The Little Prince - an Egyptian story born in Wadi Natrun.

In a corner of literary history lies an adventure that soared through the skies and crash-landed in the Sahara, only to be reborn as one of the most beloved children's tales of all time. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the aviator with a metaphysical touch, crafted "The Little Prince" from the very fabric of his life.

On a fateful airmail run from Paris to Saigon in the mid-1930s, Saint-Exupéry's plane went down in the Sahara desert, just 90 km from Cairo. Stranded and desperate, he wandered miles through the unforgiving landscape until a Bedouin rescued him. This harrowing ordeal, filled with hallucinations and mirages, became the bedrock for his enchanting fable. His earlier work, "Wind, Sand and Stars," captures this desert nightmare, blending the pilot's pragmatism with the poet's dreamscape.

Saint-Exupéry didn't just fly planes; he transcended the mundane, seeking the essence of life amid the clouds and the sand. "One doesn’t risk one’s life for a plane any more than a farmer ploughs for the sake of the plough," he mused. The airplane was his escape from the banal, a vessel that plunged him into the heart of mystery and purpose.

In 1944, this visionary vanished on a wartime reconnaissance mission over Europe. His plane's wreckage was found at sea decades later, but the mystery of his final moments remains unsolved. Yet, through "The Little Prince," translated into 500 languages and dialects, Saint-Exupéry lives on, guiding us through his celestial journeys and philosophical reflections.

As Egypt unravels the tale of a plane crash near Cairo at Wadi Natroun, one might wonder how much the desert still whispers the secrets of downed aviators, the echoes of their thoughts lingering in the sand. Dig into the remarkable life and enduring legacy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It’s an exploration not just of a story, but of a soul that dared to dream beyond the horizon.

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