If the legend of Maiden Tower changed slightly every year, if an oil lamp or a torch lit the chamber instead of a light bulb, if the stories were Athenian, Spartan, Greek, Byzantian, Arabian, Ottoman or Turkish, none of it made a difference. This tower had a legend. The truth is that legends are not easy to come by, and not every place or person can boast of one. "Foreigners call Haliç 'the Golden Horn.' Istanbul is the only city in the world with a golden horn". So, she said. Not one word less, not one word more. And she said it often. Then her dreamy eyes wandered far, far away. I could never tell if she was yearning for the sweethearts of her Istanbul girlhood or if she was regretting other, missed chances. In either case, I was too young to know that love, whether lived or imagined, grows hazy behind the veil of time.

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