Galata Tower

The Galata Tower rises above the Karakoy district, on a hill on the bank of the Golden Horn opposite the old city. The Genoese, who held a trading colony here, built it in 1348 and named it the Tower of Christ: it closed the line of the Galata walls, of which almost nothing remains today. The tower is about sixty-seven metres high and has nine storeys inside, while the conical roof by which it is recognised from afar appeared only in later rebuildings. Under the Ottomans a fire watch was kept in the tower - both banks could be seen from here, and a fire in the city was signalled with a drum. Linked to it too is the story of Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi who, if Evliya Celebi is to be believed, glided from the tower across the Bosphorus on homemade wings. There is now an observation deck at the top, and in good weather the queue for the lift stretches across the whole square. From a distance, from Eminonu and from the Galata Bridge, the tower stands exactly in the middle of the dense mass of roofs and serves as the main landmark of that shore. The tower has burned several times; after the fire of 1831 it was substantially rebuilt, and its top was changed at the same time.

On the map