FINAL WARNING: The Shining Star
swept through Jerusalem, entering the Temple, and the Holy of Holies,
it was empty. Jewish history records the high priest making his
offering upon the foundation stone of the Holy of Holies, and not the
Ark. After Titus returned to Rome with some of the Temple treasure,
the Arch of Triumph (or Arch of Titus) was built in 81 AD at the
entrance to the Forum, in the Palatine section of Rome, to
commemorate his victory. It depicted the seven-branched candelabra
known as the menorah (with an octagonal base, rather than a three-
legged stand, which it actually has; which could indicate that it was a
duplicate kept in the Treasury), the golden table of the showbread, and
the seven trumpets of the Jubilee. The Ark is not pictured, thus adding
to the evidence that the Ark was not in the second Temple, and has
been hidden.According to the Mishnah (Sotah 9a), after the Temple was built, the
Tabernacle was stored under the “crypts of the Temple.” It is believed
that King Solomon constructed a secret chamber in the recesses of
the Temple Mount to hide the Ark, which is where it was placed during
the reign of Manasseh. Jewish tradition has held that the Ark and the
Altar of Incense were hidden in a secret location under a woodshed on
the western side of the Temple, near the Holy of Holies.This is not such a far-fetched idea when you realize that under the city
of Jerusalem there is an underground city consisting of a number of
tunnels, chambers, and cisterns; which were created to establish a
water storage system, as quarters for guards, chambers to hold
sacrificial animals, rooms containing ritual bathing areas, prison cells,
and storage areas for Temple treasures. The best known of these
subterranean areas is Hezekiah’s Tunnel, which was constructed to
make sure Jerusalem would have fresh water in case the city was
attacked. It started at Gihon Spring, and ran for a third of a mile,
through solid rock, spilling into the Pool of Siloam. An escape tunnel
used by King Zedekiah which ran from the Tower of Antonia, to a point
near the Eastern Gate, emerging outside the walls of the city, covering
a distance of over 8,000 feet.The nine original members of the Knights Templar were received by
King Baldwin I (Baudouin) in Jerusalem in 1119, and they established
their headquarters in a wing of the al-Aqsa Mosque, which had been
converted to a palace. They were given complete access to the palace