Weighing over 21 Kilograms (42 pounds), 3.75 feet long, and 2.25 feet wide and high, the Ark of the Covenant was built near Mount Horeb, by Bezaleel, Oholiab, and other divinely inspired craftsmen around 1462 B.C.E.
Aron (the Hebrew name for the Ark of the Covenant. Pronounced aw-one) contains Aaron’s budding staff, the pot of manna, the book of Deuteronomy as handwritten by Moses (14th – 13th Century BC), and the tablets of the Decalogue- the ten commandments as handwritten by God.
Today, the question no one has been able to answer with concrete proof is: where is the Ark of the Covenant?
The most popular claim is that the Ark is in Aksum, Ethiopia.
This claim is predicated on an Ethiopian legend as narrated in an ancient Ethiopian text titled “Kebra Nagast”(The Book of the Glory of Kings)
The legend claims that Menelek, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, visited King Solomon and carried the Ark to Ethiopia. It is said that ever since then the Ark has remained in a temple and guided by anointed virgin monks who remain in the abode of the Ark for the rest of their lives.
It is said that no one has ever been allowed to view the Ark in the Chapel. Even the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is precluded from seeing the Ark.