Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial

Chunuk Bair commands the highest point of the Sari Bair ridge and on a clear day gives views across both sides of the peninsula — the Aegean to the west and the Dardanelles to the east. This was the strategic goal of the entire August offensive: had it been held, the Dardanelles might have been forced and the campaign succeeded. It was not.

The New Zealand Memorial here bears the names of 849 New Zealanders who died on Gallipoli and have no known grave. The site includes a large bronze figure of Mustafa Kemal and a Turkish memorial beside the New Zealand one. The proximity of the two memorials — enemies now sharing the same ridge — is one of the more remarkable things about Gallipoli. The 1.5 km walk from Chunuk Bair down to ANZAC Cove follows the old Turkish front line and takes about 30 minutes.

things to do sight
A story
New Zealand troops briefly held Chunuk Bair on 8–9 August 1915 — the only time Allied forces reached the campaign's key strategic objective on the Sari Bair ridge. They held it for two days before being driven off by a massive Turkish counter-attack led personally by Mustafa Kemal, the future founder of modern Turkey. Kemal understood that losing the ridge meant losing the peninsula; he ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge, telling them "I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die."