It is a witness… Witness to the City of Istanbul… An alive witness 1500 years old… As much as it is a witness to the Genoese merchants, it is to the Venetian artists. It is a witness to Byzantium, Hagia Sophia, as much as it is to Suleiman the Magnificent.
It is also a witness to the boots of the army of occupation… Also to Churchill, to Agatha Christie… To the way they come and they go… It is a witness to the death of the Sultans, to the poets of the Tulip Era… It is also a witness to Mustafa Kemal’s rowing trips. A witness to the first person who has flown with his wings. And a witness to the pearl eye drops of beautiful eyes with mascara. It is a witness to the sobbing of the sultan’s sons killed, to impossible loves. It has witnessed revolutions, movements… It is a witness to dolphins, to ships that go to shores afar… It is a witness both to the argonauts and the astronauts… It is a witness to songs, as much as it is to rakı… It has witnessed betrayals as well as loyalty… It is a witness to culprit… As it has witnessed witnesses… It is a witness to fires… As it has witnessed love stories… Now all of these have faded into the history… And Galata Tower, has been left to future from the past as a souvenir with its head high up in the clouds…
Galata Kulesi (Tower)
Büyük Hendek Caddesi, Galata
Phone: +90 212 293 81 80
Fax: +90 212 245 21 33
Open daily from early morning until late afternoon
Admission: 25 TL
Writer: Mustafa Altıoklar
