Last Train from Damascus

An unforgettable journey through the Middle East that follows the history of the miraculous and promise-filled Hejaz Railway.

Just over a century ago, it was possible to leave Damascus by train and head south, into the desert, towards the holy city of Medina. The laying of 800 miles of track at the dawn of the twentieth century offered a political and military lifeline for the ailing Ottoman Empire, and revolutionized the Hajj pilgrimage from a forty-day overland ordeal to just three days by train. The Hejaz Railway was meant to fasten together a new vision of unity in the Middle East, but it never had the chance to live up to that promise. By 1917, less than a decade after its completion, large sections were already in ruins, blown up by Arab tribes and British soldiers, including T.E. Lawrence. The line—once considered a miracle—became a memory.

In From Damascus to Medina, Leon McCarron follows the ghost of this forgotten railway, listening to those who live along its route. He spends weeks in Syria in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime, travels by train on the historic route in Jordan, and walks through the desert where relics of the railway meet the new ambitions of a rapidly changing Saudi Arabia.

This is not just the story of imperial ambition, but also of the people who inherit its legacy today. Through their recollections, McCarron conjures a vision of a time when the land was less divided than it is now, and explores what its revival could offer in an era of hard borders and fragile hope. Weaving together history, travelogue, and oral testimony, From Damascus to Medina captures the region in a moment of great upheaval, and asks whether the dreams of the railway might yet be fulfilled.