The infobox gives 1110 as the start of construction, when Emperor Alexius Comnenus built a wooden tower protected by a stone wall on the islet. The text also cites an Athenian station here around 408 BC. A Byzantine garrison under Gabriele Trevisano held the tower during the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
An earthquake destroyed the tower in 1509, and it was rebuilt. Fire burned it down in 1721, and Damad Ibrahim Pasha ordered its reconstruction as a lighthouse, with an infobox date of 1725. The text also describes a rebuild in more durable stone in 1763.
The tower has five floors and stands on an islet about 656 feet (200 m) from the Üsküdar coast. Steel supports were added after the 1999 Izmit earthquake, and a restoration from 2021 to 2023 added hidden stainless steel tie rods. It reopened in May 2023 with a cafe and restaurant, reached by boat.
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