The vast Sahara, with its billowing sandstorms and scorching temperatures, has claimed countless lives. Typically, these are individuals or small caravans that stray too far from the camel tracks crisscrossing the region. However, only once in recorded history has this desert consumed an entire army.
In 525 BCE, Cambyses the 2nd, the formidable ruler of the Persian Empire, turned his attention to Egypt. With a powerful army at his command, he swiftly conquered the ancient realm of the pharaohs.
A year later, in 524 BCE, Cambyses dispatched a 50,000-strong army into the desert from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa, home to the Oracle of Amun. This oracle, revered by the Egyptians, had refused to legitimize Cambyses' rule over Egypt. Enraged, Cambyses sought to crush this rebellion.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that before the army could reach Siwa, a fierce southerly wind whipped up a massive sandstorm that engulfed them. Not a single soul escaped.
Over the years, numerous expeditions, especially throughout the 20th century, have sought to locate the remains of The Lost Army of Cambyses, to no avail.
The many fruitless searches led some Egyptologists to conclude that the story is, in fact, apocryphal, but this was not to be the end of it…
In 2000, while searching for petroleum deposits, an Egyptian geological team stumbled upon artifacts buried in the sand. These included metal fragments resembling weapons, textile pieces likely from clothing, and human remains. An investigation ensued, but no further details emerged.
In 2009, a pair of documentary filmmakers discovered what they claimed was evidence of the lost army, including bronze weapons, jewelry, and human remains. However, their findings were discredited as unreliable as they did not have approval from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and refused to publish their findings for review in a scholarly journal.
A recent theory by a Dutch archaeologist, who asserts that "one cannot die from a sandstorm," suggests the army didn't vanish but was ambushed by Egyptian rebels. Cambyses' successor, Darius the Great, then fabricated the sandstorm tale for Herodotus to record to have his rival stricken from the annals of history.
Whether it was rebels or a sandstorm, Cambyses managed to take control of almost all of Egypt.
Archeologists and Egyptologists have yet to reach a consensus regarding the fate of the Persian army, and, as such, the mystery of The Lost Army of Cambyses remains unsolved...
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