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The Orient Express forever changed the way we travel. For the first time, regular people were able to indulge their sense of adventure and journey across the world as they knew it, experiencing for themselves new lands and the people who inhabited them. To mark the 130th anniversary of the opening of the line connecting Paris to Istanbul, the Arab World Institute has gone back in time with a new exhibit, "Once Upon a Time on the Orient Express," that is complete with three fully decked-out train cars. See some of the relics of that bygone era.
Malika Favre
This painting commemorates the creation of the first railway line in Turkey in 1876.
Bruxelles, collection particuliere/Tajan
The score for the song entitled "Orient Express."
Kallimages
A group of tourists in front of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Kallimages
A map from 1931 of the Simplon-Orient-Express network and Taurus Express.
Sidoli/Rambaud
View of the Golden Arrow car.
Jérôme Galland
Inside the Golden Arrow train car.
Jérôme Galland
Left: Reconstruction of a toilet used in some cars, accessible from two sleeping compartments. Right: Toilet service in the first sleeper.
Sidoli/Rambaud
Left: A Moynat trunk cabinet with a Simplon Orient Express label from 1920. Right: A Moynat toiletry trunk from 1930.
Sidoli/Rambaud
Pascal Sebah, "Whirling Dervishes," 1870. The show was an unavoidable curiosity during a trip to Turkey.
Kallimages
Rolls Royce liaising on sections of rail networks.
Rambaud/Sidoli
Tourists on the Giza Plateau.
Kallimages
Egyptian cars were made in France and shipped by boat to Egypt.
Rambaud/Sidoli
Tourists are photographed in Turkish attire.
Kallimages
Left: Poster for Nairn car service which was used when the rail network was interrupted on the Taurus Express. Center: Luggage tag for Pera Palace. Right: Poster by Roger Broders, 1931.
Sidoli/Rambaud; ADAGP
Left: Poster promoting travel "Egypt Europe" by train and boat by an anonymous designer, 1910. Center: An advertisement for tourism in Istanbul, Turkey, designed by N. Ergüver circa 1950. Right: Posters advertising the Ghezireh Palace festivals in Cairo, 1896.
SNCF, Archives historiques; Kallimages
Laying track in Serbia for the Orient Express.
Kallimages
Picture of a boat of tourists on the Nile.
Kallimages
Packs of dogs were a tourist attraction in Constantinople.
Kallimages
Colorized postcard of Sirkeci Station, the end of the Orient Express on the western shore of Constantinople.
Kallimages