Original subtitles

On this episode of "expedition files,"

in 1937, the hindenburg disaster shocked the world...

when a fiery explosion ended the age of airships.

There's smoke and there's flames now.

The humanity.

Was it a tragic accident...

Or a deadly act of sabotage?

Then, in 1967, the Patterson-gimlin film

captures this iconic footage, which some believe proves

the existence of bigfoot.

Now, 21st-century technology may determine the truth.

And in 525 bc, an army of 50,000 persians is said to be

swallowed by the desert sands,

vanishing off the face of the earth.

Now, we uncover a shocking theory that may reveal

the truth behind this epic myth.

In the corridors of time...

Are mysteries that defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh gates,

and these...

Are my "expedition files."

There's nothing simpler than true or false, right?

My name is Josh, true.

I've got a thing for safari shirts, also clearly true.

I've been to outer space, false, but come on, NASA,

hook a guy up.

In short, something's a fact or it's not.

It's simple.

Except, of course, when it isn't.

The cause of certain events, or even whether they happened

at all, have been debated for years, centuries,

even millennia.

And tonight, we examine three such mysteries that live

in the blurry margins of history.

But when new evidence brings these stories into focus,

what will be revealed? Fact or fiction?

We begin on may 3, 1937, in Frankfurt, Germany.

The massive zeppelin behind me has just completed

its final test flight and is preparing to dock.

In a few hours, it will begin its transatlantic journey

to the United States, carrying 61 crew and 36 passengers.

What they don't know is that in just three days,

35 of those aboard will perish

in one of the most infamous air disasters in history,

because this is the hindenburg.

And for nearly a century, one critical question

will remain unanswered.

What is the cause of her catastrophic explosion?

But thanks to cutting-edge science and an ingenious

experiment, we may finally have an explanation for the disaster

that shook the skies.

The story of the hindenburg begins in late 1800s Germany,

where retired military officer count ferdinand Von zeppelin

envisions a future where the skies are filled

with massive flying machines.

Blimps were already on the scene, balloons made

of rubberized fabric, which were largely

at the whims of the weather.

But Von zeppelin intends to change the status quo

by constructing rigid-framed vessels known as "airships."

In 1900, three years before the Wright brothers famously

take flight, Von zeppelin's first ship,

the 420-foot-long lz 1, takes to the skies.

With a lightweight metal frame, the propeller-powered craft

uses two state-of-the-art internal combustion engines

mounted on the hull.

And he so-humbly calls it the "zeppelin."

It's the dawn of the golden age of airships.

By the 1910s, zeppelin's idea has taken off, literally.

Hundreds of airships are being used for exploration

and military operations,

and plans are underway to use them

for commercial travel.

Then, in 1928, a zeppelin makes history with the first regular

transatlantic route to New York.

Cheap, it is not.

Round-trip tickets go for about $3,000,

or more than 50 grand today.

On board, passengers wear formal attire and dine on fine

cuisine while gliding thousands of feet above the earth

in passenger cabins the size of train carriages.

The only place near Manhattan with enough space to dock

the ship is a field at the U.S. naval air station

in lakehurst, New Jersey.

At one point, it was proposed that zeppelins could dock

atop the mast at the empire state building,

something that's tested only once.

It turns out disembarking on a windswept gangplank

a thousand feet off the ground

is a bit too sporty for elite travelers.

In the 1930s, the zeppelin company constructs

two monumental airships, the graf zeppelin ii

and her sister ship, the hindenburg.

Each the length of two and a half football fields,

the twin airships are 17 times larger than the first zeppelin,

making them the biggest ever to fly by far.

On march 4th, 1936, the hindenburg embarks

on her maiden flight,

a three-hour trip from friedrichshafen, Germany.

Though the hindenburg is originally designed to use

nonflammable helium as its lifting gas, the supply is

limited in Germany, due to American sanctions.

German engineers instead decide to fill the airship

with highly flammable hydrogen.

