Tabot Handing Over Ceremony

Ethiopian priest Arch Mandrite Abba Markos (centre), carries the Tabot, wrapped in ceremonial clothes, on his head during the handing over ceremony for the sacred artefact at St John's Scottish Episcopal church in Edinburgh. * A group of Ethiopian priests and officials arrived in the UK to retrieve the sacred carving stolen from their country 130 years ago. The wooden tablet depicting the Ark of the Covenant, known as a Tabot, was seized by British soldiers during a bloody battle in Ethiopia in 1868 when an expeditionary force was sent to the African country. The Tabot was brought to the Princes Street church by a soldier returning from Sir Robert Napier's campaign against Ethiopian Emperor Theodore II. (Photo by Ben Curtis - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)