In 1192, the byzantine emperor gave to the Genovese among other property in the city the so-called palace of Botaneiates, probably former a possession of the emperor Nikephoros Botaneiates (1078-1081) or a member of his family. The palace consisted of a number of houses and pavillons of small or middle size, and two churches arranged around several terraces on different levels, and inclosed by a wall. The reconstruction is based on the description given by the treaty of 1192. It has been located at the remains of an early byzantine substructure in the northwest of the present Erkek Lisesi, but it is more probable that it lay in the gardens of Topkapı Sarayı somewhere to the west of the Column of the Goths.