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Highlights
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Visit the legendary city immortalized
by Homer's Illiad and later excavated
by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
Then, journey from the ancient battlefield
where Ajax, Hector and Achilles fell
to Gallipoli, the WWI battlefield
near the Dardenelles where allied
forces in the world's first amphibious
landing were repulsed in a bloody
battle by Ottoman troops under the
command of Kemal Ataturk.
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Itinerary: |
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> Private Tour |
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Our tour starts with an early departure for Çanakkale, scene of the epic First World War amphibious landing. After touring Çanakkale, we cross the Hellespont to the battlefields of the Gallipoli peninsula, the crucible where the national consciousnesses of Australia and New Zealand were forged in steel and blood. Planned by Winston Churchill, the Gallipoli invasion was the first modern amphibious landing, and one of Turkey’s greatest military victories of modern times, but it was won at the cost of enormous losses on both sides, particularly among the heroic ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops. They landed at what is known as Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915, and fought there eight months in a courageous but doomed struggle. Over 300,000 men from all sides were killed or wounded in the battle’s eight furious months, making it one of the bloodiest campaigns in history. In the words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkish commander at the battle and founder of the modern Republic, “There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side in this country of ours... Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
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