It's a decision that will prove fateful.

And there's another last-minute change to the hindenburg.

Germany's ruling Nazi party insists the airship be

decorated with large swastikas,

showcasing the third reich's power to the world.

Over the next year, the hindenburg makes

63 commercial flights,

transporting more than 1,000 passengers across the Atlantic.

On may 3, 1937, the hindenburg departs

from Frankfurt, Germany, to New Jersey.

Among the 36 passengers on board are prestigious figures

like German writer, leonhard adelt,

American perfume executive, burtis Dolan,

and possibly the best airship pilot in the world,

Ernst a. Lehmann,

who joins this journey as an observer.

Also on board is Joseph späh, a vaudeville acrobat

and comedian returning to the U.S.

After a European tour.

He plans to surprise his children

with a new family pet, a German Shepherd named Ulla,

currently housed in the airship's freight area.

But on the main part of the ship, passengers step

into a five-star hotel in the sky.

Inside the hindenburg's massive hull are two decks with about

6,000 square feet of living space, an airborne mansion

with 25 sleeping cabins, elegant dining rooms

and plush salons.

May 6, 1937.

The hindenburg has nearly completed her transatlantic

flight and passengers are preparing for their arrival

in the United States.

- Welcome home, sir. - Thank you.

The turbulence is due to stormy weather,

as we approach the naval air station

in lakehurst, New Jersey, now just moments away.

At 7:21 P.M., the hindenburg begins its final

descent, ready to connect to a mooring mast,

a towering steel structure built to tether the ship

securely in place.

It drops two mooring ropes, starboard and port,

to the ground.

Below, 90-plus crew wait, quickly working to attach

those ropes to the tall metal mast

and other anchors on the ground.

Exactly four minutes later, at 7:25, disaster strikes.

The ship is rocked by a massive jolt.

Alarmed, Joseph späh and the other passengers feel

sudden intense heat and the airship

rapidly descending.

As flames begin to engulf the hindenburg,

the passengers panic.

Fearing he'll never see his family again,

späh, the vaudeville actor, uses his training and reflexes

to execute his most daring performance by blindly jumping

out the window and praying he can survive the fall.

It burst into flames.

It's fire, and it's blazing.

It's blazing terrible! My...

The humanity...

In less than a minute, flames consume

the colossal airship.

Of the 97 people on board, 35 perish, as well as one

member of the ground crew.

Given the scale of the explosion,

it's a miracle anyone survives.

And yet, 62 people stagger from the wreckage.

Among them is Joseph späh, whose acrobatic leap of faith

sent him plunging 20 feet.

By executing a barrel roll, he escapes with only a broken

ankle and is reunited with his family.

Tragically, his dog Ulla is not among the survivors,

nor are many others,

including perfume executive burtis Dolan

and world-class zeppelin pilot Ernst a. Lehmann.

The hindenburg disaster becomes worldwide news,

shattering public confidence in zeppelins and effectively

ending the age of the airship.

German and American authorities immediately launch

investigations into what or who sparked the Blaze.

One of the first theories, sabotage.

Because the hindenburg displayed swastikas,

the zeppelin company has received threatening anti-Nazi

letters in recent months.

And among the early suspects, hindenburg crew member

Eric spehl, based on his alleged anti-Nazi views and access

to gas cell 4, the area of the zeppelin

where the fire began.

But when investigators find no physical evidence of a bomb

in the wreckage, spehl is exonerated.

Investigators then move on to our acrobat, Joseph späh,

not for his politics, but for his repeated trips

to the cargo hold near the airship's stern.

His movements looked suspicious, until it's revealed

that he'd only been visiting his beloved dog.

Another theory points to flammable paint

on the zeppelin's exterior as a potential culprit.

But that too is debunked when it's revealed the ignited paint

burns too slowly to match

the hindenburg's rapid incineration.

Ultimately, it's one of the architects

of the hindenburg, Dr. Hugo eckener, who comes up

with a credible theory about what started

the tragic chain of events.

