Curse of the Pharaohs and Cambyses’ lost army.
Curse of the Pharaohs and Cambyses lost army
Cambyses II.
Cambyses II (flourished 6th century BCE) was an Achaemenid king of Persia (reigned 529–522 BCE), who conquered Egypt in 525. He was the eldest son of King Cyrus II the Great by Cassandane, During his father’s lifetime, Cambyses was in charge of Babylonian affairs. In 538, he performed the ritual duties of a Babylonian king at the important New Year festival, and in 530, before Cyrus set out on his last campaign, he was appointed regent in Babylon.
The conquest of Egypt, planned by Cyrus, was the major achievement of Cambyses’ reign. The invasion took place during the reign of Psamtik III. Cambyses received assistance from Polycrates of Samos; from Phanes, a Greek general in the Egyptian army who gave him valuable military information; and from the Arabs, who provided water for the crossing of the Sinai Desert. After Cambyses had won the Battle of Pelusium 525 BCE, in the Nile Delta and had captured Heliopolis and Memphis, Egyptian resistance collapsed.
The Persian victory at the Battle of Pelusium marked the first time Egypt was ever ruled by a foreign dynasty.
As the new Iranian Pharoah of Egypt, Cambyses’ conquest ended thousands of years of native Egyptian rule.
5th century BCE
The lost army of Cambyses
The lost Army of Cambyses was, according to an ancient record, a formation of 50,000 Persian soldiers that disappeared in the Western Desert of Egypt in 524 BC after becoming engulfed in a sandstorm. They had supposedly been sent by Cambyses II in order to subjugate the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis.
The Oracle Temple of Amun.
The 26th-dynasty Temple of the Oracle sits in the northwest corner of the ruins of Aghurmi village. Built in the 6th century BC by the Pharaoh Amasis (570 – 526 Bce) probably on top of an earlier temple, it was dedicated to Amun (occasionally referred to as Zeus or Jupiter Ammon) and was a powerful symbol of the town’s wealth. It is believed Alexander the Great was declared son of Amun in this temple.
What did the oracle at Siwa tell Alexander the Great?
In his account, the priest greeted Alexander the Great as the son of Zeus-Ammon and informed him that the empire of the world had been reserved for him and that all of Philip of Macedon’s murders had been punished.
The fame of the oracle temple in the ancient time
the oracle of Amon was reputed to be truthful, It’s famed from its role in ancient Egypt as the home to an oracle of Amun, at that time the ancient Egyptians and ancient greeks had somehow same culture and they both believed in the power of the Oracle temple of Amun and its predictions,the first greek settlement in Egypt was city of Naukratis, founded in the 7th century BC as a gateway for Mediterranean trade, it was home to the earliest Greek settlement in Egypt and remained a focus of contact and exchange until the 7th century AD.
The Persian emperor wanted to lay claim to Egypt and be legitimately granted his position as the Pharaoh. But it appears that the powerful priests at the Oracle of Ammon (modern Siwa) were unwilling to provide that legitimacy, enraging Cambyses.
At some point in 524 BC, Cambyses embarked on an invasion of Ethiopia, launching his campaign from Thebes (modern Luxor in Egypt).
According to Herodotus, Cambyses detached a contingent of fifty-thousand men and sent them to attack and enslave the Ammonians, and burn the sacred temple of Amun (the Oracle of Ammon or Amun). Cambyses then marched East towards Ethiopia, while this army of fifty-thousand turned West from Thebes towards Ammon (modern Siwa).
This army was last seen in the “Island of the Blessed” – though we do not know what specific location this refers to. It was apparently about seven days from Thebes. We can make certain educated guesses as to the route of this army. So, the army was last seen at this “blessed” location (which could put it somewhere between Kharga and Dakhla Oases, assuming that was the route or maybe on the way to Farafra).
Vanished Persian army said found in desert
Hundreds of bleached bones and skulls found in the desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert may be the remains of the long lost Cambyses’ army, according to Italian researchers.
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 researchers.
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 of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.
Curse of the Pharaohs
The curse of the Pharaohs became famous all over the world after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. This was a remarkable find, one of the few royal tombs from ancient Egypt which had not been stripped of its treasures long ago. No one had believed that the British Egyptologist Howard Carter and his wealthy sponsor Lord Carnarvon would find the tomb, but after years of disappointment they struck gold.
In late February 1923, Carnarvon was bitten by a mosquito. The next day, he cut open the bite shaving and developed a severe infection. Then he contracted pneumonia. He died on 5 April 1923, only five months after the discovery of the tomb.
The death of Carnarvon triggered a spate of stories about the “curse of the Pharaohs”, many of them by disgruntled journalists who were tired of constantly being scooped by the London Times newspaper, and the legend of the curse grew.
Many other stories of mysterious events supposedly related to the curse appeared and spread. Any death connected with Egypt or its antiquities in any way, even from before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, was said to be the result of the curse.
Did the ancient Egyptians themselves believe in curses and magic?
The answer to the second question at least is yes. The ancient Egyptians often inscribed threatening curses on the walls and doorways of their tombs. The curses warn people not to damage the sacred monuments:
Oh, all people who enter this tomb,
Who will make evil against this tomb, and destroy it,
May the crocodile be against them in water.
And snakes against them on land,
May the hippopotamus be against them on river
The scorpion against them on land.
The curse of the pharaohs and the lost army
is it possible that the persian army has been vanished because of the insult of the ancient pharaohs, their temples and statues?
let me tell you what happened to Alexander who respected Egypt, its Religion, gods and people a lot, and compare it to the destiny of the lost army
Alexander the Great decided to make a pilgrimage trip Siwa Oasis around 332 or 331 BCE, to visit the famous oracle of the Egyptian god, Amun, whom the Greeks believed to be another interpretation of Zeus. As a supposed descendant of Zeus, Alexander the Great was naturally drawn to the oracle.
Siwa truly was (and is) a fertile oasis surrounded by difficult and treacherous terrain,
Ptolemy who was the successor of Alexander on the throne of Egypt and his family ruled Egypt for 300 years, told that the king and his companions marched into the desert, only to find themselves quickly lost. The shifting sands had erased any signs of a path to Siwa, leaving the pilgrims stranded in a deadly landscape with dwindling supplies. Yet, just as Alexander and his companions began to doubt their likelihood of survival, a miracle happened. According to both Ptolemy and Aristobulus, a pair of animals arrived to guide Alexander to Siwa. The two sources, however, disagreed on what type of animal came to the rescue of the famous king. In Ptolemy’s version of the story, two snakes slithered in front of Alexander’s party to show them the way to the oracle. Aristobulus, instead, reported that it was two crows that arrived to guide the stranded conqueror to his destination.
With the help of the animals, Alexander successfully reached Siwa and obtained his audience with the oracle.
The souls of the ancient pharaohs helped Alexander who respected their religion and maybe they punished Campyses and his army who insulted their religion and ancestors.
Would be interesting to know your impression and opinion???
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