Thousands of people had gathered in the darkness in what has become an annual pilgrimage to pay tribute to the Anzac troops who fought and died on this rugged peninsula in western Turkey.
In a sombre atmosphere, the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand inaugurated a memorial site. "Gallipoli was the battle which broke our hearts" said New Zealand's prime minister, Helen Clark.
It was on the beaches around this bay, just before dawn on April 25 1915, that the first allied troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. They made initial progress but soon met with ferocious resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders on the clifftops above.
Fighting was grim. Trenches were only yards apart, and combat was often hand to hand. Allied leaders were determined to take Gallipoli to break the defences of Istanbul, but it was not to be. The Gallipoli campaign was a devastating, if heroic, failure. Eight months after the first landings the allies retreated. Tens of thousands of people had lost their lives on both sides.
The majority of casualties were Turkish. There were also thousands of deaths among British and French forces. They were all remembered in yesterday's ceremony, but it is the spirit of the Anzacs which has taken on almost mythical status, that endures. For most Australians, Anzac day is a more important national holiday than Australia Day.
Australia's prime minister, John Howard, promised that although members of the Gallipoli generation - "as wild and free as the land they loved" - are almost gone, they will never be forgotten.
"The shadows gather on a time and a world in which our nation's spirit was born", said Mr Howard. "Soon the story of Anzac, which forever joined the people of Australia and New Zealand, will pass gently from memory into history."
The Turkish authorities are helping to keep that history alive. The peninsula has been declared a peace park, where military monuments and graveyards will be preserved side by side with the outstanding natural beauty of the rugged scrub-covered cliffs.
Among the Turkish commanders who rose to prominence defending the peninsula was Mustafa Kemal, who later took the name Ataturk as the first president of the modern Turkish republic.
Yesterday, his thoughts were quoted during a service of remembrance: "You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears ... after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
It was a sentiment which captured the mood of the thousands who listened to the Last Post yesterday.
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