An Unbelievable Ark Of The Covenant Announcement And 10 Relic Trips (PHOTOS)

Reports are cropping up that the fabled Ark of the Covenant, said to contain the remnants of the Ten Commandments, has been discovered along with the Tomb of Alexander the Great on the Greek island of Thasos.

The Focus Information Agency, a Bulgarian outfit not exactly renowned for accuracy, is reporting that Grekomania.ru, a Russian web portal that purports to be an "official information partner of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Greece," has claimed that a group led by Nikolaos Kumardzis, an archeologist apparently unaffiliated with any other dig, has identified one of the world's great treasures. At least one Armenian newspaper is running a similar story.

What more confirmation could anyone possibly want?

Thasos, which is near Macedonia, has long been rumored as the potential resting place of Alexander the Great, who died in Babylon in 323 BC after conquering Persia and consolidating Eurasian power. The connection between the great military leader and the ten commandments -- none of which he could truly be said to have followed -- is unclear, which makes the news that they were discovered together even less credible.

That being said, the Ark of the Covenant has inspired travelers and explorers for hundreds of years and is likely to continue to do so. It is worth remembering that pilgrimages remain part of the modern travel culture and that visiting relics or searching for them is quite popular in much of the world.

Because the Ark of the Covenant story is likely to bounce around the internet, exciting then disappointing people, we thought it would be nice to offer up a selection of places where relics were actually discovered.

We can't vouch for the authenticity of every one of these relics, but they are revered by many of the faithful.

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Comments

[Edoardore34]

03:31 PM on 12/20/2011

There is a new original theory, based exclusively on the very words of the Bible: www.israelhai.org worth reading because it exposes where is the Ark and how it got there and the machinery used.
Dr. Edoardo Shmuel Recanati

[Holly Smoke]

03:24 AM on 11/27/2011

I understand the biggest lie ever told was discovered in the White House, many times...

[ImWatching]

07:21 PM on 11/21/2011

Looks like Greeks beat me to the punch . . .

www.thestcroixark.com or www.thearkofthecovenant.me

Enjoy!

JP Noel

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

09:06 PM on 11/17/2011

Anyone interested in a fascinating take on the story can check out "The Lost Ark of the Covenant" by Tudor Parfitt. It's an exciting detective story, well worth reading.

[John Genryu]

05:26 AM on 11/16/2011

Why are you putting a fake story on the Buddhism page?

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

11:25 PM on 11/14/2011

Hey, Huff Puff, why is this on the Buddhism page?

[LondonDavid]

10:58 PM on 11/14/2011

Heaven's sakes...I'm a Roman Catholic, I spent two years as a seminarian. Let me tell you where the Ark is - the Romans carried it off to Rome as spoils of war and melted it down along with the other items from the Temple. The friggin procession is engraved on Trajan's Arch for all to see - Roman soldiers carrying the treasures aloft in celebration of Judea's destruction. The beauty of it is that there are probably fragments of the Ark's gold in jewellery items throughout European museums.

The Ark is gone. It is no more. It is (to paraphrase Monty Python) "an ex-Ark".

But Ali Baba's flying carpet?....well step right up coz you're in luck folks, I have the very carpet and it can be yours in four easy installments of just $4,000,000 !!

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

11:32 PM on 11/14/2011

If the Ark ever existed it was carried off by the Babylonians when they captured Jerusalem in 598 BCE. After the Exile the Judeans built a new Temple and filled it with golden candlesticks and whatever, that is what Trajan carried off. But there was nothing in the Sanctuary when the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE. He graciously allowed the Temple to keep the golden table and the candlesticks and pitchers and money, but he insisted on seeing the inside of the Holy of Holies. He was very surprised that there was nothing in it.

[LondonDavid]

12:24 AM on 11/15/2011

Hmmm...It would have been bizarre in the extreme for the Romans to leave anything in the temple; it just isn't their style. They built their temple on top of Solomons and flattened the remains, so it's virtually impossible that they missed the Holy of Holies in the process of doing that.

What I do remember is that the Spear of Destiny was shown to have a medieval origin BUT...here's the interesting bit...the nail at the centre of the Spear does indeed date from the time of Christ's death!

A brilliant study was done some years ago into the common assertion that "There are enough pieces of 'The True Cross' to build Noah's Ark". Well guess what, contrary to that pithy joke they found that all the known relics of the Cross, put together, are enough wood to build....a Cross.

They're signs of faith to us, they're not God.

[jaggeththewires]

09:12 PM on 11/14/2011

Only a sanctified priest could touch the arc sooo who is willing to verify?

