The Ancient Ghost City of Ani

[Syt]

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/01/the-ancient-ghost-city-of-ani/100668/

Situated on the eastern border of Turkey, across the Akhurian 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. 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 Monastery of the Hripsimian Virgins, in the ruins of the city of Ani, Turkey, on April 19, 2011. The monastery is thought to have been built between 1000 and 1200 AD, near the height of Ani's importance and strength. The Akhurian River below acts as the modern border between Turkey and Armenia.


Ruins of the Mausoleum of the Child Princes in the Citadel in Ani, on April 19, 2011. Located in the Inner Fortress on Citadel Hill, this structure is thought to have been built around 1050 AD.


The ruin of the Church of Saint Gregory of Tigran Honents on the edge of the border with Armenia, in Ani, the now-uninhabited capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom in Kars at the Turkey-Armenia border.

Many more pictures at the link.

[Queequeg]

I came, I saw, I came.

[The Brain]

Monastery of the Hripsimian Virgins

[Razgovory]

You'd think the Turks would want to spruce it up for the tourist trade.

[Grinning_Colossus]

It would mostly be Armenian tourists who'd want to see it and there are... issues there.

I wish I'd known about this place when I lived in Georgia; I might have tried to go see it. The architectural style is identical to that of Georgian churches, but the Georgians have made the very aesthetically questionable decision to repair all of their medieval ruins.

[Queequeg]

IDK if identical is the right word.  Armenians were the artists and arcihtects in Georgia, but Ani was a far more substantial city than any in Georgia even in the time of David the Builder and Tamar the Great.

[Ed Anger]

Bulldoze it.

[Ancient Demon]

You'd think the Turks would want to spruce it up for the tourist trade.

They'll convert those ruins into mosques soon enough.

[Ed Anger]

You'd think the Turks would want to spruce it up for the tourist trade.

They'll convert those ruins into mosques soon enough.

Hearing the wails of Spellus would make it worth it.

[Queequeg]

Seljuks did it already.

[Siege]

More interesting is to find Minoan ship designs. All the crap I have seen are assumptions that their ship designs were little boats because of how early they developed.
I would like to see which planking method they were using, sail yardage and rigging, keel and hull design, rudder style, etc.

[The Brain]

More interesting is to find Minoan ship designs. All the crap I have seen are assumptions that their ship designs were little boats because of how early they developed.
I would like to see which planking method they were using, sail yardage and rigging, keel and hull design, rudder style, etc.

Drunk, meet streetlight. Minoan ships in Ani?

[Queequeg]

Some kind of Noah's Arc connection?

[The Brain]

  Jews don't believe in Noah.

[Maximus]

More interesting is to find Minoan ship designs. All the crap I have seen are assumptions that their ship designs were little boats because of how early they developed.
I would like to see which planking method they were using, sail yardage and rigging, keel and hull design, rudder style, etc.

Not that again.