Hidar on the Ethiopian calendar). Tigray War In mid-December 2020 during the Tigray War, according to Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA), 750 people who were hiding in the church were brought out and killed by Eritrean militants. Locals suspected an intention to steal the Ark of the Covenant. A more recent report by Amnesty International points to war crimes committed by Eritrean troops in and around Aksum, and de facto desacralisation of the church. The Ethiopian government has blocked forensic investigators from accessing the church grounds. Ark of the Covenant The Church of Saint Mary of Zion claims to contain the original Ark of the Covenant. Accordingly, the Ark was moved to the Chapel of the Tablet adjacent to the old church because a divine 'heat' from the Tablets had cracked the stones of its previous inner sanctum. The Ethiopian Empress Menen funded the construction of the new present chapel. According to pious tradition, the Ark came to Ethiopia with Crown prince Menelik I after he visited his father King Solomon in Jerusalem. In 9 June 1992, a former professor of Ethiopian Studies at the University of London, Edward Ullendorff, declared that he personally examined the ark contained within the church in 1941 while serving as an officer of the British army. He described the ark as empty, and a “Middle- to late-medieval construction [from] when these were fabricated ad hoc." At present time, only the guardian monk may view the Ark, in accordance with the Biblical accounts of the dangers of doing so for non-Kohanim. This lack of accessibility, and questions about the account as a whole, has led Ethiopians and foreign scholars alike to express doubt about the veracity of the claim. The guardian monk is appointed for life by his predecessor before the predecessor dies. If the incumbent guardian dies without naming a successor, then the monks of the monastery hold an election to select the new guardian. The guardian then is confined to the chapel of the Ark of the Covenant for the rest of his life, praying before it and offering incense. Accordingly, each incumbent guardian monk of the chapel are known to have eye Cataracts of unknown origin. Burials Tekle Giyorgis I, in the churchyard References Other sources Stuart Munro-Hay (2005), The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant, Ch. 6 17th-century Oriental Orthodox church buildings Buildings and structures in Axum Ethiopian Orthodox