"The Gallipoli Peninsula" Top 5 Page for this destination Gallipoli by Willettsworld

The Gallipoli peninsula lies in the European part of Turkey on the western side of the Dardanelles straits. The peninsula, a part of the Byzantine Empire, was gradually conquered by the Ottoman Empire starting from 13th century onwards until the 15th and a few of their forts still remain which helped protect their empire from foreign invaders.

However, the peninsula didn't see any battles until World War I when British, French, Indian, Australian and New Zealand troops landed on the 25th April 1915 in what was to become known as the Gallipoli campaign. However, some of the landings went wrong and troops were landed in the wrong positions causing confusion that lost valuable time. To make matters worse, this was followed up by only tentative advances inland as most of the arriving armies were left on the beaches, allowing for the Ottomans to pour in reinforcements to the area. The battles over the next eight months saw high casualties on both sides due to the exposed terrain, weather and closeness of the front lines. Total Allied deaths were around 21,000 British, 10,000 French, 8,700 Australians, 2,700 New Zealanders and 1,370 Indians. Total Turkish deaths were around 86,700 - nearly twice as many as all the Allies combined. The peninsula is littered with Allied and Turkish cemeteries and memorials. This campaign became a turning point in the national consciousness of several of the participants. Both Australia and New Zealand still celebrate Anzac Day and the Turks consider it a point of national pride. The Gallipoli campaign gave an important boost to the career of Mustafa Kemal, a little-known army commander, who became a national hero, was promoted to Pasha, and became the founder of the modern Turkish state, resulting in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, at the end of World War I. He was then labelled The Father of Turkey (Ataturk).

I came here after driving down from Edirne near the Bulgarian border and visited the town of Gelibolu (Gallipoli town) which is located about 40km north of Eceabat on the eastern side of the Gallipoli peninsula and I've included it and its attractions here as it doesn't have its own destination page. I then stayed overnight at Eceabat and then explored the museums, memorials and cemeteries of the peninsula the following day by car which is the best way to get around.