Eceabat

Eceabat's climate is Mediterranean, but with chillier winters. This means hot, dry summers and cool to chilly winters with a decent amount of both rain and snowfall.

Eceabat, and Gallipoli in general, is very windy, especially during Lodos windstorms. These events will most likely cancel ferries, so watch out for them if you are planning to take one.

If you plan on going in summer, plan the same way you would for another Mediterranean climate; light clothing and some protection from the sun is necessary. Rain will probably not be an issue.

Spring and autumn are mild, and both ideal times to visit, especially during the warmer parts of both seasons. Nights can be on the cooler side, and rain will most likely fall multiple times during a week-long trip.

Winter is when Eceabat becomes a little different than the stereotypical Mediterranean climate. The climate is influenced by the continental Balkans in winter, leading to occasional cold snaps with snowfall. However, milder days will most likely be influenced by Mediterranean air masses, which makes them equally troublesome unless you plan on getting soaked.

For more information, nearby Çanakkale has more information on its page.

• Eceabat town is modern. Merkez Cami is the mosque by the harbour; otherwise the only sight is vehicles driving on and off ferries.
• Epic Promotion Centre (Çanakkale Destanı Tanıtım Merkezi), Kabatepe (East edge of Kabatepe at junction for Gökçeada ferry and village). W-M 09:00-17:00. War museum, most signage in Turkish, the best of it is the film presentation. Adult 8 TL, film show 20 TL. (updated Dec 2020)
• 🌍 Kilye Castle is a sorry stump of masonry, you only stop for the view over the bay. Best guess is that it was Byzantine like Sestos Castle.
• 🌍 Bigalı Fortress is on the main highway 6 km north of Eceabat. It was built from 1790 as a shore artillery position. Long a crumbling ruin, it was completely rebuilt in 2022, so looks brand new now.
• Sestos Castle further north has almost disappeared, as its stone was taken to build Bigali. It's at another pinch-point in the Dardanelles, where in legend Leander swam across nightly to tryst with Hero, and Lord Byron really swam it in 1810. See Gelibolu for these and other sights to the north, in the middle section of the peninsula.
• 🌍 Çamburnu Castle is an early 19th century fortress on the coast between Eceabat and Kilitbahir.

• Kilitbahir means "lock of the sea" as it's the first pinch-point sailing up the Dardanelles. Even early cannon could blast more than halfway across the straits here, so with an artillery battery on each side you controlled sea traffic. The main sight is the castle, next to the historic harbour and village centre 200 m south of the modern ferry pier. The small Tabib Hasan Pasha Mosque is by the harbour, İbrahim Pasha Fountain is in the village square, and the Cahidi mosque and shrine is higher up - in the 17th century he founded a sect of Sufism. There's also a small war museum just inland from the castle entrance.

• Kilitbahir Castle, Yalı Cd. Tu-Su 08:00-17:00. Impressive citadel built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet in 1463, along with Çimenlik Castle across the straits in Çanakkale. Mehmet conquered Constantinople / Byzantium / Istanbul in 1453, and the pair of forts turned the entire Dardanelles into a great Barbican entrance for shipping, halting the Venetians and consolidating Ottoman power. Later rulers reinforced the position. You approach up the lane from the south side of the hill. There's a central clover-shaped tower and sturdy walls overlooking the waterfront. The outer sea wall has been lost beneath the modern coast highway of Yalı Cd or "Wharf St", but this spared the old village centre along Çarşı Cd, "Market Street". Adult 20 TL. (updated Dec 2020)
• Tomb of Kaşıklı Dede is a cultural oddity, 50 m north of Kilitbahir ferry pier on the busy main highway (no parking here). This gentleman was a supplier and caterer to the workforce building the castle. A legend grew up that spoons placed on his grave acquired healing properties, for instance by spoon-feeding children with disabilities. So there's now a mawkish custom of laying spoons here to take the unfortunate child.
• Fort Namazgah is 300 m south of the castle on the main highway; ample parking. It's a bastion and artillery position built in 1885 and taking its name from the troops' praying area (namazgah) on the highway. The open area is free to stroll around, the small museum within (2 TL) may be open.
• Mecidiye bastion another 200 m down the highway was built a few years after Namazgah and was a similar artillery position. It was bombarded in March 1915 as the British Royal Navy tried to knock out the guns guarding the straits: the bastion's big gun wasn't hit but the crane that moved the massive shells to the gun was damaged, and many gunners were injured. The legendary Corporal Seyit single-handedly hefted three 275 kg shells to load the gun. Two of those shots did no harm, but the third damaged HMS Ocean, which drifted, hit a mine and sank. The naval assault failed, and the Gallipoli landings were planned instead. Seyit became a hero; asked later to pose holding a shell, he couldn't budge it, but declared "If war breaks out again, I'll lift it again." So they gave him a wooden dummy shell for the sake of the photo.
• 🌍 Soğanlıdere was a Turkish army encampment that is now a cemetery and memorial to their losses in that war. You find it as the coast road south turns into the hills, with Şahindere a similar site 3 km further on.

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ...

