Templars Quest Trilogy: The Lost Ark (Books 1-3 The Templars Quest Chronicles)

by Thomas H. Ward

  About an hour later, Baldwin radioed the convoy. “Listen up, there’s a broken down truck up here, pulling a trailer. It’s an old man and his wife. Help them out if you can. I’m proceeding to St. Johns to check it out. Over.”

  The entire convoy pulled over and stopped behind the broken down truck which was pulling a camper trailer. I noticed it had New Mexico plates. An old man was trying to change the left front tire. I walked up to him. “Hi Mister, you need some help?”

  He stood up, glanced at me, and said, “I can’t get these … damn wheel nuts off. Can you give me … a hand?”

  I noted that he was probably in his mid-seventies, a little overweight, and he was huffing and puffing from exerting himself. His wife was sitting in the truck, out of the hot sun.

  “Yes sir, I’ll help you out. Sit down, relax, and have a drink of water while I change your tire.”

  “We greatly appreciate your kind help mister.”

  I grabbed the tire wrench and asked, “Why are you pulling this big trailer?”

  His wife commented, “It’s our home. It’s the only place we got to live.”

  “Are y’all from New Mexico?”

  The old guy replied, “Yep. We had to get out of there cause of the terrorists. They were killing everyone. They killed the whole trailer park and our two boys.”

  “Where are you headed now?”

  “St. Johns. We heard that it was a safe place. It’s guarded by Christians.”

  As I finished changing the tire, my radio hissed. “St. Johns is a friendly city full of armed Christians. I’ve cleared the way so the roadblock will let you pass,” Baldwin advised.

  I heard Pete reply that we’d be there in less than an hour.

  The old man shook my hand and thanked me. I told him we would follow him to St. Johns for his protection. The old man and his wife reminded me of my Grandparents, on my father’s side.

  I thought about my Grandparents because of what the old lady said, about the trailer being their home.

  Grandpa started working in the coal mines, taking care of the mules that pulled the coal cars when he was ten years old, after his Dad got killed in a mining accident. He became the bread winner for his Mother and four younger brothers. Of course, Grandpa had to drop out of school in third grade to work in the mines. He could never read anything more than a comic book.

  They were tough old birds who never had much money and just barely made a living. Grandpa and Grandma were married for 62 years, she was fifteen and he was seventeen when they tied the knot. In those days, if you worked in the mines your whole family became miners. They didn’t know anything else. The mining companies owned your ass and it was almost impossible to get out of their debt.

  At the old age of twenty-two, there was a mining accident. A coal car jumped the track and landed on my Grandpa. It busted his back and he was never able to work in the mine again. He couldn’t stand up straight and always leaned to one side to ease the pain. They moved to Chicago to find easier work where he became a bulldozer driver.

  What sparked me to think of my Grandparents was the trailer. My Grandparents lived in a trailer until the age of 65 when my Father finally purchased them a small house for $10,000. I’ll never forget that day because it was the first time I ever saw my Grandpa and Father cry. When my Dad gave him the keys to his new house, they both cried out of happiness. It was my Grandpa’s retirement gift. He only received a meager retirement income of $250 per month, so my Dad supported his parents. I was young at the time and didn’t have any sense of money. I remember staying with my Grandparents in that little old trailer every summer for two weeks. It was the only thing they owned, other than a beat up old 1950 Chevy. The trailer was their home no matter how small it was.

  I decided to help these old folks out and give them some of our proceeds. I wanted them to live in dignity and not be homeless.

  We finally arrived at the St. Johns road block, where Baldwin was waiting for us.

  St. Johns is the county seat of Apache County, Arizona. It is located along U.S. Route 180. The 2010 census showed a population of 3,480. The elevation is about 5,500 feet in the dry desert mountains. St. Johns is a close nit, family first community, known as a “Town of Friendly Neighbors” and it seems to be an appropriate motto.

  I had Maggie give me $50,000 in bills. After putting the money in a paper bag, I walked up to the old couple. “Here’s a gift from us to you.”

