Galata Tower Galata Tower The Galata Tower ("Galata Kulesi" in Turkish) — called "Christea Turris" (the "Tower of Christ" in Latin) by the Genoese — is a medieval stone tower in the Galata/Karaköy quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, just to the north of the Golden Horn's junction with the Bosphorus. It is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic vista of Istanbul's historic peninsula and its environs. The nine-story tower is ( without the ornament on top, at the observation deck), and was the city's tallest structure when it was built. The elevation at ground level is above
Galata descends to the Bosphorus. "Galata" has subsequently been re-adopted by the city of Genoa in the naming of its naval museum "Galata Museo del Mare." In historic documents, Galata is often called Pera, which comes from the old Greek name for the place, Peran en Sykais, literally "the Fig Field on the Other Side." The quarter first appears in Late Antiquity as Sykai or Sycae. By the time the "Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae" was compiled in ca. 425 AD, it had become an integral part of the city as its 13th region. According to the "Notitia", it featured public baths and