The story of Pyrgos tis Kori

The Maiden’s Tower it was built on a rocky islet in the 5th century BC, about 20 meters from the present-day coast of Üsküdar, and served as a customs control and tax collection point for ships traveling through the Bosphorus. On this tiny rock island, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Manuel Comnenus, ordered the construction of a defensive building in the 12th century. An iron chain extending from the tower to another tower, which was located on the Historical Peninsula, allowed the entry and exit of the Bosphorus to be controlled.

After the capture of Constantinople in 1453 by Sultan Mehmet II, a wooden tower was built on the site which functioned, in the following centuries, as an observatory, a lighthouse and a place of isolation. In the period of modern Turkey, the tower, after being used by the city’s port authorities for some time, was assigned to the Turkish Ministry of Defense in 1964 and then to the Maritime Enterprises of Turkey in 1983. During this period it served as a radar station and warehouse, and later as a restaurant, and was only accessible by boat from Iskindar Beach.

Myths and legends about the Tower of Kori

The Tower of Kori has been the subject of many myths. The first legend about the tower tells the story of a king and his princess daughter. According to the story, a soothsayer warned the king that his daughter would die of a snake bite. For this reason, the king ordered the Daughter’s Tower to be built opposite Salazak (Salacak) in order to protect his daughter, and sent her to reside there. However, the princess could not avoid her fate and died from the poisonous bite of a snake, which had bitten into a basket full of fruit that had been sent to the tower.

Another myth is based on the love of Hero and Leander. Leander swam every night to see Hero, a priestess at the Sanctuary of Aphrodite in the city of Sestos, on the west side of the Dardanelles. However, one day when a storm broke out, the light of the tower’s lamp went out, Leander became disoriented and eventually drowned. Unable to cope with the pain and loss, Iro committed suicide by falling into the water. In fact, the events of this legend happened in Çanakkale and were adapted by 18th century European travelers to give birth to the story of the Maiden’s Tower in Istanbul. Because of this, the Tower of Kori is also known as the Tower of Leandre (Tour de Leandre).

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