The Lost Persian Army

Legend has it that Cambyses II – son of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire – sent a massive army to Egypt in 525BC. Also according to legend, the army was swallowed up by a sandstorm and never seen again.

The legend was first documented by Greek historian Herodotus, and most archaeologists dismissed it as fantasy. Others, convinced that the story was based in fact, searched for the army’s remains over the centuries (past searchers included Count László Almásy, the historical figure upon which the novel The English Patient was based).

But it seems that Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni, a pair of Italian twins, just might have found it. The two have found hundreds of skeletons, dozens of water pitcher fragments, several bronze daggers, and several arrow tips near the legendary Oasis of Siwa. The men found the items near a rock formation 114 feet long a 6 feet high – the perfect shelter from a sandstorm and the only such rock over a wide area.

Lost Persian Army

You can read more about it at the Daily Mail’s site here. I recommend it – it’s a worthy read!

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