Galata Tower

The Galata Tower (Ottoman Turkish: Galata Kulesi) was a medieval stone tower located in the Galata district of Constantinople, north of the Golden Horn. One of the city's most striking landmarks, it was a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and affords a panoramic vista of old Constantinople and its environs.

Crusades
The old Tower of Galata (Greek: Megalos Pyrgos, meaning Great Tower) stood on the north side of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, inside the citadel of Galata. It marked the northern end of the great chain, which was stretched across the mouth of the Golden Horn to prevent enemy ships from entering the harbor. The tower housed the mechanism for raising and lowering the chain.

It was largely destroyed by Latin Crusaders during the Sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade (1204). This enabled the Crusaders to attack Constantinople from sea, where the walls protecting the city were easier to scale.

Reconstruction
After the Siege of Constantinople, the tower was rebuilt in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople and was renamed Christea Turris (Latin for Tower of Christ ). It was the apex of the fortifications surrounding the the citadel of Galata, standing 69.9 metres high, consisting of nine stories.