Paging the Almighty From a Great Height

THERE I WAS snoring away the other morning when The Missus decided to jar me awake.
No, it wasn't another urgent message about Britney being rushed away in an ambulance to receive psychiatric help. Nor was it about the reason Tom Brady delivered an armful of flowers to his galfriend prior to Sunday's Super Bowl XLII outside of Phoenix. If it had been that I would have been asking man's oldest question: "What in the world did Tom do? He must have really messed up!"
Now, to the ladies, bouquets of flowers, whether daffodils or red roses, mean sweetness and light, but every red-blooded man knows such a delivery means he just broke all the partnership rules. At least it did in my younger days when such a "commitment" might have earned a semi-pardon, for, maybe, 24 hours.
No, The Missus was informing me of an Air Canada flight, which was forced to land at Shannon. That's in Ireland, for those of you without a map.
Alright, don't be so insensitive, Corbett, I can hear someone in the back row bleating right now, and they're probably right.
But when the co-pilot of an elephant-sized plane flying from Toronto to London's Heathrow decided to have a nervous breakdown, as the wire services reported, then I would have been headed for the nearest exit with a parachute in tow.
There must have been stark terror for some passengers aboard that flight when the co-pilot was subdued and then "escorted off the plane with his wrists and ankles in shackles."
After being informed of this incident by The Better Half, I spent an hour or two tracking down wire service reports.
Reporter David Sharrock of the Irish Independent filled in the details concerning the co-pilot's plight and how he began "asking for God," at some 30,000 feet over the Atlantic.
It seems the pilot was forced to handle the plane as some colleagues and even an off-duty Canadian armed forces type held the man in check and then removed him to a Shannon hospital.
One passenger told the CBC, this man was swearing and calling for God.
Sharrock then concluded his story that it wasn't the first incident. In 1999 an EgyptAir co-pilot, flying out of New York, also starting "calling out." However, on that flight, some 217 people perished.
Fortunately, over Ireland, the Air Canada flight landed safely.
***
TAKE TWO: Perhaps, there's an explanation, but can anyone tell me the reason a NHL goalie, who must being earning a zillion dollars a season, would miss practising with his club? Not once, but a couple of times.
The wayward star, Ray Emery of the Ottawa Senators, said he couldn't find his way to the right rink the other day.
Emery, who claims he's working on some "different things," definitely needs an attitude adjustment. What he probably will get is a trade to somewhere in the Far North (as in NWT) and a map to the local rink.
***
TAKE THREE (From Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht's The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook): How to foil a UFO abduction. 1. Do not panic. The extraterrestrial biological entity (EBE) may sense your fear and act rashly; 2. Control your thoughts. Do not think anything violent or upsetting -- the EBE may have the ability to read your mind; 3. Resist verbally; 4. Resist mentally; 5. Resist physically. My advice: Go for the eyes, if it has any.
And here's one for winter: How to unstick (or is that unstuck?) your tongue. If your tongue is stuck to a cold pole, place your glove hands on the pole closest to your tongue. Hold them there for several minutes. As the pole warms, the frozen area around the tongue should begin to thaw. Gently pull your tongue away from the pole. My advice: Very gently. Incidentally, I ran this advice in 2006 ... did you listen?
***
AND ONE LAST WORD (From the late and filthy rich J. Paul Getty): "Rise early. Work late. Strike oil."

So What's Next For Us Mere Earthlings?

THOSE DOOMSDAY THEORISTS must have been wallowing in their gory this week. And somehow this unstable planet did survive. Barely. And it's only Wednesday.
As an investigative journalist of everything planetary, I kept a close watch on the sky; considering it was layered with snow from here to the Arctic circle.
And my mind was cluttered with immediate thoughts of wayward asteroids, a growing problem with space debris, a disabled spy satellite threatening the earth and even snowstorms in such semi-tropical places as Jerusalem
Then came the words of Ernie Mauck, who now calls himself Elijah, who pushes his theories in which he calls everyone from President Bush to Prince Charles corrupt. He's also someone who looks skyward for the appearance of Planet X, aka Nibiru and even Wormwood from Revelation, which will annihilate us all.
Pass the Bromo-Seltzer. Even Alka-Seltzer might help.
So, fellow earth-bound mortals, let's go down the list:
* Wayward Asteroid 2007 TU24. I don't know about you, but I missed it; all that snow and another thing it was dark around the Ol' Homestead in the middle of the night. According to the solar scientists it was between 150 and 600 metres in diameter and came within 334,000 miles of Earth. Apparently, a strong telescope would have picked it up.
In quoting Chee Chee Leung in the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, 2007 TU24 was "one of an estimated 7,000 near-Earth objects of its size or larger, which comes close to Earth on average about every five years." One of these giant rocks smashed into this planet in the ancient past, wiping out the dinosaurs.
Believe it or not, I wasn't around back then.
* Space debris. That's plain ordinary junk and it's lodged between 550 and 625 miles above us, according to a report from AP science writer E. Schmid. Now, I'm no expert, but being plunked from that distance, would give you a severe headache, whether it weighs an ounce or a ton.
* Disabled Spy Satellite. This one troubled me, for this spacecraft, which is out of control, weighs in the neighbourhood of 20,000 pounds and is the size of a small bus. It's headed our way in late February or early March, according to AP's Eileen Sullivan.
On the GlobalSecurity.org website, the main concern from an uncontrolled re-entry is not the debris which will reach the Earth's surface, but the spacecraft's secrets might be recovered by "a hostile intelligence agency."
* Snow, snow and even more snow. Perhaps, it means little to North Americans, but to a former newsman living in Israel, it's significant. It rarely happens, but Tuesday there was a report of a man frozen to death on the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem was shutting down in advance of an Arctic blast.
Frigid temperatures in our part of the world is understandable, but in the semi-tropical weather of the Middle East it is almost unheard of.
Also the conspiratorial experts were at work, for surrounding the icy conditions was the news that the Winograd Report concerning the recent Lebanon war could be enough to oust the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Some say it would be an Act of God.
* Prophet Elijah. While some would sneer at the words of Ernie Mauck, who gets his "messages" across through the Internet, this bearded man, who resides in Cyprus, details the world's fate, particularly, with the Planet X (Nibiru) and its effect on our planet's orbit.
In the June 19, 1982 New York Times, it read: "Something out there beyond the reaches of the known solar system is tugging at Uranus and Neptune. A gravitational force keeps perturbing the two giant planets, causing irregularities in their orbits. The force suggests a presence far away and unseen, a large object, the long-sought Planet X." It could make it our way, at least Elijah thinks so.
So what's next? After all, there's been 9-11; a Pacific earthquake and tsunami; Hurricane Katrina; Avian flu and global warming looming on the horizon.
It's time to pull the covers over our heads in my opinion.

