The Sign and the Seal

"The Sign and The Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant" (Toronto: Doubleday, ISBN 0-671-86541-2) is a controversial book by Graham Hancock. It was published in 1992.

The book narrates the endeavours of the writer in searching for the true Ark of the Covenant and proposes the theory that the ark spent several years in Egypt and the Sudan before it came to Ethiopia via the Nile River, where it was kept in the islands of Lake Tana for about 400 years and finally taken to Axum.

Reception

Though the book sold well,Michael H. Hiltzik. "Does Trail to Ark of Covenant End Behind Aksum Curtain? A British author believes the long-lost religious object may actually be inside a stone chapel in Ethiopia." "Los Angeles Times". June 9, 1992. 1.] it was panned by many critics. Jonathan Kirsch of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "It's part travelogue, part true-adventure, part mystery-thriller. But mostly it's a whacking big dose of amateur scholarship alloyed with a fervid imagination and the kind of narrative that comes in handy when telling ghost stories around a campfire." [Joathan Kirsch. "Speculation Ladled On With a Heavy Hand ". "Los Angeles Times". April 1, 1992. 8.] Desmond Ryan of the "Philadelphia Inquirer" joked, "If [Hancock] did any more speculating than what is strewn through the many pages of The Sign and the Seal, he would have to go into real estate." [Desmond Ryan. "Speculating where the Ark of the Covenant Is". "Philadelphia Inquirer". October 27, 1992. F3.] Archeologist John Holladay of the University of Toronto called it "garbage and hogwash", while Edward Ullendorff, a former Professor of Ethiopian Studies at the University of London, said he "wasted a lot of time reading it".

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