Dardanelles

For other uses, see Dardanelles (disambiguation). "Hellespont" redirects here. For the ancient town, see Hellespontine Phrygia. For the Roman province, see Hellespontus (province).

Dardanelles
Strait of Gallipoli
Çanakkale Boğazı (Turkish)
Close-up topographic map of the Dardanelles
Dardanelles is located in Turkey
Dardanelles
Dardanelles
Dardanelles is located in Europe
Dardanelles
Dardanelles
Coordinates40°12′N 26°24′E / 40.2°N 26.4°E / 40.2; 26.4
TypeStrait
Part ofTurkish Straits
Basin countriesTurkey
Max. length61 km (38 mi)
Min. width1.2 km (0.75 mi)
Map showing the location of the Dardanelles (yellow), relative to the Bosporus (red), the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean Sea, and the Black Sea.
View of the Dardanelles taken from the Landsat 7 satellite in September 2006. The body of water on the left is the Aegean Sea, while the one on the upper right is the Sea of Marmara. The Dardanelles is the tapered waterway running diagonally between the two seas, from the northeast to the southwest. The long, narrow upper peninsula on the northern shores of the strait is Gallipoli (Turkish: Gelibolu), and constitutes the banks of the continent of Europe, while the lower peninsula is Troad (Turkish: Biga) and constitutes the banks of the continent of Asia. The city of Çanakkale is visible along the shores of the lower peninsula, centered at the only point where a sharp outcropping juts into the otherwise-linear Dardanelles.

The Dardanelles (/ˌdɑːrdəˈnɛlz/ DAR-də-NELZ; Turkish: Çanakkale Boğazı, lit. 'Strait of Çanakkale'; Greek: Δαρδανέλλια, romanized: Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (/ˈhɛlɪspɒnt/ HEL-isp-ont; Classical Greek: Ἑλλήσποντος, romanized: Hellḗspontos, lit. 'Sea of Helle'), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey that forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. Together with the Bosporus, the Dardanelles forms the Turkish Straits.

One of the world's narrowest straits used for international navigation, the Dardanelles connects the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean and Mediterranean seas while also allowing passage to the Black Sea by extension via the Bosporus. The Dardanelles is 61 kilometres (38 mi) long and 1.2 to 6 kilometres (0.75 to 3.73 mi) wide. It has an average depth of 55 metres (180 ft) with a maximum depth of 103 metres (338 ft) at its narrowest point abreast the city of Çanakkale. The first fixed crossing across the Dardanelles opened in 2022 with the completion of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge.

Most of the northern shores of the strait along the Gallipoli peninsula (Turkish: Gelibolu) are sparsely settled, while the southern shores along the Troad peninsula (Turkish: Biga) are inhabited by the city of Çanakkale's urban population of 110,000.