Hijaz Railway Station, Damascus

The Hijaz railway is perhaps most famous for being attacked by Lawrence of Arabia during the First World War (because its owners and users, the Ottoman Empire, were allied with Germany). Wrecks of trains blown up by Lawrence and his comrades in arms can apparently still be seen lying by the side of the tracks in Saudi Arabia. 


Originally intended to run from Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Mecca, to facilitate pilgrimage (the Haj), the railway never reached further North than Damascus, so this railway station, built in 1913, became its terminus. 


The railway is today largely abandoned although there have been periodic initiatives to re-start it, largely derailed by the region's political instability. Apparently some of the trains are still in working order. One of them can be seen outside the station in the main picture. 
It's a narrow gauge railway and the trains were made in Switzerland.


These pictures are from my visit in December 2009.


For more detailed info on the Hejaz railway, click here.

Ticket Hall (now a bookstall) - wonderful woodwork and colours.

Le Guichet

The Ticket Hall