  The old guy looked in the bag, and said, “We don’t need anything.”

  “I know you don’t, but please just take it.”

  “You’re very kind, thanks a lot.”

  We shook hands and the old lady said, “God Bless you, mister.” It occurred to me I didn’t even know their names, as I walked back to my truck.

  St. Johns was a nice little city. The people here were well-armed and we could tell they were friendly. Everyone said hello or waved to us as our convoy passed through the city streets. I knew these old folks would be safe living here.

  Leaving St. Johns we were about 40 miles from the Petrified Forest. We would arrive there in about an hour with no problems.

  Adam said, “Grandpa, you did a good deed giving those old people some money. Why’d you do that?”

  I told Adam and Maggie they reminded me of my Grandparents because they had an old trailer. I told them the story of my Father’s parents.

  “You’re tough on the outside, but you’re a softie on the inside, Jack Gunn. That’s why I love you,” Maggie said, as she punched me in the shoulder.

  Changing the subject, Adam said, “Ok, here’s some more information we found about the Egyptians. This is a very confusing and twisted story. It’s a known fact that King Solomon’s treasure and the Ark disappeared when Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Jerusalem. At that time, Zedekiah was King of Jerusalem.

  “Egypt had some kind of special relationship with the Kingdom of Judah and Israel, which was composed mostly of Hebrews. No one knows what that relationship was so I did some research. It seems King Solomon became allied to Pharaoh of Egypt by marriage. He married the Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the City of David, which is now Jerusalem, around 965 BC.”

  “So what’s that got to do with the Ark and treasure?” Maggie asked.

  “Very simply, Egypt and Israel were now related. It’s ironic that the son of a former Egyptian slave was now the son-in-law of the Pharaoh. This was a common political practice back in those days to help keep countries from going to war with each other. It also helped increase trade and benefited the local people.”

  “So what’s the point?” I asked.

  “Well, I think this alliance carried on for almost 400 years.”

  I said, “Yeah, maybe so.”

  Adam continued, “In 588 BC, Hophra the Pharaoh, also known as Apries, dispatched a military force to Jerusalem to protect it from the Babylonian forces of Nebuchadnezzar. The story goes that Hophra’s forces were quickly defeated and returned to Egypt. Following an 18-month-long siege, Jerusalem was then destroyed by the Babylonians. The city was sacked and looted. They burned it to the ground, and took key people as prisoners back to Babylon, holding them for 70 years. Of course, many of them died during this time.”

  “Wait … why did God let the Babylonians take Jerusalem?” Maggie asked.

  “I read some scriptures in Jeremiah, chapters 34 through 44. It seems that the people of Judah had violated their covenant with the Lord. Some of them also worshiped the Egyptian Gods, which included the Sun God Ra. Anyway, God told the Hebrews he would punish them for this sin. God did this using the military forces of Nebuchadnezzar.”

  “So what happened to the Ark?” I asked.

  “There’re a lot of theories about what happen to the treasure and the Ark of the Covenant. One theory is the Ark and treasure is buried under the old original temple, which is now covered by the Dome of the Rock,” Adam said.

  “If the Ark and treasure are there, you would think they would have already found i
t 500 years ago,” I commented.

  “Yeah, you would think so because Jerusalem was rebuilt 70 years later, after it was destroyed by the Babylonians, and so was the Holy Temple. So you would think that someone knew the treasure was buried in the caves under the old temple.”

  Maggie asked, “Why didn’t they make a new Ark?”

  “Good question, Maggie,” I replied. “Most claim that the Israelites did not build a new Ark because it would be meaningless without the two stone tablets, made by the finger of God, known as the Ten Commandments. They were kept inside the Ark.”

  Adam said, “Yes, that’s right. I think they didn’t make another Ark or a copy of the Ten Commandments because they were afraid of what God might do to them for losing the Ark.”

  Ok, what’s another theory?” Maggie inquired.

  Adam replied, “The Ark was taken and hidden in a cave in the nearby mountains.”

