Maiden’s Tower & Üsküdar

“On the way to Üsküdar the rain came down, / My clerk’s long coat, its hem all mud…” Is there anyone who hasn’t heard this folk song? I can’t say; but few reach the Üsküdar shore without their eyes catching on that little tower out in the sea. For centuries the Maiden’s Tower has waited, alone and patient, where the Bosphorus opens into the Marmara. But for whom does it wait?