Chilling Memories From The Big Easy

AFTER PLACING MY HAND -- my now unthawed hand -- on a stack of NFL rulebooks, I promised never to write about Super Bowl I or 7,348 again.
However, promises are made to be broken. Or that's what someone unwise once muttered.
Of course, a week Sunday's 42nd edition of Super Hype in sunny Arizona will mean a matter of Xs and O's to some, but for the Ol' Columnist it will stir up a batch of bitter memories -- of pain and suffering.
Alright, stiff upper lip, Big Fellow, learn to play with pain.
"Aw, shut up," I say. "Look at my fingers, all gnarled ... quick, call in the Doc."
Of course, these digits have looked like this since Jan. 12, 1975 when the Pittsburgh (The Steel Curtain) Steelers ran over the Minnesota (Purple People Eaters) Vikings 16-6 in Super Bore IX in a New Orleans' cow pasture called Tulane Stadium.
Preceding that afternoon, I had savoured a stackful of sizzling steaks cooked in the middle of the Superdome. It was before it had been officially opened to the public and the horde of scribes and/or ex-jocks had congregated to live off NFL handouts.
It was long before the flood, which devastated New Orleans and long before Bourbon Street was awash with gin mixed with party favours.
So there I was soaking up the atmosphere and steak sauce when I learned of the change of venue from the Dome to a university campus I had barely heard of before. Tulane, ah, Tulane, the Sugar Bowl ... Cajun music, jazz, etc., etc.
Getting off the bus, I knew this would be an afternoon to forget; for the wind whistled through my shirtsleeves and sent shivers up and down my back as I climbed the rickety stands ... These weren't the luxurious elevators I heard one of the league's flacks talk about.
So where was the expansive press box where the elite such as myself would sit?
"Excuse me, Mister, you're in Row 2,487 Seat 00073," snarled a young voice, emphasizing I would be in the "cheap seats" since I was from a non-NFL city. "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me," I kept repeating as I tried to manoeuvre my lanky frame and a portable typewriter past protruding legs.
"Ah, here's my seat (still wet from overnight rain)," I muttered to myself.
Next came the quantum task of trying to fit the little typewriter on my lap and typing ... NEW OR ... that's when an elbow jabbed me in my right arm and I knew, immediately, it was going to be a long and frigid afternoon ... NEW ORvhutiiogt648hhdek54342 ... Ah forget about it, I'll wait until half time before typing any more about Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris vs. Fran Tarkenton and Chuck Foreman.
So this is the glamorous life of a highly-skilled sportswriter?
By halftime, all my fingers were curled in a grotesque manner as the temperatures dipped to 236 below ... or was it 237? That's when I decided to type up my game column back at the "toasty" hotel.
Next came the halftime show with the Grambling State University band and the half-time "meal." The music with its tribute to Duke Ellington had my toes a-tappin, but the free "meal" was an icy steak and putrid sauce, which I managed to smear on my clean shirt.
Then came the grand finale. What's that about?
Well, there I was in the dying seconds of the game; standing on the sidelines waiting for the final whistle when a Pittsburgh monster rumbled for the nearest exit, but not before mangling my now-frozen toes.
Even today, so many years later, my typing fingers still hurt and my toes (on my right foot) are twisted in a disgusting manner. Thanks a lot, Big Boy, I'll remember you in my (ill) will.
Was there any more to this version of Les Miserables?
On the return to my hotel, I found my typewriter carriage had shifted and the keys had become glued. My next move was to phone "it" in.
Without mentioning one word about that bitter afternoon, I started dictating to the sports desk: "NEW ORvhutiiogt648hhdek54342 ..." The voice at the other end blared: "What's the matter, Corbett, you sound cold." That's when I realized my ears had sustained a severe case of frost bite.
Even today, 33 years later, when questioned, I'll, repeatedly, ask: "WAAAAAHATTT?"
P.S. Incidentally, IX was the third and last Super Bowl ever played at Tulane. The 80,997-seat stadium was mercifully closed on August 3, 1975 and demolished in 1980.

Those Texas skies and a strange UFO

IT'S A QUESTION as old as time, perhaps, even longer than that: So are we REALLY alone?
However, it's only mid-January and people in the farming community of Stephenville, Texas have been shaking their heads and asking that question.
You see, folks, about a week ago, dozens of people from a pilot to a county cop -- spotted a massive UFO in their skies and it's now all over the newswires and on the TV screen.
It's something that, seemingly, occurs annually, but usually not at the beginning of the year.
In 2007, the major UFO sighting waited until June. Or that's when Pilot Magazine reported that two airline pilots "witnessed" UFOs off the Channel Islands.
One of them, 50-year-old Ray Bowyer, a captain with Aurigny Air Services, out of Southhampton, spotted "a bright-yellow light" at about 3 in the afternoon.
Then he followed with these words: "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000 feet up and stationary. I thought I was about 10 miles away, although I realized it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a 737. But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."
As Bowyer's plane approached Alderney, he claimed he observed another one. "It was exactly the same (as the first one), but looked small because it was further away. It was close to Guernsey. I can't explain ... All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."
Concerning the Texas sighting in the past week or so, Steve Allen, a freight owner and pilot, noted since he lived in the Bible Belt, people "were afraid it was the end of time." Allen was then quoted in the CP wire story as saying, "It was positively, absolutely, nothing from these parts."
Those "end times" words brought pronouncements as far away as Britain when someone named Catherine Brown claimed she had a prophecy concerning it.
"I see Texas ablaze and a stunning star like the star from the East is rising over the land, I hear the spirit of the Lord say to watch for cosmic signs and wonders in Texas and that there will be cosmological phenomenon that the scientists cannot explain and that the media will carry as front-line news."
Then she went on to say, "For a period of four months -- from Christmas to Easter -- there will be a window of opportunity for salvations, signs, healings and wonders in Texas and this season of extraordinary favour and grace will manifest and be confirmed in unusual cosmic occurrences."
Of course, throughout history, there have been strange sightings of silvery-plated objects, moving at incredible speeds, and then there's even been abductions.
One of the most celebrated cases occurred on Jan. 25, 1967 in South Ashburnham, Mass. As housewife Betty Andreasson was working in her kitchen at about 6:30, a reddish light began to beam though her window while her father and mother along with her seven children were in the living room.
Her father peered then through the window to find out where the light was coming from and, reportedly, saw five odd-looking beings coming towards the house in a hopping motion.
Betty Andreasson was taken aboard a "space craft" and subjected to a physical examination while her family remained in a state of suspended animation, according to UFO case files.
Noted author Chuck Missler has delved into the Genesis account of the "sons of God" (B'nai Elohim) taking on wives of the "daughters of men" which gave birth to the "Nephilim." Missler emphasized that the "intrusion of certain angels into the human family resulted in unnatural offspring termed Nephilim or the Fallen Ones."
While Missler didn't draw any solid conclusions, it makes one wonder if these giants known as Nephilim have returned to earth as space aliens?
It's a question for the theologians, however, in the Andreasson case they were supposedly about five feet tall or shorter with pear-shaped heads, wide eyes, and small ears and noses. Certainly not a description of Goliath and his brothers from the Bible, who have been identified as gigantic Nephilim.
While explanations for UFO sightings remain a mystery, Erath County Const. Lee Roy Gaitan, who observed the strange object over Stephenville, thought it was some kind of military craft and then added these words: "At least I hope it was."

