Canakkale

Our tour left Istanbul and drove to Canakkale.Let’s go back to our geography. Let me find a map.The Dardanelles (which were known as Hellespont) is a narrow strait in Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart, the Bosphorus. The strait is 38 miles long but only ¾ of a mile to 3 3/4 miles, which is the Dardanelles narrowest point, so a crossing point for DSCN0570ferries.

Like the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles separates Europe from the mainland of Asia. The strait is an international waterway, and together with the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.An interesting fact, I thought, is that water flows in both directions along the strait, from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean via DSCN0566a surface current and in the opposite direction via an undercurrent.

So Canakkale Province is like Istanbul Province in that it has territory in both Europe and Asia.Because of its location, Canakkale has been the major strong point in the defense of the Dardanelles. The province has witnessed two very important battles in history.trojan horseOne of the battles is mythological. The war of Troy.The other battle was the Battle of Canakkale during World DSCN0567War I, which most of us know of as Gallipoli.

Today Canakkale is a good base for visiting Troy and Gallipoli. That’s what we were going to do.