İskenderun Dekovil Hattı

Authors : Mert Sandalci

Pages : 287-297

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Publication Date : 2005-06-01

Article Type : Research

Abstract :The purpose of this article is to summarize the fact that in the late 1800’s  the narrow­gauged railway was  one of the  first railways  to operate in  Iskenderun (Alexandrette), the port of Hatay (Antioch) in South­eastern Turkey. In the 19th century, Iskenderun had a swampy subterranean and in order to overcome this problem, the Ottoman government took action by constructing  a narrow­gauged railway which ran smaller scaled steam­engined trains. This steam­engined railway was used to transport boulder­rock material  to dry out  the swampy regions. But  importantly enough, the narrow­gauged  railway was also used for leisure purposes, for example transporting families to  picnic areas. It is sad to note that the narrow­gauged railway, as importantly as this, used in the building blocks of todays Iskenderun, has long been forgotten.
Keywords : Anadolu, dekovil, demiryolu, İskenderun, Hatay, Türkiye