According to legend and folklore the Persian King Cambyses II sent an army of 50,000 men into the Egyptian desert in 525 B.C., where they vanished from the face of the earth. For centuries, some speculated the vast army had been swallowed up by the desert in a freak sandstorm.

In fact, a hundred years after the mass disappearance, the Greek historian Herodotus 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.”

Now a chance discovery in the Sahara sands west of Egypt may have proven Herodotus right:

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology’s biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian archaeologists.
Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army — 50,000 strong — of Persian King Cambyses II, buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.

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