Gallipoli (Gelibolu)
Marmara, Turkey 27 tours visit here
Gallipoli, Gelibolu in Turkish, is a peninsula and town on the European side of the Dardanelles, the strait that links the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Whoever held its ridges commanded the sea route to Istanbul, and in 1915 British, French, Australian and New Zealand forces landed here to force the strait and take Constantinople. After months of trench fighting and heavy losses on both sides the Allies withdrew; the campaign made the reputation of Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk. The battlefields are now a national historical park. Most visits take in the Anzac sector on the Aegean side, with Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, the 57th Regiment Memorial and the ridge at Chunuk Bair, and the Cape Helles end, where the Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial stands above the mouth of the strait. Preserved trench lines, Commonwealth cemeteries and Turkish memorials lie among pine woods and farmland, and the terrain explains the fighting: steep gullies rising straight off narrow beaches. It is a commemorative landscape rather than a sightseeing stop, and the main sites take the better part of a day. Most visitors come from Eceabat or Çanakkale across the strait; 25 April draws large Anzac Day gatherings.
