Lot no. 5144

HEJAZ RAILWAY: 1904 (ca.), large size original photographs of building Maan, Jordan-Haifa, Palestine railway line section of Hejaz Railway. Each photograph described in Ottoman Turkish handwriting and mounted on original cardboard frames. Total of 23 photographs of which 20 complete and three loose. Seldom seen original photographs of this popular subject, possibly unique. In 1900, the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II (reigned 1876-1909) put out an appeal to Muslims of the world to support the building of a railway connecting Damascus to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. Built by public subscription and with the advice of German engineers, the line from Damascus reached Medina in 1908. Pilgrims who embarked from Haydarpasa station in Istanbul could now travel all the way to Medina by rail. This reduced the journey from almost forty days to five. Thousands of pilgrims from Russia, Central Asia, Iran and Iraq also converged on Damascus to take the train. The railway never reached Mecca and during the Arab Revolt (1916-18) against the ottomans. Some sections of the railway in Jordan are still in use today.