Amazing discovery in Egypt’s western desert: Remains of vanished Persian army found
Breaking News: SCA announcement re Lost Army discovery
The Supreme Council of Antiquities characterizes the following report as “unfounded and misleading”.
Source: Egyptology News
According to Herodotus (484-425 B.C.), Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, sent 50,000 soldiers from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa and destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun after the priests there refused to legitimize his claim to Egypt.
After walking for seven days in the desert, the army got to an “oasis,” which historians believe was El-Kharga. After they left, they were never seen again.
A century after Herodotus wrote his account, Alexander the Great made his own pilgrimage to the oracle of Amen, and in 332 B.C. he won the oracle’s confirmation that he was the divine son of Zeus, the Greek god equated with Amen.
The tale of Cambyses’ lost army, however, faded into antiquity. As no trace of the hapless warriors was ever found, scholars began to dismiss the story as a fanciful tale.
Now, twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni claim to have found striking evidence that the Persian army was indeed swallowed in a sandstorm.
Indeed, the two top Italian archaeologists found a mass grave with hundreds of bleached bones and skulls.
Among the bones, a number of Persian arrow heads and a horse bit, identical to one appearing in a depiction of an ancient Persian horse, emerged.
The team communicated their finding to the Geological Survey of Egypt and gave the recovered objects to the Egyptian authorities.
Excerpted from an article by Rossella Lorenzi for Discovery News
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