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 wid ...

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 ...

, near the mouth of the

Gumara River Gumara River is a river of northern-western Ethiopia. It empties into Lake Tana at from the east. Hot springs on the Gumara's banks at Wanzaye, which were popular in medicinal hot baths from the late 18th century till now, were already mentioned by ...

, 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 Chris ...

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 e ...

. 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.

Graham Hancock Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British writer who promotes pseudoscientific theories involving ancient civilizations and lost lands. Hancock speculates that an advanced ice age civilization was destroyed in a cataclysm, but t ...

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