Çanakkale is a city in northwestern Turkey in the Marmara region, on the Dardanelles Strait. It’s a gateway to the Gallipoli WWI battlefields, north of the narrow strait. On the grounds of the 15th-century Çimenlik Castle, Çanakkale Naval Museum Command contains historical artillery. The archaeological site at Troy immortalised by Homer in his epic poem the Iliad., including an ancient theatre is southwest of the city.

If you thought Çanakkale was worth visiting only as a launching point for Gallipoli’s battlefields, think again. The presence of the highly regarded Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University endows this small city with a sizeable student population that loves nothing more to eat, drink and party in the atmospheric cobbled lanes around the saat kulesi (clock tower; 1897) and along the sweeping kordon (waterfront promenade). Joining their revelries is a highlight of any visit.

The undisputed hub of the region, Çanakkale is replete with mythological associations. It was from the ancient town of Abydos immediately north that Leander swam across the Hellespont every night to see his love, Hero; and it was in the Dardanelles that Helle, the daughter of Athamas, was drowned in the legend of the Golden Fleece, giving the waterway its ancient name.