you need to know about Hancock's methodology...

I was well aware that scholars might dispute my findings, and the conclusions that I had drawn from them - but, really, the approval of the 'experts' and the 'authorities' was not what I had sought during 1989 and 1990. Instead my goal had been an inner one in which I alone had been the judge and final arbiter of all the evidence and of all the arguments.

~ Graham Hancock

[Cole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started this (on Audible) and after 7 (out of 19) hours, I have given up.

I like some of Hancock's ideas and find him to be quite an interesting soul. He's absolutely not a scholar though (something he'd admit himself) yet he will write and act as one until called out to explain some of his ideas, at which point he'll say "I just ask questions".

This is quite infuriating when he quite clearly hints at a pretense to scholarship in his writing and you sit for hours listening to piffle, hoping some coherent point looms on the horizon. After 7 hours, I decided there wasn't one in the Sign and the Seal and gave up. If there was one and I missed it, then shame on Hancock for burying it.

This sort of writing is very keen and earnest; Hancock jumps around all over the place appearing to be desperately following leads in search for the truth. One minute we're in Ethiopia, the next we're in France, the next Israel etc. It just doesn't follow though. He writes as if he's coming to conclusions and following perfectly coherent evidence but he isn't. It's similar to those people who see patterns in tea-leaves; if you look hard enough, you'll find meaning and connection in anything. This is how these stories that pretend to be archaeological scholarship work.

It's complete nonsense and the thread gets lost so many times that I just got exasperated following Hancock flitting around from one half-baked lead to another. It's essentially a Dan Brown novel masquerading as non-fiction.

Adding to my woes in attempting to read this were that I have it in audiobook form and the narrator is absolutely terrible. I'll give him credit for being clear but that's about it. I've not listened to a more a pompous and irritating voice in quite some time. If I ever have to listen to him talk about the 'Kebra Nagast' again, I will poke out my ear drums.

Just horrible all round.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite snotty about this book, believing myself to be someone who only reads academic archaeology books (or at least looks at the pictures) and I was sneering of pop history like this – in the bookshop for instance its not even in the `archaeology’ section, its in the `alternative mythology’ section.
But OK it was fascinating. I didn’t buy everything - and he does drag those Templars in at every opportunity (oo not mentioned the Templars in 20 pages? Better stick them in now!) What is it with Templars and secrets in world history? I’m sure they get more credit than they deserve.
But I was convinced about the ancient antiquity of the Jews in Ethiopia, and their journey down the Nile into the Ethiopian heartlands. Makes you realise how ripped apart Ethiopia was in the terrible civil war of the 1980s – the fact that despite living in Ethiopia since 5th century BC Jews were exterminated and dispossessed and there’s only a shred of the original population left. You get used to thinking of Ethiopia as famine victims not as a civilised nation with a proud history and ancient culture.
There’s a wealth of historical detail, whether its Chartres Cathedral or the expulsion of the Jews from Egypt. I’m not religious myself, but I think the Bible is an important ancient historical text and many of the events described were real, even if its someone’s interpretation. Its one of the few occasions you have the Ancient Egyptians viewed by outsiders, and Graham Hancock makes full use of the Bible.
In the end does it matter or not that the Ark of the Covenant ended up in Ethiopia? As he says himself it’s the story of the Covenant that’s so fascinating.
I’d read another Graham Hancock book (even though I sense he’s a bit up his own backside!)

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating- probably nonsense, but fascinating. I first discovered this book during a rained-out camping trip as a sixth-grade Boy Scout. There was nothing much to do but shelter in the tents, and this was before smart phones and tablets so any book left lying around was precious cargo if your friends were in a different cabin or early to bed, late to rise types. So I read the prologue, was fascinated, and promptly forgot the book when I returned to real life.

Flash forward almost twenty years and I found the book again by chance. That opening is just as haunting as I remembered, and the rest of the book keeps up with it. The dual storylines here seem inconsequential to each other, but actually work well together: the search for the Ark of the Covenant through millennia of coded references and clues, and a journalist's gradual understanding of the terrible part he played in normalizing fascism in Africa. While much of this book is wild speculation, and much is probably outright fiction, it's still a great ride to take.

[C.E. Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written and well-researched travelogue and history of Ethiopia from about 1000 BC to 1990. It especially looks at the Tigray region. As I'm writing this in 2020, Tigray and Ethiopia are at war again.

Graham weaves a rich, heavily-cited (before the internet!) story of Jewish history and the Black Jews and Christians of Ethiopia. Fascinating and fun read that lines up pretty well with what I further explored on Wikipedia.

Despite Graham's ability to research ancient history, he is at his best when in the present--expressing what it feels to stand at a certain place and a certain time. Fingerprints of the Gods does the same thing, making archeology come alive and putting the reader there with him.

Obviously, the ending of the book is what you expect. There has been no earth-shattering news. Unfortunately, DNA evidence (and those poor Jewish Ethiopians have been tested up the wazoo) has contradicted some of the suppositions of the book. So it goes.

