Belkahve is a mountain pass in İzmir Province

Izmir Province

İzmir Province is a province of Turkey in western Anatolia on the Aegean coast, whose capital is the city of İzmir. On the west it is surrounded by the Aegean sea, and it encloses the Gulf of İzmir. Its area is 11,973 km.2, population 3.948.848 . The population was 3,370,866 in 2000...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Belkahve is situated 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) east of İzmir

Izmir

Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

 on the highway connecting İzmir to hinterland. Its coordinates are 38°27′21"N 27°19′20"E and the maximum altitude is 268 metres (879.3 ft). As the average altitude of Turkey is over 1000 metres (3,280.8 ft), 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

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

. During the Turkish War of Independence

Turkish War of Independence

The Turkish War of Independence was a war of independence waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I...

, after three years of occupation, the nationalists, including Atatürk, watched İzmir from this point on 8-9 September 1922. A monument has been erected to commemorate the incident.