Çanakkale is a city and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 186,116 (2014 estimate).
Çanakkale is the finishing point every year for an organised swim across the Dardanelles from Eceabat. This event emulates the swim in 1810 by Lord Byron, who was himself emulating the legendary swim by Leander in the story of Hero and Leander.
The city is the nearest major town to the site of ancient Troy. The wooden horse from the 2004 movie Troy is exhibited on the seafront.
Çanakkale is the name for a site earlier known as Kale-I-Sultaniye, which was adopted as the official term for the town in 1890, though current a century earlier.
Çanakkale was an Ottoman fortress called Kale-i Sultaniye. From the late 17th century it also became known for its fine-glazed pottery, Çanakkale ceramics, compared by one traveler to Delftware hence the later name Çanak kalesi 'pot fortress'. The Greek Byzantine name for Çanakkale is Dardanellia, from which the English name Dardanelles is derived.
From around 1920, the British began to use Çanakkale Chanak and Kale Sultanie in their reporting.