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Located at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus, the tower’s
commonly known by two diferent titles – based on two diferent
legends – one Byzantine, one Roman.
In the first legend, the Byzantine emperor heard a prophecy telling
him that his beloved daughter would die at the age of 18 as a result
of a snake bite. He put her in the tower built on the isolated rock to
prevent any snake getting to her. But this strategy came to naught – a
snake hidden in a fruit basket brought from the city bit the princess
and killed her.
The other legend involves the lovers Hero and Leander and is
based on a tragic love story by the Roman writer Ovid. Hero (the lady)
lived in the tower and Leander swam to it every night to visit. She held
a torch to guide him. But one stormy night the wind extinguished the
light. Leander got lost and swam all night before drowning. Overcome
with grief, Hero jumped into the water and also drowned.
The tower was built by the Athenian general Alcibiades in the 5th
century BC for surveillance of the Bosphorus waterway. Over the years
the tower has been destroyed and rebuilt many times and was used as
a lighthouse and control tower during the Ottoman Empire’s reign.
Today it’s a very popular restaurant with 360° views of
the Bosphorus and the old city.
The tower featured in 1999 James Bond movie The World is Not
Enough, where terrorists placed a nuclear submarine underneath the
tower. It starred Pierce Brosnan as Bond, with Sophie Marceu as the
evil seductress. M (Judi Dench) was imprisoned in the tower.MAIDEN’S TOWER/LEANDER’S TOWERthat cross the strait daily. he surface current pushes from north
to south throughout the year, while a submerged counter-current
makes the reverse path.
hese circular currents are not caused by the morphology of the
seabeds, as originally thought, but by the diferent concentration
of salt in the waters of the Black Sea, which are sweeter and lighter,
and the Mediterranean, which are saltier and heavier.
At the southern end of the strait, near the city of Istanbul, is a rock
on which a control post for passing ships was built in the classical
age. On this rock is the famous Maiden’s Tower (or Leander’s Tower),
which owes its name to the legend of the priestess Hero and Leander,
two young lovers from Roman mythology.
he tower has been rebuilt many times and in the recent
decades has hosted a marine traic radar station. It is now open
to the public and houses a café-restaurant that’s worth visiting in
the evening. A shuttle provides connections between the tower and
Salacak, on the overlooking Asian side. BNZ