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The late noted fringe "archeologist" Ron Wyatt claims to have seen the ark itself buried in rubble beneath the Temple Mount. He claims that it was hidden in a vault there decades before the destruction of 70 AD to protect it from Roman plundering. He states further that the blood of Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross flowed and seeped into the vault and sprinkled the mercy seat - part of the "plan" for our salvation. Of course for "security" reasons he never disclosed the present location of the ark before he died.
The Copts of Ethiopia beleive that the Queen of Sheba was really from Ethiopia and not Sheba and that she and Solomon had a love child. This son later travelled to Jerusalem to visit Soloman and asked to be given access to the ark so he could make a duplicate. He then swapped the "real" ark with the "fake" one and took it to Ethiopia where it has been (allegedly) ever since.
Of course no one is allowed to view the ark except one guy who is supposed to keep it polished and is sworn to secrecy about it. There is a legend about one of these guys who let "foreigners" in; he died horribly - kind of like the Nazis in Indiana Jones.
Vespasian's arch in Rome clearly shows booty from the Temple being carried off. Since the zealots who took control during the Roman invasion were confident of victory it is unlikely that they allowed any neferious stuff during their very brief rule. The Romans probably got everything that was there.
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