Hejaz Substation & Fort

Northern Saudi Arabia


This is one of the substations located just before the Hejaz Railway terminated at the holy city of Medina. Today this tiny station block and its fort – used by Ottoman soldiers to protect the line – sit on either side of a dirt road along which the track would've run. Both are crumbling examples of early-20th-century Ottoman architecture and the backdrop of desert and mountains offers a glimpse of just how isolated and remote many of the railway's substations were.