Gallipoli

40°22′2″N 26°27′18″E

Satellite image of the Gallipoli peninsula and surrounding area

The Gallipoli peninsula (English pronunciation: /ɡəˈlɪpɵli/; Turkish: Gelibolu Yarımadası; Greek: Καλλίπολη) is in Turkish East Thrace, the European part of Turkey. To the west there is the Aegean Sea and to the east there are the Dardanelles straits.

History

After an earthquake in 1354, the Greek city of Gallipoli was abandoned, then occupied by the Ottoman Turks from northwestern Anatolia. This made it the first Turkish position in Europe.^[1]

The peninsula was part of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire slowly conquered it from 13th century to the 15th century. By the 19th century, thirty thousand people lived in the city: Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Jews and Xoraxane Roma.

It was a big military camp for the British and French forces during the Crimean War (1854). It was also a stopping-off point on the way to Constantinople.^[2][3]

In World War I, Gallipoli was the site of the Gallipoli Campaign launched by British and French forces against the Turkish Empire.

Etymology

The name is from Greek "Καλλίπολις" (Kallipolis), meaning "Beautiful City".^[4] In antiquity, it was called the Thracian Chersonese (Latin: Chersonesus Thracica, Greek: Θρακική Χερσόνησος).