On a sunny winter morning, a Gautrain 4-car EMU set is seen climbing the long grade to Midrand station, en route from Johannesburg to Pretoria. The large complex behind the train is the Nizamiye Turkish Mosque and High School, the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere, built in the Ottoman style and opened in February this year. Behind the mosque is the central distribution warehouse for pharmaceutical chain, Dis-Chem. The cluster of tall buildings on the left horizon is the CBD of Sandton, a satellite city of Johannesburg, where the Gautrain station lies 15 floors below ground level.
