The Lost Army Of King Cambyses

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History Documentary hosted by Stephen Rashbrook, published by Channel 4 in 2002 - English narration

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According to Herodotus 3.26, the Persian King Cambyses sent an army to threaten the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis. The army of 10,000 men was halfway across the desert when a massive sandstorm sprang up, burying them all. Although many Egyptologists regard the story as a myth, people have searched for the remains of the soldiers for many years. These have included Count László Almásy (on whom the novel The English Patient was based) and modern geologist Tom Brown. Some believe that in recent petroleum excavations, the remains may have been uncovered.

In January 1933, Orde Wingate searched unsuccessfully for the Lost Army of Cambyses in the Egypt's Western Desert, then known as the Libyan Desert.

In February 1977 there were reports that archaeologists had found remains of Cambyses' army, but this story proved to be a hoax.

From September 1983 to February 1984, Gary S. Chafetz, an American journalist and author, led an expedition—sponsored by Harvard University, The National Geographic Society, the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority, and the Ligabue Research Institute—that searched for the Lost Army of Cambyses. The six-month search was conducted along the Egyptian-Libyan border in a remote 100-square-kilometer area of complex dunes south west of the uninhabited Bahrein Oasis, approximately 100 miles south east of Siwa (Amon) Oasis. The $250,000 expedition had at its disposal 20 Egyptian geologists and laborers, a National Geographic photographer, two Harvard Film Studies documentary filmmakers, three camels, an ultra-light aircraft, and ground-penetrating radar. The expedition discovered approximately 500 tumuli (Zoroastrian-style graves) but no artifacts. Several tumuli contained bone fragments. Thermoluminence later dated these fragments to 1,500 BCE, approximately 1000 years earlier than the Lost Army. A recumbent winged sphinx carved in oolitic limestone was also discovered in a cave in the uninhabited Sitra Oasis (between Bahrein and Siwa Oases), whose provenance appeared to be Persian. Chafetz was arrested when he returned to Cairo in February 1984 for "smuggling an airplane into Egypt," even though he had the written permission of the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority to bring the aircraft into the country. He was interrogated for 24 hours. The charges were dropped after he promised to donate the ultra-light to the Egyptian Government. The aircraft now sits in the Egyptian War Museum in Cairo.

In the summer of 2000, a Helwan University geological team, prospecting for petroleum in Egypt's Western Desert, came across well-preserved fragments of textiles, bits of metal resembling weapons, and human remains that they believed to be traces of the Lost Army of Cambyses. The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that it would organize an expedition to investigate the site, but released no further information.

While escaping the Egyptians 2,500 years ago, the Persian King Cambyses led his army into the desert and disappeared forever. Despite efforts in the 1930s to discover what happened to him, no clues were found until 1996 when a geologist stumbled on evidence by accident. The Egyptian authorities have suppressed news of these findings until now. The Lost Army Of King Cambyses returns to the site to uncover the truth what happened to an entire army of 10,000 Persians 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 László Almásy 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 : Chris Ledger Director : Ian Denyer

A Granite Production for Channel Four Television Corporation (2002)