Bush's Journey and the Jerusalem Syndrome

IT'S A "mental disorder" as old as time. Or it dates back to the time of King David when he shed his clothes and danced naked before the Ark of the Covenant on the outskirts of Jerusalem. His wife, Michal, just shook her head in disbelief.
Today, the psychiatrists call it the "Jerusalem Syndrome," and according to Ron Peled in a Ynet News article, he claims up to 150 tourists a year lose their minds; believing they are either the Messiah, the devil and others knowing the exact location of the Ark of the Covenant.
During my time as Middle East bureau chief for a major news-gathering service, based in downtown Jerusalem, I encountered a number of individuals who had all the symptoms. One jarred me on a daily basis as he charged along the sidewalk in front of my office, screaming in an "unknown tongue."
It was his definite duty to inform me that the world was about to end.
Another more convincing figure was a bearded man by the name of Ernest Frank Mauck, who has taken up the handle of Elijah the Tishbite.
This Bible-quoting man had been banished to Cyprus since August 1999 when I assisted in getting him out of the stark confines of the Kfar Shaul mental hospital and onto a plane. However, that banishment didn't stop Elijah from spreading his "messages" via the Internet.
Believing he's one of the two "witnesses" from the Book of Revelation, he claims he speaks for the Almighty Elohim in condemning the Middle East peace agreement. With unswerving purpose, Elijah has savaged the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. President George W. Bush, who has been in The Land in the past few days.
Of course, Elijah attemped to re-enter Israel once again via Jordan, but was turned back. It was evident some of his strongly worded e-mails had reached Olmert's office and that of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
Any connection with appeasing the Palestinians comes in direct conflict with the will of God, he has written time and again.
In addition to his doom-day sayings, Elijah also predicts a "gigantic earth movement from Africa up through the Rift Valley on into Syria ... You're going to see great damage even in Jerusalem area when I (Elohim) cause this Dome of the Rock to be destroyed ..."
On Jan. 15, 1546, Jerusalem suffered a severe earthquake with the Dome on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher completely destroyed. The Dome of the Rock was seriously damaged.
During the original Elijah's time from the Bible, he also experienced an earthquake at Mt. Horeb, although he wasn't in Israel, but in the Sinai wilderness at the time, according to a historical earthquake list.
A Washington correspondent, Bill Koenig, who has been travelling with President Bush throughout the Middle East, has also seen a connection between Israel's giving up The Land to the Palestinians and dramatic destruction.
In Koenig's book, Eye to Eye, he lists some eight and more "Acts of God," which directly affected the U.S.
One of the major occurrences cited was on Oct. 30, 1991 when the father, George Bush, opened the Madrid Conference with "an initiative for a Middle East peace plan involving Israel's land."
On the same day, an extremely rare storm formed off the coast of Nova Scotia. It was eventually tagged "The Perfect Storm," and a movie was made about it. Recording-setting 100-foot waves formed at sea and pounded the New England coast, even causing heavy damage to the elder Bush's home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
Koenig also noted that on May 3, 1999, one of the most powerful tornadoes ever to hit the U.S. swept across Oklahoma and Kansas with winds clocked at 316 mph. On the same day, the late Yasser Arafat had been scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem the capital.
Whether there's any correlation between Koenig's writings and modern-day Elijah's utterances, only time will tell.

Brief History Of Christmas

By JOHN STEELE GORDON
December 21, 2007; Page A19

CHRISTMAS FAMOUSLY "comes but once a year." In fact, however, it comes twice. The Christmas of the Nativity, the manger and Christ child, the wise men and the star of Bethlehem, "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is one holiday. The Christmas of parties, Santa Claus, evergreens, presents, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Jingle Bells" is quite another.
But because both celebrations fall on Dec. 25, the two are constantly confused. Religious Christians condemn taking "the Christ out of Christmas," while First Amendment absolutists see a threat to the separation of church and state in every poinsettia on public property and school dramatization of "A Christmas Carol."
A little history can clear things up.
The Christmas of parties and presents is far older than the Nativity. Most ancient cultures celebrated the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its lowest point and begins to climb once more in the sky. In ancient Rome, this festival was called the Saturnalia and ran from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24. During that week, no work was done, and the time was spent in parties, games, gift giving and decorating the houses with evergreens. (Sound familiar?) It was, needless to say, a very popular holiday.
In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month of spring in the Hebrew calendar. So in A.D. 325, the Council of Nicea decided that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring. That's why Easter and its associated days, such as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, are "moveable feasts," moving about the calendar at the whim of the moon.
It is a mark of how late Christmas came to the Christian calendar that it is not a moveable feast, but a fixed one, determined by the solar calendar established by Julius Caesar and still in use today (although slightly tweaked in the 16th century).
By the time of the Council of Nicea, the Christian Church was making converts by the thousands and, in hopes of still more converts, in 354 Pope Liberius decided to add the Nativity to the church calendar. He also decided to celebrate it on Dec. 25. It was, frankly, a marketing ploy with a little political savvy thrown in.
History does not tell us exactly when in the year Christ was born, but according to the Gospel of St. Luke, "shepherds were abiding in the field and keeping watch over their flocks by night." This would imply a date in the spring or summer when the flocks were up in the hills and needed to be guarded. In winter they were kept safely in corrals.
So Dec. 25 must have been chosen for other reasons. It is hard to escape the idea that by making Christmas fall immediately after the Saturnalia, the Pope invited converts to still enjoy the fun and games of the ancient holiday and just call it Christmas. Also, Dec. 25 was the day of the sun god, Sol Invictus, associated with the emperor. By using that date, the church tied itself to the imperial system.
By the high Middle Ages, Christmas was a rowdy, bawdy time, often inside the church as well as outside it. In France, many parishes celebrated the Feast of the Ass, supposedly honoring the donkey that had brought Mary to Bethlehem. Donkeys were brought into the church and the mass ended with priests and parishioners alike making donkey noises. In the so-called Feast of Fools, the lower clergy would elect a "bishop of fools" to temporarily run the diocese and make fun of church ceremonial and discipline. With this sort of thing going on inside the church to celebrate the Nativity, one can easily imagine the drunken and sexual revelries going on outside it to celebrate what was in all but name the Saturnalia.
With the Reformation, Protestants tried to rid the church of practices unknown in its earliest days and get back to Christian roots. Most Protestant sects abolishedpriestly celibacy (and often the priesthood itself), the cult of the Virgin Mary, relics, confession and ... Christmas.
In the English-speaking world, Christmas was abolished in Scotland in 1563 and in England after the Puritans took power in the 1640s. It returned with the Restoration in 1660, but the celebrations never regained their medieval and Elizabethan abandon.
There was still no Christmas in Puritan New England, where Dec. 25 was just another working day. In the South, where the Church of England predominated, Christmas was celebrated as in England. In the middle colonies, matters were mixed. In polyglot New York, the Dutch Reformed Church did not celebrate Christmas. The Anglicans and Catholics did.
It was New York and its early 19th century literary establishment that created the modern Americanform of the old Saturnalia. It was a much more family -- and especially child -- centered holiday than the community-wide celebrations of earlier times.
St. Nicolas is the patron saint of New York (the first church built in the city was named for him), and Washington Irving wrote in his "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York" how Sinterklaes, soon anglicized to Santa Claus, rode through the sky in a horse and wagon and went down chimneys to deliver presents to children.
The writer George Pintard added the idea that only good children got presents, and a book dating to 1821 changed the horse and wagon to reindeer and sleigh. Clement Clarke Moore in 1823 made the number of reindeer eight and gave them their names. Moore's famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," is entirely secular. It is about "visions of sugar plums" with nary a wise man or a Christ child in sight. In 1828, the American Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, brought the poinsettia back from Mexico. It became associated with Christmas because that's the time of year when it blooms.
In the 1840s, Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol," which does not even mention the religious holiday (the word church appears in the story just twice, in passing, the word Nativity never). Prince Albert introduced the German custom of the Christmas tree to the English-speaking world.
In the 1860s, the great American cartoonist Thomas Nast set the modern image of Santa Claus as a jolly, bearded fat man in a fur-trimmed cap. (The color red became standard only in the 20th century, thanks to Coca-Cola ads showing Santa Claus that way.)
Merchants began to emphasize Christmas, decorating stores and pushing the idea ofChristmas presents for reasons having nothing whatever to do with religion, except, perhaps, the worship of mammon.
With the increased mobility provided by railroads and increasing immigration from Europe, people who celebrated Christmas began settling near those who did not. It was not long before the children of the latter began putting pressure on their parents to celebrate Christmas as well.
"The O'Reilly kids down the street are getting presents, why aren't we?!" is not an argument parents have much defense against.
By the middle of the 19th century, most Protestant churches were, once again, celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday. The reason, again, had more to do with marketing than theology: They were afraid of losing congregants to other Christmas-celebrating denominations.
In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a bill making the secular Christmas a civil holiday because its celebration had become universal in this country. It is now celebrated in countries all over the world, including many where Christians are few, such as Japan.
So for those worried about the First Amendment, there's a very easy way to distinguish between the two Christmases. If it isn't mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and Mark, then it is not part of the Christian holiday. Or we could just change the name of the secular holiday back to what it was 2000 years ago.
Merry Saturnalia, everyone!

Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power" (HarperCollins, 2004).

