Çanakkale - Gallipoli Peninsula

On the second day of our trip we decided to take a tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the site of the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. The tour didn't start until 11am, so we used this extra time to walk along the seaside. First we visited the Trojan horse in the harbor. As you can see from my pictures, this is the exact same horse that was used in the movie Troy in 2004. After the movie was made, they brought the horse to be displayed as a permanent fixture of the harbor in Çanakkale. After checking that out, we went to an artillery museum of Ottoman military equipment. They had cannons and other artillery on display that was used during WWI. The site of the museum also included a fortress that was on the Dardanelles to control the passage of ships through the region. It was a very strategic point during WWI.



At 11am, we returned to the hotel and boarded the ferry for a trip to the European side of the Dardanelles to commence our tour of the ANZAC coast. First we got lunch (which was included in the price of the tour) and then we boarded the bus to start the tour. Our first site was a museum, which was nothing special but I suppose a requirement of the tour. Then we went to the ANZAC cove, the place where the Australians and New Zealanders actually landed on the peninsula (an unexpected current drifted their boats up to this point which was less strategic and advantageous for landing). As a result, the landing turned out to be quite costly for the Allies. We then visited the area of Chunuk Bair, the higher ground that the Turks held during the campaign. We visited various memorials on the way to the center of the peninsula as well (various homages to ANZAC and Turkish fighters). When we reached the top, we got to see the trenches from WWI. There were some places where the trenches were only 15 feet apart! It was really neat to stand inside them. I felt like I was a part of the history and imagined what it would be like to be in those trenches during the war. My guess is that it would not be fun. Also, because it was the highest point on the peninsula, there was a gorgeous view of the sea. At the last place, it started to rain a bit, so we got finished with our tour just in time. We returned to the hotel and rested for the rest of the evening (this was probably 8 or 9pm at this point).