When in your caïque upon the Bosphorus you have passed the Tower of Leander, you see opposite Scutari an immense, unfinished palace that bathes its white feet in the blue and rapid waters. There is a superstition in the East, supported by the architects, that no one dies while the house he is having built is uncompleted; therefore the Sultans always take care to have some palace on hand.

http://www.elfinspell.com/RomanticCastles/Bosphorus.html