Galata Tower is a huge, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline on the Galata side of the Golden Horn. The original tower was destroyed during the Fourth Crusade, but it was rebuilt as the Tower of Christ in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Istanbul. It was the apex of the fortifications of Genoese Galata.

The tower was rebuilt several times during the Ottoman period and it was used at times by the Mevlevi Order of dervishes for their sema ceremonies. In the 1990s it was restored and opened to the public.