The Gallipoli Peninsula — Gelibolu Yarımadası in Turkish — is one of the most significant WWI battlefield landscapes in the world. For eight and a half months in 1915, men from across the empire fought here in one of the war's most consequential campaigns: an Allied attempt to force open the Dardanelles, knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war, and open a southern route to Russia.
They failed. But the campaign left an indelible mark on the nations involved, particularly Australia and New Zealand, for whom Gallipoli became a founding myth of national identity. The Turks remember it differently: as the battle that gave birth to Mustafa Kemal, the future Atatürk, and that set the stage for the Turkish War of Independence. Both memories are honoured here, and the peninsula has become one of the rare places where former enemies share memorials on the same ground.
The main sites — ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine, and Chunuk Bair in the ANZAC sector; Cape Helles in the south — are spread across a 33,000-hectare national park. The Kabatepe Çanakkale Epic Presentation Center is the best starting point for a visit. Most travellers base themselves in Çanakkale across the strait and take a half-day or full-day tour by minibus or on their own rented vehicle.