The weather was a little better this morning, though still not great, overcast with occassional showers. But we could not let the weather prevent us exploring the peninsula. From Eceabat we headed to the western shore which is where most of the sites of interest to Australians lie. First stop was a somewat run down information center which despite its need for some repairs effectively told the story on the background to and course of the Gallipoli campaign.

Second stop was a new very large and impressive museum or information center near the western shore. There were no vehicles in the parking lot so we were surprised when we got to the entrance door to find the place overrun by over 100 young Turkish soldiers. It seems that they were havng an organized outing to learn something of their military heritage. Inside we paid our entrance fee and descended to the lower 2 floors to examine a modest display of relics from the battles. Nothing very big or imposing simply small stuff, medals, buttons, eating utensils, old weapons etc. Nina and I were both a bit surprised - why would you build this enormous structure for such a modest display.

We we got our answer a bit later when we were ushered into a room to start our experience of the simulation. The room was one of those stand-up movie theaters and after a loud introduction the voice-over started to tell the story of the start of the campaign in Turkish - luckily we had those audio guide devices that gave the same story in English. Nina could not manage the loudness of the audio so departed so I got to experience the "simulation" by myself.

It was really quite amazing, for the next hour I was led through no less than 13 separate simulation theaters where I got to experience the Gallipoli campaign from the deck of Turkish mine laying ships, the deck of British battle ships, and from trenches beside Turkish soldiers. Some of the displays even required 3-D glasses.

Now we undersood why the bulding was so big - it had to encompass those 13 theaters.

The simulation and other displays also made it clear that the battles on the Gallipoli Peninsula are historically very important to Turkish population and that they have a somewhat different take on events than we Australians are taught.

We spent the remainder of the day visiting Anzac Cove, Suvla Bay, Lone Pine, and at the other end of the Peninsula the Turkish monument to the Çanakkale Martyrs, the Turkish soldiers that died in the battles.


After all the sightseeing we headed back to the east coast with a plan to spend the night in the same parking lot and tomorrow visit the old fort and artillery battery at the town of Kilitbahir, a little south of Eceabat. But - at Kilitbahir we were confronted by an old stone arch across the road with very convincing signs informaing us that it was only 3.8M tall in the middle and considerably lower on the edges. So we simply parked in front of the artillery battery for the night.