The Gallipoli Peninsular is just over 210km away from Istanbul. It is a drive full of lush green farmland and relatively modern dwellings. We arrived at our hotel in Eceabat around 1230pm, checked-in and proceeded immediately on our 4-hour guided tour of the Gallipoli Battlefields.
Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name Καλλίπολις (Kallípolis), meaning 'beautiful city', the original name of the modern town of Gelibolu. The peninsula itself is 78km long.
The peninsula was first occupied by the Ancient Greeks in 800BC. The Ancient Romans then took over in 188BC. The Byzantine Greeks took hold after 356AD until the Ottomans seized it in 1354.
During World War I (1914–1918), French, British, and allied forces (Australian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Irish and Indian) fought the Gallipoli campaign (1915–1916) in and near the peninsula, seeking to secure a sea route to relieve their eastern ally, Russia. The Ottomans set up defensive fortifications along the peninsula and contained the invading forces. In early 1915, attempting to seize a strategic advantage in World War I by capturing the Bosporus Strait at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), the British authorised an attack on the peninsula by French, British, and British Empire forces. The first Australian troops landed at ANZAC Cove early in the morning of 25 April 1915. These forces landed in the wrong spot (just like WWII D-Day on 6JUN1945) and became sitting ducks given the steep cliffs surrounding them. The ANZACs lost 620 lives that day. After eight months of heavy fighting the last Allied soldiers withdrew by 9 January 1916. By then total Allied deaths were 489,113 whilst the Ottomans lost 86,090. The campaign, one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war, is considered by historians as a humiliating Allied failure. Turks regard it as a defining moment in their nation's history and national identity, contributing to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli.
I was fortunate to visit Gallipoli with my late mother in October 2015, one hundred years after the ANZAC Cove landing. I swam into the cove to experience the futility of that day. Long may they be remembered – Lest We Forget.
Since 2015, everything looked the same to me only greener. What hits you about this place is its silence. We spent 4 hours visiting the following spots: Anzac Cove (Hell Split), Anzac Cove (Ceremony Site), Urnu War Cemetery, Captain Mehmet Memorial, Lone Pine Memorial & Cemetery, Chunuk Bair Turkish Memorial & Cemetery. Our guide Yusif was first class and knew all of the ANZAC stories I had learned at school. The other thing that grabs you about Gallipoli is the deep respect that exists between Turkey and Australia in relation to what happened here. This is depicted by the Turkish soldier who stopped his team fighting to carry a wounded Australian soldier back to his line (see picture below). The Turkish and Australian lines came so close together at one point near the end that parties would exchange chocolates and cigarettes during cease fire.
The following morning (26MAR) I ran at 630am in 13C to a huge Fortress south of Eceabat – this is one of 8 used by the Ottomans to guard the Dardanelles passage that connects The Black Sea with the Mediterranean. The run was cold but terrific given it was all coastline, not dissimilar to Greece. That morning a few of us visited the Gallipoli Museum (called the “Epic of Canakkale Recognition Center”). It is an ultra-modern building, well looked after by Turkey, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – all funding and spending decisions on the building and its contents are made by all parties.
Gallipoli is a special place – not because of the conflict that took place on 25 April 1915 but because of the respect that it established so many years later – here it is in images…
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The truck then travelled back to Eceabat to pick up group members who opted out of the Museum and we headed 20min across the Dardanelles on a vehicle ferry to the city of Conakkale for a lunch and cook group shopping stop.
The 38km drive from Conakkale to Troy was not that scenic – quite flat with mainly farmland and some industrial. Our campsite was only 800m from the entrance to Ancient Troy so we set up camp and all walked over with Uran, the owner of our camp who was also our expert guide. He in fact participates in the excavations and knows most of the archaeologists involved.
Troy was not one ancient city but 9 of them, first settled around 3600 BC and grew into a small fortified city around 3000 BC and finally ended in 1000AD. During its 4600 years of existence, Troy was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt 9 times. As a result, the archaeological site that has been left is divided into 9 layers, each corresponding to a city built on the ruins of the previous. Archaeologists refer to these layers using Roman numerals. The Among the early layers, Troy II is notable for its wealth and imposing architecture. During the Late Bronze Age, Troy was called Wilusa and was occupied by the Hittite Empire. The final layers (Troy VIII-IX) were Greek and Roman cities which in their days served as tourist attractions and religious centres because of their link to mythic tradition.
Troy was not big – the largest it ever got was 270,000 square metres and 10,000 population. The site was excavated by wealthy German businessman (not an Archaeologist) Heinrich Schliemann and Frank Calvert starting in 1871. Our guide claims that Schliemann was after gold hidden in the walls of Troy II and in fact found them and smuggled them to his house in Greece with payoffs to Turkish officials – this has never been proven.
Troy is also famous for the Trojan War - a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) and one legendary Archilles against the city of Troy after Prince Paris of Troy took Helen (acclaimed as the most beautiful woman in the world at the time) from her husband Menelaus, King of Sparta. 1,186 ships containing 50,000+ Greeks swarmed onto the beach of Troy to retrieve Helen. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The Trojan Horse was of course the instrument of victory for the Greeks who hid inside it, waited for the Trojans to wheel it into Troy and came out in the middle of the night to open the gates to thousands of Greek warriors hidden outside who burnt Troy to the ground. Only 61 Greeks died compared to 208 Trojans.
Troy was a whole lot smaller and less extravagant than I expected, probably due to the 2004 Hollywood Blockbuster starring Brad Pitt as Greek Achilles and Eric Bana as Trojan Prince Hector and Orlando Bloom as Trojan Prince Paris.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Troy and as a Greek revel in its existence - now it is your turn…
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