Alexandria railway station is the main railway terminus in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, Egypt. It is the oldest railway station in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. It was established in

1856 Events January–March * January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California. * January 23 – The American sidewheel steamer SS ''Pacific'' leaves Liverpool (England) for a transatl ...

coinciding with the decision of Khedive

Abbas Hilmi II Abbas Helmy II (also known as ''ʿAbbās Ḥilmī Pāshā'', ; 14 July 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last Khedive of Egypt and the Sudan, ruling from 8January 1892 to 19 December 1914. In 1914, after the Ottoman Empire joined the Cent ...

to establish the first

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

in Egypt linking the cities of

and

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

1851 Events January–March * January 11 – Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion in China, one of the bloodiest revolts that would lead to 20 million deaths. * January 15 – Christian Female College, modern-d ...

, which is the second in the world after the establishment of the British railways shortly after. In 1920, during the reign of King Fuad I, work began on expanding and rebuilding the station according to its current design. It was opened in 1927 by a Belgian company specializing in train stations. The reconstruction period took about seven years. The station is located in Martyrs Square Central District in the city of

, and is owned and operated by the Egyptian Railways, and contains eight

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

platforms, ticket halls, an outdoor parking lot, administrative offices, a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, a

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

, and several shops.

History

The station is the current terminus of the line, which was extended from Sidi Gaber railway station in 1876. The first station building at a location close to the current one was designed by Edwin C. Baines and built between 1856 and 1857. In 1918 a master plan for the city envisaged the rebuilding or the station. The current building was built between 1915 and 1927 by the Italian architect Antonio Lasciac.

Gallery

> file:Alexandria_Station_in_2017,_photo_by_Hatem_Moushir_3.jpg, file:Alexandria_train_station_(2007-05-001).jpg, file:Alexandria_train_station_(2007-05-002).jpg, file:Egyptian_Railways.jpg, file:ETH-BIB-Alexandrie,_Bahnhof-Dia_247-05956.tif, file:Train_Station_2.jpg, file:Travelling_family.jpg,

References

{{coord, 31.1929, 29.9055, type:railwaystation_region:EG, display=title Transport in Alexandria Buildings and structures in Alexandria Railway stations in Egypt opened in 1876