Abandoned oil boring machinery in the desert, 1917 (c)

Photograph, World War One, Middle East (1914-1918), Palestine, 1917 (c).

Image caption states: 'Boring machinery abandoned here on outbreak of war - by Anglo-German Syndicate'

Keystone Drilling Company was an American manufacturer of oil drilling machines. They made and sold prospecting machines for coal, zinc, lead and gold which were used all over the world.

From around the 1880s international oil mining companies were established across Palestine. The outbreak of World War One interrupted many of these ventures.

From a collection of photographs taken by Corporal Joseph Egerton, Shropshire Yeomanry in Sinai and Palestine.