The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia, a declassified CIA report has alleged. The discussion surrounding the location of the Ark resurfaced after Kenya's televangelist Ezekiel Odero claimed that he had bought the Ark and brought it to Kenya.
During a church service on March 23, Pastor Ezekiel claimed that he had bought the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem and paid millions at customs to have it brought into Kenya.
"I bought this Ark somewhere in a village in Jerusalem where Jesus was born, then I was told that I could not carry it to Kenya, but I asked, how many millions must I pay? Then I paid at customs and carried it to Kenya," Ezekiel alleged.
However, amid Ezekiel’s claims, international media houses resurfaced declassified CIA documents from 1988, suggesting that the US government may have located the biblical Ark of the Covenant using psychic intelligence techniques under a secret Cold War-era programme.
According to the New York Post, the report is linked to Project Sun Streak, a classified US Defense Intelligence Agency initiative that attempted to gather information on distant targets using individuals trained to perceive unseen or far-off locations, better known as remote viewers.
The New York Post reports that the ark was initially believed to be kept inside the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the ancient temple of Jerusalem, before it disappeared during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
It was then alleged that the Ark was taken to Ethiopia and now resides in a local church. There was no evidence of the Ark being found in Ethiopia until a CIA document, declassified in 2000, claimed it was discovered in 1988.
"The target is a container and has another container inside of it. The target is fashioned of wood, gold, and silver, and it is decorated with [a six-winged angel]," the CIA report said, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
The remote viewer further alleged that the coffin-shaped object was "located somewhere in the Middle East" and observed people in the area speaking Arabic, the Jerusalem Post reported.
"The purpose of the target is to bring people together. It has something to do with ceremony, memory, homage, the resurrection. There is an aspect of spirituality, information, lessons, and historical knowledge far beyond what we now know," Metro reported.
According to the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was built by the Israelites shortly after they fled Egypt around the 13th century BC. Moses then placed the Ten Commandments inside.
Pastor Ezekiel has elicited a heated debate on the authenticity of what he argues is the Ark of the Covenant. Ezekiel's 'ark' is made of what looks like gold, with six conjoined wings on top of the square box.
