Chora Museum Entrance Ticket with Audio Guide
The Kariye — Chora — holds the finest Byzantine mosaics and frescoes that survive anywhere. It is a modest building in a quiet residential quarter well outside the tourist crush, and that contrast is much of the appeal.
- At the gate
- £22.95
- Allow
- 1h 30m
- District
- Fatih
- Closed
- Open daily
Chora, in short
The Kariye u2014 Chora u2014 holds the finest Byzantine mosaics and frescoes that survive anywhere. It is a modest building in a quiet residential quarter well outside the tourist crush, and that contrast is much of the appeal.
The name means 'in the country', because the original fourth-century church stood outside the city walls. Almost everything you come to see dates from a rebuilding around 1315 to 1321.
Opening hours
Open daily. It functions as a mosque again following its 2020 reclassification, so plan around prayer times; the mosaic sections have their own visiting arrangements.
What it costs
Walk-up entry with the audio guide is u20ac27. Included on the pass.
Getting there
It is in Edirnekapu0131, near the Theodosian land walls, roughly 25 minutes from Sultanahmet by taxi or bus. There is no tram stop nearby, which is a large part of why it stays quiet.
How long to allow
An hour. The building is small, but the ceilings are dense with detail and the audio guide is genuinely worth following rather than skipping.
What to look for
The mosaics in the two narthexes tell the lives of Christ and the Virgin in narrative sequence, and the modelling of faces and drapery is far more naturalistic than anything you will see at Hagia Sophia.
The Anastasis fresco in the side chapel is the single most famous image u2014 Christ hauling Adam and Eve bodily out of their tombs, gates of hell shattered underfoot. It is worth the trip on its own.
Frequently asked questions
- A Byzantine church, founded in the fourth century and rebuilt in the early 1300s, converted to a mosque after 1453 and now holding the best-preserved Byzantine mosaics and frescoes anywhere.
- Mosaic cycles of the lives of Christ and the Virgin across the two narthexes, and a side chapel of frescoes including the Anastasis.
- About 25 minutes by taxi or bus from Sultanahmet, near the land walls at Edirnekapu0131. There is no tram, which keeps it pleasantly quiet.
- It returned to use as a mosque in 2020. Visitors are still welcome; dress modestly and plan around prayer times.