  “Well, if that’s true, why didn’t they go find it?” I said. “You don’t just misplace the most Holy item in the world. That was their channel to God. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  “I agree,” Adam replied. “They wouldn’t forget the location after only 70 years. You would think someone knew its location and would bring it to the new Temple they built.”

  We all nodded in agreement. Maggie asked, “What if, what’s his name … Nebuch … took the treasure and the Ark?”

  Adam said, “There are no records of any great treasure or the Ark of the Covenant being taken by the Babylonians. If they took it, believe me, they would have made a big deal of it. It would have been written in the history books for all to see for sure. It was well known that the Ark was the most holy artifact of the Jewish faith.”

  “Well, that pretty much rules that theory out,” I said. “I agree, if Nebuchadnezzar had the Ark he would let it be known. Furthermore, look what we know about the Sword of Jerusalem. You can’t touch it unless you are deemed worthy by God. I would assume the same would hold true for the Ark.”

  Adam nodded yes and commented, “Another theory is that it went to Ethiopia and that’s where it is now.”

  “Ethiopia? How’s that possible?” Maggie asked.

  “The story is that King Solomon was visited by the Queen of Sheba, also named Makeda. She became pregnant and had a son named Menelik. I read two different accounts about this.

  “They credit Menelik with bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia, following a visit to Jerusalem to meet his father upon reaching adulthood. This made the entire country of Ethiopia turn into believers of God. I don’t think that King Solomon would ever let the real Ark leave Jerusalem.

  “The story I believe is that Solomon gave him a duplicate Ark as a gift, and sent him on his way to be first Solomonic Ruler of Ethiopia. You have to remember that this all happened in 950 BC, which is long before the Ark went missing in 586 BC.”

  I commented, “I heard a story about a church in Ethiopia that claimed to have the Ark. But no one has ever seen it. Maybe that’s the duplicate that Solomon made and they think it’s the original one.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I think,” Adam said. “Who knows, maybe there was more than one duplicate of the Ark. So the theory that the real Ark is in Ethiopia is can’t be correct.”

  “So how does all this relate to the Knights Templar?” I asked.

  “The most common theory or rumor is that the Templars found the treasure and the Ark in Jerusalem, under the temple. Then, they whisked it off to Europe. When the Knights Templars came under attack by the King of France and the Pope, they moved it to America. If this was true, I think someone would have let the cat out of the bag while it was still in Jerusalem.”

  “I agree, it would have been almost impossible to take the Ark out of Jerusalem without someone knowing it.

  “I also heard that for years people have searched a place called Oak Island looking for a treasure. I always wondered, why would you hide an important treasure on an island that could possibly get washed away by a hurricane? If not washed away, the storms would damage the island, destroying any landmarks.”

  Maggie said, “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.”

  I said, “Ok, let’s look at our facts. We have the Sword of Jerusalem, which we know is real. It has a map and lists the treasure items. We found that the Templars were at the Comanche Nation. We’re going to check the petroglyphs made by the Ancient Indians in the Petrified Forest area.”

  Adam spoke up. “Yes, and we know the treasure is in the Grand Canyon, or at least we think it is.”

  “So what are we looking for in the Petrified Forest?” Maggie asked.

  While holding up a picture on his computer tablet screen, Adam said, “This petroglyph of the Ark of the Covenant.” The picture showed, what appeared to be, a representation of the Ark pecked out on a stone. The lines and detail of the pecking was remarkable.

  I asked, “Where is that located?”

  Adam replied, “I found this picture on the Army Command web. It’s located in the Petrified Forest at the Puerco Pueblo ruins, which is off the main road, just south of Interstate 40. Some people believe this is the Ark, and others don’t. If you look at it and then at a modern hand drawn illustration of the Ark, it seems to me, this is pretty close in appearance.”

  “Man, if we find that petroglyph, that proves the Ark was here and the Indians saw it.”

  Adam continued, “Look, it has two ‘V’ shaped winged figures on the top of the lid, which would represent the cherubim, or winged angles. There is a border on the top similar to what we see on modern Ark illustrations. And, oddly enough the length appears to be two times the height, which is the same ratio as the Ark.”

