Where Is the Ark of the Covenant? CIA Files Suggest U.S. Has Known Where It Is for Awhile

There are few rumored pieces of history that hold as much fascination as the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark, said in Judaic and Christian texts to contain important religious artifacts, has long fascinated scholars, worshippers, and treasure hunters alike.

In World War II, it was rumored that occult-obsessed dictator Adolf Hitler used mystical means to try to track down the Ark, among other mythic relics, a story that played out on the big screen in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

However, just how deeply the Nazis dove into the occult remains relatively under-studied. While Americans were busy watching Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones battle the powers of evil to recover the biblical relic, the CIA may have been tracking the actual Ark down.

Declassified CIA files dropped in 2000 and recirculated in 2025, which renewed the question: Where is the Ark of the Covenant? Here's what we know.

Fans of Indiana Jones and scholars of the occult already know what the Ark is said to look like. A gold-bound chest said to house two tablets of law given to Moses by God, the Ark was believed to be stored in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of Jerusalem, only viewed during Yom Kippur by the high priest, via Britannica.

But for centuries, the Ark has been a mystery long sought by those hoping to harness the power of history for their own means.

Declassified CIA documents released in 2000 suggest that the agency may have known where the Ark is for quite a while now, although their search methods were somewhat unorthodox.

In the files, as reported by the New York Post, the CIA used "remote viewers" to engage in a psychic exercise known as extra-sensory perception, or ESP, to find important objects or people in a project known as "Sun Streak." The files claim that on Dec. 5, 1988, Remote Viewer #032 was given the task of locating an object which turned out to be the Ark of the Covenant, unbeknownst to #032.

According to the method, the object to be searched for is written on a piece of paper and sealed in an envelope. The remote viewer is then guided to search for it without knowing exactly what they're looking for.

#032 described a Middle-Eastern location, explaining, "Target is a container. This container has another container inside of it. The target is fashioned of wood, gold, and silver … similar in shape to a coffin and is decorated with seraphim."

According to the outlet, the viewer then went on to explain, “Visuals of surrounding buildings indicated the presence of Mosque domes,” with "Arabic-speaking men, dressed in all white" nearby.

“The target is hidden — underground, dark and wet were all aspects of the location of the target,” #032 added.

“The purpose of the target is to bring a people together. It has something to do with ceremony, memory, homage, the resurrection. There is an aspect of spirituality, information, lessons and the historical knowledge far beyond what we now know.”

If Remote Viewer #032 is correct, the Ark is somewhere in the Middle East. The Daily Mail has predicted that the Ark is in Ethiopia, although there are multiple theories about where exactly it is. Not only does Ethiopia have a high concentration of Arabic-speaking Muslims, but the country boasts many mosques. Additionally, there's an Ethiopian legend about the Ark connected to the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba and her son with King Solomon, Menelik.

It's hard to say, but the files do offer some intrigue. Yet that's not all that the files say about the Ark.

According to the New York Post, the files go on to say that #032 explained, “The target is protected by entities and can only be opened by those who are authorized to do so — this container will not/cannot be opened until the time is deemed correct. Once it is time to open the container — the mechanics of the lock system will be found to be fairly simple."

And they added a warning for those looking to access the Ark without permission: “Individuals opening the container by prying or striking are destroyed by the container’s protectors through the use of a power unknown to us.”

So is that it then? Do we now know where the fabled Ark resides and what it looks like?

Former U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Joe McGoneagle, who served as Remote Viewer #1, isn't so convinced. While on the Shawn Ryan Show, he expressed his skepticism.

Despite being one of the first people employed to make these remote viewings, he doesn't have a lot of faith in their accuracy.

He shared, “Using remote viewing against any target for which ground truth does not exist or is impossible to obtain, such as UFOs, UAPs, the surface of Mars, or the locations of historical relics, is a waste of time and resources."

So whether or not you believe the Ark is in the location revealed in the files is up to you, but at least one insider isn't convinced.