Legend Says the Ark Vanished 1,500 Years Ago — A Former CIA Spy Claims He Knows Where It Is
For more than 1,500 years, the Ark of the Covenant has occupied a strange space between faith, myth, and history. Revered as the sacred chest that once held the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the Ark is believed to have disappeared sometime after the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Since then, theories about its fate have ranged from hidden chambers beneath the Temple Mount to secret vaults in Ethiopia.
Now, a startling claim from a former U.S. intelligence insider has reignited global fascination.
Major Ed Dames, a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer who worked with the CIA during the 1980s, has publicly claimed that he knows exactly where the Ark of the Covenant is hidden. His assertion is rooted not in archaeology or religious tradition, but in a once-classified U.S. military program that explored psychic intelligence gathering.
Who Is Major Ed Dames?
Ed Dames served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army and later worked with U.S. intelligence agencies during the Cold War. According to declassified records, Dames was involved in Project Stargate, a secret Army-CIA initiative that ran from 1977 to 1995.
The program focused on “remote viewing,” a controversial technique in which specially trained individuals claimed they could mentally perceive distant locations, objects, or events without physical presence.
Dames has stated in interviews that during his time with the program in the mid-to-late 1980s, he participated in multiple remote viewing sessions involving high-profile targets, including weapons sites, missing aircraft, and ancient artifacts.
One of those targets, he claims, was the Ark of the Covenant.
What Was Project Stargate?
Project Stargate officially began in 1977, amid Cold War fears that rival nations were experimenting with psychic warfare. The U.S. government funded the program for nearly two decades, involving personnel from the Army, CIA, and Defense Intelligence Agency.
Remote viewers were given geographic coordinates or vague descriptions and asked to describe what they “saw” mentally. The results were documented, analyzed, and compared with known intelligence.
In 1995, the program was terminated following a CIA-commissioned review that concluded the project had not produced reliable or actionable intelligence. The report stated that while some sessions showed intriguing results, they failed to meet scientific standards.
Despite its shutdown, thousands of pages of documents were later declassified, confirming that the program did, in fact, exist — and that Ed Dames was among those involved.
The Ark Claim: What Dames Says
According to Dames, remote viewing sessions conducted during the 1980s indicated that the Ark of the Covenant was not destroyed, nor lost forever. Instead, he claims it was deliberately hidden in a secure underground location, protected and sealed long ago.
While Dames has avoided revealing exact coordinates publicly, citing national security and religious sensitivities, he has repeatedly stated that the Ark is not in Ethiopia, contradicting one of the most popular theories.
He also claims that the Ark is surrounded by an “energetic barrier” — a detail that has drawn both intrigue and skepticism. Dames suggests this may explain historical accounts warning that unprepared individuals who approached the Ark suffered sudden illness or death.
Why These Claims Are So Controversial
Historians and archaeologists remain deeply skeptical. No physical evidence has ever surfaced to support remote viewing as a reliable method of locating real-world objects. Academic consensus holds that while Project Stargate existed, it failed because its results could not be replicated consistently.
Religious scholars also caution against taking modern intelligence claims at face value. Ancient texts describe the Ark as a sacred object tied to ritual and symbolism, not a technological or energy-based artifact.
Still, supporters of Dames argue that the U.S. government invested nearly 18 years into the program — an unusually long lifespan for a project deemed entirely useless.
Why the Story Refuses to Die
Interest in the Ark of the Covenant has surged repeatedly over the decades, often during times of political or cultural uncertainty. The idea that a powerful relic could still exist — hidden, guarded, and undiscovered — continues to capture the public imagination.
Dames’ background as a former intelligence officer gives his claims a sense of authority, even as critics point out that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
Importantly, no government agency has confirmed Dames’ assertions, and no archaeological expedition has verified his conclusions.
A Mystery That Remains Unsolved
As of December 2025, the Ark of the Covenant remains officially lost. Major Ed Dames’ claims, while dramatic, remain unproven. Yet they sit at a fascinating crossroads of faith, intelligence history, and human curiosity.
Whether viewed as a relic of divine power, a symbol of ancient tradition, or the subject of one of the Cold War’s strangest experiments, the Ark continues to provoke questions humanity may never fully answer.
For now, the Ark remains where it has always been — somewhere between legend and belief.