ula forms the European side to the Straits of the Dardanelles
and is about 53 miles in length. On the north-western side it is washed
by the waters of the Gulf of Xeros and on the western side by the Aegean
Sea. Near its northern end, at Bulair, it is only two and a half miles
across. At Suvla Burnu[G] it broadens out to about 12 miles, but narrows
again between Gaba Tepe[H] and Maidos to a bare four miles. Gaba Tepe is
about eight miles south of Suvla Burnu and Helles Burnu--the southern
end of the Peninsula--13 miles further. Cliffs of marl or sand, rising
very abruptly and varying in height from 100 to 300 feet, mark the
greater length of the shore. These are broken here and there by the
gullies which bring away from the interior the waters of the heavy
autumn and winter rains. From Gaba Tepe northwards to Suvla Bay there is
an almost uninterrupted stretch of beach from which, opposite the latter
feature, a somewhat marshy plain runs back to the foothills of Tekke
Tepe.

Groups of hills are marked features of the interior, the most prominent
being known as Sari Bair[I] which rises to a height of 971 feet at Koja
Chemin Tepe and is the one most familiar to the Australians. These hills
possess very steep--even precipitous--slopes which are much excoriated
by wind, rain, and frost, and broken into an amazing tangle of gullies
and hollows. Firs and stunted oaks, brushwood, oleanders or
rhododendrons, and other shrubs are thick wherever they can hold, and
form no inconsiderable obstacle--two to four feet high--to anyone's
passage.

Before the war a very small part of the land was under cultivation. A
few miniature olive and currant orchards, attempts at vineyards, and
trifling patches of beans and grain, represented the sole efforts at
tillage. There were no railways, and the few roads in existence were in
poor condition. In or near what afterwards became the British zone, the
only communities were those grouped around the fortifications near
Helles and the villages of Krithia, Kurija Dere, Biyuk Anafarta, and
Anafarta Sagir. On the side nearer Asia, Maidos, Galata, and Gallipoli
boasted the status of towns. Between these last-named points and into
the Sea of Marmara the communication and trade were mostly carried on by
means of boats.

[Illustration: SHOWING ALLIED LINES AT THE TIME OF THE EVACUATION.
_Map by Australian War Museum._]

The Gallipoli Peninsula formed part of Thrace of the ancients. Through
it Xerxes,