Çanakkale City Museum

Cute museum in a small town. Imagine the folks of your town cleaned out their attics, gathered everything in one spot and then some curator did some hard culling. Presto, a city museum!

Entrance, right at home in the old part of Çanakkale.

On the ground floor, lots of history in words and pictures and some shelves holding precious typewriters, records and a sewing machine.

Upstairs, cases filled with heirlooms, loosely grouped by theme. "Dad, everything looks so old and dirty!"

Ancient and modern. Literally, painting your wagon. Signs of a cush life, telephone A/V hobby equipment.

WWII era atlas, the Nazi regime makes the cut. And the Soviets. The British empire gets to be pink, how posh.

Çanakkale Naval Museum

The famous battles at Gallipoli started out as a naval invasion. Time for a museum dedicated to all things in and on the sea.

Nice digs. The museum is mostly located in an ancient stone fort complex.

Torpedos on the lawn So annoying when boys don't put away their toys. Bad news for the Germans, the remnants of their submarine, UB 46.

The British are coming! And they're so small, at least in this model.

Trench life, with dramatic lighting for effect. Eating becomes a heightened activity.

Frieze full of action. Bad news for the French battleship, Bouvet.

Getting In The Trench At The Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital Museum, Part Two

More of life (and death) in a typical WWI trench.

Turkish soldiers, lining up and getting ready to go up a ladder and over the breach.

High emotion. Throwing grenades, ducking returning fire. Tit for tat.

Death in the trench.

Down time. Having a meal, hanging with a holy Imam.

Rest and recovery, still in the trench.

Getting In The Trench At The Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital Museum, Part One

Besides being a nice museum dedicated to medical treatment during the Gallipoli campaign of WWI, the Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital Museum also has a realistic example of a military trench one can explore. Time to climb in.

Preamble. Red Crescent tents situated behind the trench front.

Officers with their map, playing God. Before heading in, grab a rifle from the munitions store. "No credit!"

The fork in the trench.

Trench strategy in action, a wooden periscope box, good for getting a peek without getting one's head shot.

View of the enemy trench. So close, no way to move forward.

Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial

Bigger is better. The main monument to Turks who participated in the Gallipoli campaign during WWI is the Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial. It's near Morto Bay at the Southern end of the peninsula. Can't miss it.

The memorial opened in 1960 and it's 137 feet high, 82 feet wide.

Also at the site, an inscription with part of the Turkish National Anthem and a statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, officer and first Turkish president. Nice resume.

The Turkish flag is "hidden" underneath the monument.

There's a long frieze behind the Ataturk statue with dramatic scenes of the Gallipoli battles. Nice nurse and everyone's favorite artillery shell carrier, Corporal Seyit.

A small cemetery is nearby, filled with red translucent head stones.

Çanakkale Kilitbahir Castle Museum

Time to get medieval. There's a cool castle in the small town of Kilitbahir in Turkey and it has been restored and turned into a museum dedicated to what life was like when the castle was new. Oh, a few years ago. Like 1465.

Classic style, big stones and big, round towers. Fortified.

Restoration is still happening. Digging up the past. Drawing up the world. Famous Turkish sailor, Piri Reis.

View of the interior, swords and daggers on display.

Wise man, big stone, bright colors. It's all going on. Breaking bread with a big jug of you-know-what. A rager.

"You want some corn? First we weigh it out and then we hug it out." 

Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital Museum, Part Two

Beyond the immediate pain of triage, surgery, and emergency-related activities, the Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital had plenty of rehab and recovery to oversee. So say the dioramas.

Spoon feeding nurse.

Religious recovery. Being read to at bedside and daily prayer time.

Help with walking.

Mother with new leg. Doctor Paperwork.

In the pharmacy lab, mixing up the medicine.

Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital Museum, Part One

The Çanakkale Martyrdom Hospital Museum at Gallipoli is an amazing place. The museum is housed in a former hospital in Alçıtepe and it is room after room, detailed diorama after diorama of the work and conditions at the facility. Relive the pain!

When in need, pitch a big, green tent in front of the permanent hospital building.

Outside, a nurse performs triage. Inside the tent, the patients are packed in.

Concerned family members arrive.

"That hurts!" Bandaging a hand and wrapping a head. Bloody work.

More quick surgery with a sad nurse keeping busy, washing dressings.