July 30, 1908: Inauguration of the Hedjaz railway

On July 30, 1908, the Hejaz railway was inaugurated, which connects Damascus to Medina along the Red Sea.

The two Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina suddenly become more easily accessible to pilgrims from all over the world.

This political success is credited to the Ottoman Empire, the tutelary power of the region, and its new ally, the German Empire, whose engineers supervised the construction of the railway.

From 1889, Germany, keen to give itself an international role commensurate with its industrial power, moved closer to Turkey. It launched the construction of a first railway line in Anatolia, between Izmir and Ankara. In March 1903, a German-Turkish company, Baghdadbahn, had also obtained a concession for a railway line from the Mediterranean to Baghdad, via Aleppo.

These peaceful achievements were coupled with military assistance which allowed the Turks to defeat the Greeks at Domokos in 1897, and would culminate in the Great War...