The Ark of the Covenant is described in religious texts as a wooden chest overlaid inside and out with gold, believed to have been created in the late Bronze Age under Moses’s direction. According to the Hebrew Bible, it contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a pot of manna. Its lid—called the “mercy seat”—was flanked by two cherubim whose wings stretch out over it. Built of acacia wood, it measured about two and a half cubits long by one and a half wide and high (roughly 4 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 3 inches) and had gold rings holding poles so priests could carry it without touching it directly.

These details are found in the Book of Exodus and other canonical texts.

In biblical narratives, the Ark plays multiple roles. It leads the Israelites during their desert wanderings, precedes them when they cross the Jordan, and is carried around Jericho in the ritual ceremonies connected to that city’s fall. It is housed ultimately in the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple, marking it as the center of Israelite worship. Throughout the reigns of David and Solomon its status is tied to political legitimacy and religious centralization.

Under King Josiah it is relocated—according to scripture—back to the Temple after being previously misplaced or hidden.

The Ark’s disappearance remains one of ancient history’s great mysteries. The Babylonian destruction of Solomon’s Temple in 587 BCE is traditionally associated with its loss. Jewish rabbinic writings offer multiple theories: that it was carried off to Babylon, hidden by King Josiah in tunnels beneath the Temple, or concealed in a cave by the prophet Jeremiah. None of these have been confirmed by archaeological evidence.

Several claims about its current location are circulating but remain unverified. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds that the Ark resides in Axum, kept in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. Some experts who have inspected the Axum object describe it as a medieval construct, not ancient enough to be the biblical Ark as described in Exodus. Another tradition associates the Ark with the Lemba people of southern Africa: their artifact called the Ngoma Lungundu is viewed as a replica, believed in some accounts to be fashioned from some remains of the original.

Scholars debate whether the Ark ever existed in physical form as described—or whether its story reflects later theological, political, or literary processes. Archaeological investigation has uncovered sites of ritual activity in places like Kiriath-Jearim which might track the Ark narrative, but none provide definitive proof of its presence. Its significance—religious, symbolic, and cultural—continues to be powerful, even in the absence of certifiable material verification.