How much more evocative could this photo be? That’s the magnificence of the Winter Palace there, lording it over the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. Moored in front of the hotel, low to the water is an elegant dahabiya, while occupying the foreground is the silvery hulk of an S-23 Empire class flying boat. Underneath the cockpit windows is stenciled the name Capella; this aircraft, built in 1937 carried mail on the Southampton to Kisumu route – Kisumu being a port city in western Kenya – dropping in on Egypt on the way. Later it flew in southeast Asia, where it was holed in Batavia harbour (now Jakarta) on 12th March 1939 and damaged beyond repair. (Photo courtesy of the Gaddis collection)
