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  • Floating on the Mediterranean Sea, this castle protected an ancient port city for hundreds of years.

  • It's also a place shrouded in myth where a legendary princess met a certain fate.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Just about 700 feet off the coast of Southern Turkey, the Kizkalesi, or maiden's castle, sits on an island so tiny it looks like it's standing on water.

  • The walls and towers of the castle date back to the early 12th century, although exactly who built it is a mystery.

  • According to one legend, a Byzantine king built the castle after a fortune teller told him that his only daughter would die from a snake bite.

  • Despite the king's efforts to protect the princess, a snake snuck in by hiding in a fruit basket and the princess met her unfortunate fate.

  • Fortified walls wrap around the entire complex with eight towers providing 360-degree views, making the castle an effective first line of defense against enemy ships approaching the port.

  • The legend of the 12th century may be a thing of the past, but the stone walls of the fortress still stand today, keeping their secrets.

  • (chime dings)

Floating on the Mediterranean Sea, this castle protected an ancient port city for hundreds of years.

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