<P> "Rabbi Eliezer ben José stated that he saw in Rome the mercy - seat of the temple . There was a bloodstain on it . On inquiry he was told that it was a stain from the blood which the high priest sprinkled thereon on the Day of Atonement ." </P> <P> In 2003, author Graham Phillips hypothetically concluded that the Ark was taken to Mount Sinai in the Valley of Edom by the Maccabees . Phillips claims it remained there until the 1180s, when Ralph de Sudeley, the leader of the Templars found the Maccabean treasure at Jebel al - Madhbah, and returned home to his estate at Herdewyke in Warwickshire, England taking the treasure with him . </P> <P> During the turn of the 20th century British Israelites carried out some excavations of the Hill of Tara in Ireland looking for the Ark of the Covenant--the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland campaigned successfully to have them stopped before they destroyed the hill . </P> <P> In 1922 in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, the royal tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun (KV62) was opened by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon . Among the artifacts was a processional ark, listed as Shrine 261, the Anubis Shrine . Almost immediately after publication of the photographs of this sensational archaeological find, some claimed that the Anubis Shrine could be the Ark of the Covenant . John M. Lundquist, author of The Temple of Jerusalem: Past, Present, and Future (2008), discounts this idea . The Anubis Shrine measures 95 centimetres (37 in) long, 37 centimetres (15 in) wide, and 54.3 centimetres (21.4 in) high in the shape of a pylon . The Biblical Ark of the Covenant is approximately 133 centimetres (52 in) long, 80 centimetres (31 in) wide, and 80 centimetres (31 in) high in the shape of a rectangular chest . </P>

Where is the ark of the covenant held