The Lost Army of Cambyses
Herodotus wrote that a Persian army of 50,000 marched into the Egyptian desert and was buried by a sandstorm.
What was reported
According to Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, the Persian king Cambyses II, who had conquered Egypt, sent an army of 50,000 men from Thebes against the oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis. Halfway there, as they ate their midday meal, a violent wind blew up and buried them all in sand.
The story has drawn explorers into the Western Desert ever since, and several have claimed to find traces of the army.
Explanations offered
No find has been confirmed. Some historians doubt the story entirely: in 2014 the Egyptologist Olaf Kaper suggested the army was actually defeated by an Egyptian rebel, Petubastis III, and that the sandstorm was a cover story. The desert is vast and shifting, so it may never be settled.
- When
- Around 524 BC
- Where
- Western Desert, near Siwa, Egypt
- Witnesses
- The Greek historian Herodotus
- Status
- Never solved
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.