The Lost Army Of Cambyses
by Paul Sussman
1/5/2003
The Lost Army Of Cambyses
by Paul Sussman
1/5/2003
The Lost Army Of King Cambyses9:30pm Wednesday, 7 July
2500 years ago, an entire army of 10,000 Persians disappeared in the desert. In an attempt to cross the remote and dangerous Western Sahara, they were overwhelmed by a sandstorm and disappeared without a trace. The soldiers owed allegiance to King Cambyses, the Persian who had overthrown the Pharaohs and whose empire was to last 200 years.
Unravelling the mystery of their disappearance has inspired a stream of explorers over the years, including Count Laszlo Almasy, the model for the book and film The English Patient who was a 1930's Hungarian explorer and World War II spy.
Then three years ago an Egyptian archaeologist Aly Barakat found ancient arrowheads and a dagger in an isolated spot near Siwa, prompting geologist Tom Bown and archaeologist Gail MacKinnon to set out to follow this new lead.
The Lost Army of King Cambyses follows Bown and MacKinnon on their journey from Luxor into one of the most dangerous deserts on earth on the trail of the lost army.
Bown has developed his own theory to explain the army's fate and has meticulously calculated how long the journey would have taken it. He believes the Persians' lack of understanding of local geography led them into the towering dunes known as the Great Sand Sea, where they perished.
They explore the area for lost weapons and bones to prove his theory. But, although they find pits from which the dagger and arrowheads were excavated, there is no sign of the bones and skulls and a sandstorm blows up before they can search further.
When they do find bone fragments, MacKinnon is sceptical they belonged to a Persian soldier and puts a brake on Bown's unbridled enthusiasm.
So is the great mystery of ancient Egypt really solved? Watch to draw your own conclusions.
Producer/Writer: Nick Ryan. Granite Productions.
Subtitles
Rating: G
Subject: Documentary
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