The Prince & The Searchers

H.R.H. STEPHEN MENGESHA (Prince Stephanos of Ethiopia)

ETHIOPIA HAS A GREAT LEGEND concerning King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba, whose name was Makeda and also Saba, for she was known by both names. There's some dispute, however, whether she was the Queen of Aksum and the Land of Sheba (which also included the southern Arabian peninsula), but she definitely settled in Aksum.
Of course, Makeda wasn't the first emperor or empress of Ethiopia, but there's a story that her father, Agabos, became ruler after he killed the King Cobra, which was an object of worship with the people sacrificing their children to it.
Agabos was succeeded by his daughter, Makeda, who visited Solomon in Jerusalem and they had a son whose name was Menelik (also Ibna Hakim, Bayna-Lehkem and David II) and he's the reason for the Ethiopian claim to the Solomonic Dynasty and it was this Menelik, who brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Aksum some 3,000 years ago.
This is found in the Kebra Negast (The Glory of the Kings of Ethiopia), which is an historical account of how Menelik and the sons of Jewish noblemen and the priest Zadok took the Ark and replaced it in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Later, the High Priest recognized that the Ark in the Temple is a replica and not the real thing, particularly, after the Israelites went to war with it and lost. Previously, they had never lost a war when they took the Ark with them.
Zadok then realized who the culprit was, but he wasn't about to implicate his son, Azariah. So he says, "it's lost."
It's never found in Israeli history after that. It simply disappears. This whole thing was hush-hush. It was completely forgotten.
ON THE ABYSSINIAN SIDE, it became very evident from the time of Menelik that there was great rejoicing when the Ark was brought to Aksum.
Again it's a challenge to any scholar to say what if it wasn't a fake; that Menelik didn't actually bring it to Ethiopia.
Ethiopian chronicles relate a lot of miracles that were performed because of its presence and it continued to gain great respect, so much so that emperor after emperor has come to acknowledge the presence of the Ark and bring their crowns to Aksum because they believe that's the place where they come face to face with their Creator.
The only one higher up than the Emperor of Ethiopia was the Creator and they believed the presence of the Ark was a justifiable cause to offer their crown. Its magnitude starts building into the nation's history; into church history and into the heritage of the country.
TODAY, I BELIEVE it is of monumental importance, for the building of the Third Temple, the cornerstone of the revival of the Jewish faith and the coming of all Jews to Israel.
It has been pursued by various people throughout history prior to the Italian occupation of Ethiopia and during the Italian occupation (through the auspicies of the Roman Catholic Church) during the late 1930s and even after the restoration of my great grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie, to the throne.
They're still looking for it even today.
***

THE SEARCHERS

December 30, 1998
FOUND: THE ARK OF THE COVENANT?
Editor's note: This column is the first of a series titled 'The Searchers.'

By Kaye Corbett
© 1998 WorldNetDaily.com
Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha) knows.
Grant Jeffrey knows.
Graham Hancock knows.
Lyle Harron knows.
And so do I.

Shrouded in mystery and intrigue and cloaked with a legacy of divine wrath for more than 3,000 years, the Ark of the Covenant is believed to be in northern Ethiopia.
The most important archaeological, historical and religious object in man's history is likely "resting" in the bowels of an Ethiopian Orthodox church, St. Mary of Zion, in Aksum, a "holy city," in Tigre province, 623 km north of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
Neither Ethiopian Orthodox officials nor the secretive cadres of priests who still guard a sacred chest, which supposedly housed the Ten Commandments, have divulged its exact location within the archaic religious compound.
Efforts to locate the Ark aren't new because throughout history, various individuals and even countries have tried to track it down.
Certainly, there are numerous so-called experts who believe the Ark has been destroyed by time or that it is still hidden under the Temple Mount and debunk the Ethiopian claims.
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Nazi Germany's Adolph Hitler was supposedly obsessed with it after the fictional hero, Indiana Jones, located it in the long-lost city of Tanis, Egypt. Later, in Spielberg's movie version, the golden chest was relegated to a museum warehouse, probably the Smithsonian, devoid of its power after destroying the Nazi infidels.
The Ark epitomized Power. Even to look at it meant sudden death. There is a Biblical account of a man named Uzza, who attempted to steady this small golden box atop an ox-driven cart, and met his Maker before his time. There were other writings, which claimed more than 50,000 died excruciating deaths by peering inside it.
If it is such a lethal weapon, why are adventurers still combing Aksum's ancient ruins in search of the invaluable relic? It's certain Israel has a great interest in it because it's a lynchpin in rebuilding a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which would herald their messiah.
The history of the Ark is sometimes lost in the mists of time, however, there seems to be certainty as to its construction and its purpose, according to Biblical accounts, such as: Its construction by the Hebrew patriarch Moses' chief carpenter, Bezalel, in about 1250 B.C. This occurred after Moses came down Mount Sinai with the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The stone tablets were placed in a chest, about four feet in length and about 2 1/2 feet high feet high and the same 2 1/2 feet wide, made of acacia wood and covered inside and out with gold. There were two carrying poles also layered in gold.
During its journey to the Promised Land and, eventually, to "rest" in Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the Ark was to display its supernatural powers.
The fabled Ark, however, "disappeared" between the reign of King Solomon of Israel (970-931 B.C.) and the Babylonians' destruction of the Great Temple and its environs in 586 B.C.
This "disappearance" sets in motion the Ethiopian claim that Menelik, a son of King Solomon and Makeda, also known as the Queen of Sheba, took the Ark and replaced it with a replica in the Jerusalem Temple.
Archbishop Yesehaq of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church confirmed the story that Menelik I and a group of Jewish noblemen's sons hired a carpenter to make a duplicate of the Ark. After it was completed, the legend goes, the angel of the Lord unlocked the Temple doors and a switch was made and Menelik and his companions carried off the sacred chest to Aksum, in present-day Ethiopia. It was supposedly the ruling city of Makeda and her successor, Menelik I.
In Aksum today, despite a multitude of differing views of how it got there and when, there seems to be little doubt it "rests" in a secret compartment beneath a small chapel next to the new St. Mary of Zion church. It's supposedly still guarded by a specially picked priest, who maintains his vigil from the age of seven until he dies.
While Ethiopia continues to cling to the Ark of the Covenant as a lifeline after a devastating war and famine, Israel may soon make its claim on this most valued relic, which could make a dramatic effect on the Jewish state and the world. If this happened, it's believed Jews throughout the world would rush to build a proper house, a new Temple, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is presently occupied by the Muslims' Dome of the Rock shrine and Al-Aqsa mosque.
Voices would say for Ethiopia to trade it for billions of needed currency to relieve the pressure following a ruinous 30-year conflict and the gut-wrenching series of famines. However, nearly 50 million Ethiopians would likely defend the right to keep it for it's so integrated into the nation's psyche that there's a replica of it in more than 20,000 Ethiopian Orthodox churches throughout the world. It is their source of strength, their reason for living, that and their faith in the Solomonic dynasty, which was interrupted by the murder of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1975.
In October 1990, 17 Palestinians were killed when the rumor was spread that a band of Jewish fundamentalists, the Temple Mountain Faithful, led by Gershon Salomon, were attempting to lay a cornerstone for the new Third Temple.
If the Ark of the Covenant is indeed in a church in northern Ethiopia, there will, undoubtedly, be a movement to insure it is returned to Jerusalem -- in the near future.
The resulting repercussions could be monumental.
NEXT: The Searchers series uncovers the true story of the Ark with excerpts from the diary of Kaye Corbett, Lyle Harron and H.R.H. Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), the favorite great grandson of the late Emperor Haile Selassie. In addition, both authors Graham Hancock and Grant Jeffrey will present their claims. Corbett intends to re-visit Ethiopia and his findings will be included in a paperback, The Last Emperor of the Ark, in 2005.
***

INTERVIEW WITH A PRINCE

January 6, 1999
ETHIOPIA'S TREASURE
MAY BE CAUSE FOR WAR

Editor's note: Ethiopia believes that the most important historical, powerful, and religious artifact, the Ark of the Covenant, is located in the northern province of Tigre. In this second part of a series, "The Searchers," Corbett interviews Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), Emperor Haile Selassie's pet great-grandson.

