The Kariye Museum, which occupies an important place in world art history for its mosaics and frescoes, is a virtual illustrated encyclopedia.

I had heard its name many times. That it was a church left from Byzantium, that it had priceless mosaics and frescoes, that it was converted into a museum years ago. But somehow I had never visited this historical monument. Which of us, I or it, was the stranger to this city of Istanbul whose air I breathe, whose water I drink, whose streets I pound daily? As I was running this question through my mind, I found myself on the highest of Istanbul's seven hills, to see the Kariye Museum in the quarter of Edirnekapi.

LIKE A SCALE MODEL
I'm flanked by the past on one side, the present on the other. Byzantine walls, palace ruins; streets where boys play ball and girls jump rope, squat houses with smoking chimneys. My companion a breeze off the Golden Horn that's blowing a little too hard for my liking.