German archaeologists think that they have found remains from the Ark of the Covenant, in Aksum, northern Ethiopia. I could have told them that. Five years ago I set off on my very own Indiana Jones mission to the same place. And I found the Ark. Or rather, I found the man who guards it. I wasn't allowed to see the Ark - no one is - because, of course, aside from its guardian, none of us can handle the truth that it holds. Believe me, not even Harrison Ford could get past this guy.

Aksum is a tiny town, a five-hour flight north of Addis Ababa. I was greeted by my trusty guide, Heile Selassi, who nodded sagely when I told him my mission and took me straight to the church of St Mary of Zion, which sits on a hill. After much dilly-dallying on one side of some iron gates, the guardian arrived on the other.

The guardian to the Ark is appointed at a very young age, and from then on lives inside the monastery, sleeping in the same room as the Ark, or so the Ethiopians believe. His face was as old as the hills, he was clothed in bright yellow robes and, according to Heile, who doubled up as my interpreter, he was very pleased to see me. I don't think that he said he had been expecting me, but I felt as though he should have. Folklore - and numerous books - claim that after the Babylonians plundered Jerusalem, the Ark was carried to Ethiopia. Most of the locals I spoke to en route believed it. I had a pen and paper because I wanted to record what the man who guarded one of the world's oldest and most mysterious relics might know, but I'm afraid that I lost much of what he said because one of his first questions threw me: would I like to have a child, and would I prefer a boy or a girl? A girl, I said, wondering if he might be a genie as well. We talked some more, he always answering in riddles. He told me to come back the next day. Which I did, but he was not there. It is only as I write that I wonder whether, in fact, Heile was in some quaint way not interpreting at all, but merely trying to chat me up ...

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