By Kaye Corbett
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
"If it's found, and if it's such a sacred item for the Jewish faith, what's to stop Israel from waging war to get it back? It's not a matter of diplomatic negotiations or going to the United Nations. This is something the world Jewry around the globe believes it's necessary to build the Third Temple and if that's how important it is, the chances of Israel going to war to get it (are greatly increased)." -- Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), April 6, 1990.
He was unpretentious.
A smiling, affable man, who introduced himself as Stephen Mengesha, was a Toronto car salesman.
"Steve's my name."
In early 1990, while doing research for a series of newspaper articles on the Ethiopian famines, he became a friend, and would relate that the Ark of the Covenant was the Horn of Africa nation's greatest treasure.
It was a blockbuster.
Of course, I'd earlier read in Grant Jeffrey's paperback, "Armageddon - Appoitment With Destiny," of his conversations with Prince Stephanos, the favorite great-grandson of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, who was murdered by dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and his thugs in 1975.
He also related to this investigative reporter of how the original Ark, constructed by Moses' chief carpenter, traveled from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem to Ethiopia with one of Solomon's offspring, Menelik I. It has been in Ethiopia ever since, according to the Ethiopian royal chronicles, and its holy book, the Kebra Negast.
On Saturday, April 28, 1990, the Prince spoke about the searches for the Ark, which have ranged from Mussolini to the Israelis:
CORBETT: What's the importance of the Ark?
PRINCE: The building of the Third Temple is the cornerstone of the Jewish faith and the coming of all Jews to Israel. Finding the Ark of the Covenant is paramount for this to happen and the coming of their Messiah. So even though it's unspoken, they're on the look out for it, and many times they have explored the possibility of the Ethiopian claim. It has been pursued by various people throughout history prior to the Italian occupation (through the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church), and after the restoration of the Emperor to the throne (in 1941). Even today, they're still looking for it.
CORBETT: Is it possible there's an Ark on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem?
PRINCE: The lack of an Ark being mentioned in the book, "In The Shadow of the Temple," isn't evidence the Israelis don't care about it. After all it's the cornerstone. If you're going to build a temple, you have to have something to put in it and no where in the Jewish traditions does it say that God is going to bring it down from heaven. There's nothing of that nature being mentioned in prophecy. The building of the Third Temple I just mentioned requires the Ark inside it or else it would be a meaningless building.
CORBETT: I've read, probably in one of Grant Jeffrey's books, that during the excavations underneath the Temple Mount that they've spotted something that looks like the Ark. Is this a duplicate.
PRINCE: There is a duplicate Ark. The rabbinical council knows about it.
CORBETT: There are lots of duplicates around. Isn't that true?
PRINCE: Yes. Finding the original Ark of the Covenant is a interest by the Catholic Church and the Pope during the 1936-1940 Ethiopian occupation by Italy and Mussolini and there's good indication that the Catholic Church was looking for it.
CORBETT: Was that one of Mussolini's aims?
PRINCE: Not Mussolini's, but he was persuaded by the Pope and, of course, the Pope has been criticized for blessing Mussolini's mission to Ethiopia because of that.
CORBETT: What about Hitler, did he have any interest in the Ark?
PRINCE: No.
CORBETT: The hit movie, "The Raiders of the Lost Ark," was based on Hitler's obsession with finding religious artifacts such as the Ark. Was this true?
PRINCE: I never heard of Hitler's interest in it. That's pure fantasy, but it would make a good movie, wouldn't it.
Just as in Solomon's Temple, the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies in the dusty town of Aksum in Tigre province of northern Ethiopia.
CORBETT: How were these boys selected?
PRINCE: I have no idea. Because it's a holy shrine, there's only speculation about the tradition, but it's possible the High Priest's family had the privilege since the line of Zadok brought it from Jerusalem to Aksum. Their identity was, undoubtedly, kept secret to prevent harming the kid inside.
CORBETT: In ancient times the young boy stayed with the Ark until he died. If that tradition ended, when did it end?
PRINCE: Again there is no trace when it ended. But there is evidence that it did exist. Life in Ethiopia was probably 38 years, so there's a good possibility the kid lasted to be over 80 years old. The average age was less than 40, however, so the cycle of the change of life and replacement of this boy could have taken place, as often as every 25 to 30 years.
CORBETT: Has it ever been hidden?
PRINCE: Yes, in the 14th century, the high priests and the guardians of the Ark took it away in the mountains. They, supposedly, took it to a monastery near the Blue Nile Falls. The priests from that monastery still claim the possibility that it never went back to Aksum. They profess to have it. However, there is good evidence that they don't have it. One thing we know is the Ark never left Ethiopia.
CORBETT: After Queen Judith burned the church down, was the Ark buried in the ground in the catacombs under the church site?
PRINCE: Again, we're on the threshold of the 21st century so when we're talking about Queen Judith, we're going back to the 14th century, and that's a long time ago, so after the church was rebuilt it could have been placed back on the altar and then it could have been removed from the altar for safekeeping when the Muslims invaded in the 16th century, for they burned all the churches. Vasco Da Gama's brother, Christovao, was sent by Portugal to save Ethiopian Christians from the Muslims and these Christian Crusaders restored the Christian dynasty.
CORBETT: Describe the church where it's supposedly buried?
PRINCE: I have been to the church, but I haven't been to the basement, in fact if there's a basement, which contains the Ark, that would be a secret.
In 1993, Prince Stephanos returned to Aksum and was able to photograph the stairwell leading to the Ark.
Even though others have claimed to have seen the Ark, such conjecture is certainly untrue.
NEXT: Corbett's expedition to Ethiopia in 1990 and what he and a business partner found; the strange holy book, "The Kebra Negast"; Graham Hancock's encounters in Aksum; and other searchers of the world's most important historic, most powerful, and religious artifact.
***

KEY TO THE ARK IN AN ANCIENT BOOK

January 13, 1999
Editor's note: In this third part of a series, "The Searchers," Corbett again interviews the late Emperor Haile Selassie's great grandson, Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha) and discusses the strange holy book, "The Kebra Negast,"that holds the key to the location of the Ark of the Covenant in the northern Ethiopian town of Aksum (Axum).