It's his belief that a sharp turn during the airship's

approach caused one of its bracing wires to snap,

puncturing a gas cell that led to a hydrogen leak.

One small leak, and it's like a fuse to a powder keg.

The leaking hydrogen gas is a disaster waiting to happen,

but there is still one critical question.

What ignites it?

After nearly a century, a groundbreaking scientific

experiment may finally prove the shocking cause

of the fiery explosion.

The explosive fate of the hindenburg is one

of history's most infamous mysteries.

For decades, though, no one could prove

what ignited the explosion.

Almost immediately after the accident,

one theory gained popularity.

With the ship descending through stormy and electrically

charged skies, many believed the culprit

was static electricity.

When static charges build up on one surface and come close

to another surface with a different charge,

they naturally try to balance out.

The excess electrons jump across the gap

to neutralize the difference.

That sudden flow of electrons is what creates a spark,

just like the shock you feel when you shuffle across

a carpet and touch a doorknob.

The theory is that when the mooring lines completed

the circuit between the ship and the ground,

an instant static spark

mixed with the leaking hydrogen, and boom.

But the problem is, it wasn't instant.

The explosion didn't happen for several minutes

after the mooring lines were connected.

And so, for three-quarters of a century, nobody could prove

static electricity was to blame.

But in 2021, Caltech professor konstantinos giapis took

matters into his own hands and conducted a bold

new experiment, recreating the disaster.

The hindenburg was an engineering marvel

unmatched in the world.

And then it explodes right during the landing.

It never made sense.

For my experiments, I built this scaffold

made of duralumin, the same material that was used

on the hindenburg.

And then I recreated the skin as best as I could using modern

chemical analysis techniques.

I found a rope that is similar to what was used

at the hindenburg.

It's this thick rope that is braided.

Professor giapis added an electric charge to the model

to mimic stormy atmospheric conditions that existed that

night and connected the frame of his model to the ground with

a rope, just as the crew

had done when the hindenburg was landing.

When the mooring lines hit the ground,

then they connect the interior part of the airship

to the ground.

In doing so, now you create a device that is called

a "capacitor," which can accumulate electricity.

Electrons from the ground rushed across the ropes

into the frame while the skin remained positively charged.

Then increased charges built up on the surface of the airship,

creating an electrostatic imbalance

between the skin and the inner frame.

According to giapis, when the imbalance became

too great, the electrons tried to neutralize, leaping from

the framework to the skin of the ship.

That sudden leap of energy is the spark.

But there was also an issue of how does the spark

find the leak?

Because the spark has to happen there where

there is something to burn.

If the spark happened in the front of the airship

and the leak was in its tail, then there would be no fire.

The two have to connect.

The two have to happen at the same position.

Then, giapis uncovered something critical,

a design flaw that made the entire airship a tinderbox.

The hindenburg's outer skin was separated from its metal frame

with wooden pins, which created tiny gaps where electric

charges could accumulate.

Those gaps became traps for electricity.

At every pin, pockets of high voltage built up,

hundreds of potential sparks scattered across the ship.

Giapis believes it wasn't just one spark that

doomed the hindenburg, but many, leaping wherever skin

and frame came close.

And one of them, at the worst possible place,

ignited the leaking hydrogen.

Every few feet, you get another spark, another spark.

So, you know, so there were multiple sparks happening

all over the place.

So one of them happened to be right there where the hydrogen,

you know, was mixed with air and enough to ignite it.

So that explains how the spark found the leak

in such an enormous airship.

So it was like a Eureka moment.

On the actual hindenburg, it took exactly four minutes

between the mooring ropes hitting the ground

and the moment it exploded.

In giapis' experiment, the time it took for

the electrical tension to build up and ignite was, wait for it,

exactly four minutes.

This was a mystery that puzzled the world for 84 years,

and I think I solved it.

