The Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu): Battlefields, Anzac Cove and Memorials

Directly across the Dardanelles Strait from Çanakkale Harbour stretches the pine-covered ridge of the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park (Gelibolu Yarımadası Tarihi Milli Parkı). Here, between 18 March 1915 and 9 January 1916, Ottoman Turkish forces (with Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rising to national prominence as commander of the 19th Division at Arıburnu and Conkbayırı) and Allied troops from Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand (ANZAC), India and Newfoundland fought an eight-month trench campaign that cost over half a million casualties and forged the modern national consciousness of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Today, the entire 33,000-hectare peninsula is a serene, pine-scented peace park divided into two main sectors.

1. The Northern Sector: Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, 57th Regiment and Conkbayırı

Driving north-west from the Eceabat or Kilitbahir ferry pier takes you across the waist of the peninsula to the Aegean shore and up the steep sari-bair ridge:

• Anzac Cove (Arıburnu) & Beach Cemetery: walk along the quiet pebble beach where Australian and New Zealand troops landed at dawn on 25 April 1915, standing before the famous stone monolith inscribed with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's 1934 tribute to the foreign mothers of the fallen soldiers: "There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
• Lone Pine Cemetery (Kanlısırt): the main Australian memorial on the plateau above the beach, where a solitary Aleppo pine grows beside the white limestone obelisk.
• The 57th Infantry Regiment Memorial (57. Alay Şehitliği) & Quinn's Post: along the narrow ridge road where opposing trenches at Bombshell Ridge and Quinn's Post sat literally eight metres apart across the asphalt lane.
• Chunuk Bair (Conkbayırı, 261m Summit): the strategic high point of the ridge where both the New Zealand Memorial and the bronze statue of Mustafa Kemal stand (marking the exact spot on 10 August 1915 where a piece of shrapnel struck and shattered the pocket watch over Atatürk's heart, saving his life).

2. The Southern Sector: Cape Helles, Seddülbahir and the Martyrs' Memorial

At the southern tip of the peninsula overlooking the entrance to the Dardanelles stands the monumental 41.7-metre four-legged stone Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial (Şehitler Abidesi) at Hisarlık Tepe, paired nearby with the British Helles Memorial, the restored 1658 Seddülbahir Fortress and V Beach.