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 | Does Warwickshire Hold the Lost Ark? |
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The legend of the Lost Ark of the Convenant is a Biblical tale that has inspired epic treasure hunts and Hollywood blockbusters. A holy golden relic, the whereabouts of the Ark’s final resting place has remained one of history’s most enduring secrets.
But now, after long being thought to be buried in the Holy Land, a self-styled archaeological detective, Graham Philips, has traced the Ark’s resting place to a quiet Warwickshire village.
According to the bible, the Ten Commandments were inscribed on two stone tablets that were given to Moses by God on top of Mount Sinai in Egypt. The Ark of the Covenant, a fabulous golden chest, was built at the request of Moses to hold these stone relics, and was kept in Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.
Here it lay until it disappeared after the Babylonian invasion of the city in 597BC. The Ark was then discovered in a cave near the ruins of the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan by the Crusaders, the Knights Templar, in the 12th century.
Evidence suggests that after defeat by the Saracens, the Knights took the Ark back home to Temple Herdewyke in Warwickshire. Here they left a further series of strange clues on the walls of a nearby church in Burton Dassett, that point to where they hid the Ark.
Graham Phillips has now tracked the final resting place to an old holy well in the village of Napton-on-the-Hill by Southam in Warwickshire. Although the Ark has not yet been found, he and his team have made a thrilling discovery of an inscribed stone slab which may have been one of the tablets it contained.
About an inch thick, and a foot and a half long, the sandstone slab is inscribed with what appears to be 13 separate symbols. These symbols are currently being analysed by experts in America but are still defying translation.
What excites academics most is that the tablet is made of the form of sandstone that comes from that of Mount Sinai in Egypt, sparking speculation that the find could well be one of the legendary tablets that was brought down from the mountain by Moses.
If so, this strongly suggests that the legendary gold chest could be buried somewhere in the local area and is the talk of academics, treasure hunters and archaeologists around the world.
Although academic opinion is split down the middle, Mr Philips maintains that the research is ongoing and his work will have a major impact on both Biblical study and English History.
Graham Philips has written a book about his discovery called 'The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant: The Discovery of the Treasure of Solomon' which is available in all good bookstores.
Adapted from an article by Wayne Francis in The Sunday Express - 28 November 2004. |
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