AXUM, Ethiopia — In Axum, there's no mystery about what's become of the lost biblical ark of the covenant.
Like the vast majority of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, nearly everyone in this dusty, windswept town believes the ark is tucked neatly away in a stone chapel on the grounds of Axum's biggest church, safeguarding Ethiopia as it has for nearly 3,000 years.
Fueled by faith, thousands flocked to churches in Axum and throughout Ethiopia on Friday for Timkat, an Ethiopian celebration of the baptism of Jesus Christ. At the center of the festivities are "tabots" — tablets kept in every Ethiopian Orthodox church that symbolize the ark.
It is an annual reaffirmation of Ethiopia's 1,700-year-old Christian tradition, with its unique focus on the ark.
"I can understand that outsiders are skeptical" about the ark, said Mersa Belay, head priest of Axum, 370 miles north of the capital, Addis Ababa. "They do not have our faith."
"God knew Ethiopians were the people most willing to accept his religion so he placed the ark here," said Mersa, before launching into the tale of how Moses' ark came to this northern Ethiopian town of ramshackle stone houses set on arid plains and rocky hills.
The details differ with each telling, but the basic account remains: The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Israel had a son named Menelik who was raised in Ethiopia, his mother's home. As a man, Menelik I visited his father in Jerusalem, stole the ark and returned to Ethiopia with an entourage of Israelite aristocrats and founded a kingdom based in Axum.
That was about 3,000 years ago. Ethiopians converted to Christianity about 1,300 years later. The dynasty they believe Menelik founded ruled Ethiopia until 1974, when Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed.
Historians agree Ethiopia was converted to Christianity around 330 A.D. The rest of the story is dismissed as propaganda dreamed up in the 12th century to support a new line of Ethiopian kings who hoped to gain legitimacy by tracing their roots to King Solomon.
"The story of the ark . . . cannot be documented, although many have tried," says historian Richard Pankhurst, founder of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa.
Scholars are not sure where the Queen of Sheba lived, although modern Yemen — not Ethiopia — is cited as the most likely spot. Outside Ethiopian chronicles, there is no mention of the ark's leaving Jerusalem. And the first Ethiopian kingdom didn't appear until about 800 to 900 years after Solomon was believed to have lived.
Despite the skepticism of outsiders, belief in the ark's powers runs deep in Ethiopia, where about half the 63 million people are Christian.
Some priests in Axum said they have seen the ark but were not supposed to talk about it.