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A railway line from Berlin to Baghdad was Kaiser
Wilhelm II.´s big dream. At the end of the 19th Century,
he wanted to expand into Asia Minor and link Germany
to the Persian Gulf. The construction of the Baghdad
Railway was one of the main controversies between
the Great Powers on the eve of the First World War.
Starting in 1903, construction on the legendary rail line
was finally to last almost 37 years, interrupted by WW I
and local unrest. The daring plan was not conceived by
the German Kaiser, however, but by the Ottoman Sultan
Abdul Hamid II., who wanted to better consolidate his
vast empire. To this end, he forged an alliance with Berlin
that left the other European powers worried. The work
was financed by German banks, and German engineers
and firms handled the construction. From rails to bolts
and locomotives, everything was brought in from the
German Reich. The line runs from Berlin via Vienna,
Belgrade, Sophia, Constantinople, and Anatolia to
Damascus in Syria and Baghdad in Iraq. Today, the "Taurus
Express" and the "Arabian Nights Special Express" still
traverse parts of this amazing 1200 mile railway.