From Empire Capital to Ghost City - Ani, Kars

No one lives here. The buildings are all destroyed and looks like a nuclear bomb went off here but 1,000 years ago this city was one of the largest cities in the world. It was the prospering capital of the kingdom of Armenia. In this video we're going to explore the ghost city of Ani and learn about its fascinating history. Okay so this is my second day in Kars which is a city in eastern Turkey at an elevation of around 1,700 meters so this place gets pretty cold. So this is a very historical place. More than a thousand years ago Kars used to be the capital of the kingdom of Armenia that ruled this place and even not so long ago like a hundred years ago this was a city under the Russian empire. This big church that you see behind me the Fethiye Mosque was actually built as a church and then converted later to a mosque so it looks very interesting like a church from the outside but with minarets and a mosque on the inside. But today we're about to go to this other city which is a lot more historic but around 40 kilometers away from here called Ani. I've just arrived to the edge of the old city of Ani and this place is really right next to the Armenian border. My phone changed its time because it thinks I'm in Armenia right now. So I'm inside the northern walls of the ancient city of Ani. There used to be walls all around the place but most of it got destroyed over the years. You can even see all the towers and the old gates in the walls. So the kingdom of Ani first gained prominence in the 5th century AD. So back then it was really just important as a hilltop fortress for the Armenians but a couple of hundred years later it became a much more important place. So between 9th century AD and early 11th century AD the kingdom of Armenia was ruled by this dynasty who sort of built the foundations of a very extensive kingdom in eastern Anatolia and in 961 AD they moved the capital of the Armenian kingdom from Kars to right here in Ani and then all the Armenian Christians followed and very soon it became the undisputed center of Armenia and the city became very wealthy and very powerful as it grew rapidly and became a major trading hub with its major trading partners being the Byzantine empire, the Persian empire, and the Arabs. So by the 11th century AD this place already had over 100,000 people and this place was nicknamed the city with 40 gates or the city with 1,001 churches and no one really knows if this place actually had 1,001 churches but there are still the remains of 50 churches left to this day over here. So there's this archaeological site behind me where they're still digging up the remains of buildings that still need to be excavated. So right now I'm at the Cathedral of Ani which is the largest building that's still standing in this entire complex. It was built in 1001 AD during the very golden age of the kingdom of Armenia. It's a pretty cool structure as you can see behind me but it's also being heavily renovated on every side because it's falling apart. The roof is entirely missing if you haven't noticed yet. So that church behind me is the Church of the Holy Apostles that was also built during the but it's almost completely destroyed. Half of it completely fell apart during a storm in the 20th century which kind of brings them to the point that there's a lot of restoration work going on right now at this place and in 2016 this was declared a UNESCO world heritage site but before that it was really on the verge of destruction. In 1020 AD the king of the kingdom of Armenia died and his two sons started fighting about who would get to rule the kingdom. That was essentially the end of the golden age of Armenia. Soon after that the Byzantines came and took over but not so long after that in 1064 the Muslims Seljuk Turks came and conquered the city and completely massacred the population. Eight years after that in 1072 they sold the whole city to this other Kurdish Muslim dynasty. So after this Kurdish dynasty took over there was this huge mosque built in 1072 that's still surviving to this day. It was called the mosque of Manuqir named after Manuqir who was the highest ranking member of the dynasty of that time. The building looks like half of it's been blown off almost but the minaret is still standing intact and on the north side of the minaret you can still see the words Bismillah written on the top. The insides of the mosque is also very well preserved but looks like we can't enter that place right now. So after the Seljuks took over the city this place changed hand a lot of times between dynasties there were Muslims and Christians but in the early 1200s some Armenian dynasty finally took over the place again and it even prospered for a very short while and that's when they built this church behind me which is the most preserved church in Ani right now called the church of Saint Gregory. Well unfortunately that little moment of prospering didn't last too long and in the middle of the 13th century the Mongols came, sacked the city, massacred everyone again. This city never really recovered from that. It slowly lost importance in whatever empire-ruled area and was never the same again. Something very important that I have to discuss is that this city is located right across the Armenian border so the other side of that river is Armenia. You can still see a broken bridge that used to lead to Armenia but you don't see any Armenians here. Why is that? Well let me tell you the full story. So in the 19th century there was no independent kingdom of Armenia but there were provinces controlled by Armenians in the Ottoman empire and the Russian empire. So this was one of those provinces that was controlled by the Ottoman empire. Then in 1878 if you watched my Sarajevo video you should remember that the Ottomans lost a lot of land in the Balkans in Europe. They also lost a lot of land to Russia as well and this became part of the Russian empire and this whole region was part of the Russian empire from 1878 up until the end of World War I when the Russian empire collapsed. For a brief period of two years there was the first republic of Armenia that was ruling over this place but that only lasted two years because Kamal Ataturk came along and created the modern state of Turkey and basically drove out all Christians, Armenians, and Greeks out of its area. And it's kind of sad but there's still no border between Armenia and Turkey a hundred years later because relations still are not the best so Armenians can't come visit. We can only hope that this will change someday soon in the future. That is it for this video. If you like this video don't forget to hit the like button. If you want to follow my adventures from Turkey and everywhere else feel free to subscribe to my channel. If you want to find out what I'm doing in real time follow me on Instagram for real-time updates on my stories. I'll catch you guys on the next one from somewhere else in eastern Turkey.