Ark Of The Covenant In British Museum Basement

On a shelf in a locked basement room underneath the British Museum, are kept 11 wooden tablets; they are covered in purple velvet. And no one among the museum’s staff — including Neil MacGregor, the director — is permitted to enter the room. The tablets — or tabots — are sacred objects in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and are regarded as representing the original Ark of the Covenant, which housed the Ten Commandments and the Orthodox Church has been lobbying for their return — or at least easy access to them — for more than 50 years — via Pagan Prattle