The Sign and the Seal

Yesterday I started reading Graham Hancock's classic, The Sign and the Seal, about the Ark of the Covenant--the gold-plated vessel in which Moses placed the 10 Commandments. Back in the 80's, not long after Hancock watched the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark", he was commissioned to write a coffee-table book for the tyrannical Colonel-Lieutenant Mengistu, the then Head of State of Ethiopia. He heard that the "lost ark" was in a chapel in the ancient city of Axum guarded by a monk, and despite the ongoing battle with Eritrean fighters, Hancock and his wife headed to Axum for a single day to photograph the site, and while they were at it, meet with the guardian of the Ark. The Sign and the Seal is the book he published in 1992 after a 9-year quest of his own for the ark. A mix of history and mystery, it is thus far a great read.