Antique history of Çanakkale

A province in both Asia and Europe

Turkey has territory both in the continents of Asia and, to a lesser extend, in Europe. Only two of Turkey's provinces, namely Istanbul and Çanakkale, have territories that are both in Asia and Europe.

Çanakkale is separated by a strait, which is named after the city. The Çanakkale Straits (the Dardanelles) link the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas to the Marmara and Black Seas. The water of these two great seas flows in two separate currents, the lower flowing up the Strait and the surface one flowing down. The climate of Çanakkale is a mixture of that of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
The Dardanelles Strait is 65 kilometres (35 miles) long and its width varies between one to six kilometres (0.75-four miles). Its average depth is about 100 metres (328 feet.)

Çanakkale as a tourism centre

Çanakkale itself is a giant history museum where the location of the ancient city of Troy (Troai), which enlightened the history of humanity, and where the Trojan War and the Gallipoli Campaign took place. It is a stage for great drama, from the great east-west war (Troy) in ancient times to the more recent great east-west battles of Gallipoli. The city of Alexandria Troas, where excavation work is continuing and which was once considered as an alternative for the capital of the Roman
Empire, and many other ancient sites are just an element of a cultural tour that should not be missed.
Çanakkale is also a tourism and aquatic centre with its very productive clean seas; with Mount Ida (Kazdağları) where the God Zeus sat, watched and interfered in the Trojan War; where Hellenistic myths and Turkmen legends intertwine; and with Gökçeada (Imbros), the largest of Turkey's islands and the tourism attraction of the island of Bozcaada (Tenedos).
Nowadays, the provincial capital Çanakkale is a modern city where daily life is easy with its university, high quality hotels and restaurants providing special delicacies of Aegean cuisine.

Dardanelles... Hellespontos...
Çanakkale in Antiquity
Dardanelles and Hellespont are the old names of what is now Çanakkale. The word Dardanelles comes from Dardanos, a mythical ancestor of one of the survivors of Troy.
Çanakkale's other ancient name, Hellespont, also comes from mythology. According to the mythological story of the "Golden Fleece", that was intensely used by ancient writers, the region was named after means Helle, who legend says fell into the waters of the Strait and drowned while riding on a flying ram with a golden fleece when she and her brother were fleeing to the Black Sea city of Colchis.
Apart from its being on a crossing point between two continents, Çanakkale attracted the attention of the Eastern Roman Empire, later to become the Byzantine Empire; the Mediterranean countries for trading with the Black Sea, famous for its fish, and the Black Sea countries for whom the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles were the only opening from their inland sea to the world.
At times in history, armies from one continent crossed
to the other by building bridges of boats or bridges supported by buoys.
Though there have been no specific find from Dardanos it is believed that its history goes further back than that of Troy. While the history of Troy I, discovered after excavations that were carried out over a period of years, goes back to 3000 BC, the earliest known settlement in the region has been dated to more than 5000 years ago.
The city of Troy that was founded in 3000 BC was destroyed by an earthquake 500 years later. Troy, which was to re-established and destroyed many times after that, founded a great civilisation.
Çanakkale has seen this and other civilisations rule the region at different times. In 500 BC, it was the Persians that flooded over all of Anatolia. In 386 BC, with the "Peace of Kings" between the Persians and the Spartans, Persian sovereignty in the region was reinforced. The Persian King Xerxes build a bridge of ships and buoys across the Strait in order to cross into Greece and Macedonia, passing his army over the Strait from Abydos to Sestos.
Persian rule in the region was destroyed with the defeat inflicted by the Macedonian King Alexander the Great on the Persian army at the battle of Granicas (the Biga stream) in 334 BC. Shortly after the death of Alexander, there were conflicts between the Macedonian commanders over control of the region. Under the rule of the Pergamum Kingdom the region was renamed Galat. It gained importance during the times of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. The first territory seized by the Ottomans in the region was the town of Gelibolu. It was only later that full Ottoman sovereignty over the region was attained.

A love story from mythology

In ancient times the Dardanelles was called the Hellespont. On the European side of the Strait, in the city of Sestos, there was a large temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite and a beautiful priestess serving in the temple, Hero.
At a spring festival in Sestos, the handsome Leander from Abydos, a city on the opposite Asian side of the Dardanelles, on seeing Hero, was stricken by a lightning bolt of love when was presenting his offerings.
Hero, initially rejected this love but such was the passion of Leander that finally the priestess also succumbed to the fires of love.
Even though they were living on the two different sides of the Strait love proved it was more powerful than the seas.
Nightly, Leander would swim across the Strait, guided by a lamp Hero lit in a tower of the temple to help fishermen find their way. Each night the light burned and every night Leander and Hero met.
But the seasons started to turn and the waves began to assert their power. According to the ancient writer Heseidos, in his book "Works and Days", written in the 8th century BC, "Once winter came and the winds began blowing in all directions, instead of stepping into the sea that was turned to the colour of wine, pull the boat on land and surround it with stones. carefully warp up the sails, hang the steering oar on a corner over the fireplace and wait for the sea season to return." But would love wait?
Leander forgot about the promise he had made Hero that he would not return until spring and began swimming towards his lover. He fought against the storm and the waves. As he swam, the lamp lit by Hero was blown out by the wind and he lost his way.
The next morning, when Hero went to the shore she found her lover's body. Not being able to cope with that pain she committed suicide.
The two lovers were placed together in grave on the shore of the Strait and the mourners threw flowers into the sea.