Location
Approximately 3 hours drive from Istanbul, the Gulf of Saros is located at the northern side of the narrow neck that connects the Gallipoli peninsula to Thrace. This northernmost end of the Aegean Sea is known to contain some one of the world’s cleanest waters. Approaching this small bay by land, the visitor will pass through a pastoral landscape of many sweeping hills, meadows and farmlands in hues of yellows and greens, with an unobstructed view of the sea.
The internationally revered “Gallipoli National Heritage Site” lies to the southwest, in close proximity to Saros Farm. Unique among all world heritage sites, this serene landscape of 33,000 hectares between the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles Strait is a quasi-sacred terrain where in 1915, the Ottoman Empire and its German allies confronted the Allied forces led by the British Empire during the First World War. Dotted with beautifully-maintained cemeteries, monuments and commemorative sites honoring some 300,000 war dead from both sides, two museums, a visitors’ center and an open-air museum of war trenches, this National Park attracts thousands of visitors to the peninsula. Every year, some 10,000 Australians and New Zealanders make a national pilgrimage on April 25 to attend the profoundly moving Dawn Ceremonies commemorating their troops’ disastrous landing nearly a century ago at Anzac Cove some 50 km south of Saros. A day trip from Saros Farm to Gallipoli offers a rich historical, cultural and aesthetic experience that students can take advantage of.