Girl Tower, Girl's Tower, Maiden's Tower, Leander Tower... call it what you will. This little piece of history on the Bosphorus has more stories attached to it than names.

It's been a lighthouse, a watchtower, a traffic control center and now, as you can probably guess, a tourist attraction and restaurant. While we didn't actually visit the site, we passed it on the ferry long enough to recognize it as the "Girl Tower" that Hakan had mentioned a previous night.

Utility uses aside, an alluring story of a princess imprisoned within the tower does give the toll booth, a much more romantic feel. One story suggests that Constantine, afraid his beloved daughter was going to die of a snake bite, locked her in the tower to prevent a fortune teller's prophecy, while the other, is your standard "Emperor is upset with daughter's unacceptable love affair" punishment story. Whether these tales are history or fairytale, protection of punishment, I have one question: why is it always the girl who gets locked in the tower?*

2.26.12

*With "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" as an exception, of course.