Saudi Arabia’s Abandoned Hejaz Railway

The Hejaz railway that ran from Damascus to Medina , through the Hejaz portion of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , was 1 of the principal railroads of the Ottoman Turkish Empire too a vital route across the desert. The railway was built inward 1900 at the behest of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II too was supposed to extend all the agency to Mecca inward guild to facilitate pilgrimage to the Holy city. But its primary motive was to strengthen the empire’s command over the well-nigh distant provinces of the empire.

The railway reached solely every bit far every bit Medina , merely about 400 kilometers curt of its finish , when the First World War broke out too all structure industrial plant came to a grinding halt. When the Arabs , led past times the strategic British officeholder T.E. Lawrence , improve known every bit the Lawrence of Arabia , rose upward inward revolt against Turkish domination , the railway became the principal target. Today , large sections of the railway prevarication abandoned inward the desert alongside tracks swallowed upward past times the sand , too carriages too engines toppled over too overgrown alongside shrubs.

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Photo credit: devillp/Flickr

Even earlier World War , the Bedouins of the following desert areas ofttimes attacked the railway because it challenged their command over the pilgrims’ route to the holy places. For centuries , the onetime Arab tribes had guided too guarded the pilgrims across the harsh desert. Travelling on caravans too on camels’ dorsum , the journeying took from 40 days to upward to ii months to complete. When the railway opened inward 1908 , the arduous two-month journeying was reduced to a comfortable too cheaper four-day trip. As discussion spread , thousands of pilgrims from Russian Federation , Central Asia , Islamic Republic of Iran too Republic of Iraq converged on Damascus to accept the train. By the yr 1912 the railway was transporting thirty ,000 pilgrims a yr , which swelled to 300 ,000 passengers past times 1914.

Meanwhile , attacks on the railway became to a greater extent than too to a greater extent than frequent , too it wasn’t long earlier the develop journeying became to a greater extent than perilous than the two-month trek across the hot too scorching desert.

The railway’s lastly undoing came during the Arab Revolt of 1916-18 , when the Turkish regular army began to utilisation the railway every bit its principal trend of carry for troops too supplies. This gave the Arabs an chance to plow their vengeance on the railway. Guerrilla forces commanded past times British officers successfully blew upward large sections of the tracks including a moving locomotive for the starting fourth dimension time inward history. Later T.E. Lawrence joined inward on the prepare on too destroyed countless bridges.

After the First World War , the railway was abandoned although several attempts were made to revive. In fact , merely about parts of the Hejaz Railway are even so surgical operation , such every bit the draw of piece of job from Amman , inward Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , to Damascus , inward Syria. Another prepare of tracks operate from phosphate mines nigh Ma'an to the Gulf of Aqaba. Fascinatingly , the railway uses many of the master copy carriages too locomotives running on steam too coal. The oldest locomotive even so inward service was built inward Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany inward 1898!

The disused department of the Hejaz Railway lies due south of Amman inward Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , where railway enthusiasts volition abide by a disclose of abandoned stations , circular houses too rusting locomotives too cars.

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