Friday, June 1, 2012

Gallipoli 3--Monuments and Trenches

The high point of the peninsula, where you can look to either the Aegean Sea or the Dardanelles, was once heavily fortified, and is now crowded with monuments, pilgrims, tourists and stray dogs.  The crest is dominated by the stone monument to the New Zealand troops,


and a statue of Ataturk himself, with a quote from his journal describing the touch of grace, when he was saved from a piece of shrapnel, which would have altered all Turkish history...

They've kept some trenches in place, to give a feel for the place, though the busloads of kids keep it from being as solemn as it is perhaps supposed to be.


It must have been a place often shelled, but also a place where there would have been a quiet and tense boredom, when Turks in these hillside trenches would have seen the beaches and the isle of Lemnos, and daydreamed of picnics and boat trips...



Busy, now.  Buses, paved paths.  Some wildflowers/weeds, which we will see again in Greece, and have seen along Mediterranean coasts.



more, bob








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