When the earliest Biblical texts were being composed at the end of the First Temple Period, the Ark of the Covenant was a sacred relic housed in the sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple. The Ark played a central role in the Biblical narrative beginning with the Exodus story where it was housed in the tent, or tabernacle, that functioned as a mobile temple that the Israelites carried with them as they wandered in the wilderness. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BCE, nothing more is heard about the Ark. The exiles returned and built the Second Temple in the Persian Period, but the new structure had no Ark. What happened to the Ark and why was it important? Is there any chance it still exists? If the stories of the Exodus and of David and Solomon are myths, what is the actual history of the Ark? John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will explore these questions and more.