Church of Saint Elia atop fortress ruins in the gorge
Ani first rose to prominence in the 5th century A.D., as a hilltop fortress belonging to the Armenian Kamsarakan Dynasty. By the ninth century, the Kamsarakan possessions in Eastern Anatolia had merged with the Bagratid Dynasty, and in 956, King Ashot III moved the Armenian capital to Ani. Shortly thereafter, the Armenian Catholicos moved here as well, establishing the city as the undisputed center of Armenia. The city grew rapidly, and by the eleventh century, the city boasted more than 100,000 citizens. At its height of power and wealth, it became known as the City of Forty Gates and the City of a Thousand Churches.
Ani's golden age ended with the death of King Gagik in 1020, when Armenian power was split between his two sons. In a series of political events that define the word Byzantine, the son who controlled Ani named the Byzantine Emperor his heir, in an attempt to prevent an invasion. Upon his death, the Byzantine Emperor stated his claim upon the city, but the new King of Ani reneged on the deal and repulsed the Emperor's armies. But a mere three years later, following a series of Armenian military defeats and a pro-Byzantine uprising in Ani, the city surrendered itself to Byzantine control.
All these machinations, however, were rendered moot in 1064 upon the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, who took the city in 25 days and massacred the populace. Though the city lived on for another six and a half centuries, it remained a provincial town at the edge of competing empires for the rest of its history. The Seljuk Turks passed possession of Ani to the Kurdish Shaddadids, who were attacked repeatedly by the neighboring Georgian Empire at the behest of Ani's unruly Christian population. In 1199 the Georgia's Queen Tamar conquered the Shaddadids, and established the Zakarid Dynasty of Ani, under which the city again prospered and rebuilt. Only to be devastated in 1236 by the invading Mongol Hordes. The Zakarids continued to govern the city as the vassals of various Turkic and Persian Empires, culminating with the Ottomans. Ani gradually faded into uninhabited ruins.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Ani
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Ani - updated Apr 2024
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Ani Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
