Maiden's Tower

The Maiden's Tower stands on a tiny islet in the Bosphorus, about 200 metres off the Asian shore at Üsküdar, where the strait opens into the Sea of Marmara. It has watched ships pass for well over two thousand years: an Athenian commander is thought to have set up a customs post here around 408 BC, and in 1110 the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos built a tower on the rock, linked, it is said, by a chain to the European shore.

The present building is Ottoman. After the conquest of 1453 the tower served as a watchpost; it was damaged by the great earthquake of 1509 and by fire in 1721, rebuilt in stone in 1763, and restored under Sultan Mahmud II in 1832. Over the centuries it served as a lighthouse and a quarantine station. A thorough restoration between 2021 and 2023 dealt with damage from salt and damp, and since May 2023 the tower has been a museum telling its own story.

Its name comes from legend. The best-known tale tells of a sultan warned that his daughter would die of a snakebite; he shut her in the tower for safety, but a snake reached her hidden in a basket of fruit. Another tradition links the rock to the Greek myth of Hero and Leander. The tower appeared on Turkish banknotes and in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, but its real magic is simpler: at sunset, seen from the Salacak waterfront with the domes and minarets of the old city behind it, it is one of the most beautiful views in Istanbul.

Getting there

The tower lies off the Salacak shore of Üsküdar, less than a kilometre from the centre of Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul. The nearest airport is Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW), about 29 km away. Small boats run to the tower from Salacak and, less often, from Karaköy on the European side; schedules depend on the weather.