ALONG THE NILE, THROUGH EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 



389 



Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams 



A STATION ON THE RAILWAY FROM EGYPT TO SYRIA 



This scene, taken near the Egypt-Palestine boundary, shows the desolate type of country 

 through which the British drove their military line. From Kantara, beside the Suez Canal, to 

 Jerusalem is a trip by rail of less than 12 hours. 



trade connections Egypt must eventually 

 develop with the vast domains to the 

 south. 



THE STORY OF A DESERT RAILROAD 



Traveling one day, back in 191 1, from 

 Suez to Ishmailia, I met a Russian officer 

 with whom I had once been quarantined 

 on a pilgrim cholera ship at Jidda. "Some 

 day," he said, "after there's been a big 

 war in these parts, you'll see a railway 

 running down here from Moscow and 

 bridging this canal." Prophetic enough — 

 except in certain details ! 



You who have made the voyage through 

 Suez and recall its dreary sand stretches 

 will find it hard to realize that, during the 

 war, a magic city of 120,000 people 

 sprang up here half-way between Ish- 

 mailia and Port Said. Kantara, this freak, 

 mushroom, soldier town is called ; it is 

 the Suez terminus of the famous desert 

 railway built north to Jerusalem. 



When Allenby's hosts were invading 

 Palestine, warehouses stretched for a mile 

 along the Canal banks at Kantara, and at 



night high arc lamps glared above the yel- 

 low desert. Men toiled by tens of thou- 

 sands, as when the pyramids were build- 

 ing. 



This remarkable railway, starting north 

 from Kantara, was laid on the sand, mile 

 after mile, as the troops advanced ; along 

 with the track was laid the famous pipe 

 line, carrying fresh water from the Nile, 

 for hundreds of miles. 



Pushing forward through the deep sand 

 and lonely desert levels of the Sinai Pen- 

 insula, this road penetrates Palestine and 

 traverses the fertile plains of Gaza. From 

 Ludd, a branch (following the right of 

 way of the old French line from Jaffa to 

 Jerusalem) climbs the mountains to the 

 Holy City, 200 miles from the Suez Canal. 



The main line, running through the 

 generally fertile and level area between 

 the mountains and the Mediterranean, has 

 its terminus at the seaport of Haifa, be- 

 neath the stately slopes of Carmel. One 

 writer says : "To those who were present 

 at Jerusalem on June 15, 1918, and wit- 

 nessed the departure of the first through 