  I interjected, “You’re right. Look at the other petroglyphs. They’re completely different. So who would spend the time to peck out something in the shape of a box with wings on top of it? Why would someone do that unless they saw the Ark, and it made an impression on them?”

  Maggie commented, “What if they did see an Ark? Adam, you even said there might be two or even three Arks. Maybe this wasn’t the real one.”

  That statement made us start thinking. It was a good point. We have some fairly good evidence that the Ark was in control of the Templars at one time, based on the Sword of Jerusalem. We have evidence that it is located in the Grand Canyon. The problem is, we don’t know if it is the original Ark of the Covenant, which contains the Ten Commandments.

  Adam replied, “There’s only one way to find out and that’s to locate the Ark and open it. Now listen, to my theory about the treasure and the Ark.

  “When Hophra sent troops to help Jerusalem, they didn’t go there to battle the Babylonians. They went there to save the treasure and Ark. They removed it from the city, taking it to Egypt for safe keeping.”

  “Yeah, that’s possible. But why let them take it?” I asked.

  “They were allies and trusted each other. For some reason the Babylonians didn’t threaten to attack Egypt.”

  Maggie asked, “If the Egyptians took the Ark for safe keeping, where did they hide it?”

  Adam said, “I think they hid it in the Sphinx.”

  “The Sphinx! Why there?” I asked.

  “Why not? It’s one place that no one would ever look. The Sphinx is carved out of the bed stone. It’s a one piece statue and everyone in those days believed that. However, modern Investigations by Florida State University and Boston University have located various anomalies underground, around the monument.

  “In 1995 workers digging a new parking lot uncovered tunnels and pathways underground, close to the Sphinx. In 1992, while using a seismograph, a team found evidence of hollow chambers a few meters below the ground, between the paws. The Egyptian Government then stopped all further testing around the Sphinx.”

  “Who build the Sphinx?” Maggie inquired.

  “That’s also a mystery,” Adam said, while wiping the sweat from his head.

  In the desert, this time of the year, temperatu
res can reach 100 degrees. I guessed it was about 90 degrees now, and it wasn’t noon yet. I took a drink from my water bottle and handed it to Adam in the back seat. He in turn gave some to the dogs and then passed the bottle to Maggie.

  “Adam, you were telling us about the Sphinx,” I commented.

  “There was a debate years ago on the age of the monument. An author named, John West, first noticed weathering patterns on the Sphinx that appeared to be caused by water erosion rather than wind and sand. These patterns were not found on other structures on the Giza plateau. West called in Geologist Professor Robert Schoch, who after examining the Sphinx, agreed there was water erosion.

  “Although Egypt is desert today, 10,000 years ago it was a swamp or jungle, which received a lot of rain fall. So, Schoch concluded that in order to show effects of water erosion, the Sphinx would have to be about 10,000 years old.”

  “That means the Sphinx was built before the Great Pyramid,” Maggie said.

  “Yes, and no one knows when it was built, who built it, or why. There are no records of it being built by the Egyptians.”

  “How does this tie into the Templars?” I asked.

  “Hophra secretly hid the treasure and Ark in a chamber near the Sphinx paws. He died before the Israelites returned to Jerusalem 70 years later. They might have known the Ark was in Egypt but didn’t have any idea where it was hidden. They couldn’t do anything to find it. They couldn’t just walk into Egypt and start searching around the pyramids or the Sphinx. Oh, sure they could have gone to war with Egypt, but they didn’t have the manpower or the army to do so.

  “So it was lost forever until the Knights Templar discovered a clue in the old Temple ruins that it was in Egypt. They went there to search for it around 1250 AD. At that time, Egypt was in disarray so nobody objected to the Templars digging around looking for the treasure. I suspect that the Coptic Christians in Egypt helped the Templars because at that time they were a powerful group. So the Templars would have enlisted their aid. This is why the Templars were able to smuggle the treasure out of Egypt to Europe, with no one knowing.”