This book has been a great reading experience. Thanks to the author and the publisher for bringing this book to life.

So a bunch of privileged and entitled upper class Etonians go on a boy’s own adventure in Jerusalem, oblivious of and insensitive to political and cultural feelings, all set on a hare-brained quest to locate the lost biblical Ark of the Covenant. It’s an eminently British romp although other nationalities were involved including a deranged Swede who believed he had uncovered a cypher in the Book of Ezekiel which gave the location of the Ark. An enormous amount of money was ploughed into the expedition and it’s astonishing just how many people were swept up in it and thought it a worthwhile thing to do. It’s a truly fascinating story, meticulously and exhaustively – and exhaustingly – researched and clearly and accessibly written. The author’s passion for the tale comes over loud and clear. The Parker expedition is the stuff of legends and I really enjoyed discovering all about it. The book is at times perhaps too detailed, as the background of each member of the group is gone into and this slows the narrative, and with so many characters involved it’s sometimes hard to keep track of exactly who everyone is (not helped by the fact they all somewhat resemble each other) but overall this is a truly enjoyable and entertaining account of a frankly mad attempt to do the impossible – find the Ark.

What do you do if you have more money than maturity? Why, you go on an expedition for the heck of it. This book discusses the Parker expedition to find the Ark of the Covenant. We learned about the people who went on the expedition, how they were financed, and what the results were. I learned so much from Raiders of the Hidden Ark.

This was a fun and interesting read! I truly enjoyed this one. For those who are interested in history, this is one book that you are going to want to check out - and find an adventure that is going to be out of the ordinary!

Discover a different style of history - and join these young adventurers as they search for the Ark of the Covenant. This book is compelling and intriguing! You are not going to be disappointed with this book at all!

This book was a hard read to start. I have always been fascinated about the histories of various religions, and of course the Ark of the Covenant is at the top of that list of curiosities. The book details the Parker expedition, and it's search for the Ark and other hints at the reality of Moses and the Israelites' search for their promised land. The beginning takes the time to ease you in to the events leading up to and surrounding this search. While it takes a minute getting into the meat of the story, Addison is good at teasing that sense of whether you are reading adventure fiction versus a historical account. It is true that reality can be stranger (and more interesting) than fiction. And this book is a great example of that!

*I was given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review*

I picked this book just because of the title-like most people, I'm a huge fan of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I have never been more glad that I made that snap decision-this is an absolutely excellent book. Ostensibly about a famed ( at its time, by all contemporary news outlets, I didn't know of it before I read this book though) expedition to locate the site of the Ark of the Covenant, the book's a beautiful exploration of a time in the early 20th Century when most Empires were at a precarious state- the Young Turk revolution in the Ottoman Empire, there was unrest in Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was weakening, the British Empire had just seen a Pyrrhic victory in the Boer War. Governments were whipping up jingoistic sentiments as a means of misdirection, during time of increasing economic uncertainty. A magical object that could vanquish your enemies, clearly seemed like a noble quest to undertake!You don't need to know anything about the Bible, or history, to enjoy this book-Addison has excellently written chapters about the Ark itself ( that make it sound like a fairly useful object to have ,really-it spends its time giving your enemies leprosy and causing earthquakes and so on.), and the mysterious disappearance of its mentions from the Bible from around 550 BC-an absolute gift for conspiracy theorists. Through his chapters on the backgrounds of each of the expedition members, Addison explores a facet of the time- the influence of public schools on politics and colonialism, colonialism in the Congo ( one of the best chapters), the Boer War. An underlying theme throughout the book is the reasons for specific archaeological excavations, and the theories one is seeking to prove-brought out excellently well once the Expedition reaches Jerusalem. THere are some lovely chapters with excerpts from contemporary THomas Cook's travel guides (since they arranged pilgrimages to Jerusalem) and some excellent descriptions of the area. Jerusalem was under the Ottoman EMpire, governed by an ethnically Turkish Governor who prided himself on his inability to speak Arabic or Hebrew, with mayors and Guardians of the Al-Aqsa compound being Arabic,  and then, as now( though probably less now), was an intensely cosmopolitan city with a multitude of religious identities, languages, ethnicities. It was also a bit of a powder keg, and like the rest of the Ottoman Empire, cracks in the facade and dissent against their rulers were prominent. The chapters on the excavations are fascinating, and detail the painstaking labours required. Things went wrong, however, through a combination of hubris, apathy to local religious sentiments and petty corruption, with the preceding chapters having laid an excellent foundation to show how it all combined to cause their problems with the dig. Addison goes on to describe the fates of the Expedition members, and traces the ending of the Edwardian Age through their lives. What I loved about the book was its succinct writing about the origins of the disputed status of Jerusalem and its importance to 3 major religions. It's tragic to read of riots breaking out in 2021, for similar reasons for riots breaking out in the early 20th Century, and the various missteps by world powers that have created this situation.
If you're a fan of Indian Jones, definitely read this book, it's as good! And even if you're not, still definitely read this book, it captures a time and attitudes that have ripple effects to this day, very evocatively.

