MAIDEN’S TOWER

Description

Essentials about the Maiden’s Tower in brief

The Maiden’s Tower is one of the landmarks of Istanbul. The 18th century lighthouse is located barely 200 meters from the Asian shore in the Bosphorus and can therefore be seen from afar. A visit to the Maiden’s Tower is a unique experience. Boats from both the European and Asian sides bring visitors to the tower, which offers an unparalleled panoramic view of the Bosphorus and both sides of Istanbul.

The legends of the name of the Maiden’s Tower

The name “Maiden’s Tower” goes back to an ancient story that is said to have taken place not in the Bosporus, but in the Dardanelles, not far away. According to tradition, Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, lived in a tower on the edge of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Leander, a young man from Abydos on the other side of the strait, fell in love with her and swam across the Hellespont every night to be with her. To show him the way, Hero lit a lamp on the spire of her tower every night. One stormy winter night, however, Hero’s torch went out, whereupon Leander lost his bearings and drowned in the floodwaters. When Hero found her dead lover on the shore, she also threw herself into the water in her grief and shared Leander’s fate.

The Turkish name of the tower, Kiz Kulesi, and the English name Maiden’s Tower are derived from a more recent legend. According to this legend, a ruler once had a beloved daughter. One day an oracle prophesied her death by snakebite on her 18th birthday. To prevent this, the ruler built a tower in the middle of the Bosporus, where the daughter was supposedly safe from snakes. On her 18th birthday, the father brought his daughter a gift basket full of exotic fruits, in great relief that he could avert the prophecy. However, a snake hid in the basket and bit the daughter, causing her to die in her father’s arms.

The history of the Maiden’s Tower

In any case, historically secured is the fact that the Maiden’s Tower has a long history of predecessor buildings. In the 5th century the Athenian general Alcibiades built a customs house on the rock in the Bosphorus. In 1110, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus built a wooden tower surrounded by a stone wall. A large chain is said to have been attached to this wall, which was supposedly stretched across the Bosphorus during attacks on Byzantium. The other end, according to tradition, was attached to a tower of the Mangana Palace. How the chain was kept on the surface of the water, however, has not been handed down.

After the Ottoman conquest in 1453, the structure was used as a watchtower. During an earthquake in 1509, the tower was severely damaged and finally burned down in 1721. In 1763 it was rebuilt in stone as a lighthouse. In the 19th century, the Maiden’s Tower also served as a quarantine station. It also gained even greater fame as a filming location in the James Bond movie “The World Is Not Enough”.

Visiting the Maiden’s Tower

If you want to visit the Maiden’s Tower from the inside, you can reach it by shuttle boats both from the European shore of the Bosphorus (every 1 hour) and from the Asian shore (every 15 minutes). There is a restaurant in the tower where you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you are not hungry, you can also enjoy the incomparable 360-degree view of the Bosphorus and both sides of Istanbul while having a drink at the bar.