re: Ethiopian church that houses the Ark of the Covenant attacked

Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Macedonia, Selucid, Ptolemy, and Rome all sacked Jerusalem at least once (some more than once) prior to the birth of Christ. The book of Maccabees details one such sacking at the hands of Selucia, and how many temple treasures were lost.

The archaeology proves that much of the post-pentatech Old Testament is at least accurate with respect to geography. There are ruins of cities and fortifications exactly where the Bible says there should be. Many foreign kings are mentioned by name who can easily be verified by the records from their own countries, and the timelines of those dynasties always match the archaeology. Much of the Bible from the conquest of Canaan through the death of Christ appears to describe a lot of actual verifiable events.

If the Bible says there was an ark, I have no doubt that there was some object meeting that description which existed at some point. For how long, and where it went before being lost and/or destroyed is a mystery. The Ethiopian story is plausible to me, but fantastic claims require fantastic proof.