Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park

Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park (Gelibolu Yarımadası Tarihi Milli Parkı) was established in 1973 to protect the battlefields, cemeteries, and memorials left by the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign, one of the defining engagements of the First World War. The park covers approximately 33,000 hectares of the Gallipoli Peninsula on the European shore of the Çanakkale Strait (Dardanelles), preserving more than 60 war cemeteries, dozens of monuments, and kilometres of original trench lines across a landscape of pine forest, scrub, and cliff-edged coastline. The campaign pitted Allied forces — primarily from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, France, and India — against Ottoman defenders between April 1915 and January 1916. The Allied landings at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 cost catastrophic casualties on both sides: total Allied losses exceeded 140,000 killed or wounded; Ottoman losses were similarly devastating. Key sites within the park include Anzac Cove where the Australian and New Zealand Corps first landed, Lone Pine Cemetery and Memorial containing 4,934 Australian names, Chunuk Bair where New Zealand troops briefly seized the ridge in August 1915, Cape Helles at the peninsula's southern tip where British and French units landed, and the Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial (Çanakkale Şehitleri Anıtı) commemorating Ottoman soldiers. The Kabatepe Museum within the park grounds houses personal effects, weapons, and photographs recovered from the battlefield, providing human-scale context for the campaign. Interpretive panels in Turkish and English mark each cemetery and battle site throughout the park.