Gallipoli and Troy

Replica Trojan Horse Outside of Troy

We had a very eye-opening and interesting visit to the Gallipoli Peninsula and the ancient city of Troy. Both sites are visible to each other on a clear day and both sites were home to historical battles fought basically over the same land and waterways, yet thousands of years apart.
 

Looking out over the beach and peninsula

Gallipoli
A five hour bus ride from Istanbul brought us to the small seaside town of Eceabat for the start of our Gallipoli tour. Going into this visit I (DW) really didn’t know much about the Gallipoli peninsula and the famous battle that occurred here from March of 1915 to January of 1916. I don’t recall learning about this part of World War I in history class but I definitely could have been asleep or not in class, with the latter probably true. It wasn’t until I moved to Australia that I was introduced to this part of history and the key role the Australia New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) played in the battle and the war. For those like me who are not aware, the ANZAC’s, as part of a larger force, invaded the Turkish peninsula in an attempt to gain control of this part of Turkey and in turn the Dardanelles Straight waterway which is the gateway to the Black Sea. During the fierce trench warfare style battle the ANZAC’s along with all Allied Forces and Turkish soldiers experienced heavy casualties.

Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli

The new ANZAC Memorial

Our first stop on the tour was a large map indicating where each of the Allied Forces  landed on the peninsula, now a National Park, and strategies involved in the attack. Next we went to the new ANZAC Memorial, built in 2000 by the Turkish Government, where many Australian and New Zealanders come every 25^th of April to celebrate ANZAC Day in remembrance. According to our guide the Turkish Government and Tourism Dept. is planning on 100,000 visitors for the 100 year anniversary of the ANZAC landing in 2015. Following the memorial stop we toured ANZAC cove, the spot where they landed on the beach, and many cemeteries and memorials for both the ANZAC and Turkish side of the war.  It was great to see how the Turkish government has helped memorialize both their soldiers and those of the Allied Forces.  The Lone Pine monument was probably the most moving for me; up on that hill you get the sense of how hard these heroes (from both sides) had to fight and the hardships they had to endure over the 10 months of fighting.

Pamela practising her trench warfare techniques

The Turkish Memorial at Gallipoli.

Troy
I really did try and read The Iliad before arriving in Troy….really, I did. Unfortunately I only got about a third of the way through it before switching to something a little more modern. It’s not that easy of a read, at least for me it wasn’t. For those of you not familiar, The Iliad is an epic poem written by Homer a long time ago (think 700 BC) that discusses the 10 year battle the Greeks waged against the Trojans over Princess Helen, control over their land and more importantly the Dardanelles Straight. We’ve probably all seen the movie Troy so I don’t think I need to go into that any more.

Checking out the ancient ruins of Troy

Troy, or Troia as the signs read on the way to the place, has a replica wooden horse you can climb-up just after the entrance gates. From there you can take a walk around the place and see examples of the nine different versions of the city of Troy, the first version, Troy I, dating back many thousands of years. The famous story of the battle for Troy supposedly happened during the sixth version of the city, still a long-long time ago. It’s kind of cool to stand on the walkway and look out at where Achilles and Hector supposedly had their battle and where the Greeks would have left their famous wooden horse. The place in my mind was legendary and I just thought it was so cool to actually stand in the place where it supposedly all happened.

Looking out at the supposed battle site of Hector and Achilles

While walking around the ancient ruined city, or any ancient city for that matter, I try to picture myself back in those days and try and visualize how the people worked and lived from day-to-day. I can’t imagine it would be that different than how we live now, just a different set of tools to do it.

That was our two days at Gallipoli and Troy. To think these two famous battles, one lasting 10 months and the other 10 years, were fought so close together geographically (you can see them with the naked eye), yet so far apart in time, and basically for the same thing…control of the land and the Dardanelles Straight.

All our pics from Gallipoli and Troy can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/GallipoliAndTroy?authuser=0&feat=directlink


Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave