Galata Tower (old) Galata Tower (old) The old Tower of Galata (, meaning "Great Tower") was a tower which stood on the north side of the Golden Horn in Constantinople, inside the citadel of Galata. The tower marked the northern end of the great chain, which was stretched across the mouth of the Golden Horn to the Tower of Eugenius to prevent enemy ships from entering the harbor. The tower contained a mechanism of elevation gears for raising and lowering the chain. The tower was largely destroyed by the Latin Crusaders during the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, part of the Fourth Crusade,
Galata (Pera) in Istanbul, and is known as Karaköy. There are several theories concerning the origin of the name "Galata". The Greeks believe that the name comes either from "Galatai" (meaning "Gauls"), as the Celtic tribe of Gauls (Galatians) were thought to have camped here during the Hellenistic period before settling into Galatia in central Anatolia; or from "galatas" (meaning "milkman"), as the area was used by shepherds for grazing in the Early Medieval (Byzantine) period. Italians believe the name comes from "calata" meaning slope or descent, because Galata, which is a former Genoese colony, is located on a hill that