In the end, the hindenburg's downfall was

a perfect storm of atmospheric conditions, design flaws,

and leaking hydrogen.

And while its fiery end marked the death of the airship era,

its legacy still looms large, a searing reminder of how

one spark can change the course of history.

Welcome to bluff creek, in northern California.

The date is October 20th, 1967,

and it's a picture-perfect day

here amidst the towering redwoods.

Which brings us to these two cowboys,

Roger Patterson and Bob gimlin.

And just over there, movement.

Not a deer, not a bird, something much bigger.

Patterson rolls on his 16mm camera and films 59 seconds of

shaky, grainy footage that will make bigfoot a household name.

So, is it irrefutable proof of a sasquatch

or the most convincing hoax ever staged?

Nearly 60 years later, cutting-edge AI may finally

bring this mystery into focus.

According to Roger Patterson and Bob gimlin,

after they filmed the creature, it vanishes into the trees,

leaving behind trail of massive footprints, each pressed deep

into the soft creek bed soil.

They say they race back to town to develop the film,

and when the images finally flicker to life, what they've

captured is beyond belief.

Roll it.

For a few fleeting moments, a large, hairy biped strides

away from the camera, glancing back as if it knows

it's being watched.

Its gait is unusual, arms swinging wide.

Sightings of a large mystery primate in the woods

are nothing new.

This is just the latest chapter in a story told for centuries.

Indigenous people have shared tales of towering,

hairy creatures, sasquatch haunting the forests.

Later, your European settlers in america also told tales

of encounters with mysterious giants lurking in the wild.

Then, in 1958, came the first major modern evidence.

A road crew uncovered massive human-like footprints

in the mud near bluff creek.

One worker, bulldozer operator Jerry crew, made a plaster cast

of one of the prints and took it to the local newspaper.

The story grabbed national headlines, and with it,

the name "bigfoot" was born.

Which brings us back to 1967,

when bluff creek returns to the spotlight.

Patterson and gimlin say they capture their now-iconic

footage right near where the huge footprints were found

10 years earlier in the middle of northern California's

six rivers national forest.

Bigfoot explodes into the public's imagination.

Pop culture embraces the creature

with merchandise, exhibits,

and starring roles in monster movies.

And all across the country, people are hooked.

True believers pack up cameras and courage and head

for the woods, hoping to capture their own proof.

But anthropologists and biologists at the time

dismissed the film as a hoax.

Many claim bigfoot is just a man in a gorilla suit filmed

at a distance with intentionally shaky camerawork.

In particular, skeptics doubt the credibility

of Roger Patterson,

a rodeo cowboy and bigfoot enthusiast

who, coincidentally, published a book on the subject

just a year before filming his famous encounter.

They suggest Patterson staged the footage to make money

and drum up publicity for his book.

But while fame certainly finds Roger Patterson,

fortune never does.

Five years later in 1972, he dies of cancer, broke,

but still defiantly clinging to his bigfoot story

to his last breath.

Flash-forward to a decade later and a bombshell claim.

Hollywood costume maker Philip Morris says he sold Patterson

a gorilla suit in 1967.

Then in the 2000s, there's another

apparent revelation.

Gimlin's neighbor, Bob hieronimus, actually says

he was the one inside the suit, lumbering through bluff creek

in football pads to bulk up the shoulders.

While all of this seems pretty damning, not so fast,

because the two confessions don't match.

Philip and Bob describe different materials,

colors, even suit designs.

With decades between the event and these so-called tell-alls.

Some suspect the two men are just separately trying

to cash in on the famous footage.

Some expert analysis also seems to support

the film's authenticity.

Hollywood creature effects and film restoration expert

bill munns conducts a forensic analysis

of the Patterson-gimlin film.

No costume from that era, he concludes, could move

as naturally as the figure in the film.

After all, the most advanced ape costumes in 1960s

were in "planet of the apes," and those required nearly 100

skilled artists, not something amateur filmmakers like

Patterson and gimlin could replicate.

