One of the Bible’s biggest mysteries involves the disappearance of Israel’s Ark of the Covenant.

It was the most important piece of furniture in the Jewish Temple, as the very presence of God rested between the two golden cherubim located on top of a box.

However, it disappeared around 587 BC when the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and hauled the temple furniture off to Babylon.

The ancient writers even provided a list of items taken to Babylon and, mysteriously, the Ark of the Covenant was not on the list (2 Kings 25:13-16).

This leads many to speculate that the Jewish priests had hidden it before Jerusalem’s fall.

It may have even been stashed away in the same spot, the Ark was hidden three centuries earlier when the Egyptians stormed Jerusalem and sacked the Temple, hauling off its furniture.

The Bible’s writers listed all the items taken and, similar to what happened with the Babylonians, the Ark of the Covenant was not on the list (2 Chronicles 12:1-9).

But after the Egyptian threat was over, the Ark reappeared, suggesting it had been safely hidden until the threat was over.

So if the Ark was hidden when the Babylonians invaded, why wasn’t it dragged out when that threat had passed.

Well, there was one significant difference, during the Babylonian invasion, the invaders executed the Jewish priests or hauled them off into captivity and along with them the secret location of the Ark (Jeremiah 52:24-27, 2 Kings 25:18-21).

While there are various theories on where the Ark of the Covenant was hidden, it is commonly believed that the Ark was hidden in the labyrinth of caves, tunnels, and caverns located under the Temple Mount and Old Jerusalem.

While a few of these have been located, most have not, due largely to the political and religious sensitivities involved in investigating beneath the Temple Mount, which is currently controlled by the Muslims.

Because of this, physicists from Tel Aviv University have developed a muon detector, that may aid in the discovery of these hidden caverns, the Times of Israel reports.

It is a bizarre-looking piece of equipment with wires and tubes sticking out of it, but it can track subatomic particles which according to archaeologists can detect openings, caverns, and caves underground.

The earth is constantly being bombarded with subatomic particles known as muons. These can travel through solid items such as rock, however, passing through solid matter does reduce the number of muons.

By tracking the number of muons going through a particular area, the device can determine if it traveled through solid material or an empty space like a cavern or cave.

“According to Lipschits [Prof Oded Lipschits is Director of Ancient Israel Studies at Tel Aviv University], the method, known as muon radiography, could shed light on life in Jerusalem long ago, including the fortifications built by the city’s denizens, the tombs and spaces they might have carved, and their access to water during enemy sieges,” writes Diana Bletter for the Times of Israel.

One of the spin-offs of this is that the researchers may also locate the secret caverns where the Jewish Priests hid the Ark of the Covenant 2,500 years earlier.

But, having discovered secret underground caverns does not mean that archaeologists will be able to explore these locations. That will only happen when there have been significant changes in the political climate surrounding the control of the Temple Mount.

While most today believe that Jewish priests hid the ark in the tunnels located beneath the Temple Mount, this is not what the people in ancient Judea necessarily believed after it disappeared.

One of the more popular conspiracy theories at that time was that the Ark was hidden by the prophet Jeremiah at another secret location, which I discuss in this podcast: