The ancient Ani - the rise and decline

Not far from the Armenian-Turkish border are the ruins of a very ancient capital Ani state. The city was founded some sixteen centuries ago and was at the crossroads of several important trade routes.

In its heyday, is the fast ice in the XI-th century, the population of Ani was not less than 100 thousand people. Later, the town of a few dozen times captured the Byzantine emperors, the Ottoman Turks, Armenians, Kurds, nomadic, Georgians and even Russian. This is evidenced by repeated finds of coins from different countries. Since the XIV-th century, Ani was in decline and the beginning of XVIII-th century, the city was deserted and all. An attempt to restore the former glory of the next century led to the final collapse, and the city began to take away on the part of the looters. Today, Ani submitted to the World list of endangered cities.