DARDANELLES, the ancient Hellespont, and in Turkish Bahr-Sefed Boghasi, the strait uniting the Sea of Marmora with the Aegean, so called from the two castles by which the narrowest part is protected, and which preserve the name of the city of Dardanus in the Troad, famous for the treaty between Sulla and Mithridates in 84 b.c. Its shores are formed by the peninsula of Gallipoli on the N.W. and by the mainland of Asia Minor on the S.E.; and it extends for a distance of about 47 miles with an average breadth of 3 or 4 miles. At the Aegean extremity stand the castles of Sedil Bahr and Kum Kaleh, the former in Europe and the latter in Asia; and near the Marmora extremity are situated the important town of Gallipoli (Kallipolis) on the northern side, and the less important though equally famous Lamsaki, or Lampsacus, on the southern. The two castles of the Dardanelles par excellence are Chanak-Kalesi, Sultanieh-Kalesi, or the Old Castle of Anatolia, and Kilid-Bahr, or the Old Castle of Rumelia, which were long but erroneously identified with Sestos and Abydos, now located farther to the north. The strait of the Dardanelles is famous in history for the passage of Xerxes by means of a bridge of boats, and for the similar exploit on the part of Alexander. Nor is its name less widely known from the story of Hero and Leander, and from Lord Byron’s successful attempt to rival the ancient swimmer. The passage of the strait is easily defended, but in 1807 the English Admiral Duckworth made his way past all the fortresses into the Sea of Marmora. In terms of the treaty of July 1841, confirmed by the Paris peace of 1856, no foreign ship of war may enter the strait except by Turkish permission, and even merchant vessels are only allowed to pass the castle of Chanak-Kalesi during the ...