Tuz Gölü

This small salt lake sits on the Gallipoli Peninsula behind Suvla Bay, in what is now Çanakkale province, and became unexpectedly significant during the First World War. When British and allied troops came ashore at Suvla in early August 1915 as part of the wider Gallipoli campaign, the flat, often dry lakebed lay directly in the path of their advance toward the high ground around Anafarta and Conkbayırı. Low, difficult terrain east of the lake slowed the landing force's progress during the campaign's critical early days, and on 9 August a Ottoman counterattack led by Mustafa Kemal pushed the advancing troops back toward its shores. The failure to break out from Suvla contributed to the broader stalemate that led the Allies to evacuate the peninsula by the end of 1915. Today the lake lies within the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park, remembered less for its natural features than for the fighting that once swirled around its banks.