Maiden's Tower

The Maiden's Tower was built on a small islet located off Salacak in the Bosphorus, which is the subject of legends, about which various rumors are told.

This elegant building, which is the symbol of Üsküdar, is at the mouth of the Bosphorus and 200 meters from the beach. According to the old rumor; Leandros, one of the mythological heroes, had a lover named Hero. Hero was the priestess of the goddess of beauty, called Aphrodite by the Greeks and Venus by the Westerners, and lived in a city called Sestos on the European shore of Helpontos, which we now call the Dardanelles. Leandros on the other hand; He lived on the other side of the Bosphorus, in Abydos, the ruins of which can be seen around today's Kösekale.

Leandros, the son of the king of this city, was swimming in the sea from Abydos every night and swimming to Sestoa to meet his lover. Another night, as per the agreement between them, Hero lit a torch and summoned Leandros to his side. Meanwhile, Leandros drowned due to the storm that broke out, and Hero, who saw the body washed up on the beach the next day, committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea. The Legend of Leandros and Hero was written by a poet named Musairos who lived long before the ancient poet Horos (he lived around 280 BC).

The famous English poet Lord Byron came to the Dardanelles with his ship The Salsete on May 3, 1810, and swam across the Bosphorus to prove the accuracy of this story. Because it was claimed that the strait could not be crossed by swimming because of the currents, and therefore the story was a fabrication.