Visit Hijaz Railway Station at Abu an Na'am, Saudi Arabia

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This site is of historical importance because it was the first of two attacked by Lawrence of Arabia within Saudi Arabia. An Arab raiding trick was to fire bullets into the water towers to drain them. The attack mounted by Lawrence was largely successful. He mined the track south of the station while a second mine was placed to the north. Artillery opened fire on the station, hitting a train that was there. The engine was uncoupled and travelled southwards detonating Lawrence’s mine. However, it only took the Turks half an hour to get the engine limping on its way again. Of about three hundred Turkish troops at the station, seventy were killed at the cost of only one injury to Lawrence’s group. If the men that Lawrence had been promised had materialised, he planned to take the station. As it was, he was forced to call off the action and withdraw after the initial victory. It was a small fort (25 men), twin water tower tower, barracks (100 men).

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