Nara Burnu

Nara Burnu (Turkish "Cape Nara"),^[1][2] formerly Nağara Burnu,^[3] in English Nagara Point,^[4] and in older sources Point Pesquies,^[3] is a headland on the Anatolian side of the Dardanelles Straits, north of Çanakkale.

It is the narrowest and, with 113 metres (371 ft), the deepest, section of the Dardanelles Strait. As a result, it is also the point where the surface current from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea is the strongest, with 1.5 to 2 times the normal rate, occasionally reaching the speed of 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) per hour. The undercurrent is 0.5–5 nautical miles (0.93–9.26 km) per hour, flowing in the opposite direction.^[5][6] The ancient and medieval city of Abydos is located at the Nara promontory.^[7]

Due to the narrowness of the straits at this point, the site was often chosen for crossings of the Dardanelles by armies, beginning with the Achaemenid monarch Xerxes I during his Invasion of Greece in 480 BC, who deployed pontoon bridges to allow his army to cross on foot.^[7]