On a small island off the southern shore of Üsküdar is a stubby white tower, diminutive but for some reason one of the city's best-loved landmarks, endlessly recycled in graphics and logos. Although the island was occupied by a fortress in Byzantine times, the tower dates only from the last century. It has been used as a quarantine centre, a lighthouse, a customs control point and a hideout for the villainous Elektra (Sophie Marceau) in 1999's James Bond picture, The World is Not Enough.
In Turkish it's known as Kiz Kulesi, or Maiden's Tower - supposedly because a princess was once confined here after a prophet foretold that she would die from a snakebite. The fatal bite was duly delivered by a serpent that arrived in a basket of fruit. The same story is associated with numerous other castles around the coast. In English it's known as Leander's Tower, the name deriving from the Greek myth of Leander, who swam the Hellespont - again, absolutely nothing to do with this island.
The tower is open to the public as a cafe-restaurant. To get here, walk the shoreline promenade to Salacak (about a 15-minute walk from central Üsküdar), where boats leave every 15 minutes from noon to lam. The return trip costs $3. Lunch (frankfurters, fish in a basket, salads) is $5 to $10 in the ground floor restaurant, which is done out as an Ottoman banquet hall. Dinner is a pricey reservations-only affair and not really worth the bother.
Open Tower noon-7pm. Restaurant 8.30pm-1am Mon-Sat. Set menu $35. Credit AmEx, MC, V.