The Ottoman Imperial Archives' Rare Pictures of the Trains of the Holy Land. Vital to the Armies of World War I


Posted: 06 Aug 2017 11:38 PM PDT
The official opening of the railroad to Be'er Sheva,  October 1915.

I have been researching in the Ottoman Imperial Archives for photographs for my next book, World War I in the Holy Land, specifically on the vital logistical role played by the extensive railroad network built by the Turks throughout the region. Without giving away too much now, I focused on the Be'er Sheva station, the hub for moving Turkish supplies and men for the combat along the Suez Canal, in the Sinai, and southern Palestine between 1915 and 1917. 

More than 100 Jews worked for the railroad system, and on January 15, 1917, 16 Jews were killed in a British air raid on the rail yard. Other Jewish workers died of disease and flash floods.

All photographs are from my collection of Ottoman Imperial Archives photographs, unless otherwise noted.  Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Aerial photograph of the Turkish base in Be'er Sheva, 1917. Note the railroad yard and warehouses in the foreground. (Australian Light Horse Studies Centre)

 Ottoman train and troops in the Be'er Sheva railroad station

The building of the railroads throughout Palestine began in 1890.  The Jerusalem station was inaugurated on September 26, 1892.  The Ottoman Archives contains the following pictures of the stations in Jerusalem, Haifa, Battir, Lod, and Ramla. The quality and resolution of many of the photographs are remarkable.


Preparations for the Jerusalem station inauguration, 1892.  Note the Yemin Moshe windmill in the background.
Dignitaries at the dedication of the Jerusalem train station, 1892

A view of the station from the front of the building. 1890s
Another vantage point of the Jerusalem station, 1900. (Library of Congress) 

An illustration of the opening of the Jerusalem train station, 1892. 

Railroad construction on the way to Jerusalem, 1891

As the British and ANZAC forces moved north after capturing Be'er Sheva and Jerusalem, they switched the narrow gauge Ottoman rail system to a wider gauge in order to carry heavier loads. The next picture from the Australian New South Wales State Library shows the rail conversion at the Jerusalem railway station. 

Laying the wider-gauge rails in the Jerusalem station, circa 1918. (NSW State Library)

Other Stations


The station in Haifa, 1900.

The Ramla train station between Jaffa and Jerusalem, 1894. Another caption of this picture is dated 1904,

Construction of a railroad bridge near Battir on the approaches to Jerusalem, 1891

Railroad station in Lydda (Lod), 1891

The station at Tzemach on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee and on a key approach to Damascus.
As the British and ANZAC forces pushed the German and Turks northward out of Palestine, they were met with
fierce resistance here at the train station on September 25, 1918.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Stole the Jewish Land of Israel? - YJ Draiman

Image
Who Stole the Jewish Land of Israel ? Why do the anti-Zionists feel that a thousand-year old claim by Arabs who were never ruled by Arab Palestinians has legitimacy, while over a 1,900-year claim by Jews to the land should be rejected as absurd? The Arabs received over 12 million sq. km. after WWI with a wealth of oil reserves. So let us see if we have this straight. The anti-Zionists claim that the Jews have no right to the land of Israel because before Israel was re-claimed in 1948, Israel re-assumed its sovereignty on May 15, 1948, but it was reconstituted in 1920 under international law and treaties (including the 1919 Faisal Weizmann Agreement), with the British as trustee for the Jews to promote Jewish immigration, until the Jews comprise a majority. It had been almost 1,900 years since the last time that the Jewish people exercised sovereignty over the Land of Israel . And the anti-Zionists claim that it is absurd to argue that anyone still has rights to land that w...
Read more

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 70 A.D. AND 135 A.D. BY THE ROMANS TITUS’ SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

Image
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM 70 A.D. AND 135 A.D. BY THE ROMANS TITUS’ SIEGE OF JERUSALEM Roman-Jewish Wars:  name of several military engagements between the Roman Republic (later: Empire) and various groups of Jews between 63 BCE and 136 CE. Pompey’s Siege of Jerusalem Annexation The Jewish War (66-70) The Siege of Jerusalem Chronology 66-74 Masada Trajan’s War Bar Kochba TITUS’ SIEGE OF JERUSALEM Titus His father’s accession to the Roman throne left the war against the Jews to  Titus . He was not a very experienced general, but his assistant was  Tiberius Julius Alexander , who had been  governor  of  Judaea  in 46-48 and knew how to fight a war. Titus’ own quality was that the new emperor, his father, could trust him. His father’s strategy, to allow the Jews in  Jerusalem  to destroy themselves, had been successful. Besides the Zealots of Eleaser son of Simon and the private army of  John of Gischala ...
Read more

If you are to question Israel's sovereignty west of the Jordan River, You have to question Jordan's sovereignty east of the Jordan river and the other 21 Arab states established after WWI on over 12 million sq. km. - YJ Draiman

Image
If you are to question Israel 's sovereignty west of the Jordan River , You have to question Jordan 's sovereignty east of the Jordan river and the other 21 Arab states established after WWI on over 12 million sq. km . with a wealth of oil reserves.  All those Arab states were established by the same Supreme Allied powers that established Israel in the San Remo Treaty of 1920 Crash Course on the Arab Israeli Conflict Here are overlooked facts in the current Middle East situation; these were compiled by a Christian university professor. It makes sense and it’s not slanted. Jew and non-Jew –it doesn’t matter. Thank You. 1. Nationhood and Jerusalem . Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., more than two thousand years before the rise of Islam. King Solomon build the Jewish Temple on Temple Mount . 2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Arab/Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Isr...
Read more