Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Maiden Tower

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Closer...
There are many legends about the construction of the tower. A sultan had a daughter. One day, an oracle prophesied that she would be stung to death by a venomous snake bite on her 18th birthday. The sultan, in an effort to thwart his daughter's early demise by placing her away from land so as to keep her away from any snakes, had the tower built in the middle of the Bosphorus to protect his daughter until after her 18th birthday. The daughter was placed in the tower, where she was frequently visited only by her father.
On the daughter's 18th birthday, the sultan had her brought a basket of exotic sumptuous fruit as a birthday gift, delighted that he was able to prevent the prophecy. Upon reaching into the basket, however, a snake that had been hiding amongst the fruit bites the young woman and she dies in her father's arms, just as the oracle had predicted. ( According to Wikipedia)
I will continue on Maiden Tower, tomorrow...

4 comments:

Jilly said...

beautiful photograph - as was yesterday's - but such a sad legend.

Bettey said...

Great photo - Love the story behind it !!!

Fabrizio Zanelli said...

Since kid I' never understand about those so sad legends that are all around history. At the other side places too become legendary thank to legend and more interesting :-)

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