The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.The Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Axum, Ethiopia is the only one in the world that still claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant. According to the Kebra Nagast, after Menelik I had come to Jerusalem to visit his father, King Solomon, his father had given him a copy of the Ark, and had commanded the first-born sons of the elders of his kingdom to travel back to Ethiopia to settle there. However, these Israelites did not want to live away from the presence of the Ark, so they switched the copy with the original and smuggled the Ark out of the country; Menelik only learned that the original was with his group during the journey home. Solomon lost not only the Ark to his son by the Queen of Sheba but the divine favor that went with it.[5]
Although it was once paraded before the town once each year, the object is now kept under constant guard in a "treasury" near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, and only the "Guardian of the Ark" as he refers to himself, is allowed to see it (not even the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Abuna Paulos, is allowed to view the Ark.)[6].
In a December 2007 article, Smithsonian Magazine detailed a trip to Ethiopia in search of the Ark.[7] Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the ark rests in a chapel in the small town of Aksum after arriving nearly 3,000 years ago. It has been guarded by a succession of virgin monks who, once anointed, are forbidden to set foot outside the chapel grounds until they die. Author Paul Raffaele reached the chapel but was only able to go so far as to meet the guardian. He expressed fear that if he snuck past the guardian the alarm would have been sounded and feared possible harm by the ark itself. He noted that the ark was paraded through the streets during one of the holy ceremonies, but the guardian paid it no attention. (This led Raffaele to presume that the ark on display was one of several false arks rumored to exist.)