Hejaz railway station, Damascus

According to the Arabic Wikipedia, the idea of a railway from Damascus to the Hejaz first arose in 1864: Damascus was the assembly point of the pilgrim caravan, which took about 40 days on the old caravan route to reach the holy places. The same source credits the realisation of the project to the governor Hussein Nazim Pasha and the Damascene statesman Ahmad Izzat Pasha al-Abid.

The English Wikipedia states that the station was put into operation under the Ottoman Empire in 1907 and that from 1909 trains ran frequently between Damascus and Medina. The passenger building designed by Fernando de Aranda was commissioned in 1913. According to the Arabic Wikipedia, service on the line to the Hejaz has been suspended since 1917.[1][2]

The passenger building has a decorated interior ceiling. A Swiss-made locomotive is displayed in front of it.[1]

The railway carried pilgrims, merchants, passengers and goods from Damascus to the Arabian Peninsula. In the 20th century trains left the station in several directions, among them, according to the Arabic Wikipedia, the well-remembered “summer resorts train” through the Barada valley via Rabweh, Dummar, Ain al-Fijeh and Madaya to Zabadani and Serghaya.[2]

According to the English Wikipedia the actual platforms of the station are closed, and the building has become a historical monument. The source gives no date for these statements.[1]