It is an impressive stone structure, 5 meters thick and towering over 29 meters. Its name in Azeri, Qiz Qalasi, literally means virgin tower, alluding to its impenetrability as a defensive building. Throughout times, however, it has stimulated the imagination of admirers who have claimed it as a “fire beacon,” “a lookout post,” “an astronomical observatory” and even “a Zoroastrian tower of silence.” Even on the day of my visit, in the yard fronting the Maiden Tower there were several contemporary installations of the imagined meanings of Maiden Tower by artists from several nations.