By Kaye Corbett
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha) was born on Friday, Oct. 24, 1952, in Haile Selassie I hospital in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to Princess Aida Desta, the granddaughter of the Emperor, and Prince Mengesha Seyum.
His father was governor-general of a number of provinces, including Tigre province. Mengesha Seyum had also been minister of public works and communications.
Young Stephanos had been a curious youngster and was able to dig around the ruins of the ancient civilization of Aksum that adheres to the legend of the Ark of the Covenant being there; "resting in the basement of a church, St. Mary of Zion. It convinced him that, indeed, the ancient religious, historical and powerful relic was in that church.
However, at the age of 8, his life changed.
On Wednesday morning, Dec. 14, 1960, an attempted coup d'etat, led by the head of the Imperial Body Guard, was finally foiled, while the Emperor and Stephanos' mother were on a state visit to Brazil.
While Stephanos hid under a bed, his grandfather, Ras Seyum, was executed along with other high-ranking officials in the Palace basement.
Then while Prince Stephanos was attending university in Canada, his respected great grandfather was deposed in 1974 and murdered in 1975 on the direction of the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
In 1991, Haile Mariam was overthrown by rebels from northern Ethiopia, including a coalition from the province of Tigre. They are still in control of Ethiopia.
Despite the fact that Haile Selassie's would-be successor, his son, Asfa Wossen, died in 1997, Prince Stephanos believes the Solomonic Dynasty will one day be restored because of their undying faith in the Ark of the Covenant.
In 1990, he also introduced me to the Kebra Negast (The Glory of the Kings of Ethiopia), an ancient script on the travels of Ark from Jerusalem to Aksum during Solomon's reign. It gives intimate details of the relationship between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (also known as Makeda) and of the "flying" entourage that took the Ark out of Solomon's Temple.
It's believed the first form of this book was uncovered in the sixth century AD, however, the most important translation was by a man only known as Isaac between AD 1314 and 1344.
He was, obviously, an enthusiastic Christian visionary, who firmly believed: 1. That the lawful kings of Ethiopia were descended from Solomon, King of Israel; 2. That the Tabernacle of the Law of God, i.e. the Ark of the Covenant, had been brought from Jerusalem to Aksum (Axum) by Menelik I, Solomon's first-born son, according to the Ethiopians and 3. That the God of Israel had transferred His abode on earth from Jerusalem to Aksum, the ecclesiastical and political capital of Ethiopia.
In the late 1920s and 1930s, a British professor, Sir E.A. Wallis Budge wrote the latest translation.
In an interview with Prince Stephanos in 1990, he talked about Ethiopia's obsession with the original Ark of the Covenant and related the great legend concerning King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba:
CORBETT: Briefly tell me about it?
PRINCE: Her name was Makeda and also Saba, for she was known by both names. There's some dispute whether she was the Queen of Aksum (Axum) and the land of Sheba (which also included the southern Arabian peninsula), but she definitely settled in Aksum.
CORBETT: Were there rulers prior to Makeda?
PRINCE: Oh, yes, their emperors and empresses didn't begin with Makeda. There's a story that her father, Agabos, became ruler after he killed the Cobra. The great Cobra was an object of worship and the people sacrificed their children to it.
CORBETT: What was the connection between Makeda and Solomon?
PRINCE: She visited Solomon in Jerusalem and they had a son who's name is Menelik (also Ibna Hakim, Bayna Lemkem and David II). He's the reason for the Ethiopian claim to the Solomonic Dynasty and Menelik also brought the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Aksum some 3,000 years ago. This is found in the Kebra Negast.
CORBETT: What's the Kebra Negast?
PRINCE: It's an historical account of Menelik and the sons of Jewish noblemen taking the Ark and replacing it with a replica in the Temple in Jerusalem. Twenty or 30 years later, the High Priest Zadok recognized that the Ark in the Temple is a replica and not the real thing after the Israelites went to war and they lost. Previously, they had never lost a war when they took the Ark with them. Zadok then realized who the culprit was, but he wasn't about to implicate his son, Azariah. So he says, 'let's say it is lost.' It's never found in Israeli history after that. It simply disappears. The whole thing was hush-hush. It was completely forgotten.
CORBETT: What happened in Ethiopia when the Ark arrived there?
PRINCE: On the Abyssinian side, it became very evident from the time of Menelik that there was great rejoicing when the Ark was brought. Again it's a challenge to any scholar to say what if it isn't a fake one; that Menelik did actually bring it to Ethiopia. Ethiopian chronicles relate a lot of miracles that were performed because of the presence of the Ark.
CORBETT: What respect is it given in Ethiopia?
PRINCE: Well, emperor after emperor has come to acknowledge the presence of the Ark and handing over their crowns (at Aksum) because they figure that's the only place where they come face to face with their Creator. The only one higher up than the Emperor of Ethiopia was the Creator and they figured the presence of the Ark was a justifiable cause to "give up" their crown. Its magnitude starts getting built into the national history -- into church history and into the heritage of the country.
Haile Selassie I, Stephanos' great grandfather, could be considered the Last Emperor of the Ark, for he built a magnificent edifice in Aksum. It opened in 1965.
CORBETT: You talked about the rulers always sending their crowns to Aksum. Do you know about Haile Selassie's continuing the tradition?
PRINCE: Yes. That's quite significant. To me it indicates he believed in it and the fact Haile Selassie also built a new church to accommodate the three million members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was an indication he wanted to bring unity in the church in believing in Mary of Zion.
CORBETT: Why was Queen Elizabeth there for the opening ceremony?
PRINCE: It was quite a ceremony when the church was built because the traditional church leaders and monks of Mary of Zion were totally opposed to the idea and also with the breaking of tradition in allowing female members into the church. But he was able to persuade or order things to be done and one of the things I remember very clearly about the church in 1965 was that Queen Elizabeth was invited. She officiated along with the Emperor in the opening of the church and (the parading) of a replica of the Ark. Most of the monasteries of Ethiopia came for this very colorful ceremony. They will relate 100 years from now how the Queen of England came all the way to Aksum. It's coincidence, I'm sure, that she didn't come just for the ceremony, but this occurred during her state visit. It's quite a memory.
CORBETT: As a member of the royal family, what is the Ark's importance to you and also to the Ethiopian people?
PRINCE: Well, the existence of the Ark of the Covenant and its legend is a cornerstone of the claim of the present royal family of being descendants of the Solomonic line, therefore, it's not just a fictitious situation. The Solomonic line didn't end at Menelik II. It started with Menelik I and it ended with Haile Selassie. He was the last of the Solomonic Dynasty. In between there have been interruptions and a few other interruptions and a few other dynasties have come and gone and one of them, a significant one, is the Zagwe dynasty, which claimed to have its heritage from Solomon. They claim that the Queen of Sheba's chambermaid bore a son from Solomon and they are descendants of that. We definitely have a lineage of both royal houses. In between there were emperors who came to power of their own right without being members of the Solomonic Dynasty and, in recent times, the Emperor Theodore and Emperor Yohannes IV, claimed to be members of the Solomonic Dynasty.
CORBETT: What do you think the Ark's purpose is today and in the future?
PRINCE: Personally speaking for the royal family, the same way the Jews expect the rebuilding of the Temple, the restoration of the monarchy and the restoration of Ethiopian glory is dependent on the Ark of the Covenant and its existence. Whether it's truly found or not isn't the question, for it's a fact that people still believe in it and it's a symbol of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and as such we have faith (in the people) that Ethiopia will return to that and restore the monarchy.
CORBETT: What influence does the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have on the people?
PRINCE: As I mentioned the Ark is the anchor of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Again another significant factor is that prior to the 1950s, the Patriarch of Alexandria (Egypt), the See of St. Mark, used to name the bishops to Ethiopia. We didn't have our own rights and that was quite a drawback for Ethiopian emperors. Egyptian leaders used to control Ethiopian affairs. Now Ethiopia has her own Patriarch who is elected by the Ethiopian Orthodox synod and the bishops are all Ethiopians, so they're actually, what would you call it, the actual affairs of the church are in the hands of Ethiopians, without foreign interference, so we could probably claim once again that we're masters of our destiny.
NEXT: The Ark and the Falashas plus other dedicated searchers, including archaeologist Ron Wyatt and Corbett and Harron's 1990 expedition and their findings.
***

BLACK JEWS AND THE ARK

January 21, 1999
Editor's note: In this fourth part of a series, "The Searchers," Corbett looks at the connection between the Black Jews of Ethiopia, known as the Falashas, and the Ark of the Covenant.

