Gallipoli

The Gallipoli peninsula (; ; ) 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.Crowley, Roger. 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West. New York: Hyperion, 2005. p 31 .

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. Crimea .Crimea, Victorian Web.

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".Καλλίπολις, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus project
In antiquity, it was called the Thracian Chersonese (, ).

References

Category:Çanakkale Province