A scene on the railway when it was steam hauled, 1971.
The luxurious, refurbished wooden train car rattles between the rows of houses in Amman, and Nasser Kawaldeh points outside the window.
“You see? We are moving along the Ottomans’ track,” he tells his grandson. “This is better than the history books.”
Indeed, just like when it was unveiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1913 as an engineering marvel, the Hejaz Railway today runs on the same tracks winding through Amman and southward into the desert.
“You see? We are moving along the Ottomans’ track,” he tells his grandson. “This is better than the history books.”
Indeed, just like when it was unveiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1913 as an engineering marvel, the Hejaz Railway today runs on the same tracks winding through Amman and southward into the desert.
Mr. Kawaldeh and his family were among 100 masked passengers who lined up last Friday morning for a ride on the Hejaz, with coffee thermoses, bags of popcorn, soccer balls, and drums in tow.
Children screeched with delight at the sight of imposing locomotives and wooden carriages that once carried Emir Abdullah, Jordan’s first king.
This fall, many Jordanians are discovering the train for the first time, thanks to a Jordanian Tourism Ministry campaign offering socially distanced discount trips.
The Hejaz takes eight hours from Amman to the southern desert of Wadi Rum and eight hours north to Damascus, Syria, although the railway mainly runs trips to a station just outside Amman.
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