Posted on 11/09/2009 5:18:05 PM PST by LibWhacker
Herodotus wrote of a 50,000-man strong army that set out on foot into the Egyptian desert in 525 B.C. and was never heard from again ... until today.
A pair of Italian archaeologists have uncovered bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert. Twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni are hopeful that they've finally found the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cambyses II and his armied were buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C. He wrote, "a wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Great story!
...As for the detachment he [Cambyses] had sent to attack the Ammonians, they set out from Thebes with guides, and they clearly arrived at the town of Oasis. This is a town which is inhabited by Samians who are said to belong to the Aeschronian tribe, and which is seven days' journey from Thebes across the desert; the name of the place, translated into Greek, is the Isles of the Blessed. So by all accounts the army reached this place, but after that the only information available comes directly or indirectly from the Ammonians themselves; no one else can say what happened to them, because they did not reach the Ammonians and they did not come back either. The Ammonians, however, add an explanation for their disappearance. They say that after the army had left Oasis and was making its way across the desert towards them--in other words, somewhere between Oasis and their lands--an extraordinarily strong south wind, carrying along with it heaps of sand, fell upon them while they were taking their midday meal and buried them.
An early forerunner of Jimmy Carter.
OH HAPPY HAPPY DAY! I HAVE ALSO BEEN WAITNG FOR THIS.
There will be images soon, I hope.
Link in post #23.
Yeah, they say they’re Persian because they are Persian. But just because you’re Iranian doesn’t mean you’re Persian. Iran is full of other ethnic groups besides the Persians.
Nice, thanks!
Thanks for posting one of my favorite fun reads. His inquiries are fascinating and make more sense than some of the rubbish being published today.
I mean, can you imagine a sandstorm so powerful it buries you in place? Wow!
Ping.
Thanks!
Looks like they outsmarted themselves. They took a secondary route between oases to the south to avoid fighting Egyptian garrisons on the main route that historians were looking on. The Persians dug and lined with clay pots wells along the way. (The aquifer was not so deep 2500 years ago.) But when they arrived at what they thought was the oasis of the temple of Amon, it turned out to be another oasis 60 miles to the south of the right one. While they were trying to figure it out, the sandstorm hit.
Yes, I believe they call them slaves.
Thanks for the ping. Fascinating.
Further investigation of the remains should prove whether they are this Persian army.
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