By Kaye Corbett
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
When 17,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted from the slums of Addis Ababa to the pristine air of Tel Aviv during Operation Solomon in May 1991, it evoked strange stories, particularly that the Falashas had escaped with the Ark of the Covenant from St. Mary of Zion church in Aksum.
However, as much as the Ethiopian Jews would have savored taking the coveted religious object back to Jerusalem, the powerful Ethiopian Orthodox Church, not the ostracized Falashas, were in control of security of the "terrible, golden container," which had been taken out of Solomon's Temple.
From the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indy's professorial skills will begin to shine here:
INDY: The Ark of the Covenant, the chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments in.
EATON: What do you mean "The Ten Commandments"? You mean the Ten Commandments?
INDY: Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets that Moses brought down out of Mount Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. (The men were impressed but impassive).
INDY: Either you guys go to Sunday School?
MUSGROVE: Well, I, I?
INDY: Now, look, the Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark. When they settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of Solomon.
BRODY: In Jerusalem.
INDY: Where it stayed for many years. Until, all of a sudden, whoosh, it's gone.
EATON: Where?
INDY: Well, nobody knows where or when.
In the late Louis Rapoport's extraordinary book, "The Lost Jews," he detailed the connection between Beta Israel and the Ark:
RAPOPORT: "The Ark is the 'pivot round which the Abyssinian Church revolves,' according to Lake Tana explorer R.E. Chessman. There is a replica of the Ark, called the tabot, in every Ethiopian church, which represents the original Ark of shittim wood that contained the stone tablets Moses brought from Mount Sinai. Every year the Christian priests take out the replica during the Feast of Timkat, or Baptism. (In 1999, Timkat was celebrated in Aksum on Tuesday, Jan. 19). As the Ark passes, the people prostrate themselves before it. Ethiopian priests, who believe they are the Levites' successors -- the Falasha priests claim to be the Levites' descendants -- still dance as David did before the tabot. For the legend of the Ark is the cornerstone for the priests' claim that Ethiopians were the elect of God -- in place of the Jews, who had rejected the "messiah" -- and, therefore, the Ark was in their custody.
"How do the Beta Israel refer to the Ark? The Ark's power to defeat Israel's enemies is commemorated in one Falasha prayer: And it came to pass when the Ark set forward that Moses said, 'Rise up, Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered.' And in the Apocalypse of Baruch, which is included in the Falasha liturgy, it is related that 'God raised up Nebuchadnezzar,' who captured 'Zion' -- the Ark, whose wood was like a white pearl radiating multi-colored images, according to the vision of the 14th century Falasha ascetic, Gorgorios.
"One Beta Israel story, recorded in the 19th century by a Protestant missionary, says the Christians did place the Ark in Aksum, but "only when a Falasha approaches it does the wall before it open up, whereupon he prostrates himself in front of the Holy Ark.
"The Falashas' belief in the Ark's powers led them to march unarmed to Aksum in 1862, where they prayed the walls of the cathedral holding the Ark would tumble down and they would then take it back to Israel, where it belonged. They were laughed at and beaten, and many died on the road."
During the Corbett-Harron expedition in November 1990, although the roads were demolished leading from the capital of Addis Ababa to the north and the search for the Ark had been canceled, the trail was still warm, knowing that the Black Jews were still in the country.
Most sources told us that thousands were still abandoned in the Lake Tana-Gondar areas, barely surviving while Ethiopia was being laid waste by armies from the north, central and the south.
On the last day in the war zone, Harron and I were almost ready to give up our search for these forgotten peoples.
Then a miracle happened on Nov. 15, 1990, when we celebrated Sigd, the Ethiopian Jews' day of prayer to return to their homeland, Israel, and the freeing of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. It's a celebration unlike any other in Ethiopian or Jewish history.

CORBETT'S DIARY: Thursday, Nov. 15, 1990, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: "As we drove through the weaving traffic, we reached the Asmera road, which seemed to be blocked off and Sherry Yano (with CPAR -- Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief) was told by one of the few traffic cops I'd seen in Addis, that the road was off-limits because of a celebration at the Israeli embassy.
"So parking the land cruiser, we started walking along the road, filled with people going to and fro with many children in their Sunday best, along with women with great umbrellas and long, white dresses, and finely-robed men.
"Everyone had a wide smile on their faces and there was an unexplainable glow.
"Even the youngsters were different.
"I kept my vidcam recording this scene, and while the kids were curious, they allowed the three of us to be part of their celebration walk.
"On the side of the hill, guarded by what I knew to be an Israeli agent, the white-robed throng poured through the gates from the embassy, well hidden in the trees.
"Their lilting voices lifted into heaven.
"I felt a part of these radiant people.
"As we walked along, we inquired about where the leaders' compound was, and first a smiling man and then a young boy pointed the way.
"Just then a small car pulled up and two of Sherry Yano's friends yelled greetings.
"They, too, had a radiant look.
"One young woman, Jody, in a white wrap-a-round, and she, too, was bubbling about the celebration on the Israeli embassy grounds and how she had joined in dancing with thousands of Falashas.
"The small car now held all five of us as we turned down a narrow dirt road and stopped in front of a locked compound.
"Stepping through a narrow gate opening, I saw at least 100 men, women and children in their finest clothing, sitting alongside a neat bungalow, feasting on injerra and other typical Ethiopian food; chatting away, but I didn't feel out of place.
"Lyle and I were introduced to Andy (I was to learn later his last name was Goldman), a tall, twentysomething man from just outside Washington, D.C., who was with the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry with their headquarters in New York City.
"Andy said he preferred to be anonymous because this was such a sensitive issue, so I called him Andy No-Name because he didn't mention his surname in any conversation. And I didn't ask.
"Others were just as hesitant, even to the edge of paranoia.
"Walking up the steps to the living quarters of the neat bungalow, a woman, in a brightly colored dress, was sopping injerra in a bean mixture -- wot -- and was offering me a bite.
"In crowded rooms there were the celebrants. Andy No-Name led us to one particular room, slowly opening the door and there were a dozen Falasha priests.
"There were 14 altogether in the small room. One was a woman and one a teenage boy, who was, undoubtedly, a server of the special boiled meat from the rites of the animal slaughter earlier in the day.
"No one said a word as I moved my vidcam around the room, but there was no noticeable annoyance at an intruder in their inner circle.
"After leaving this sacred area, I passed through a roomful of women, all sitting on the floor drinking tea, and as I moved through I kicked a tray full of cups and quickly apologized for my big feet.
"They laughed and nodded at me.
"In the rear of the bungalow were more housing quarters with a dozen families in one spacious room. There appeared to be a sense of unity and purpose even in such cramped quarters.
"Then Andy No-Name asked me to sit down on a pile of leaves and we would talk, without the vidcam rolling.
"He explained the hardships of the Ethiopian Jews from the war-torn areas of Gondar and Lake Tana, but there were survivors and they all wanted to go to Israel and they had, in small numbers.
"Then it was a good thing I was sitting down, for when I asked how many Falasha Jews were in this one place in Addis, he replied: "About 22,000. There are between one and two thousand still remaining in Gondar." Did he say 22,000? I had heard him correctly and no doubt within a couple of months' time, all the Falasha Jews -- Beta Israel -- in Ethiopia would be all in one place, ready to go home to Israel."
The 1990-1991 drama of the civil war was forever overshadowed on Friday-Saturday, May 24 and 25, when Israel airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa in a lightning operation before the rebels closed in on the capital.
The 21-hour airlift of about 17,000 Falashas was launched in secrecy with military censors barring all news reports from Israel until after the last plane took off from Addis.
Military sources said the 'Lost Jews' were flown out in 30 unmarked civilian and air force planes, under the code name, Operation Solomon. The first great airlift in 1984 had been dubbed Operation Moses.
However, the greatest regret was they had left behind the Ark of the Covenant, still "resting" in a church in the northern town of Aksum.
NEXT: Graham Hancock's bestseller details his search for the Ark and also other searchers such as Roy Wyatt and Vendyl Jones.
***

SEEKING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ARK

January 27, 1999
Editor's Note: In the fifth and final part of a series, "The Searchers," Corbett details the theories of such Ark of the Covenant "explorers" as Graham Hancock, Ron Wyatt and finally, the late Emperor Haile Selassie's favorite great-grandson, Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha).

