Tana Qirqos (variantly spelled Tana Kirkos; also called Tana Chirqos or Tana Chirkos, etc.;
Ge'ez: ጣና ቂርቆስ ''ṭānā qirqos'', ጣና ጪርቆስ ''ṭānā č̣irqos'') is an island in the eastern part of
Lake Tana
Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wi ...
in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
, near the mouth of the
Gumara River, having a latitude and longitude of . It is considered a holy island, and only monks of the
Ethiopian Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chri ...
live there.
The monks believe that the island was once the resting place of the
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an ...
. According to tradition, the Ark was placed there by Emperor Ezana, the first Ethiopian sovereign to convert to Christianity, and it remained on the island until it was transported to
Mary of Zion church in
Axum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015).
It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region ...
.
Graham Hancock has speculated that the Ark was carried from
Elephantine
Elephantine ( ; ; arz, جزيرة الفنتين; el, Ἐλεφαντίνη ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO ...
by the
Jewish garrison on the island, around the 5th century BC. However, there is no legend or tradition that supports this idea and specialists consider it unfounded.
When R.E. Cheesman visited Tana Qirqos in 1933, he found a large stratum of rock at the northern end of the island, which looked "like a huge wall of masonry" 400 or 500 yards long and standing about 100 feet high. He recorded that the formation "has been identified as olivine-bearing basalt," and that "in all probability the island gives its name to the lake."
[R.E. Cheesman]
"Lake Tana and Its Islands", ''Geographical Journal''
85 (1935), p. 498
References
Amhara Region
Islands of Lake Tana
Christian holy places
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
{{Amhara-geo-stub