Situated on the eastern border of Turkey, across the Akhuryan River from Armenia, lies the empty, crumbling site of the once-great metropolis of Ani, known as "the city of a thousand and one churches."

Founded more than 1,600 years ago, Ani was situated on several trade routes, and grew to become a walled city of more than 100,000 residents by the 11th century. In the centuries that followed, Ani and the surrounding region were conquered hundreds of times - Byzantine emperors, Ottoman Turks, Armenians, nomadic Kurds, Georgians, and Russians claimed and reclaimed the area, repeatedly attacking and chasing out residents.

These ruins are all that remain of Ani, the cosmopolitan capital of medieval Armenia, one of the earliest kingdoms to adopt Christianity as its state religion in the early A.D. 300s. The site of a fifth-century fortification, Ani was chosen to be Armenia’s capital in the 10th century.

By the 1300s, Ani was in steep decline, and it was completely abandoned by the 1700s. Rediscovered and romanticized in the 19th century, the city had a brief moment of fame, only to be closed off by World War I and the later events of the Armenian Genocide that left the region an empty, militarized no-man's land. The ruins crumbled at the hands of many: looters, vandals, Turks who tried to eliminate Armenian history from the area, clumsy archaeological digs, well-intentioned people who made poor attempts at restoration, and Mother Nature herself. Restrictions on travel to Ani have eased in the past decade, allowing the following photos to be taken.

The medieval kingdom of Armenia once extended far beyond the modern boundaries of today’s nation. In ancient times these lands came under the control of the Persians, then the Seleucids, the Parthians, and the Romans. But as these different empires rose and fell, Armenian identity prevailed.

Christian Heritage

One of the first, the Church of St. Gregory of the Abughamrents, was built as a private chapel for the powerful Pahlavuni family. Like many of Ani’s churches, its location was purposefully chosen so it could be seen far away from the city. As Ani thrived under the early 11th-century king Gagik I, more churches were built from the local basalt stone. Ani’s imposing cathedral, built by the great Armenian architect Trdat, and three other churches, rose high above the city walls of Ani in the first half of the 11th century. The dome of one of these, the Church of the Holy Redeemer, was supported on an entirely circular drum and housed a fragment of the True Cross.

City Abandonment

The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1319. After a period under Safavid Persian rule, the city was officially absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century and since then it became a ghost town, on the outskirts of present-day Turkey, where access is allowed only with the special permission of the Turkish authorities. But for those who are lucky and have the chance to see the majestic ruins closely, can understand what a "magical" city Ani was, like a magnificent miniature of Constantinople in the Far East.

Begun in 1915, the massacre of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire —who believed the local population had sided with Russia— wiped out as many as 1.5 million lives. Historians consider it the world’s first genocide (Biden’s Recognition of Armenian Genocide is also recent). The serene ruins of the city, once swarmed by armies through the ages, has always been a special place for Armenians. In the wake of the Armenian Genocide, it stands as an even more powerful reminder of Armenia’s losses and of its astonishing endurance.

PHOTO GALLERY