[Amanda Lathellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was utterly fascinating to me. I am no expert in history or archaeology, but this book made me want to continue on in my learning.

Graham Hancock is known to be a bit of a “pseudoscientist”, but I find his writing engrossing, exciting, and very well done. He somehow made African, particularly Ethiopian history not only digestible for a wide audience, but interesting and gripping. I’m now in a bit of a history/archaeology phase where I want to explore and read more of these types of things.

Some things did bother me in the story, though. In my opinion, Hancock wasn’t the most respectful of the peoples and cultures he visited and studied. A lot of the story was him being upset when things didn’t go his way which is understandable but there was a point where I was shocked at what he tried to get away with.

If you’re looking for a book that you can take with a grain of salt in certain aspects but also learn a ton about parts of the world, look no further.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm halfway through this book and enjoying it! So much information about Ethiopa, Egypt, Israel and surrounding areas. So much research into the history of the areas and the people who lived there. This has made me curious for more information - last night I read the book of Genesis in the Bible, and tonight will read more. I like how this book helps me to understand the different ways of life that people have lived in the past, and still do. This book was great and I'm keeping it so that I can read it again someday. The author had done much research to tell about the areas in the story and some of the ways of life and religion years & years ago. I didn't pay much attention to his main point of the story concerning the Ark of the Covenant, I just enjoyed the story for all the historical detail. Finished 6-9.

[Doodle Chlor]

Good

[Peter Wolfley · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the beginning I found the tactics of the author to drive his argument home extremely difficult to accept. It all felt very much like pseudoscience and Nicholas Cage treasure hunting. But as I carried on I came to really appreciate the opportunity to hold what would initially seem like an outlandish idea in my mind and work through and turn it over.

I learned a ton about ancient history and got to ponder on some surprisingly deep questions.
- was the ark a piece of advanced technology?
- there have been several moments in history where major advances in many fields have come out of nowhere. What’s behind that?
- looking at legends and myths as clues about history
- being open to things we can’t explain

[Nahdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this decades ago, not long before Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Enthralling and engrossing stuff. Conspiracy Theorists Unite !

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graham Hancock is an English journalist who has traveled extensively in Ethiopia, and has worked for the Ethiopian government. This gave him an unusual opportunity to write an interesting book about his search for the Lost Ark of the Covenant.

There are different traditions concerning the Ark. The most interesting one is the Indiana Jones version, in Raiders of the Last Ark suggesting it's being stored in a government warehouse somewhere near Washington D.C. Another seems more likely, buried outside of Jerusalem by the prophet Jeremiah; another suggests the magical artifact was assumed into heaven; (I like this tradition, but is difficult to prove.) When one dies you can schedule a visit to the heavenly temple to see if it rests there along with mother Mary. The tradition Hancock examines is one of the most intriguing. It was taken to Egypt by Jews at the time of Jeremiah (that flight is mentioned in latter chapters of Jeremiah, but the ark is not explicitly mentioned). It morphs into a tradition about the ark being transported from Egypt to Ethiopia, where it is guarded by Jews who claim descent from these exiles.

Hancock does a good job of suggesting the Ark really exists in Axum Ethiopia. There under the watchful eye of the Guardian of the Ark it remains to this day.

In 1983 Hancock was hired to write a coffee table book about Ethiopia for the government of Ethiopia. While there he encountered Ethiopia's Falashas Jews. (The so-called Lost Tribe of Israel.) He learned these Black Jews did exist and, in fact, because of persecution they were immigrating to Israel.

Initially frustrated by his first attempt to see the Ark he returned to England. Inspired by Spielberg's movie, though, he was inspired to continue his search.

This led him to investigate and study every thing he could about the Ark. Apparently, according to the Biblical narrative it was built at Mount Sinai and carried by the people of Israel until eventually when Solomon built the first temple around 955 B.C. It sat there in the Holy of Holies until it later disappears from the Biblical narrative.

One assumes it disappeared during the defeat to the Babylonians, but it is not listed amongst the items taken into exile. This omission leads to speculation about what did happen.

One tradition suggests it was stolen by Solomon's outcast son who carried it south to Ethiopia. There it remained for 800 years by a Judaic cult. Apparently the Knights Templar seized it and thought it was the Holy Grail. The Templars apparently constructed a great church to keep the Ark.

Since that time all the churches in Ethiopia have their own replicas of the Ark. Even though the original is never seen, on the holiest days of the year the replicas are brought out and the people parade through the villages and towns carrying their replica. The ceremony which is called timkat sounds like quite a spectacle to behold.

Although Hancock is denied access to the Ark it's obvious he believes that the people of Ethiopia believe they possess the real Ark of the Covenant.

I'm not sure what to make of it. I found Hancock to be a good storyteller, and I wanted him to tell me he convinced the Guardian of the Ark to let him view it, but in the end what is faith? Isn't it believing in things not seen, but hoped for? I find it intriguing that a whole nation believes this tradition, and that their cultural heritage has caused the Ark to be a central part of their heritage.