[onegr8writer]

06:56 PM on 11/14/2011

They actually found it at Rick Perry's house ! The Ark, The Holy Grail and .......ummmm....what was that third thing ??? Oops

[maceov]

10:09 PM on 11/11/2011

With regards to the Ark of the Covenant being on Thasos, no. It is most DEFINITELY not.

Rabbi Yehuda Getz is WELL-DOCUMENTED in finding the chamber beneath the Holy of Holies, where it still lies. Six Levite priests attempted to retrieve it some time ago and all fell dead before reaching within 50 feet of the doorway of the cave/chamber that houses the Ark of the Covenant. Rabbi Getz was afraid to look upon it fully, and instead backed up with a mirror to look in the crack in the wall. The Ark is still there IN JERUSALEM. It has been partially damaged, with one of the cherubs fallen over from a large rock that fell on it, but it is still there.

The Ark CANNOT be retrieved, until the Third Temple is erected. THEN and only then will they be able to restore the Ark to its proper place, where animal sacrifices will continue as before in Biblical times.

I do know that King Solomon, fashioned a copy of the Ark of the Covenant for the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia) and sent Levite priests along with the copies of the temple implements along with her. Hence the Ethiopian jews that have recently returned to Israel. Who knows if Solomon or Sheba or their son, Menelik, the Emperor of Ethiopia, recreated more copies. That is not documented. At least, not to my knowledge.

Very interesting find though if it is an ACCURATE copy.

B'Shalom (In Peace)

[John Genryu]

05:28 AM on 11/16/2011

Total nonsense. Please stick with verifiable facts.

[sunbeltvoter]

06:41 PM on 11/19/2011

Oh come on, everyone knows the Ark is in a wood box misfiled in a big governent warehouse. Unlike your story, there is photographic "proof" that the US government has the Ark.

[zzxyy]

04:56 PM on 11/11/2011

if we were to all live by the commandments in the bible there would be a perfect world.

[thelatescottbaio]

11:09 PM on 11/11/2011

except there would be no capitalism, because you can't covet goods. there'd be no art, since technically the second commandment forbids drawing of any kind. the majority of the world would be stoned to death as is commanded in Deuteronomy 17:1-5 should we keep going? and do you mean just the ten? or the 365? or the 613 mitzvot? when do we start killing people for mixing polyester and cotton as the bible says? do you automatically have to kill yourself for violating mitzvot 60? read your bible you'll get the joke

[ZenCrusader]

07:20 AM on 11/12/2011

zzxyy was probably refering to the Ten Commandments and his statment is very true.

[Mark Morlock]

11:47 PM on 11/12/2011

I concur. The problem isn't the rules set down by God, the problem is the rules established by men and written in Leviticus. Another problem, though, is how boring that world would be...The world was not meant to be perfect or maybe even ideal. The world was meant to be the way it is right now which is kind of sad if you think about it.

[ibeyour1]

02:50 PM on 11/11/2011

"The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus claims to possess the head of John the Baptist, which is more than could be said of the man who baptized Jesus after he was decapitated by Herod"
How respectful and reverent. Not the proper place for jokes of no taste or class.

[thelatescottbaio]

01:40 AM on 11/12/2011

in case you didn't notice the whole article is a joke. john the baptist never existed so who cares where his imaginary head is

[ZenCrusader]

07:21 AM on 11/12/2011

you don't believe he ever existed. can you prove he never existed ?

[LondonDavid]

11:01 PM on 11/14/2011

Hate to break it to you, but there aren't any serious historians who will tell you John the Baptist never existed.

You really need to read something other than the National Enquirer.

Try Josephus, for example.

[seelieme]

04:48 PM on 11/13/2011

There are two heads of John the Baptist on display in the reliquary collection at the Resisenz in Munich. Two!

[dlb4900]

10:15 PM on 11/14/2011

proof that two heads really are better than one

[deb52carter]

02:32 PM on 11/11/2011

the ten commandments are rules of law and morality-----------just do it. live clean lives,and america will get better.

[VictoryBlue]

03:06 PM on 11/21/2011

Just try taking that message to Wall Street or Washington. Just remember to take a helmet.

[babby201]

02:14 PM on 11/11/2011

A half eaten cheese sandwich left behind by Charleton Heston?

[Scott Moguns]

02:00 PM on 11/11/2011

I am not religious, but I do love history and I love archeology! They go hand in hand, but anyway, if this find is real, that would be so cool! And maybe this would put some of the myths surrounding the Commandments and the Ark of the Covenant!!!!
What a great fine if it is true the the finder will become world famous...
But let wait and see what happens!!!!