The Ruins of Ani

We live in a land where history and priceless heritage are everywhere you look, from caravanserais and medreses (theological schools) to palaces. The ruins of Ani stand in the village of Ocaklı in Kars province, along the Arpaçay river. In this article you will read about the site that put Kars on the world's tourist map: its history, its monuments and the legends told about the city.

Ani feels like a journey outside time. A ruined city spreads along a long ridge, with mosques, churches and fire temples under a sky that seems to go on forever. Above the river stands a bridge that was built to join two countries and now separates them. The name Ani first appears in the 6th century as a fortified stronghold of the Kamsarakan lords, an Armenian noble family.

The Kamsarakans fought a long struggle with another Armenian family, the Bagratids. The Bagratids won, and in 780 the Kamsarakans left all their property here and moved to Byzantium.

In 885 Ashot I of the Bagratid family was recognised as king of Armenia by the Abbasid caliph and the Byzantine emperor. Ashot and his sons ruled the area around present-day Kars. Later they moved their capital here and built a great city, the city whose remains we now call the ruins of Ani.

Where are the ruins of Ani?

The ruins lie in a part of Kars province close to the Armenian border, in the village of Ocaklı, on the banks of the Arpaçay. The Arpaçay is a tributary of the Aras, and Ani stands on its Anatolian side. Some twenty-four different civilisations have ruled the city over time. Lying on the Silk Road, it grew rich on trade.

The architecture of Ani

Because of the ground it stands on, Ani was laid out in a roughly triangular shape, which helped it sit more securely on the terrain. The city had seven gates, the most important being the Kars Gate, the Lion Gate and the Cistern Gate. Built of dark tuff stone and Khorasan mortar (a lime mortar mixed with crushed brick), the city withstood many sieges in its day. The site holds many walls, fortifications, churches and mosques.

The history of Ani

The city holds remains of Islam, Christianity and other faiths side by side. Mosques, churches and fire temples stand only 100 to 150 metres apart. Excavations and research to understand the city's history better are still going on.

Ani is also known as the city of 1,001 churches, and some call it the City of Forty Gates. In the 1880s an underground city was found in the area, with close to 850 structures and caves.

Ani is one of the oldest settlements in Anatolia where Armenians lived. It has a large cathedral, and there are also works dating from around 3000 BC. Many Islamic monuments survive as well, from the 13th century onwards.

The Lion Gate: the walls around the Lion Gate, the entrance to the site, are in ruins today. When they were built they ran for some 4.5 km and were planned so carefully that enemy forces could hardly get through. The Lion Gate itself is in better condition than the walls.

Quarries operate near Ani on the Armenian side of the border, and they are blasted with dynamite. As a result, the already fragile ruins are deteriorating further every year. Some claim that this damage is done on purpose.

A warning about the rocks by the convent: one church at Ani is known as the place where young unmarried women once gathered. Do not enter the garden around it or sit, rest or lie on the rocks there. The valley bends at that point, Armenia regards that bend as its own territory, and anyone crossing into it is treated as violating the border and may be shot at. A guard is stationed there as a precaution.

The site used to be known around the world as “the Ani civilisation”, but after long years of neglect it came to be called “the ruins of Ani”. Even in its ruined state Ani is a land of legends, and some say secret tunnels run beneath it.

Ani in the Seljuk period

Ani was conquered by the Seljuks in 1064 under Sultan Alp Arslan, who later handed the city to the Shaddadids, a Muslim Kurdish dynasty. One of the most important Islamic monuments at Ani today, the Mosque of Manuchihr, was built in 1072 under the Shaddadids and takes its name from Manuchihr Bey, who commissioned it.

Ani was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016 as Türkiye's 16th site; as of 2025, Türkiye has 22 sites on the list.

Source (in Turkish): http://bilgihanem.com