Monuments such as this and the Jezreel Valley Railway monument in Haifa were designed to commemorate the charitable works of Abdul Hamid II for his people; the railway would be used to carry pilgrims to the Hajj and the telegraph would allow rapid communication between the two locations.

[1] The monument consists of a cast-iron column on stone base [2] adorned with representations of telegraph lines and insulators running along the pole.

The notable feature of the monument is the mosque on top of the column, "in the place on the upper part of the capital traditionally reserved for emperors, kings, saints, war heroes […], and explorers […] and other great men, a clear statement that a Western model was not always acceptable without fundamental change".

Inscriptions on the base in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish explain how it is now the Sultan-caliph that makes decisions on such matters as telegraphs, railroads and highways, instead of Europeans.

The use of architecture atop the column instead of a figurative statue serves as a unique indication of Ottoman power.