Maiden's Tower / Istanbul [at] wiki

There are many legends about the construction of the tower and its location. According to the most popular Turkish legend, a sultan had a much beloved daughter. One day, an oracle prophecised 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 sumptouous fruit as a birthday gift, delighted that he was able to prevent the prophecy. Upon reaching into the basket, however, an asp 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. Hence the name Maiden's Tower.