LAND AND W.ATER, 
September 11, 1915. 
THE DARDANELLES IN HISTORY. 
By Andrew Wishart. 
THE old crest of Achi Baba, the last mountain top 
at the south end of the Chersonese or Thracian 
Peninsula, that now surveys the movements 
of the modern Dreadnought and has glimpses 
of the furtive and elusive submarine, has often 
In remote limes witnessed the ponderous clash of the 
many-banked triremes. When Greece, in the exuber- 
luice of her vigour, threw out emigrants to settle on 
foreign shores, her colonists founded City-States after 
the model of Athens. 
Beginning where Turkish territory now begins on 
the coast of ancient Thrace, we may trace on the shore 
the spots where the modern overlies the ancient. The 
Waritza, which now divides Bulgaria from modern 
Turkey, is the ancient Hebrus, the Thracian river, on 
which Orpheus was torn to pieces by the Bacchants who 
threw his head into the stream. At its mouth is the 
town Hnos — the port of Adrianople. Coasting the 
land, right shoulder to the sea (as we shall do all along), 
:we pass the mouth of the River Melas (now the Saldattl 
or Sclieher-Su), which of old gave its name to the bay 
(^Ielas Kolpos — Black Gulf), now called the Gulf of 
Saros. Of Lysimachia, once splendid and prosperous, 
called later Hexamilium (now Ecsemil), the ruins may bo 
traced at Bulair (Playari) just midway in the narrow 
neck or isthmus, of which the west shore is now called 
lYenikH Bay. But on all that west coast of the long 
southward-jutting promontory we find no place of note 
In classic story. The lack of notable towns on this coast 
is probably due to its being steep to the sea and rocky 
except at a few spots. 
Old Mastusia. 
Tiie southern extremity, the old Mastusia, is now 
called rielles Burnu or Cape Helles (formerly also Capo 
Greco), and just east of it lies the fortress now Sedd-el- 
Bahr, marked in the Admiralty map of 1844 " 63 guns." 
Beside it is the beach of Morto Bay, where the British 
troops landed. In the name Morto we may perhaps 
tecognise a bit of the old name for the adjacent harbour 
Panormus. A little further east lay the town of Elaeus, 
famous for its temple to the hero Protesilaus, but also 
noted in naval story. In 41 1 B.C. an Athenian squadron 
escaped from Sestos and found refuge in Elaeus, and 
six years later when the battle of Aegos-Potamos 
finished the Peloponnesian War, 180 Athenian triremes 
arrived here only in time to hear that Lysander was 
master of Lampsacus. Here, too, Constantine's fleet 
was moored in the Second Civil War, 323 a.d., while 
the fleet of Licinius, one of the Roman Emperors — 
there were four at that time— was anchored nearly 
opposite ofj the tomb of Ajax (In Tepe) in the Troad. 
Turning north-east now and entering the Helles- 
pont (the Dardanelles), the strait that separates Europe 
from Asia, we come to the Narrows at the point Kilid- 
Bahr. Here it was that Mahomet IV., in 1659, built one 
of the two famous castles (the other at Channak opposite) 
which got the name Dardanelles. About three miles 
round this head lies Maidos (strongly fortified to- 
day), believed to represent the ancient Madytus 
As far again brings us to Sestos, to which Leander 
swam from Abydos on the Asian side, a feat repeated by 
Lord Byron, whose own statement is : " The whole dis- 
tance from the place whence we started to our landing on 
the other side, including the length we were carried by 
the current, was computed by those on board the frigate 
W upwards of four English miles, though the actual 
breadth ,s barely one." Next comes Aegos Potamos (the 
ff i T"l' .'^''*:'* Lysander, the Spartan leader, de- 
feated the Athenians in a naval battle, 405 b.c, only 
three out of lao Athenian ships escaping. Just where 
S?UH P ''"'•^" °"/ '"^° ^^^ ^^^ °f Marmara (of old 
called Propontis as being the ante-chamber to Pontus 
Euxinus, the Black Sea) lies Gallipoli (Kallipolis), an 
important trading town that now gives its name to the 
whole peninsula. 
The Third Crusade. 
Here the armies of the third Crusade, in 1190, em- 
barked for Asia Minor under Frederick (Barbarossa), 
the first of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, who, after making 
himself practically master of Germany and Italy, in this 
last enterprise perished in a small stream in Cilicia. 
Returning by the Asian coast southwards the first 
place of note we find is Lampsacus in Mysia, nearly 
opposite to Gallipoli. .As a Greek settlement it knew all 
the vicissitudes of fortune; fell into the hands of the 
Persians at one time, then joined Athens, later revolted 
from her, then had to fight against the attacks of 
Antiochus of Syria, and latterly was in alliance with the 
Romans. The modern Lamsaki or Lapsaki has no 
remains of antiquity, but probably stands very near tlie 
site of the ancient Lampsacus. 
Nearly twenty miles farther down stood Abydos, 
Eerhaps now the modern village of Aidos or Avido. 
fere the strait narrows, and here Xerxes placed his 
bridge— or, rather, bridges — of boats to transport his 
troops across to Sestos, B.C. 480. If the breadth of water 
here be taken at a mile, then 360 vessels at an average of 
14 feet would span the space. The second boat-bridge 
lower down is said to have employed 314 ships. Abydos 
was burnt by Darius, and afterwards taken by the 
Persians and again by Philip of Macedon. 
Tomb of Ajax. 
The promontory now called Nagara Burnu at tiie 
north end of the Narrows on this side seems to have had 
no name recorded in classic times, but about four miles 
south of it is the site of one of the Dardanelles castles. 
The place is now fortified, and known as Channak- 
Kalessi. Of it, and of Kilid-Bahr opposite, we are sure 
to hear much in the immediate future. The location of 
the classic Dardanis or Dardanium is more to the south 
near the Cape Kephez-Burnu (Point Berber). 
About twelve miles farther south than Kephez in a 
direct line, though more if the curve of the bay be 
followed, we come to the jutting points formerly called 
Rhoeteum, now In-Tepe. Tepe is a common name in 
the country for a mound and is supposed to be a cor- 
rupted form of the Greek word taphos, a sepulchre. In- 
Tepe marks the tomb of Ajax. Between In-Tepe and 
the modern Kum-Kaleh is the most famous bit of shore 
in the world. Here the Greek fleet lay during the siege 
of Troy — ancient Ilium — of which the site is now gener- 
ally identified with the modern Hissarlik lying about 
three miles inland between the Scamander and the 
Simois, two rivers world-famous but now disguised 
under their modern names, the Menderez and Dombrck- 
Su. The former is but an adaptation of the ancient 
appellation. This stream is also called the ri\er of 
Bunarbaschi, from the name of the town higher up its 
course. Excavations made at Hissarlik between i8;o 
and 1894 disclosed traces of elaborate stonework and 
yielded a mass of treasure, and have brought scholars to 
reckon the Homeric ballads almost as historical records 
rather than legends. 
The headland Kum-Kaleh at the very entrance to 
the Straits and pointing north is marked in the 1844 f"ap 
as a fort of 64 guns. Outside and facing the open sea 
about one and a half miles below Kum-Kaleh lies Yeni- 
Sheher, a town on a point of the same name which is 
held to be the ancient Sigeum. A mound on this 
promontory was venerated as containing the body of 
Achilles. A town grew up round it called Achille'um. 
Alexander the Great, Julius Ca-sar, and Germanicus all 
visited this tomb. The mound is still visible. 
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