Madonna has revealed she was raped when she first arrived in NYC.

The Queen of Pop has written about the traumatic experience in the November issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine.

"New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back,'' she says in the article.

The 55-year-old also writes about her childhood and rise to fame.

On her teenage years, she admits most people thought she was "strange''.

"I didn't have many friends; I might not have had any friends. But it all turned out good in the end, because when you aren't popular and you don't have a social life, it gives you more time to focus on your future,'' she said.

Madonna also talked about her time living in Britain married to director Guy Ritchie, and revealed that she is now studying the Koran.

"I consider moving to a foreign country to be a very daring act. It wasn't easy for me... I didn't understand pub culture. I didn't understand that being openly ambitious was frowned upon. Once again I felt alone.

"But I stuck it out and I found my way, and I grew to love English wit, Georgian architecture, sticky toffee pudding, and the English countryside. There is nothing more beautiful than the English countryside."

A decade later she is divorced and back in New York.

"I have started making films, which is probably the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done. I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Koran. I think it is important to study all the holy books.

"As my friend Yaman always tells me, a good Muslim is a good Jew, and a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. I couldn't agree more."