Cairo to Kisumu : $b Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya ColonyCarpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
History
Cairo to Kisumu : $b Egypt—The Sudan—Kenya Colony
Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Egypt -- Description and travel; Kenya -- Description and travel; Sudan -- Description and travel
The journey from Cairo to the Cape is now made by rail, boat, and ground
transport. These overland gaps are the ones which will one day be filled
with railways, but the water sections will remain as a part of the
completed route.
The railroad from Cairo has been extended two hundred and forty miles
south from Khartum to Sennar, on the Blue Nile, where a great new dam,
which is to furnish more water for irrigating Egypt and the Sudan, is now
under construction. The British have also built a railway from Sennar
west to El Obeid, in Khordofan. This line crosses the Blue Nile at Kosti.
From Sennar, the fourteen hundred miles to Lake Albert is covered by Nile
steamers and by ground transport, which may be automobile, horseback,
or bullock wagon. From the southern shore of Lake Albert is another gap
which must be covered with ground transport to gain the shores of Lake
Victoria, and after Victoria is crossed by steamer, Lake Tanganyika
must be reached overland. From Lake Tanganyika to Broken Hill is a gap
of four hundred and fifty miles which will soon be bridged by railroad
construction. From Broken Hill we have the railway to Cape Town. A
railroad extends northward from Broken Hill to Bukama in the Congo
copper-mining district of Katanga, but it does not fit into the scheme of
an all-British steam route to Cairo.
Another important railway development, also the work of the British,
resulted from the World War. The Turks had organized an army to capture
control of the Suez Canal, and to meet this attack the British pushed
a great expeditionary force into Palestine. They did this by building
a swinging railroad bridge across the canal at Kantara and laying a
railroad two hundred and fifty-six miles through the Sinai and Palestine
deserts to Haifa. During these operations, Kantara, normally a small
garrisoned railroad town, mostly sand and cinders, became the greatest
military base in all history. Besides the soldiers, brought from all
corners of the British Empire, the British organized the Egyptian Labour
Corps, for which more than twelve hundred thousand Egyptian natives were
recruited. This vast army of workers built the railway, and kept the
stream of men and supplies moving on to meet the attack of the Turks.
The Egyptians did not like this service much better than the Children of
Israel liked toiling without wages for the Pharaohs nearly four thousand
years ago.
These operations resulted in the defeat of the Turks and saved the
canal. Moreover, they linked Africa and Asia by rail and one may now go
on comfortable cars all the way from Cairo to Constantinople, and on to
Paris. In reality, three continents have been joined together by the
Kantara bridge and the Palestine Military Railway. This new link in the
chain of the world’s railway systems was part of the Kaiser’s dream of
empire. But he had no part in making it come true, and it now adds to the
glory and strength of the very nations he hoped to conquer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account