Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(admission
"
3; 8am-5pm Tue-Sun winter, to 7.30pm summer)
Kilitbahir's 15th-century Otto-
man castle, with a grand seven-storey interior tower and a war museum in another
tower, overlooks the Namazgah Tabyası, a mazelike series of 19th-century defensive
bunkers.
Sights
Northern Peninsula
compasses 33,500 hectares of the peninsula, all of the significant battle sites and over 50
war cemeteries (Allied and Turkish). The principal battles took place on its western shore,
around Anzac Cove, 12km northwest of Eceabat, and in the hills east of the cove. The fol-
lowing are the most internationally famous of the numerous sites.
The ill-fated Allied landing began at
Anzac Cove
, beneath and just south of the steep
cliffs of Arıburnu, on 25 April 1915. The
Anzac Commemorative Site
(Anzac Tören Alanı)
,
where dawn services are held on Anzac Day, is nearby.
Lone Pine
(Kanlısırt)
is perhaps the most moving of the Anzac cemeteries. Australian
forces captured the Turkish positions here on 6 August 1915, and 7000 men died, in an
area the size of a soccer field, in four days. The trees that shaded the cemetery were swept
away by a fire in 1994, leaving only one: a lone pine planted from the seed of the original
solitary tree, which stood here at the beginning of the battle and gave the battlefield its
name.
Continuing uphill, the road marks what was the thin strip of no-man's land between the
two sides' trenches. The
Chunuk Bair New Zealand Cemetery and Memorial
(Conk-
bayırı Yeni Zelanda Mezarlığı ve Anıtı)
is located at what was the first objective of the Allied
landing in April 1915. As the Anzac troops made their way up the scrub-covered slopes,
Mustafa Kemal brought up the 57th Infantry Regiment. The 57th was wiped out, but held
the line and inflicted equally heavy casualties on Anzac forces below. Later, Chunuk Bair
was at the heart of the struggle for the peninsula from 6 to 10 August 1915, when some
30,000 men died on this ridge.
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