-
Travel and Photography | Chora Church | Kariye Muzesi
© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Chora Church | Kariye Muzesi Istanbul has more than its fair share of Byzantine monuments, but few are as drop-dead gorgeous as the Chora Church. The fact that it’s hidden away in the little-visited Western Districts of the city means that many visitors overlook it. The church was originally known as the Church of the Holy Saviour Outside the Walls, but what you see today is not the first church-outside-the-walls on this site. This one was built in the late 11th century, and underwent repairs, restructuring and conversion to a mosque in the succeeding centuries. Virtually all of the interior decoration dates from 1312 and…