The site of a station on the Beirut-Damascus railway line.
The train was a product of the industrial revolution and was first created to transport goods, which was its main purpose in Lebanon when the railway was first built. During the Ottoman empire, it was necessary to connect Damascus to the coast. Beirut, with its brand new port, benefited from the project, which was carried out by the French. The British wanted to build a railway between Jaffa and Damascus to bypass the Beirut line, but the project was never carried out.
The Beirut-Damascus line was built on behalf of the Ottoman Empire as part of a privilege granted to the French in 1891 and connected the two cities via Rayak. Specially designed tracks were laid in Baabda to scale Lebanon’s mountains. They pulled the train all the way to Dahr el-Baidar where, in the winter time, the locomotives were equipped with snow plows to push through the harsh mountain weather.
This location is referenced in Bædeker as Ain Sôfar. Not listed by either name in Murray.