The ARK OF THE COVENANT continued...

Ron decided to continue to search for the original entrance into the chamber from within the cave system. With better hi-tech equipment, such as the radar, he was able to detect voids behind solid rock walls which was extremely useful. From one particular location within the cave system, he KNEW he was within a certain number of feet of the chamber- but getting from point A to point B through many, many feet of solid limestone just wasn't that easy. He followed many false leads, such as a rock wall they found within the cave system which followed along the contour of the cliff-face, just as the wall of the chamber had done. But this lead didn't pan out.

I couldn't understand the problem when Ron tried to explain everything to me - that is until I went into the cave system myself. As I entered the small hole, I expected to find myself in a large cave, like the ones I had been in as a child. Instead, I discovered the small hole went through a jagged shaft about twenty-five feet STRAIGHT DOWN - I had to hold onto a rope and sort of "rappel" off the rocks. Exiting the shaft, I found myself standing on some wooden planks which was the only "floor" and it was quite small - the open cavern continued on another forty or more feet beneath me. It was nothing like I had expected. By the time I had twisted and turned, trying to conform my body to the narrow shaft which led into this area, I discovered that I had absolutely NO idea of what direction I was facing. Without a compass, I was completely disoriented. Then, when I went through a couple of the small openings from the main chamber, I was absolutely amazed at how tight the areas were. Tending a bit toward claustrophobia, I had a brand new respect for Ron, Danny and Ronny - I couldn't imagine how they did it, and I still can't.

I had earlier thought, "If you know how many feet it is to a certain point, why don't you just measure it and go there?" But now, I understood why. In the tight confines, with cave walls and rocks everywhere, it seemed impossible to measure anything. Or even knowing the correct direction seemed impossible to me. Of course, Ron had worked in these caves and tunnels for so many years, he pretty much knew it like the back of his hand but this was not going to be easy.

In addition to searching within the cave system, Ron took his team to the blocked-up tunnel entrance in the quarry to open it. Removing the blocks, there WAS the void Ron had detected with the radar as we explained earlier, and then the tunnel was plugged. So, Ron crawled inside and began to remove the rocks and debris, passing the buckets down to the next person, who passed it to the next, etc., until the last person who dumped or disposed of the contents. (This is the same method they used inside the cave system - the "bucket brigade" we call it, sometimes consisting of ten or more people.)

As I was writing this, Ron reminded me of an experience he had during this time. While clearing the tunnel with a group of good friends from Florida, he suddenly was struck with a feeling of impending "doom" or "disaster". He told everyone about this "impression", and explained that he didn't know what was going to happen but that they all needed to quickly pack up the equipment and "get outta there". All the guys did as he said, and just as they started walking out, everyone heard a loud booming thud coming from the area of the tunnel. A huge boulder in the ceiling of the tunnel had fallen right where Ron had been sitting.

They returned the next day and Ron simply broke it up and removed it - the feeling of "doom" was gone and they continued working. But the debris plugging the hole appeared to have no end. They replaced the blocks exactly as they had found them and gave up, at least for the time being. For now, we have no idea if the tunnel is completely blocked the entire way, or even if it is the correct tunnel. However, the last time Ron went back into the tunnel, Ronny was able to take time off work and return with him - and Ronny found a Roman coin with Tiberius on it which indicates that the tunnel was opened in Roman times but then resealed. We could not find this particular coin in our list of Imperial Roman coins and therefore assume that the coin was a "city coin".

Ron's last resort was to attempt to dig a shaft through the solid rock into the chamber that held the Ark and other objects. But this was a very precarious approach - the shaft could cave in and damage some of the objects, or they could expend all that effort and discover they had missed the chamber. It would be a tremendous undertaking, requiring an awful lot of work. But one trip, after his main excavation team had left for home, Ron and a couple of faithful assistants began the shaft. They now had jackhammer-drills and much better equipment than he and the boys had used during the early years. They began drilling the shaft and got through about ten feet of solid limestone over several trips but the end didn't seem anywhere in sight. And Ron experienced something that is common to the human species - he became frustrated at the tremendous effort and expense that appeared to be yielding absolutely no results.

Continue reading about the Ark of the Covenant...