[Eternal_Bear]

I can't believe 50,000 men were "drowned" in a sandstorm. People had tall tales back then. You hear of ocassional stories of people dying in sandstorms but not tens of thousands. More likely, the army was wiped out by fighting, disease and exhaustion.

The Western Desert of Egypt is not like the Sahara. Hundreds of thousands of troops fought in North Africa from 1940-43. Never heard of anyone dying directly from a sandstorm.

[aruanan]

I can't believe 50,000 men were "drowned" in a sandstorm. People had tall tales back then. You hear of ocassional stories of people dying in sandstorms but not tens of thousands. More likely, the army was wiped out by fighting, disease and exhaustion

50,000 is a tiny dot compared to a big sandstorm.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

In 1940-43, there were some pretty good maps of the area, vehicles, radios, telephone lines, etc.

You follow a map that has you 20 miles off in a desert with a sandstorm and no way to get out and no way to let someone know where you are, you are dead. Even if there are 50,000 of you.

[outofstyle]

The incident was recorded by Herodotus and related the fate of army of the mad Persian king Cambyses. It had been thought to be a myth.