The Ark of the Covenant was rediscovered through the leading of God. Ron Wyatt, the archeologist whom God had permitted to re-discover a number of significant archeological finds including Noah's ark, the Red Sea crossing site with its encrusted chariot wheels, the real Mt. Sinai with its blackened top and altars, was directed by God to dig in an area outside of old Jerusalem known as the Calvary Escarpment. The place is also known as the place of the Skull, reflecting a pattern in the rock and is fairly close to the Garden Tomb, one of the suspected burial places of Jesus (see map below). This was in an area located between the walls of Jerusalem and the Babylonian siege wall during the siege of Jerusalem prior to its fall and destruction around 586 B.C. Permission to excavate was granted by the Israeli government as well as by the owners of the two properties that would be affected.
A lot of rubble was removed from the excavation site and digging commenced. Efforts were fruitless on a number of trips, extending over a 3 year period. Finally the searchers dug into the hill, and found it honeycombed with natural tunnels, most quite narrow.
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At the time of the discovery, the diggers, an Arabian helper and Ron Wyatt came upon a small hole leading into another chamber. The hole was enlarged and the helper crawled into the chamber first, but with a horrified look on his face, rapidly exited, never to return to the honeycombs. Ron enlarged the access hole, entered the chamber, and when he saw the casement and the other sanctuary implements in the chamber and realized that he'd found what he'd been searching for over the past years, he fainted and remained unconscious for around 45 minutes. |
The chamber was about 6 feet high and about 20 feet long. It was filled to within 18 inches of the ceiling with fist sized rocks. The sanctuary implements (see list below) were covered with dry rotted wood and animal skins of some sort. At the far end of the chamber was a casement with a lid on it. It was of the right size to just hold an Ark of the dimensions indicated in the Bible.
Over the next several weeks, the chamber was emptied of the filler rocks and the sanctuary implements were uncovered and cleaned up. Also the original passageway into the chamber (through which the chamber contents had been brought in) was located. Attempts to clear the passageway ended in futility. [There are extensive man-made tunnels under the temple mount on which the temple of the Dome of the Rock currently stands. Some of these extend several miles in length.]
Items positively identified in the chamber include:
Besides these, there were many other artifacts and items of archeological significance in the chamber, including oil lamps and implements for the sanctuary service.
This find is probably the most significant archeological find in history. A number of dictators, including Adolph Hitler and Mussolini, felt that possessing the Ark would give them power over their enemies and aggressively sought for it. Yet it should be emphasized that the Ark itself has no power except as God's presence is dwelling there.
The Israeli government after examining artifacts brought from the chamber, has confirmed to its satisfaction that the Ark has indeed been found. However, to its credit, the government has been very careful with the release of information to prevent riots and the potential destruction of the Dome of the Rock by Jewish extremists. Some examples of what happened when people misused the ark discovery information.
The Israeli government, satisfied that the Ark has been found, has ordered the chamber to be sealed. The entryway was covered with a steel plate and then covered with 2 feet of rock and dirt. It awaits a better time for God to reveal it.
The following graphics are an artist's computerized renditions from eye-witness descriptions and sketches of the ark of the covenant. The ark was viewed directly by several witnesses both through a crack running down the casement surrounding the ark (see picture below) and through a colonoscope (a flexible yet controllable fiber optic viewing device normally used for examining the insides of a colon) on a number of occasions during a two year period before the Israeli government ordered the chamber sealed.
These pictures are adapted from segments of a computerized video clip that is on the Ark of the Covenant CD-ROM (see below).
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The ark is in a mortar casement with a lid on it which was cracked and the smaller part shifted away. (See sketch in the last graphic below). The crack continued through the casement to its base and permitted viewing through the crack, as well as through a colonoscope. The poles were still in place in the rings attached to the ark.
The atonement cover was of solid gold and was encircled by the pomegranates as mentioned in the Bible. The two cherubim (angels), one on either end, had their wings positioned at right angles to the other, one wing covering the back side of the ark, the other at their sides.
The cherubim at either side of the ark were attached to the lid and would come
off when the lid would be removed from the body of the ark. A close-up of the
cherubim's face indicated it looked much like we would expect an Levitical priest to
appear, with miter and full beard, not as many artists depict angels today.
The book of the law, written by Moses and placed in a pocket at the back side of the Ark, was still there (Deut. 31:24-26). Close examination with the colonoscope showed that the leather still looked fresh and supple. God had promised the Israelites that during their wanderings in the wilderness, their clothes and sandals would not wear out! (Deut. 29:5)
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During the excavations around the Calvary escarpment,
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While the above may seem too incredible and perhaps like a tabloid story, we recommend that you check it out for yourself. For many more marvelous details, facts, and pictures, surrounding the Ark rediscovery, order either the marvelous 595 page book by Jonathan Gray, Ark of the Covenant or the CD-ROM with the Ark of the Covenant discovery and many more pictures of the other discoveries mentioned on the Discoveries page.
 | The whole story as told by Ron Wyatt's wife |
| More Pictures and Text |
*Counting of the chromosome under an electron microscope (which was video taped) showed that the cells had only 24 chromosomes, 23 X-chromosomes from the woman, and one Y-chromosome. The usual number of chromosomes is 46, 23 X-chromosomes from the woman and 23 X or Y-chromosomes from the man. This condition is extremely rare, if present at all in other than this blood. An article entitled, The boy whose blood has no father published by David Bonthron and his colleagues at Edinburgh University in Nature Genetics (Vol. 11, p 164) talked about a 3 year old boy whose white blood cells had only X chromosomes, normally a signal for a female (a skin sample showed normal chromosome counts). Normally haploidy individuals cannot survive (as opposed to duploidy, having two sets of chromosomes). At least one Y-chromosome is required to trigger the production of a male.
Photos copyrighted by MindVision Interactive Pty Ltd., Adelaide, South Australia and Jonathan Gray.
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