This sometimes fascinating, sometimes pedantic historical detective story, a follow-up to The Ark of the Covenant,
grows out of Ethiopian traditions holding that the ark, the wooden box containing the tablets of Moses, was brought there in Solomonic times as a result of Solomon's marriage to the queen of Sheba. By the 16th century, the Church of Mary of Zion in Askum claimed to possess the ark. Acting as something of a modern-day Indiana Jones, Munro-Hay, who died as the book was going to press, delves into the documents that keep these legends alive. He discovers that the Kebra Nagast,
the main book containing legends of the ark, provides more details about an altar stone than about a wooden box. The stone, likely a replica of the original tablets of Moses, served Ethiopian Christians as a connection to the ark. Munro-Hay concludes that the church at Askum never possessed the ark but rather the altar stone. Munro-Hay offers a charming glimpse into the Ethiopian side of this story, although his conclusions about the ark's legendary status echo those of generations of biblical scholars who have searched for the biblical relic. (May)
