Namazgâh Battery Museum

The Namazgâh Battery gets its name either because its outline resembles a namazgâh, an open-air prayer place of Islamic architecture, or because soldiers prayed together here in wartime. Of its 26 bonnets, vaulted ammunition stores that served different purposes during the battles, the one in the centre now serves as the museum.

At the entrance, a 1:100 scale model of the fort welcomes you. Display cases hold pieces found during archaeological digs done for the restoration, along with historic photographs, drawings and war objects. Information panels cover what happened here on 18 March 1915 and afterwards. In the audiovisual room you can watch the documentary Reflections from the Depths about dives to the British and French ships that were sunk during the campaign.

A reenactment that visitors can start lets you experience a short section of the message traffic between the Namazgâh, Hamidiye and Mecidiye batteries during the fierce fighting on 18 March. On leaving, you meet models of the big Allied battleships lost. A ruined, glass-covered area shows a section damaged by a shell weighing hundreds of kilograms fired from a warship, and shows how much destruction shells fired from kilometres away could cause.