Quote:..., UNESCO added Axum's archaeological sites to its list of World Heritage Sites due to their historic value. Prior to the beginning of the Tigray War in 2020, Axum was a leading tourist destination for foreign visitors.[sup][4][/sup]

Quote:It was rumored to house the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, in which lie the Tablets of Stone upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed.

Quote:Accordingly, the Ark was moved to the Chapel of the Tablet adjacent to the old church because a divine 'heat' from the Tablets had cracked the stones of its previous inner sanctum. The Ethiopian Empress Menen funded the construction of the new present chapel.

Quote:Tabot (Ge'ez ታቦት tābōt, sometimes spelled tabout) is a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, and represents the presence of God, in Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox Churches.[sup][1][/sup][sup][2][/sup][sup]: 135 [/sup][sup][3][/sup] Tabot may variously refer to an inscribed altar tablet (tsellat or tsilit; Ge'ez: ጽላት tsallāt, modern ṣellāt), the chest in which this tablet is stored (menbere-tabot, or throne of the tabot), or to the tablet and chest together.[sup][1][/sup][sup][4][/sup]

(02-23-2024, 12:25 PM)PhyloCFly Wrote: There was a book written by Umberto Eco titled ''Foucault's Pendulum''. The gist of the story was concerning treasure hunters, or antiquity hunters on the trail of some long ago treasure. Throughout the book the protagonists followed obscure clues found in books and old parchments, one after another leading them on getting ever closer to the final ''find''.

Meanwhile there were other groups of hunters searching as well, a few of these hunting clubs went back decades and in a case or two, centuries. All of these hunters finally zeroed in on the final ''find'' only to discover that for the most part, all the mysterious clues they had been unearthing along the way were just speculations written by earlier treasure hunters and they all ended up in the same place at the same time and there was no treasure. They had all been chasing each others tails, or tales.

I wonder why anyone would place any importance on finding the Arc, or for that matter the Ark. For that matter the Shroud or the Chalice.

(02-23-2024, 02:40 PM)PhyloCFly Wrote: Yeah, I spent maybe a year reading his novels. That one was a particular favorite of mine as I was really into hidden historical conspiracies at the time. Another was my favorite' The Island of the Day Before'. This one dealt with the confusion among people when global sailing was new. The idea that the world was round was new and the question of just how, when and where today turns into yesterday was causing that confusion. So in the book he chronicles an adventurer who sets off in a ship to find a reported island that was this magical place where one becomes the other.

(02-24-2024, 12:38 AM)BeTheGoddess Wrote: That "mythical" place wouldnt be Hy Brasil would it?.

Nah, that would be the Atlantic Ocean. This island was in the Pacific, over the Western Horizon where the sun sets and the day ends before the next day arrives. He did a good job of reconstructing the thinking that moving from seeing the world as flat to a world that was round would take.

(02-23-2024, 11:56 AM)BeTheGoddess Wrote: [sup]I did actually try search for the Handcock book, but its not by the name I thought it was. If you know the book, do post it.[/sup]

(02-24-2024, 03:26 PM)Nugget Wrote: Could it be his 1992 book "The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant"?