Kariye Mosque
he Kariye Church, now located in the Edirnekapı area of Istanbul, was originally built as part of a monastic complex outside the walls of Constantinople, south of the Golden Horn. The word Chora, meaning outer part, outside area, was originally used as a shortened name for the church, referring to its location outside the walls, and became a permanent one.
The original church was built in the early 4th century and remained on the outside of the walls built by Constantine the Great. However, when Theodosius II built the land walls in 413-414, the church remained within the city's defenses.
The foundations of the present building date from the alterations made to the Church of Kariye by Maria Dukaina, the mother-in-law of Alexius I Comnenus, between 1077 and 1081. In the early 12th century, the church suffered a partial collapse, perhaps due to an earthquake. It was rebuilt by Isaac Comnenus, the third son of Alexius. However, it took another two centuries for the building to be completed and become the church it is today. The Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites contributed many mosaics and frescoes to the church. Theodore's impressive interior decoration took place between 1315 and 1321. About fifty years after the Ottoman conquest of the city, Sultan Bayezid II's Grand Vizier Atık Ali Pasha ordered the conversion of the Kariye Church into a mosque.
