Gallipoli Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; ; , "Chersónisos tis Kallípolis") is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name "Καλλίπολις" ("Kallípolis"), meaning "Beautiful City", the original name of the modern town of Gelibolu. In antiquity, the peninsula was known as the Thracian Chersonese (, "Thrakiké Chersónesos"; ). The peninsula runs in a south-westerly direction into the Aegean Sea, between the Dardanelles (formally known as the Hellespont), and the Gulf of Saros (formally
Gallipoli the town of Gallipoli was besieged and captured by the Ottomans, making Gallipoli the first Ottoman stronghold in Europe, and the staging area for their expansion across the Balkans. It was recaptured for Byzantium by the Savoyard Crusade in 1366, but the beleaguered Byzantines were forced to hand it back in September 1376. The Greeks living there were allowed to continue their everyday life. In the 19th century, Gallipoli () was a district (kaymakamlik) in the Vilayet of Adrianople, with about thirty thousand inhabitants: comprising Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Jews. Gallipoli became a major encampment for British and French forces