On the journey from Istanbul to the Dardanelles the Battlefield tour noticed this striking memorial on the slopes of the Kilitbahir Plateau. In English it translates to:
Stop passerby
The ground you tread on, unawares,
Once witnessed the end of a generation.
Listen in this quiet earth
Beats the heart of a nation.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:15 am
That reminds me very much of the Greek monument at Thermopylae from ancient times, which reads something like: “Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie”.
There’s something very poignant in the idea of a message to the heedless passer-by from the dead of battles past.