The Lost Army of Cambyses was, according to an ancient Near Eastern legend, a massive fighting force of 50,000 Persian soldiers that disappeared in the Western Desert of Egypt in 524 BC. They had supposedly been sent by Cambyses II to subjugate the Oracle of Amun at the Siwa Oasis, but were never seen or heard from again after becoming engulfed in a sandstorm. Around this time, Cambyses, who had succeeded Cyrus the Great as the King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, was leading the first Persian conquest of Egypt.