By Kaye Corbett
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
"Time has woven the reality of the truth." -- Anonymous.
After the Corbett-Harron expedition returned from war-torn Ethiopia in late 1990, I spent some time developing a number of newspaper stories for the Toronto and Ottawa Suns on the controversial subject of the Ark of the Covenant being in the dusty town of Aksum in the northern Tigre province.
By early 1992, Graham Hancock, the former East Africa correspondent for The Economist, released a book, The Sign and the Seal, telling his personal journey in search for the most coveted religious object in man's history.
Later, I had the chance to meet Hancock during his book tour stop in Toronto.
We compared notes in an out-of-the-way coffee shop while being surrounded by his publicist and a female photographer, and, instead of disagreeing, this investigative reporter came away with the same conclusions that it was, indeed, taken from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem to Aksum. However, Hancock's story takes a twist in the road and ends up on an obscure island of Lake Tana.
"Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord."
-- Amos 9:7 [whose ministry lasted from 783 to 743 BC)
Hancock wrote: "By the eighth century BC, when Amos was prophesying, was it not conceivable that there could already have been a flow of Hebrew migrants southward through Egypt and into the highlands of Abyssinia?
"... The Kebra Nagast ('Glory of Kings') ... dated from the 13th century AD and had originally been written in Ge'ez. It contained the earliest-surviving version on the story ... about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, the birth of their son Menelik ('the son of the wise one'), and the eventual abduction of the Ark of the Covenant from the First Temple in Jerusalem."
According to an Ethiopian monk, who was reputedly the guardian of the Ark of the Covenant, "... It was Azarius (son of Zadok the High Priest of Israel), not Menelik, who stole the Ark of the Covenant from its place in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. ... And it was thus that it was brought to Ethiopia, to the sacred city (Aksum) ... and here it has remained ever since."
Of all the many traditions that Hancock had encountered in Ethiopia, he wrote, by far the purest and most convincing had indicated that the Ark of the Covenant had been brought first of all to Lake Tana, where it had been concealed on the island of Tana Kirkos. ... The relic had remained on the island for 800 years before it had finally been taken to Aksum at the time of Ethiopia's conversion to Christianity. Since that conversion had occurred around AD 330, the implication of the strong folk memory preserved on Tana Kirkos was that the Ark must have arrived in Ethiopia in 470 BC or thereabouts -- in other words about 500 years after Solomon, Menelik and the Queen of Sheba."
For Hancock it was a mystical and spiritual journey, for when he was introduced by an interpreter to the aging priest outside the steps to the sanctuary chapel at St. Mary of Zion in Aksum, he was asked about his character and his motives: from which country had he come, what work did he do there, was he a Christian, what was it that he wanted from him?
Hancock answered the inquisitor.
Finally, the priest shook hands with him and with the formalities over, Hancock asked: "I have heard of an Ethiopian tradition that the Ark of the Covenant is here, in this chapel. I have also heard that you are the guardian of the Ark. Are these things true?"
The nearly blind monk answered: "They are true."
When Hancock questioned the traditions of Aksum, the priest emphasized: "People may believe what they wish. People may say what they wish. Nevertheless, we do possess the sacred Tabot, that is to say the Ark of the Covenant, and I am its guardian. ..."
The wrinkled holy man considered it a great honor that he had been picked to guard the Ark and told Hancock that he had been nominated with the last words of his predecessor and that when he himself lay on his death bed his turn would come to nominate his own successor.
"What qualities will you look for in that man?" asked Reporter Hancock.
"Love of God, purity of heart, cleanliness of mind and body."
"Other than you, is anyone else allowed to see the Ark?'
"No. I alone may see it."
In ancient lore, the Ark was used during church functions, however, in modern times, a replica had been paraded on Timkat. Priests and other dignitaries of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church took a replica of the sacred, powerful golden container through the streets of Aksum on Tuesday, January 19, this year. There were no incidents reported.
While this series has centered on Ethiopia, there are other theories as to the ultimate destination of the Ark, including it being destroyed by the Babylonians for its gold (2 Chronicles 36:19).
Then there's the Prophet Jeremiah, who supposedly hid it in a cave on Mount Nebo. (Apocryphal, Second Maccabees).
Another popular one has it hidden in a chamber underneath Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Rabbi Yehuda Getz, the rabbis in charge of the Western Wall area, are convinced that the Ark has been hidden in a cave in the Temple Mount directly under the site of the Holy of Holies, since the time of King Josiah.
Controversial "explorer" Ron Wyatt explained that in 1978 he was walking along the Calvary Escarpment when something happened to him that has, so far, only occurred once in his life. His left arm raised up and pointed to the escarpment and his voice said, "That's Jeremiah's Grotto, and the Ark of the Covenant is buried in there."
Wyatt and his sons came back several times over the next few years and spent hundreds of hours digging at that location. He finally found and entered the cave that contained the Ark of the Covenant on Jan. 6, 1982.
On this trip his two sons became sick and had to return home early. Wyatt continued working in the cave system with only a young Arab boy as his assistant. He found a narrow vertical crevice in a rock wall, too narrow for him to fit in, but, with a little work, it was "just right" for his helper. The boy squeezed into the opening. But before Wyatt could hand him a flashlight to look around with, the lad came scurrying out of that chamber as fast as he could, saying, "What's in there? What's in there??" and he was scared to death. Apparently, the young boy refused ever again to enter that cave system. He now lives outside Israel, and because of governmental visitor regulations he cannot re-enter the country.
During Wyatt's excavations in this area, he supposedly found the location of Christ's crucifixion. Christ was crucified up against what is known as the Calvary Escarpment, very near Golgotha and the Garden Tomb. When Christ died on the cross, "the rocks were rent." That earthquake split the escarpment. There is a vertical crack directly behind where the cross was placed. When Wyatt excavated down about 14 feet below present ground level at that location, he found the cross hole. It was 13 inches by 14 inches in width, and 23 1/2 inches deep, and there was a stone "plug" in the top of it that was "squarish" and about eight inches thick. But most importantly, there was a very sizable split in the rocks on the left side of the cross hole.
When Christ died on the cross and the Centurion stabbed him in the side with his spear, Christ's blood and water flowed out. Christ's blood, according to Wyatt, went into the large crack in the ground at the base of the cross and it continued underground through the split in the rocks caused by the earthquake and the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, went upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant that was buried in the cave that is about 20 feet right below the crucifixion site.
Wyatt continued his story by saying he entered that cave at 2 p.m. on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 1982.
"There was very little room to crawl around because the things placed in the cave left only about a foot and a half of crawl space between them and the ceiling of the cave. There were rocks on top of boards, on top of animal skins."
When Wyatt shone his flashlight down between the rocks, he said he saw that much of the wood and furs were rotted away, and he saw "gold" glittering down underneath the rocks. Then, at the far side of the cave he saw a stone box.
The lid of the box was cracked, and the smaller portion of the lid was moved aside a short distance; then Wyatt realized what had taken place there nearly 2,000 years ago. Overwhelmed with emotion and double pneumonia, Ron passed out for 45 minutes in that chamber.
His "discovery" has never been scientifically verified.
Meanwhile, although the Ethiopian claims have certainly been questioned, Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), the favorite great grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, firmly reiterated his thoughts on the Ark in a 1990 interview:
CORBETT: What makes you so sure about the Ark?
PRINCE: A lot of people are still seeking evidence. However, for believers there's absolutely no doubt that it did happen. ... There's no way, in my belief, that this oral tradition could have been a bluff for so many years without some significant event like the coming of the Ark to Ethiopia. They couldn't create a fictitious event.
CORBETT: The belief in the Ark is like a rope through Ethiopian history, isn't it?
PRINCE: To me to tamper with this Holy of Holies and to tamper with its traditions by using modern methods of speculation is desecrating the spirit and the faith of millions of Ethiopians and that is significant. That's something that I would jealously guard against and speak out against.
CORBETT: Is God's Presence in the Ark or is it a container for the Tablets of Moses or what?
PRINCE: The Tablets of Moses came directly from God, and if we believe in that, then definitely God's Word and God's Power are in it. Again the mind can go in a zillion ways in speculations and that's why without faith you can't really understand the significance of the Ark and that is my conclusion.
That's mine, too.