On this episode of "Expedition Files,"
in 1937,
the Hindenburg disaster shocked the world... -[explosion blasts]
...when a fiery explosion ended the age of airships.
[reporter] Oh, there's smoke and there's flames now.
Oh, the humanity.
[Josh] 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 oh-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.
-[waiter] 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.
[heavy thud]
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.
[reporter] It burst into flames.
It's fire, and it's blazing.
It's blazing terrible! Oh, my...
Oh, the humanity...
[overlapping screams]
[Josh] 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.
[Josh] 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.
[Dr. Giapis] 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.
[Josh] 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.
[Dr. Giapis] 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.
[Josh] 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.
[mysterious music plays]
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.
[camera roll whirring]
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...
Oh, 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?
[Josh] 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.
[Josh] 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.
[Josh] 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.
[adventurous music plays]
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.
[indistinct speaking]
[Josh] 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 Herodotus, 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 waypoint, the village of Kharga Oasis.
It's apparently the last stop the soldiers ever make.
As the army marches on, Herodotus writes that
the warriors are confronted by a cataclysmic event.
[Herodotus] 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.
[dramatic music plays]
[indistinct ethereal singing]
[Josh] 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 Herodotus, 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.
[Dr. Kaper] 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.
[Josh] 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 Herodotus,
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 underappreciated, now not so much.
[Dr. Kaper] 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.