The history of the Maiden's Tower, one of the most elegant, eye-catching and attractive landmarks of Istanbul, goes back to the Byzantine Ruling of Istanbul. Rumor says, the Byzantine Emperor, hearing that she is a new born daughter, becomes chuffed and declares the date of his daughter's birth a national fest. Every year that is celebrated festively as she grows up elderly. The Emperor, being pleased with that, wants his daughter to be properly educated and prepared for the throne by the wisest and the best of the scholars of the Empire and he wants them to teach her everything they know.

However, the oldest one among these scholars, who is also a prophet, informs the Emperor that his daughter will be bit by a venomous snake before her 18th birthday. Upon hearing this, the Emperor thinks of a solution and comes up with an idea. He will build a tower on a small isolated islet in the middle of the sea and make his daughter live in it. The Emperor, who visits his daughter every day, is pretty sure that he is protecting his daughter from possible dangers very well. Days go by, months go by, years go by, and now the Emperor's daughter is about to turn 18 and the forespoken danger is close ahead. 

One day, the Emperor orders his servants to take her a big basket full of her favourite grapes, and a snake comes out of the basket and bites her to her immediate death. The Emperor is now devastated by the death of his daughter and now clearly understands how destiny works and there is no escape from fate. But, he still thinks, if her beloved daughter buried down under the ground, the snakes will not leave even her dead body alone, and decides to mummify and put her young, elegant and fragile body into an iron - made, stable and safe casket. According to his orders, the casket is placed in a high wall above one of the gates of Sophia Monastery. 

Doing this, the Emperor believes snakes will be kept away from his daughter and she will rest in peace eternally.

The casket is believed to be still in the walls of Hagia Sophia but it has two holes on it. According to the rumours, that same snake hasn't left her alone, comes to bite her from time to time and these holes belong to it. One another gossip says, on the casket it reads as "do not ever touch this", and people believe if one touches it the whole building will tremble and collapse. This story adds a bit of a mystery to the Maiden's Tower, a lovely architectural phenomenon which still stands in the middle of the Bosporus and is uneasy to miss from sight and greets every passing vehicle and people.