- postwar speech by Kemal Atatürk

• 🌍 Cape Helles on 25 April 1915 was the landing point of British and French troops. Their aim was to knock out the shore guns around Kilitbahir that prevented the Allied navies from entering the Dardanelles. The simultaneous attack at Anzac Cove was to prevent Turkish reinforcements moving down the peninsula, while other attacks that day were feints or diversions. The Helles landings were bungled: at two beaches the troops were slaughtered by light defences, while relatively unscathed troops on other beaches stood still, awaiting orders and neither assisting the stricken beaches or capturing the heights. Belatedly there was an advance inland towards Krithia, but it became trapped under heavy fire and stalled. Over the following weeks further costly attacks were made on Krithia but all were fought off, and the Allies never advanced up the peninsula or silenced the Dardanelles guns. Within 1 km of the landing cove are several cemeteries of both sides, 2 or 3 small museums, and the imposing Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial (Çanakkale Şehitler Abidesi).
• 🌍 Alçıtepe is the former Krithia, which had been Greek until 1914 when the Turks forced the villagers out. After the war it was re-settled with Turks ousted from Romania. There are several Turkish war cemeteries and monuments and a couple of small museums.
• There are some 50 Turkish cemeteries on the peninsula including these, but most are on the Asia side towards Çanakkale. Others lie in Edirnekapı cemetery in Istanbul. Turkish commemorations are on 18 March, when the naval attack was repulsed.
• 🌍 Kum Beach: no memorials, no cemeteries, just a beach for relaxing and a resort hotel, see Sleep. Yet this was the scene of the most successful landing on 25 April 1915 - by the French. They established a beachhead with their force largely intact and the Turks surrendered. So, job done, the French re-embarked and sailed away. But Kum was only a diversion from the main landings; the Turks realised this and didn't commit much to the defence. They also weren't fooled by a feint elsewhere on the coast, where there was a show of loading troops into landing boats, before retrieving them and moving on.
• 🌍 Anzac Cove (Anzak Koyu) was the scene of landings by Australian and New Zealand troops on 25 April 1915. They came in three waves, with great loss of life, and by the end of that day had a beachhead. But they were never able to advance and consolidate positions in the hills around, so the beachhead remained under fire. This came from Turkish mobile defences, shore batteries at Kabatepe, and Turkish warships in the straits firing right over the peninsula. It became a stalemate, in a campaign that for the Allies depended on speed. The Anzacs remained stuck there for 8 months: in August the British landed at Suvla Bay 10 km north, but the two forces were unable to fight their way towards each other. It's estimated that 754 Australian, 147 New Zealand and perhaps 2000 Turkish soldiers were killed on the first day, for each a small percentage of the toll during the campaign here, which lasted until evacuation in December. The hills within 1 km are dotted with memorials and cemeteries. The landings (known in Turkish as the Arıburnu Battle) are commemorated at dawn on 25 April at a site near the south end of the cove, just inland from the original memorial site and access road which have suffered coastal erosion.

• 🌍 Pine Ridge or Lone Pine was a plateau within the Anzac Cove beachhead. On 6-9 Aug 1915 Anzac (principally Australian) forces launched a major attack here, which was primarily a diversion to draw the Turks away from Suvla Bay where the British were creating a new beachhead to the north. The 1981 film Gallipoli climaxes with this assault, which advanced the Anzac front by about 150 m for great loss of life. Both sides then dug in and it remained stalemate for the rest of the campaign. Pine Ridge is now the main cemetery and commemoration site for Australians killed in the campaign.
• 🌍 Chunuk Bair (Conk Bayırı) is a ridge on the heights north of Anzac Cove, which those troops captured on 7-8 Aug 1915. It was a rare success, a chance to break out of the Cove beachhead and to link with the new British beachhead at Suvla Bay. But what would have succeeded as a swift attack, when the position was barely defended, was fatally delayed and gave time for Turkish reinforcements to pour in. The Anzacs thus suffered huge losses, while Mustafa Kemal switched defending troops from Suvla Bay (where he'd got the British pinned down) and recaptured the hill from a spent Anzac force. There's now a CWGC cemetery in the area dubbed "The Farm", a memorial to the Anzac dead, and a statue of Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's first President.
• 🌍 Suvla Bay is on the west coast: in 2020 the access lane is in bad shape. The beach is stony; you can swim or scuba-dive but beware strong currents. Just inland is a salt lake helpfully called Tuz Gölü meaning "salt lake" (which, this being Turkey, doesn't much narrow it down). In Aug 1915 Suvla Bay was the scene of a major British assault: Anzac troops had a bridgehead at the cove 10 km south but were bottled up. Seizing the hills here, especially "Hill 10", would enable them to break out, would block the advance of Turkish reinforcements and revive the entire campaign. But the seaborne approach, landings, shore fighting and advance into the hills were all bungled beyond belief, and a light Turkish defence was able to hold back a vastly superior attack. After a couple of days Turkish reinforcements arrived, led by Mustafa Kemal: he soon had the British so badly pinned down that he was able to switch his attack to Chunuk Bair. This debacle spelled the failure of the entire Gallipoli campaign and the Allies never again went on the attack. The British endured their bad position until December, with many soldiers dying of cold, then were evacuated, as were the Anzac and Helles beachheads. A monument on the promontory north commemorates the Turks' successful defence, and Hill 10 north side of the salt lake is a CWGC Cemetery.