During the retreat back to Cairo, Napoleon’s army is slowly dying of thirst, has no idea they’re basically walking on water the entire way there.

>The march through the desert back to Cairo, featuring terrible thirst in the scorching heat – [Napoleon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Jacques-Louis_David_-_The_Emperor_Napoleon_in_His_Study_at_the_Tuileries_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) reported 47°C [**116.6°F**] temperatures – was a desperately low point, with incidents of amputee officers being thrown off their stretchers though they had paid men to carry them. An eyewitness noted how such utter demoralization was ‘destroying all generous sentiments’. >Although they didn’t know it, the water table is fairly close to the surface along the coastal route they had marched, and if they had only dug a few yards down they would have found water along almost its entirety. ___________________________ **Source:** Roberts, Andrew. "Acre." *Napoleon: A Life*. New York: Penguin, 2014. 199. Print. **Original Source Listed:** ed. Bingham, *Selection* I p. 256. ___________________________ **Further Reading:** [Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoléon Bonaparte / Napoleon I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon)