Until the end of the 19th century, a trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem lasted a mere seven hours on a camel's back. At the end of the century, the new technological wonder that had began to shrink the world, arrived in Palestine - the railway train. The first railway in Palestine, built in 1892, connected Jaffa and Jerusalem and shortened the trip between the two cities to only three hours, and the train station in Jerusalem is one of the most important public buildings built during the Ottoman era. The world kept shrinking with the passing of time, and with the advance of more modern means of transportation, the Jerusalem train station became less and less important, until it ceased to be active in 1998. Recently, it has been reopened to the public as a cultural center, but once it was one of the most important and busiest areas of the city – the first stop of every world leader that came to the Holy City, and one of the nerve centers of the British mandatory administration. Here are some photos of the Jerusalem train station at its peak.