16/09/2019
Ani carries the extraordinary remains of the development of Armenian culture, art, architecture and urban design as a whole. Nevertheless, during the Middle Ages, it was the meeting place of multinational and multi-religious communities from Mesopotamia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Hosting the oldest mosque in Anatolia, Ani also has an important place in the Turkish and Islamic worlds.
Ani’s city environment represents a striking example of architectural harmony, which shows the important stages of military history, architecture and technology history, with its monumentality, design and quality. With its stone walls, double fortifications reinforced with semi-cylindrical towers, and solid stone surfaces, Ani offers an impressive urban look.
Although we know little about the establishment of the city of Ani, the region was inhabited during the Urartian period in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. After the clashes between Greco-Roman and Persian Part-Sassanid states, Ani was captured by the Kamsarakan Dynasty, which built a fort and palace in the 5th century AD. Arabs conquered the city in the middle of the 7th century. After the war between Arabs and Kamsarakans, another Armenian dynasty took over the city. In 1045, Ani fell into the hands of the Byzantines who fortified the fort. In 1064, it was conquered by the Seljuks under the command of Alp Arslan. The city of Ani changed hands several times in the 12th and 13th centuries. After the Mongol invasion in 1239, Ani loses its importance as a trade center. In the following years, Karakoyunlu, Akkoyunlu and Ottoman states remain under the reign.