Graham Addison the author has skill fully woven together the. full history oft the parker excavation in Jerusalem. Covering the search for the ark of the covenant, Lots of hidden facts and details covering this search over the last hundred years or so, I was surprised how much money was invested into this excavation as well as hidden ciphers and codes given for possible location of the ark of the covenant, A thoroughly enjoyable read,

'Indiana Jones and the Daft Crusade'.

Here's the pitch: a clutch of languid, desperate-for-adventure, ex-military public school boys team up with a fake medium and a possibly deranged Swedish scholar who claimed to have found hidden codes in the Book of Isaiah leading to the secret location of the Ark of The Covenant. They burn their way through a not-so-small fortune, cause mayhem and riot in Ottoman Jerusalem by tunneling under the Al-Aqsa mosque and, despite their 'expert' finding fresh clues (When the first ones prove fruitless), find nothing better than a Biblical commode. Can we get Harrison interested? You couldn't make it up – and luckily there's no need as it all really happened.

Thanks to Edgcumbe Press & NetGalley for the ARC *****

This is clearly a passion project. The author’s dedication to telling the story in an engaging, thoroughly researched and meticulously plotted out way shows what a labour of love this must have been. The author does a great job of presenting facts and figures in a well paced, action focused way.

Even if you don't believe in the Ark of the Covenant, you will love this book! It's a true story of the Parker Expedition, who in the early 1900s mounted a search for the Ark. This group of wealthy, elite people hunted through libraries, old stories from the indigenous peoples in the countries they searched through as well as the bible. The author is true in his descriptions of how this group of people treated the native peoples, which was pretty disgusting, even for those times. The author also gives a wonderfully descriptive narrative of each main adventurer as well as the lore behind the tales experienced by others who had search for the Ark. A really great read.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this copy, for my unpaid, honest review.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this e.A well written book about a fascinatingbut hard to prove subject.

This is absolutely the best, most detailed book I have read on this subject! I would give it more than 5 stars if I could. Definitely a fan, and I have already recommended the book to my husband and my friends.

The author gives a lot of background about the era, the wars, and the relationships between the people involved. In doing so he completes detailed profiles of the various expedition members as well as delving into the backgrounds of government officials and conditions in the Ottoman Empire and Palestine. The religious portrait of Jerusalem reveals a far more complex and cosmopolitan city than one would believe existed at that time. There is also a review of the exploration accomplished by Sir Charles Warren in his time in Palestine, the forerunner to the Parker Expedition upon which this book is centered. There are photos of individuals important to the expedition as well as reproductions of maps from the tunneling around Jerusalem. All of this information was like a firehose of historical facts that allowed you to be completely informed of the import of this undertaking.

The author pulled all of these factual threads into one cohesive narrative that was absolutely fascinating. The writing was clear and concise, and the narrative moved along at a good clip. By the time I finished, I felt that I had a very deep understanding of the time, place, and circumstances that motivated these “Old Etonians” to spend a portion of their young lives on a treasure hunt for the lost Ark of the Covenant.

I would like to thank author Graham Addison, publisher BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eGalley of this book. I have not been compensated and my opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed myself!

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3 and 1 / 2 stars

Mr. Addison does a good job of including a great deal of history to background the team searching for the Ark of the Covenant. Some of the histories surrounding the “adventurers” were very interesting.

He also discusses the prevailing attitude of the average wealthier, white citizens of the world to the natives of newly discovered, or conquered countries. Ah, Empire!

The differences and problems associated with the expedition are discussed as well. Whether it was personalities or someone’s drinking, or harassing the local women and girls, Mr. Addison has it covered.

At the same time. I thought the book could have been shorter. There is an awful lot of filler. While I found some of it interesting, it seemed unnecessary. It is written in a rather dry style. Still, I enjoyed learning about it. I always enjoy learning new things.

I want to thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for forwarding to me a copy of this interesting book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Author Graham Addison describes his story as “Downton Abbey meets Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown”, a rollicking tale of derring-do which was more a case of “derring-didn’t”. Five Old Estonians, led by the Honourable Montsgue Parker, journeyed to the Holy Land in search of the Ark of the Covenant, based only on the word of a Swedish (or possibly Danish) scholar who claimed to have discovered a cypher that enabled him to “decode” secret messages in the Bible which would lead to the Ark’s hidden location.
Addison examines the lives of each of the members, before and after the various expeditions, most of whom came from privileged Etonian backgrounds and craved adventure, and who were described as having “more money than brains”. Initially welcomed in Jerusalem as they began their excavations, their decision to undertake secret digging on the second expedition near the Dome of the Rock led to rioting and investigations into their activities, which they avoided via a hasty retreat on their yacht. Unwittingly, the unrest triggered a new sense of Palestinian nationalism, the legacy of which still ensures today.
The first English-language version of the story to see print, this book has been meticulously researched and contains many original photographs of the dig and the dilettante archaeologists themselves. It is accessible and in some parts very funny.