Thessaloniki's most famous landmark, the 34m-high White Tower has a harrowing history as a prison and torture chamber. In 1826 Ottoman sultan Mahmud II massacred rebellious janissaries (elite troops of forcibly Islamicised Christian boys) here. After the 1913 Greek reconquest, the ‘bloody tower’ was whitewashed to expunge this grisly past. Grab a free audio guide to help navigate the multimedia displays in the tower, then drink in views of the bay from the top.
