Raiders of the Lost Ark should have been filmed here
Consider donning a disguise if you're Harrison Ford. The Raiders of the Lost Ark is not well-known in Ethiopia, since over half of the population is Orthodox Christians. "The ark is in Egypt," one Axum resident explained. It isn't. It's obvious that it's here."
Axum is a historic town whose glory days, which lasted from 400 BC to 400 AD, are still fresh in the minds of Ethiopians today. It's a famous tourist destination because of its ancient stelae and tombs, which may be explored in a day or two. The main location is directly across from the 1950s-built Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. You are not permitted to enter. Only the caretaker, who lives continuously in the church, has access to the cathedral's lowest chambers, where the ark is claimed to be kept.
If it's there — and doubters point out that the earliest recorded record of it arriving here is in the local 14th-century literature Kebra Nagast — the ark was undoubtedly raided. According to the story, it was seized in Jerusalem in the first millennium BC by Menelek I, the purported son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and brought to Ethiopia, where it has been held in numerous locations.
The church may only be photographed from the outside, but almost every Ethiopian church has a replica of the ark, draped in blankets.
