Çanakkale: The City of Foundation Myths
On the north-western coast of Turkey lies the port of Çanakkale. Positioned at the narrowest point of the Dardanelles, Çanakkale has great strategic importance and, perhaps unsurprisingly, has played host to decisive battles and power struggles. Two of these conflicts in particular have taken on a unique pedestal in the popular imagination; climactic events that have come to define national and cultural identities. These are the Trojan War (the Bronze Age) and the Battle of Gallipoli (1915). Both became foundation myths of the ancient and modern world. By using the term 'myth' here, I do not mean 'fiction'; the reality of the First World War is not in dispute (unlike the Trojan War), but the moral and cultural force surrounding these conflicts has elevated these from mere historical events to foundational stories integral to societies' understandings of themselves. Troy Guarding the Çanakkale waterfront is a 46-foot-high wooden mock-up of the Trojan Horse from Wolfg