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tie — i Ii le ee de tee priceless, the Ark and other treasures secreted in the system were worth at least US$200 million. Parker managed to collect $125,000 from various English and American financiers. Juvelius then proceeded to Constantinople to get excavation permits from the Ottoman government. To guarantee a positive outcome, he promised that half of the treasure would be theirs—without being too specific as to whether "theirs" meant the government officials themselves or the government. The application was successful. The Juvelius expedition is not well-known and one might think we have only his account on which to rely. That is not correct: other accounts of the expedition exist, and one source is Millen, who wrote the book On Right Tracks in 1922 (though some sources list 1917 as the date of publication). He was a member of the expedition and believed that the discovery of the Ark would herald the new Millennium, as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. As such, he was convinced that the expedition was a quest to change the future of mankind. 4 z 5 rss on) The Parker expedition arrived in Jerusalem in August 1909. Replica of the Ark of the Covenant on display at the Church Though the team had received a permit, it was—unremarkably— of Saint Roch, Paris (Photo: Philip Coppens) not allowed to dig in the Temple area itself. Instead, the team began excavations 600 metres to the south of the area, at the where these treasures rested. He believed that there were Gihon Spring, which had been the starting point of Juvelius's underground tunnels which led from the area of the Gihon Spring decoding. A long road lay ahead to where Juvelius hoped to end (the main water source in First Temple times) to the Temple up...but he was sure he would get there. Mount—and to the location of the Ark of the Covenant. During The work was a major—and hence costly—undertaking: the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 excavation of the underground water system was only made BC, King Hezekiah of Judah built a tunnel to access the Temple possible by diverting the water from its normal course, which Mount, and the Pool of Siloam to act as its reservoir. Juvelius meant that the team members needed to build dams and pump out was specifically interested in the tunnel system known as water. Worse was the fact that once they were inside, they "Hezekiah's Tunnel", discovered in 1838, and the cave system realised that Hezekiah's Tunnel had parts that were only 18 called "Warren's Shaft", found in 1867 by centimetres high, which meant that the an Englishman, Captain Charles Warren. clearing operation was gigantic. All ofa These water systems, Juvelius believed, sudden, clearing 600 metres seemed like 600 had been adapted and reworked, beyond kilometres. what was known so far, into a series of As if he didn't already have enough underground tunnels. problems, Parker received criticism that But it is one thing to believe something none of the team members was a trained, let and another to investigate it on the ground. alone qualified, archaeologist. He therefore Juvelius knew that a dig on—or, even approached the French Dominican Louis- worse, under—the Temple Mount was not Henri Vincent, a qualified archaeologist, only illegal, it was sacrilegious and thus who agreed to join the team. Vincent was was very unlikely to receive any aided by Father Sabiniak, the photographer permission whatsoever to go ahead. Still, of the Ecole Biblique. Together, they to obtain an excavation permit, Juvelius documented the tunnels and channels would have to get approval from the unearthed by the workers as well as the finds Turkish government. There were two dug up inside. major problems: first, despite what some The start of the excavations also meant later records would allege, he did not have that Juvelius's theory would be tested, and enough money to finance the operation either proved or falsified. It should himself; second, it seemed most unlikely therefore not come as a major revelation that a Finnish surveyor would be given that, from here on, there are two different such a permit. accounts—underlining the fact that there are To realise his ambition, Juvelius formed Valter Henrik Juvelius always (at least) two sides to every story. a company in London in 1908 in the name According to Millen's book, for three of JMPFW Ltd, which included the initials of the surnames of the —_years the expedition penetrated ever deeper, past labyrinths and planned expedition's original members: Juvelius, Millen, Parker, tunnels. He stated that they found poisonous gas in some of the Forth and Waughan. All except the Finnish Juvelius and the tunnels, which caused burns and dizziness, but it is more likely Swedish engineer Millen were English noblemen. He hoped that __ that this was natural gas, which miners often come across in this approach would greatly improve his chances for a permit, if | mineshafts. With every metre gained, Millen became more only because the entire financing of the expedition would now be convinced about the legitimacy of the decipherment: Juvelius catered for. Chief amongst this group of sponsors was Captain would predict upcoming features of the underground network Montague Parker (1878-1962). Juvelius had persuaded this son before stumbling across them and would know which routes to of an English duke that, though the Ark of the Covenant was take—all of this based on his decoding of the Book of Ezekiel. Fed oo re 4 Replica of the Ark of the Covenant on display at the Church of Saint Roch, Paris (Photo: Philip Coppens) 42 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2006