From: https://www.choramuseum.com/history/brief-history-of-chora/ Orginally the main church of the Chora monastery, the building now known as the Kariye Museum, or traditionally as the Kariye Camii (Mosque), represents one of the oldest and most important religious foundations of Byzantine Constantinople. Second in renown only to Justinian’s Great Church, the Kariye is an increasingly popular tourist destination, known primarily for its splendid mosaic and fresco decoration. The early history and traditions associated with the Chora monastery have long been known from Byzantine texts, but the archaeological investigations and the careful examination of the fabric of the building carried out by the Byzantine Institute of America in the 1950s clarified many aspects of the building’s long and complex development.