Archaeologists Report Fresh Evidence for Ark of the Covenant at Two Biblical Sites

Excavations at Tel Shiloh and Kiriath-jearim have produced structural and artefactual evidence that researchers say matches biblical descriptions of where the Ark of the Covenant was housed — including an Iron Age building oriented on a two-to-one ratio and a 150m by 110m elevated podium bounded by 3m-thick walls. The site most directly connected to the Ark's final resting place, beneath the Dome of the Rock on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, remains inaccessible to archaeologists. Growing archaeological interest in the Ark's location intersects directly with long-standing prophetic questions about the Temple Mount, where control over that ground remains one of the most contested and consequential religious fault lines in the world.