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The Maiden's Tower (), also known as Leander's Tower (''Tower of Leandros'') since the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

period, is a tower on a small

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

at the southern entrance of the

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

strait, from the coast of

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

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 ...

. The tower appeared on the reverse of the Turkish 10

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...

banknote from 1966 to 1981.

History

After the naval victory at Cyzicus, in 408 BC the

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

general

Alcibiades Alcibiades (; 450–404 BC) was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently ...

probably built a custom station for ships coming from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

on a small rock called Arcla (small castle) and Damialis (its calf) in front of Chrysopolis (today's

).Müller-Wiener (1976), p. 334 In 1110

Emperor

Alexius Comnenus Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and constant warfare throughout his reign, Alexios wa ...

built a wooden tower protected by a stone wall. From the tower an iron chain stretched across to another tower erected on the European shore in the Mangana quarter of

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. The islet was then connected to the Asiatic shore through a defence wall whose underwater remains are still visible. During the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the tower held a Byzantine

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

commanded by the Venetian

Gabriele Trevisano Gabriele Trevisano was a Venetian commander, who participated on the losing side of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, having joined the Byzantine Empire in its defence of its capital city against the Ottoman Empire. Alongside his fellow Venetia ...

. Subsequently, the structure was used as a

watchtower A watchtower or guardtower (also spelt watch tower, guard tower) is a type of military/paramilitary or policiary tower used for guarding an area. Sometimes fortified, and armed with heavy weaponry, especially historically, the structures are ...

by the Ottomans during the reign of sultan

Mehmed the Conqueror Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

. The tower was destroyed during the earthquake of 1509, rebuilt, and then burned down in 1721. Reconstruction was ordered by the grand vizier Damad Ibrahim Pasha and the new building was used as a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

; the surrounding walls were repaired in 1731 and 1734. Then in 1763 the tower was reconstructed in more durable stone. From 1829 it was used as a

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals, and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have bee ...

station before being restored again by Sultan

Mahmud II Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...

in 1832. In 1945 it was the turn of the harbour authority to patch it up. Then in 1998 it was restored again, shortly before appearing in the James Bond movie ''

The World Is Not Enough ''The World Is Not Enough'' is a 1999 spy film, the nineteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent Jam ...

''. After the 17 August 1999

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

and tsunami in the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

steel supports were added to the tower to strengthen it. The interior was converted into a café and restaurant, with views of the former

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

, Byzantine and Ottoman capital at Sarayburnu. Private boats ply back and forth between the tower and the shore throughout the day. Before the intervention of 2020, the Maiden's Tower showed various structural and material pathologies. In 2021 work began on restoring the tower yet again. The work was completed in 2023, and the tower reopened to the public in May of that year. Being surrounded by seawater and being subject to intense humidity and winds, the structure experienced deterioration. The technical report claims that the most serious damage occurred in the load-bearing walls and foundations. The report shows that consolidating the tower's structural system was one of the most important modifications. Stainless steel tie rods were put in unseen areas to reinforce the stone masonry walls, which had been weakened by material fatigue and salt crystallization. Lighter, structurally sound alternatives were used to replace the concrete floors that had been constructed during earlier repairs.

Origin of the name

There are several stories about the tower's name. According to one of them, an

oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

prophesied that the

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

's much beloved daughter would be killed by a venomous snake on her eighteenth birthday. To protect her, the emperor had the tower built in the Bosphorus and had her locked up there to keep her away from snakes. Her only regular visitor was her father. On her eighteenth birthday, the emperor brought her a basket of exotic fruits as a gift, delighted that he had been able to thwart the prophecy. However, an asp that had been hiding among the fruit bit the princess who died in her father's arms, just as the oracle had predicted, hence the name Maiden's Tower. The tower's alternative name, Leander's Tower (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Πύργος του Λέανδρου; French: ''Tour de Léandros''), comes from the Greek myth of

Hero and Leander Hero and Leander (, ) is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero (, ''Hērṓ''; ), a priestess of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander (, ''Léandros''; ...

. Hero was a priestess of

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

who lived in a tower at

Sestos Sestos (, ) was an ancient city in Thrace. It was located at the Thracian Chersonese peninsula on the European coast of the Hellespont, opposite the ancient city of Abydos, and near the town of Eceabat in Turkey. In Greek mythology, Sestos is ...

, at the edge of the

Hellespont The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey t ...

(

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

). Leander (''Leandros''), a young man from Abydos on the other side of the strait, fell in love with her and would swim across the Hellespont every night to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. Succumbing to Leander's pleas and to his argument that Aphrodite, the goddess of love, would scorn the worship of a virgin, Hero allowed him to make love to her throughout the warm summer. But one stormy winter night, the waves buffeted Leander as he crossed. The wind blew out Hero's light, and Leander lost his way and was drowned. The grief-stricken Hero threw herself from the tower and died as well. Due to the similarity between the

and the

, Leander's story somehow came to be attached to the tower too.

In popular culture

*The tower features in a romantic scene in the Turkish TV series ''Kördüğüm'' ("Deadlock"), Season 2, Episode 6. *It also featured in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

film ''

and'' was visible in the background in the 1963 Bond film '' From Russia with Love''. *It was also used in the film ''

Hitman Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

''. *It was a point on the American reality game show '' The Amazing Race 7''. *The tower featured prominenty in the Turkish drama series ''

Kurtlar Vadisi ''Valley of the Wolves'' () is a Turkish crime drama television series created by Osman Sınav and Raci Şaşmaz, which originally aired on Show TV. The show focuses on the protagonist Agent Polat Alemdar, an undercover operative who joins th ...

(Valley of the Wolves)''. *It appeared in the Turkish drama programme ''

Kırgın Çiçekler ''Kırgın Çiçekler'' () is a Turkish drama/psychological thriller television series that premiered on 29 June 2015. It stars İpek Karapınar, Özgür Çevik, Biran Damla Yılmaz, Gökçe Akyıldız, Hazar Motan, Çağla Irmak and Ale ...

''. *It featured in the game '' Assassin's Creed: Revelations'', where the tower is the location of one Masyaf key that the playable character must collect to complete the game. *The tower featured prominently in the logo for Istanbul's unsuccessful bid for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. *It also featured in the Turkish drama programme ''

Erkenci Kuş ''Erkenci Kuş'' (English title: ''Daydreamer'') is a Turkish television series that aired on Star TV from June 26, 2018 to August 6, 2019. The series stars Demet Özdemir and Can Yaman. Plot Sanem is a young woman who aspires to be a write ...

'' ('Early Bird'). *The tower appeared in sixth episode of the Turkish drama series '' Zengin Kız Fakir Oğlan'' ('Rich Girl, Poor Boy'). *It also featured in the Turkish drama programme'' Yasak Elma'' ('Forbidden Fruit') * It also appears in the background of the ferry scene in Agatha Christie's 1974 film

Murder on the Orient Express ''Murder on the Orient Express'' is a work of detective fiction by English writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the U ...

* It is also featured in the music video for Aleyna Tilki’s song ''Sir'' * The tower features in the ''Historica Arcanum: City of the Crescent'' book. (A campaign module for DnD 5e) Wherein the tower is home to the largest dungeon in the book.

References and notes

Sources

External links