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Good morning Motlies.
Last week JoF published a diary which contained a mashup of videos from the 1890's, the last sequence of which was a train leaving a station somewhere in the Middle East. Whilst trying to identify the location (it was Jerusalem - thanks JoF), I was reminded of a time I when I was in Amman Jordan, and was shocked to see a steam locomotive parked on a bridge over a road in the city centre. The reason for my shock, was I was totally unaware that there was a railway in Jordan.
So this weekend, still trying to identify the station (I had initially thought Istanbul, but was tending towards Egypt) I went to the Google thingy and discovered the Hedjaz Railway
Now the Hedjaz railway was conceived at the height of the Ottoman empire with two purposes in mind. The first was to facilitate the Ottomans travel from Constantinople (Istanbul) to Mecca for the Haj (Pilgrimage). The second, which was less public was to allow Turkish troops to travel more quickly to the Holy Lands to defend them if necessary.
The line was to go from Damascus to Mecca via Amman, Ma'an and Medina, and construction was started in 1900 and had reached from Medina by 1909. In addition a spur was built from Dera to Haifa and Nablus in British Palestine (now in Israel and the West Bank respectively). The railway was built with German assistance and technolgy, although the train stations architecture looks inspired by the French.
Click to enbiggen.
At the Damascus terminus, you could connect to Constantinople, and then on to the rest of Western Europe.
Sadly the railway never made it to its final destination - Mecca - as World war 1 intervened. Already suffering from attacks by Bedouin Arabs, who feared increased dominance of the the Turks, it became a military target and was repeatedly attacked and sabotaged by none other than Lawrence of Arabia using his armor plated Rolls Royce cars.
After the end of the war and the end of the Ottoman empire, the line in Saudi Arabia fell into disrepair, but was operated in Jordan (Palestine) and Syria.
During the Second World War, the railway became strategic as it connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, thereby providing a backup to the Suez canal, and was operated by the New Zealand army railway group.
Now all that is left is the service from Amman to the border, maybe once a day, and a freight line through Wadi Rum to take phosphate to the port of Aqaba. Damascus' stunning railway station is now a museum to the golden age of rail, and ironically the plaza in front of it is (or was before the current civil war) the place to pick up a taxi to go from Damascus to Amman (which takes 3 hours and costs around $40 -$50!!)
So here is a video of the remains of the railway in Saudi - In the Steps of Lawrence of Arabia (Apologies in advance for ze vairy strong Vrench accent)
So, now you have had your mandatory Monday morning history lesson, what's bugging you today