An Israeli archaeologist says the most sacred lost relic in biblical history may lie beneath the ancient streets just south of Jerusalem's Temple Mount, and that emerging scanning technology could prove it without turning a single shovel of dirt.

Dr. Chris McKinny has proposed that the Ark of the Covenant, missing since the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem's First Temple in 586 BC, could be hidden inside underground spaces in the City of David. Researchers now plan to use muon detectors and other remote-sensing tools to map cavities and buried metals beneath the surface, the Daily Mail reported.

McKinny does not claim to have found the Ark. He does not claim to know its exact location with certainty. What he does claim is that ancient texts, historical traditions, and early underground scans point to a specific area worth investigating, and that the technology to do so without excavation is finally within reach.

Three ancient traditions, one city

In his documentary "Legends of the Lost Ark," released April 7, McKinny walks through three major ancient traditions describing what may have happened to the relic after the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem. Each tradition involves the Ark being deliberately hidden to protect it from invading forces.

One tradition places the prophet Jeremiah, a major biblical figure who lived in Jerusalem during the city's final years before its fall, at the center of the story. In that account, Jeremiah carried the Ark to a cave or tomb at Mount Nebo. Other traditions suggest the Ark was concealed somewhere beneath or near the Temple Mount itself.

McKinny told interviewers that the three legends share key similarities. All point to a deliberate act of preservation, not destruction or looting. That distinction matters. If the Ark was hidden rather than carried off as plunder, the search area narrows considerably, and the City of David, a dense archaeological zone just south of the 36-acre raised compound of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, becomes a prime candidate.

The relic itself, built by the Israelites sometime around 1445 BCE after their flight from Egypt, was constructed to hold the Ten Commandments that Moses, according to the Bible, received from God. Historians believe it was kept inside the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem's temple. Then, in 586 BC, it vanished.

Scanning without digging

McKinny's approach leans on technology rather than traditional excavation. All Israel News reported that he pointed to advances in imaging tools such as ground-penetrating radar, seismic scanning, electrical resistivity tomography, and other remote-sensing technologies capable of mapping hidden structures beneath the surface.

The planned scans would use muon detectors, devices designed to detect hidden cavities and buried metals deep underground. Early scans in the area have already revealed previously unknown voids and structures, though the specific evidence behind those findings has not been detailed publicly.

Readers who followed the radar scans and soil samples at Turkey's Mount Ararat site that raised fresh questions about Noah's Ark will recognize the pattern: modern imaging applied to ancient biblical claims, producing data that demands further investigation without yet delivering a definitive answer.

McKinny said he is focusing primarily on ancient texts and historical traditions rather than dramatic excavation efforts. In a recent interview, he described his outlook plainly.

"Excited and hopeful for what will come from that."

He also referenced the limits of conventional archaeology, noting that the real breakthroughs may not come from "the spade or the trowel" but from instruments that can see through stone and soil without disturbing it.

Why the City of David matters

The City of David sits in one of the most archaeologically rich, and politically sensitive, patches of ground on earth. It lies just south of the Temple Mount, the site widely believed to be the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac. Any excavation in or near the Temple Mount area involves layers of religious, political, and diplomatic complexity that no scanning technology can bypass.

That is precisely why McKinny's non-invasive approach carries weight. If muon detectors and ground-penetrating radar can identify a cavity consistent with a hidden chamber, without breaking ground in a contested zone, the discovery would reshape the conversation before anyone picks up a shovel.

The mystery of what happened to the Ark has persisted for more than 2,600 years. It has drawn adventurers, scholars, and filmmakers. It has inspired conspiracy theories and genuine academic inquiry in roughly equal measure. Mysteries of this vintage tend to attract people who chase disappearances and unanswered questions across decades, and the Ark remains the ultimate cold case.

What remains unknown

Several important questions hang over McKinny's proposal. No specific organization or research team conducting the planned scans has been publicly identified. No start date for the scanning campaign has been announced. The details behind the "early scans" that reportedly revealed unknown voids, who conducted them, when, and over what area, remain thin.

McKinny himself has been careful not to oversell. He does not claim certainty. He claims a plausible hypothesis backed by textual evidence and supported by the emerging capability of remote-sensing tools. That is a more modest, and more credible, posture than many who have chased this particular relic over the centuries.

For believers, the Ark of the Covenant is not a museum piece. It is the physical vessel God commanded Moses to build, the container of the law delivered at Sinai, and the most direct material link between the divine and the people of Israel. Its recovery, or even its confirmed location, would carry weight far beyond archaeology.

The search for sacred relics and hidden remains has a way of capturing public attention that few other stories can match. Whether the mystery involves a body hidden in a freezer across continents or a gold-covered chest sealed beneath Jerusalem for millennia, the human need to find what was lost runs deep.

McKinny's documentary, available through the Legends of the Lost Ark website, lays out the case in detail. Whether the scans ultimately reveal an empty void or something that rewrites history, the fact that the technology now exists to look, without digging, is itself a development worth watching.

Faith has sustained the search for 2,600 years. Science may finally have the tools to settle it. In the meantime, the Ark keeps its secrets beneath the oldest city on earth, exactly where tradition says it was meant to stay until the right moment.