Seddülbahir & Alçıtepe

“Halt, traveler! This ground you tread unknowing / Is where an age went down.” These lines by Necmettin Halil Onan quietly greet every visitor who comes to the Gallipoli Peninsula. Further on in the poem, the poet asks the traveler to bend down and listen; for this silent mound is where the heart of a homeland beats… Come, at Seddülbahir, the very tip of the peninsula, let us too bend down and listen to what the waves, the wind and the soil are saying…