Doctor Jones, we've heard a lot about you.
Have you?
Professor of Archeology. Expert on the occult and, how does one say it... obtainer of rare antiquities.
That's one way of saying it.
You're definitely a man of many talents.
And you studied under Professor Ravenwood at the University of Chicago.
Yes, I did.
Do you have any idea of his present whereabouts?
Only rumors really. Somewhere in Asia, I think. I haven't spoken to him in ten years. We were friends once but we had a bit of a falling out, I'm afraid.
Now, you must understand that this is all completely confidential.
I understand.
Yesterday afternoon our European section intercepted a German communique that was sent from Cairo to Berlin.
You see for the last two years the Nazis have had teams of archaeologists running around the world looking for all sorts of religious artifacts. Hitler's gone nuts on the subject. He's obsessed with the occult, and right now there's some kind of German archaeological dig going on in the desert outside Cairo.
Now we have some information here but we can't make anything out of it and we thought maybe you could. "Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece to Staff of Ra. Abner Ravenwood, USA."
The Nazi's have discovered Tanis...
What exactly does this mean to you, this 'Tanis'?
Well, Tanis is one of the possible resting places of the Lost Ark.
The Lost Ark?
The Ark of the Covenant. The chest the Hebrews used to carry the Ten Commandments.
Wait a minute, you're talking about THE Ten Commandments?
Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets that Moses brought down out of Mt. Heron and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. Didn't any of you guys ever go to Sunday school? The Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark, and when they settled in Canaan they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of Solomon--
Where?
Well nobody knows where.
However, an Egyptian pharaoh--
Shishaq.
Yes. --invaded the city of Jerusalem in about 980 BC and he may have taken the Ark back to the city of Tanis and hidden it in a secret chamber called the Well of Souls.
Well of Souls?
However, about a year after the pharaoh had returned to Egypt, the city of Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm which lasted a whole year, wiped clean by the wrath of God.
[pause]
Well, I see we've come to the right man. You seem to know all about this 'Tanis'.
No, Abner's the real expert. He did the first serious work on Tanis, collected some of the relics. It was his obsession really. But he never found the city.
Frankly, we're somewhat suspicious of Mr. Ravenwood. An American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable--
Rubbish, Ravenwood's no Nazi!
What do they want him for then?
Obviously the Nazis are looking for the headpiece to the Staff of Ra and they think Abner's got it.
What exactly is the headpiece to the Staff of Ra?
Well the Staff is just a stick, I don't know, about this big, but nobody really knows for sure how high. It's capped by an elaborate headpiece in the shape of the sun with a crystal in the center. And what you did was you took the Staff to a special room in Tanis called the map room with a miniature of the city laid out on the floor. And if you put the Staff in a certain place at a certain time of day, the sun shone through here and made a beam that came down on the floor here. [pause] And gave you the exact location of the Well of Souls.
Where the Ark of the Covenant was kept?
And that's exactly what the Nazis are looking for.
What does this Ark look like?
There's a picture of it in here. [sets a huge book down on the table and opens it] That's it.
Good God!
Yes, that's just what the Hebrews thought.
[pointing at the picture of the Ark in the book]
Now, uh, what's that supposed to be coming out of there?
Lightning. Fire. The power of God or something.
I'm beginning to understand Hitler's interest.
Yes, the Bible speaks of the Ark leveling mountains and laying waste to entire regions. An army which carries the Ark before it... is invincible.