If munns is right, then this isn't just a man in a suit.

It would be the most compelling evidence of an undiscovered

creature ever caught on film.

And to this day, Patterson's partner,

Bob gimlin, also remains steadfast that what

they captured on film in bluff creek is the real deal.

That particular day on October 20th, 1967...

My god, they really do exist!

No one's ever been able to prove them right or wrong.

But now, cutting-edge artificial intelligence

dissects the footage like never before.

Will it finally confirm bigfoot or a big fraud?

For over 50 years, footage that some contend is the definitive

proof of bigfoot has been analyzed, debated,

debunked, and rebunked.

Not a real word, but you get the idea.

Now, scientists armed with cutting-edge technology

are reexamining the film once more.

Leading the way is Dr. Jeff meldrum, professor of anatomy

and anthropology at Idaho state university.

Now, in the age of artificial intelligence, the prospect is

very real that someone could take the Patterson-gimlin film

and instruct AI to, quote, "clean it up," to create

the clearest version and make a definitive statement

of the credibility of the Patterson-gimlin film.

But there is one major challenge to a definitive

reexamination of the footage...

the original film reel is said to be missing.

Sometime in the mid 1990s, it apparently disappears

from a film vault.

The fact of the matter is, the original film

is no longer available.

And so we are left with the numerous copies that have

been made over the years, in many instances,

copies of copies of copies.

And of course, with each copying process,

the resulting images are rather degraded and have lost a lot

of clarity that was present in the original.

And that has historically produced some very misleading

conclusions and inferences drawn from the film.

Dr. Meldrum set out to rebuild the Patterson-gimlin film frame

by frame, correcting errors from decades of copying.

And to do so, he returned to bill munns, the special effects

expert who had previously analyzed the film

and accumulated dozens of copies

of it during the process.

In undertaking this project, bill very carefully

and precisely created high-resolution photographic

images of individual film frames, creating an archive

that we've been able to use in this project.

Armed with the highest resolution images of each film frame,

meldrum worked with artificial intelligence specialist,

Isaac tian, to enhance the film as never before.

With his talents, Isaac was able to stabilize these images,

removed much of the motion jitter and optimized

the information that was in the existing copies

of the film without adding any extraneous information.

This remarkably stable and clear depiction

allowed us to render

a version that's as good, certainly, if not better

than the original film strip.

The results?

The clearest version of the Patterson-gimlin film

ever seen.

Take a look for yourself.

To some experts, this stabilized footage has

the effect of demystifying the Patterson-gimlin film,

revealing a very human-looking figure crossing the creek.

In other words, a man in a suit.

But the trained eyes of Jeff meldrum see something

very different.

We can observe not only the muscle groups, but we can

see the contraction in the movements of the joints,

whether it's the quadriceps and the thigh,

it's the tightening of the hamstrings and the action

of the tendon across the knee joint.

You can see the breast tissue sitting upon the underlying

muscle of the pectoralis major.

These are not features that are...

Easily, if at all possible, incorporate into a costume.

This is a real flesh-and-bones organism that is making its way

across the sandbar.

In my mind, there is just no way that this could be a hoax.

Dr. Meldrum may be convinced the Patterson-gimlin film is

proof of bigfoot, but many of his peers

remain extremely skeptical.

They point out that in more than half a century since

the footage was filmed, no physical remains,

scat, or DNA of a bigfoot-like creature

has ever been scientifically validated.

What is not in doubt is that the iconic footage has left

a bigfoot-sized print on our collective imagination.

So much so that in 2025, lawmakers in Sacramento even

introduced a bill to declare bigfoot California's

official cryptid.

No word yet on whether the creature

will show up to accept the honor.

Welcome to Egypt, 525 bc.

These soldiers are part of a 50,000-strong persian army.

They're on a mission to cross Egypt's punishing western

desert to crush the people of siwa,

but they'll never get there.

Legend says a savage sandstorm swallows them whole,

an entire army vanishing off the face of the earth.

