The "Ark Theme" played several times in Raiders of the Lost Ark and briefly re-appears in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It is a haunting melody, most prominently consisting of three downward notes. The music is first heard when the men from Washington DC discuss the Ark of the Covenant with Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody, and it reaches an apex when the Ark is opened by René Emile Belloq, Herman Dietrich and Arnold Ernst Toht, causing the Power of God to rain down upon the Nazis.
The motif is heard in Last Crusade once, when Indy and Elsa Schneider are exploring the Venetian catacombs and see a carving of the relic, to which Indy assures Elsa he is sure the carving represents the Ark of the Covenant due to his past encounters. It is also heard in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull twice, both times within Hangar 51; the government's hiding place of the lost Ark, as seen at the end of the first film, as Indy is taken there by Irina Spalko and her forces to look for something else.