Maiden's Tower

Maiden's Tower (Kız Kulesi) sits about 200 meters off the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, opposite the Salıpazarı cruise port. The current tower is a 24-meter Byzantine structure on top of an older fortification, and it's been everything from a customs checkpoint to a quarantine station to a lighthouse to a 360°-view restaurant today.

The boat ride is half the fun: short 5-minute crossings run from Salıpazarı on the European side and Salacak on the Asian side, every 15-20 minutes. The boats are small yellow-and-white motor launches; on weekends the queue at Salıpazarı can be 30+ minutes, so cross the Galata Bridge and take the Asian-side boat from Salacak if it's running.

The tower itself is small — four floors, a café on top, viewing terraces on three sides. Plan 60-90 minutes including the boat ride. Sunset is the cliché, and a deserved one. In summer, the tower hosts a dinner-by-reservation restaurant on the lower floor with a view back to the European skyline.

Legend has it that a Byzantine emperor built the original tower to keep his daughter safe from a prophecy that she would die of a snakebite on her 18th birthday. He put her in the tower. Snakes arrived in a fruit basket. The moral is the same as every other Greek myth about ignoring oracles.