It's one of the ancient world's most baffling disappearances,

but a millennia later,

a new discovery in the shifting sands

will blow that old story away, like dust in the wind.

In the 6th century bc, the persian empire

has never been stronger.

Under king cambyses ii, the empire stretches from

the mediterranean to the edge of India, a vast swath

of the ancient world all under persian control.

The king's next target is Egypt, a land rich

in grain and gold.

Then fate hands him an opportunity.

A young and inexperienced pharaoh named psamtik III

takes the Egyptian throne.

Cambyses doesn't hesitate.

He launches a full-scale invasion.

The result is a brutal clash of empires.

Thousands fall in battle.

And when the blood and dust settle,

persia stands victorious.

The mighty kingdom of Egypt is reduced to just another

province in cambyses' ever-growing empire.

Egypt is also now under the thumb of a foreign king

who doesn't speak their language,

doesn't honor their rituals,

and doesn't respect their religion.

For the Egyptians, things go from bad to worse.

Persian governors and tax collectors sweep

through the country like vultures,

bleeding the land and its people dry.

But some in Egypt won't go quietly.

Way out west, tucked deep in the harsh desert,

lies the siwa oasis,

a lush outpost famous for its date palms, fresh water,

and, most importantly, the sacred temple of amun.

The people of siwa, fiercely independent and deeply

religious, resist the king's tax collectors,

saying they won't pay.

When cambyses hears about their defiance,

it is said that he's furious.

He dispatches 50,000 soldiers with a single mission...

crush the rebels, enslave the locals,

and tear their beloved temple to the ground.

Because nothing says, "I'm in charge,"

like destroying a sacred site.

The earliest account of what happens next comes from

the Greek historian hero dot us, writing around 100 years later.

Cambyses commands his 50,000 soldiers to march 550 miles

across the western desert to the siwa oasis.

After seven days, the army reaches

their first way point, the village of kharga oasis.

It's apparently the last stop the soldiers ever make.

As the army marches on, hero dot us writes that

the warriors are confronted by a cataclysmic event.

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.

A massive tornado-like sandstorm swallows

these vast forces, burying them alive.

For 2,000 years, this is the story.

An entire persian army wiped from existence

by mother nature.

But did it really happen?

Now, a surprising discovery lets us peer through the sands

of time to reveal the truth.

According to the Greek historian hero dot us, in 525 bc,

an army vanishes without a trace

deep in the Egyptian desert.

But in the centuries since,

many have questioned the account.

Herodotus is considered the world's first formal

historian, but much of what he records in his so-called

"histories" is fantastical, to say the least.

He writes of gold-digging ants in India, a tribe of headless

people in Libya, not to mention flying snakes in Arabia.

So is this army-swallowing sandstorm just another

brazen fabrication?

Well, in the last few decades, there's been a flurry

of digging to find out.

In 1983, American journalist Gary chafetz spots piles of

rocks marking an ancient trail through the Egyptian desert

70 miles south of siwa oasis,

the army's supposed destination.

Chafetz launches an archaeological search,

but comes up empty, finding no evidence of the lost soldiers.

But then, in 2009,

a potentially huge break in the case.

Italian filmmakers, the castiglione brothers,

claim to uncover human remains, weapons,

and jewelry approximately 60 miles south of siwa,

proclaiming they have found the missing army.

It's an incredible revelation.

It turns out maybe too incredible.

Many experts immediately cast doubt on the significance

of the brothers' findings, noting that the fragmentary

skeletal remains could not be identified.

Egyptian authorities agree, noting the dig was

completely unauthorized.

But now, egyptology professor olaf kaper has uncovered

groundbreaking evidence that may finally provide answers

to this ancient mystery.

So the story of the lost army of the persians

is a fantastic story.

It's a story that has really triggered the imagination

of so many people for a long time.

I work on excavations, and while working in the south

of Egypt in the dakhla oasis, I found some information that

sheds a completely new light on the story of the lost army

of cambyses.

