Gallipoli, Strategic peninsula in northwestern Turkey
Gallipoli is a peninsula in northwestern Turkey that stretches between the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles strait. The landscape alternates between rocky cliffs on the western coast and flatter beach sections in the north, while gentle hills shape the interior terrain.
Ottoman troops first set foot on European soil here in 1354 after an earthquake weakened the Byzantine fortifications. During World War I, the peninsula became the site of fighting between Allied forces and the Ottoman army that lasted eight months.
The Turkish name Gelibolu derives from the Greek term Kallipolis, meaning "beautiful city," though visitors today associate the place mainly with its military past. The peninsula attracts pilgrims from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey who come to honor the memory of their fallen ancestors.
A ferry crossing from Çanakkale to Eceabat brings visitors onto the peninsula and runs several times daily throughout the year. Most memorials and cemeteries lie along a main road that can be explored easily on foot or by rental car.
Along the defensive lines stand thirty-one obelisks that mark where Turkish soldiers stopped the Allied advance during the 1915 campaign. Some of these stone markers still bear engraved inscriptions naming the individual units that fought at those points.
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