The Cube: Türkiye: Of Çanakkale, Troy and Gallipoli Peninsula

Another bus ride (TL165), this time 3+ hours got me to Çanakkale. I got to Ayvalık bus station by taxi, based on recommendation from the guesthouse. I took the 13:01 bus and was armed with Ayvalık toast for lunch. I also cabbed from the Çanakkale bus station to the pansiyon also on advice from the pansiyon staff.

In Çanakkale

For this stop, I signed up for a day tour that covers both Troy and Gallipoli Peninsula. The morning half of the tour covers Troy, then we took a ferry to the Gallipoli Peninsula, had lunch and continued the tour. There were less than 10 pax in the Troy tour but a full van (maybe 15 people) in the Gallipoli tour. Only 2 other Australian boys and me joined both tours.

Çanakkale

Good stroll along the Çanakkale waterfront promenade

Çanakkale means "pottery castle" and the town was once a centre for the production of high quality kaolin for a flourishing ceramics industry. Today this type of clay is important but Çanakkale made vitreous enamel ware remains as one of Turkey's top export earners.

Troy

This area was first inhabited during the early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC). The walled cities are divided from Troy I to Troy IX till around AD 500. The Trojan War was believed to occurred in Troy VII. The city was abandoned by the end of the 2nd millennium BC but reoccupied by Greek settlers in the 8th century BC (Troy VIII). It was identified by the Romans as the fabled city of Homer and Troy prospered under Roman rule. It was abandoned in the 9th century and reoccupied in the later Byzantine period and then deserted in the Ottoman period.

Many historians doubted the existence of ancient Troy but a German businessman Heinriich Schliemanna was convinced of its existence and received permission from the Ottoman government to excavate a hill near the village of Hisarlik, a previously identified site for the city. Part of the treasures found were smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire and no displayed in a museum in Moscow.

Archaelogists identified the remains of nine separate Troys, where a series of settlements built one of top of another over the course of 2500 years. The guide mentioned that the stones used were different across the different Troy. Excavations work are still ongoing at the site.

The Gallipoli Campaign 1915-16

Pardon the unintentional selfie

At the initial outbreak of WWI, the Ottomans remained neutral but in October 1914 they joined the Central Powers and closed the Dardanelles, blocking the Allies' major supply route between Britain, France and their ally Russia.

Allied leaders developed a plan to seize the Dandanelles (the narrowest point of Strait of Çanakkale so that would give them control of Constantinople (current day Istanbul). At the dawn on 25 April 1915, British and French troops landed at Kum Kale near Çanakkale . Further north, a large force of ANZACs (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) came ashore but met dogged opposition from the Turkish defenders.

After nine months of ferocious combat but little headway, the Allied forces withdrew in December 1915 and January 1916. The Allied troops landed in a sector where they faced Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Kemal.

Gallipoli Peninsula

Both tours were good but the Gallipoli Peninsula is better. I felt like I have attended a great lecture on history. One of the earlier stops begin at Anzac Cove, the narrow stretch of sand beneath and just south of the Ariburnu cliffs where the Allied landed on 25 April 1915. Other stops included Johnston's Jolly, and the Nek and Walker’s Ridge. Plus, honor those who died at Ari Burnu, the Beach Cemetery, Lone Pine Cemetery, the Turkish Memorial and Chunuk-Bair.