While we excavated in the dakhla oasis,

we found the temple built by petubastis iv.

We have his full name on the facade of that gateway.

During persia's invasion of the region in the 6th century,

petubastis was an obscure Egyptian ruler with a kingdom

deep in the western desert, far from persian control.

He and his people were always considered minor players,

nowhere near as menacing as the siwa forces

that the persian army was, according to hero dot us,

sent to subjugate.

But now, with the discovery of an expansive temple dedicated

to petubastis, professor kaper believes this "minor ruler"

wasn't so minor after all.

And, plot twist, all of this may also finally explain

what really happened to those 50,000 persians.

We see that he built a temple out in the dakhla oasis.

So what could that possibly mean?

And this was, to me, a kind of Eureka moment that,

my god, it has something to do with the lost army story.

I believe petubastis was leading an insurrection

against persian rule.

The persians were still in Egypt.

They were controlling towns in the delta, whereas petubastis

was trying to control part of the south of Egypt.

The oasis provided the inhabited area

just outside Egypt.

That allowed petubastis to organize his troops.

Professor kaper's theory is that it's more likely that

king cambyses sent his army of 50,000 soldiers

to dakhla oasis, and not to siwa oasis,

the way the story was originally told.

But the same question remains.

Was the persian army really wiped out by a sandstorm?

Well, now, the dust is about to clear.

Do you ever remember something from the past that never

happened at all?

Well, you might be suffering from the "mandela effect,"

a phenomenon where large groups of people remember things very

differently from how they actually happened.

It's named after Nelson Mandela,

coined in 2009 after researcher Fiona broome observed that many

firmly believed mandela died in prison in the 1980s,

when he was still very much alive.

Mandela's alleged death became

just the first of many other examples.

They run the gamut from the monopoly man's monocle...

he didn't have one...

to Darth Vader saying, "Luke, I am your father."

He actually says, "no, I am your father."

You can argue the mandela effect shows us that history

isn't written by the Victors as much as by your own,

sometimes very faulty, memories.

The sixth century fate of a 50,000-strong persian army

that was said to be swallowed whole by a sandstorm

has long been debated.

Professor olaf kaper believes he's finally found the truth.

The story of the sandstorm is just impossible to my mind.

Sandstorms are a well-known fact in the desert.

It's a very nasty event.

They make the air thick.

Everything becomes brown.

No light, and you can't see.

A heavy sandstorm is something awful.

It can disorient you, but it doesn't kill you.

It just doesn't happen.

I've traveled in the desert, and I've had many sandstorms

myself in the western desert of Egypt,

where they can last for days.

They can be a major hazard for any expedition, but it doesn't

kill an expedition.

It doesn't mean that the expedition gets covered

in a huge sand dune.

It takes years for a sand dune to cover, say,

a building or a village.

It doesn't happen to a marching army or 50,000 men.

That's simply impossible.

Professor kaper thinks the persian army wasn't crushed

by a sandstorm, but it was still crushed by the forces

of the rebel petubastis.

Once under appreciated, now not so much.

I believe the lost army went out from thebes towards dakhla,

and petubastis is there waiting.

And there must have been a battle somewhere

in the desert, and that's why the army never came back.

The terrain is suitable for a small army

defeating a larger army.

After the event, the persians tried to distort

the actual course of events

and change it into an act of god, an act of nature,

where a sandstorm stopped the course of the army,

because the humiliating defeat

of the persian army was not something that, well,

people wanted to be advertised.

So, professor copper believes history got it all wrong.

The story of the killer sandstorm is false...

it was created as a smoke screen, or I guess,

sand screen, to protect the reputation

of the defeated persian army.

It's a compelling explanation, but currently it remains

just a theory.

No definitive persian remains have been unearthed,

but professor kaper is hopeful to find them, searching through

the vast desert for that single grain of truth.

I'm Josh gates, and I'll see you on the next expedition.