NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Ark of the Covenant
was secretly rushed from the first Hebrew
temple in Jerusalem just before the Temple's destruction?
Treasure hunter, Jim Barfield, believes the answer is yes.
He has decoded an ancient treasure map, hammered
into a copper scroll thousands of years old,
which lists the supposed locations of the most valuable
artifacts from the temple.
According to Jim, they can all be found
in the ancient city of Qumran.
The second location on the copper scroll
was surprisingly easy to find, considering the value
of what's buried right here.
The copper scrolls describe this location like this.
In the dry cistern of the great ruined
courtyard of the peristyle is hidden polished gold.
In front of the uppermost opening are 900 [INAUDIBLE]..
That is 33 tons of polished gold at this location.
NARRATOR: Armed with a survey of Qumran,
Jim was quickly able to locate the town's cistern.
JIM BARFIELD: I came out here with a member
of the Israeli parliament and a very powerful metal detector.
And when we got to this spot, the readings
were off the charts.
I could not believe what I saw.
I went home, and I buried 30 pounds of silver
in my front yard, and the readings
didn't even come close.
NARRATOR: But the gold was never Jim's primary target.
It's just one more clue that could lead
to the greatest prize of all.
JIM BARFIELD: Location number one, location number two
lined up perfectly with my map.
But my ultimate goal is to find location number
three, which includes the temple vessels
and the Ark of the Covenant.
The cooper scroll describes this location as being at the north
end of the hill of [INAUDIBLE].
It couldn't be within the ruins of Qumran,
because there are no hills there.
NARRATOR: While Qumran sits on flat land,
there are several large hills nearby.
Jim studied dozens of satellite images
to find one that matched the copper scroll's description.
It's right here.
NARRATOR: Not only does this hill feature a hidden cave,
it also sits in perfect alignment
with the other temple treasures.
JIM BARFIELD: Take location number one, location number
two, and you connect them with a straight line,
they will lead directly to this cave that
holds Israel's most important treasures, including
the Ark of the Covenant.
Jeremiah brought the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle
of Moses, and buried them inside of a cave
and sealed the entrance.
When I got to the cave, some of the stones
looked different than the rest.
It appears that an ancient trowel of some type
was used to form this seal.
I took a sample of this stone in to two different companies.
They said it was an ancient man-made mortar
unlike any natural formation.
NARRATOR: It's clear that whoever
sealed this cave went to great lengths to hide its contents.
Could those contents include the Ark of the Covenant?
After we identified this as the most likely
site of the cave, we came back with the high-powered
metal detector.
When we saw the readings for this location,
we knew that this was the mother lode.
NARRATOR: The metal detector readings at the cave
are five times higher than the 33 tons of gold at site number
two, suggesting an even greater prize
could indeed be hidden here.
JIM BARFIELD: It's obvious that something's here.
The copper scroll, the map, the mortar,
and the readings of the metal detector, all of these
leave me with no doubt.
In this cave are some of Israel's greatest treasures,
including the Ark of the Covenant.
If Jim Barfield can get permission to dig at Qumran,
there's a chance he might be about to finally unearth
the Ark of the Covenant.
Looking forward, there's no telling where
the hunt for the Ark might go.
But looking backward, it all leads to one man, a man who
simultaneously held two of the Bible's most
famed and mysterious treasures.
If he existed, King Solomon was quite possibly the most
powerful person to ever live.
From his lucrative copper mines in Israel to his massive gold
reserves imported from abroad, he controlled the area's trade
routes and united his kingdom with
another regional superpower.
He accomplished all of this while in possession
of the Ark of the Covenant.
But as Solomon reached old age and reflected on his life,
he wrote a telling line in the book of Ecclesiastes.
"All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full."
Perhaps the old king had realized
that history's ultimate accumulation
of wealth and power still wasn't enough to provide fulfillment.
It's a lesson that future generations
of biblical treasure hunters would be wise to keep in mind.
The search continues.