Why did this happen in Ethiopia, but not anywhere else?

Review

[Giuseppe Circiello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Congetture, supposizioni, coincidenze, ipotesi, soggettive sicurezze, insinuazioni, illusioni... insomma questo libro è come una puntata di Voyager...
Lo comprai durante i primi anni di superiori... perché all'epoca questo genere di misteri mi intrigava, complice il bellissimo videogame "Gabriel Knight 3", in cui la trama era incentrata sul Graal, i Templari, Gesù, la Maddalena etc etc...
Oggi posso dire che, fortunatamente, pagai pochissimo questo tomo di Graham Hancock, che come (pseudo)saggio non vale molto, nonostante lui ci metta l'anima nel tentare di far quadrare il suo ragionamento.
Vale forse un po' di più come diario di viaggio e dà comunque interessanti nozioni sulla storia e la geografia dell'Etiopia e sulle usanze di alcune popolazioni.
Ma sostanzialmente, benché scorrevole, il tempo si può impiegare meglio.

Comunque non parla del Graal. In realtà il libro parla dell'Arca dell'Allenza.
Il titolo dell'edizione italiana è quanto di più fuorviante ci sia. Ci sarebbe da ritirare la licenza ai traduttori e agli editor di questa casa editrice. In 519 pagine del Graal si fa menzione solo per dire che, secondo Graham, esso è in realtà l'Arca dell'Allenza.
Almeno questo c'è da riconoscerlo allo scrittore scozzese, il titolo originale è: The sign and the Seal. The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant.

In sostanza, se lo si prende per quello che è (una puntata di "Mistero" o di "Voyager"), si può anche non essere troppo severi col signor Hancock.

[matteo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love some good religious pseudo-history conspiracy theorizing, and this brings it in spades. Can something be historical nonfiction fiction? Yes!

Maybe when this came out in the early 1990s, before everything was findable on the internet, it caused a huge stir? The first half of the book involves a fascinating ride through a rabbit hole of Christian and Jewish history and myth, from Ethiopia to Israel to France, involving the Knights Templar and, of course, Indiana Jones. Then there's a segway into Egypt that kind of derails the flow. Then things come back to Ethiopia to finish up with a thud, as the gist of the book is that Hancock jumps to conclusions because, while he can't find any actual proof of anything, he also can't find any proof of NOT anything.

It's an entertaining read, nonetheless. And to Hancock's credit, it is pretty well written, save for the numerous references to Indiana Jones movies and the general hedging. It's almost believable, which can't be said for a book this reminded me of: Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the author's premise is a good one, the evidence he bases his conclusions off of is flimsy at best.

Do I think it's possible that the Ark of the Covenant ended up in Ethiopia? Anything's possible, I suppose. It went somewhere. It didn't just disappear without a trace.

I guess I'm really on the fence about the whole thing. Is the Ark in Ethiopia? Possibly. The Ethiopians brag that they have it, but none will admit to actually having seen it.

If not Ethiopia, then where is it? Who has it? Considering the value of such an artifact, not just to history, but to religion, if another country/group was in possession of the Ark, surely they would come forward? If for no other reason than to brag?

If the Ark is in Ethiopia, then it is with a people who cherish it and respect it, which is the impression I get from Mr. Hancock's book. Maybe we're better off not knowing for certain where the Ark is. It's hard to say.

[Scott Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading and being impressed with Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods (and admittedly being a huge Indiana Jones fan), I decided to read his investigation into the whereabouts of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant. While not as much of an interdisciplinary study as Fingerprints, The Sign and the Seal focuses mostly on historic documents and cultural legends, it was just as much fun.

[Nichole · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads like a dissertation, complete with half-page footnotes. The Author is trying to prove his theory of where the Ark of the Covenant is hidden by extrapolation from other sources and tales. I literally spent months trying to read this book, but I kept falling asleep. After about 2/3 of the book I just gave up.

[Fahd · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a fan of history, or distant lands, or treasure finding, or mysteries, or are just intrigued by the notion that there may indeed be more truth to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" than meets the eye, then look no further. This book takes you through a journey of all of the above, and is tied up very smoothly by Graham Hancock and his gift with words.

[Natajia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read any of his other books, but they are certainly on my "to-read" shelf.
This book to you on a journey through time history, and he did it WELL.
It was like a treasure hunt, about one of the holiest objects in history.
And his opinions on everything were just so interesting to think about.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I like Hancock's style, his ideas and theories in this book are just too far-fetched to be even somewhat believable. And while I do not believe much of what he writes, the completely implausible premise to this book just makes it that much harder to read.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Entertaining bunkum!
The Ark of The Covenant was stolen from the Temple of Jerusalem at sometime between the Babylonian sacking and the Roman destruction in the C1st BC, and smuggled to North East Africa by a refugee Jewish Sect. It currently resides in a small Ethiopian Village.
No Honestly!

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

515 pages plus references. Interesting journey of the author who believes the Ark of the Covenant is currently hidden in Axum, Ethiopia.