Çimpe Castle, known as Cinbi in Ottoman Turkish and Tzympē in Greek, was a medieval fortress situated on the Gallipoli peninsula in present-day Turkey. Positioned along the Istanbul Caddesi between Bolayir and Gallipoli, it held a strategic location, commanding the narrowest point on the peninsula.

Erected by the Byzantines as Tzympe, Çimpe Castle was traditionally believed to have been conquered in a moonlight assault by Suleyman Pasha and 39 of his selected guards in 1356. However, contemporary scholarship suggests that the fortress was actually ceded to the Ottoman Turks by the Byzantine emperor John Kantakouzenos around 1352, as part of his military strategy against his former charge and co-emperor John Palaiologos. A significant earthquake in 1354 facilitated Suleyman’s forces’ transition from Çimpe to the more strategically vital stronghold of Kallipolis (modern-day Gallipoli), which they promptly reconstructed and fortified.^[2][3][2]

While the medieval castle itself has not endured, its strategic location retained significance. The very same narrow passage it once controlled, known as the “Lines of Bulair,” saw fortifications erected by the French and English forces during the Crimean War, by the Turkish X Corps in the First Balkan War, and by the Turkish 5th Army during the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I.^[4]