ABSTRACT
The Gallipoli peninsula has a long history as a contested landscape, positioned beside the strategic waterway of the Dardanelles. In antiquity, Xerxes and his army of Persians entered Europe via the Gallipoli peninsula and it is from the peninsula that Alexander the Great later crossed the Dardanelles to begin his conquest of Asia (Herodotus 7.33-34, Arrian 1.11.3-6). The action of the Trojan, Persian and Peloponnesian wars took place in this area and, more recently, the peninsula was part of imperial contests between the Seljuks, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans. But for many people today the Gallipoli peninsula is associated with one particular conflict: the attempt by the Allies to force the Dardanelles in 1915.
