Qualla: Kapıdağ Peninsula

Kapıdağ Peninsula: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The ancient Greeks called it Arctonnesus — the Bear Island — and for most of recorded history, that name was accurate. It sat in the Sea of Marmara as a proper island, separated from the Anatolian mainland by a stretch of open water. Then something happened. Either a series of earthquakes shifted the sea floor and accumulated enough sediment to close the gap, or — as the legend insisted — Alexander the Great ordered the passage filled to carry his army across. Either way, what was once an island became a peninsula, and the isthmus that now ties it to the mainland is narrow enough that you can almost see how the two versions of the story coexist.

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Kapıdağ Peninsula: Bear Island, Bear Peninsula

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Arctonnesus — from the Greek *arktos* for bear and *nesos* for island — was a significant place in the ancient world primarily because of Cyzicus, the city built on it. Cyzicus was one of the major cities of the Propontis, the ancient name for the Sea of Marmara, and its influenc...

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Kapıdağ Peninsula: Cyzicus: A City That Fell Quiet

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For centuries, Cyzicus was the dominant city on the peninsula. Its position on the Propontis made it a key trading and military hub, and it minted coins that circulated widely across the Greek world. The city's end came not through conquest but through the earth itself: a series ...

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Kapıdağ Peninsula: Where the Sea Makes Two Bays

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The modern town of Erdek sits at the western foot of the peninsula, on the Gulf of Erdek, and is today known as a seaside resort. It also hosts a naval base of the Turkish Navy, a reminder that the peninsula's strategic position between two bodies of water did not lose its releva...

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