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Photo: David Bjorgen (= Cybjorg), CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
One of the icons of the city is also called the Leander's Tower, on a Bosphorus islet off Salacak. The local myth ascribes its name to a princess, whose father wanted to protect her in this offshore tower from a prophecy that she would be killed by a snakebite on her birthday, but the snake found its way inside a basket of fruits — ironically a birthday present from her father — and you've probably already guessed the rest of the story. In actual timeline, it served as a defensive structure (there was a wall connecting it to the Asian mainland, and the Byzantines used to stretch a chain from here to the European mainland across the mouth of the Bosphorus to shut it to adversary shipping in times of conflict, but they didn't during the final Ottoman siege in 1453), as a customs and quarantine station, as a lighthouse, as a warehouse of various sorts of goods, and as a high-end restaurant before the last restoration finished in 2023 dedicated it as a museum. There is a light show viewable from the mainland every day at 21:00.
The Maiden's Tower, also known as Leander's Tower since the Byzantine period, is a tower on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus strait, 200 m (220 yd) from the coast of Üsküdar in Istanbul, Turkey.
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Üsküdar Musıkî Cemiyeti
Founded in 1918, the society is often considered the most respected of the social clubs offering classes in the classical Ottoman music, and catching up with their frequent public concerts is certainly a good way of entering the vast world of this genre.
Also Florence Nightingale Museum.
Turkish bath cheaper than the more touristy ones in the European side.
This attractive neighbourhood was home to a large Christian and Jewish population until some decades ago and still has a number of sights like two synagogues, some churches among which the Armenian Surp Krikor Lusavoriç, dozens of wooden houses and a Jewish and Christian cemetery.
A park right next to the Bosphorus Bridge. Comes with an unforgettable zipline experience.
Also Sultan Abdülaziz Hunting Lodge and Hababam Museum.