DARDANELLES, (hie& -nidz' (named after the Greek city Da•danus, on the eastern side; the ancient Hellespont). A narrow elm 11m4 sepa rating southeast Europe from southwest Asia, and uniting the Sea of Marmara with the .Eguan Sea (Map: Turkey in Europe. F 4). It extends from northeast to southwest. between latitudes 40° and 40' 30' N., and longitudes 26° 10' and 26° 40' E., having, a length of about 42.3 miles and a breadth varying from to 4 miles. The average depth of the channel is 150 feet. From the Sea of a strung eurreal run through the strait to the Grecian Archipelago, tNeept in the presence of a strong southwest wind, lot there is an undercurrent in the op posite reel i CM.
The European shores are steep and sterile, while the Asiatic shores are sloping and fertile. To prevent an attack on Constantinople by water from the _Egean, the Dardanelles is strongly fortified on both sides with many guns of large calibre. A treaty concluded between the five great Powers and Turkey in t841 arranged that no ship of war belonging to any nation save Turkey should pass the Dardanelles without the express consent of Turkey, and all merchant ships were required to show their papers to the Ottoman authorities. These provisions were con
firmed at London in 1871 and at Berlin in 1878, but in 1891, by an agreement with the Porte, Russia secured for her `volunteer fleet' the right of passage through the Dardanelles. The Darda nelles is celebrated in ancient history on account of Xerxes and Alexander having crossed it, the former in B.C. 480, to enter Europe, and the latter in D.C. 334 to enter Asia. The point at. which Xerxes crossed was in the neighborhood of Abydos, on the Asiatic shore, opposite to Sestos, where the strait is 6500 feet wide. Alex ander crossed at nearly the same place; and here also, in the ancient legend, young Leander nightly swam across to visit Hero—a feat per formed in modern times by Lord Byron.