Belkahve is a mountain pass in
İzmir Province
İzmir Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey in western Anatolia, situated along the Aegean coast. Its capital is the city of İzmir, which is in itself composed of the province's central 11 districts out of 30 in to ...
,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
.
Belkahve is situated east of
İzmir
İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...
on the highway connecting İzmir to hinterland. Its coordinates are and the maximum elevation is . As the average elevation of Turkey is over , Belkahve is considered a low-altitude pass. It is the first point on the way from
Central Anatolia to İzmir to watch İzmir and the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...
. During the
Turkish War of Independence
, strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...
, after three years of occupation, the nationalists, including
Atatürk, watched İzmir from this point on 8–9 September 1922.
An essay about the event
A monument has been erected to commemorate the incident.
References
{{Mountain passes of Turkey
Mountain passes of Turkey
Landforms of İzmir Province
Aegean region