July 14 Ani
We checked out of the Konak Hotel after a good breakfast with an omelet and lots of cold watermelon. As an aside, I have never seen so many watermelons as we have seen in eastern Turkey. India had a lot of them and Georgia had some, but everywhere we go in eastern Turkey, even in the smallest markets, there are mountains of watermelons stacked in front of the store. Pushcarts have even more of them, and the next morning we saw from our hotel window the wholesale market in Dogubayazit where several large truckloads of watermelons were being sold, and in some cases, the watermelons tossed to retail vendors. Every breakfast has watermelon. I do not know how they all get eaten.
We packed up, left on time and got out of town without getting lost. On the way out of Kars we stopped for gasoline. The attendant took one look at the car and motioned us over to the car wash. The car was pretty dusty, and after the wash we could see out of all the windows.
It was a relatively short drive to Ani, about an hour on a relatively good road, about 45 km east of Kars. Ani is a ghost town. What was once a thriving metropolis of over 100,000 people, probably rivaling Constantinople in power and wealth, and the capital of the Armenian empire, has been reduced to about a dozen major ruins in a sea of wind-swept grass. Where there was once great commerce, there is now kids on bicycles and very few tourists.
Ani was founded in the mid 10th century by the Armenians servicing the east-west trade routes from which it grew wealthy. It was successively conquered by the Byzantines, Seljuks, the Georgians, and finally the Kurds. Its downfall began when it was conquered by the Mongols in the mid 13th century. They were nomads, so they had no use for city life and did little to rebuild the city following an earthquake 80 years later. What life was left in the city after that was completely crushed when Tamerlane swept through later that century who, as was his practice, destroyed everything in his path. (He probably had a group of pre-teen boys as soldiers.)
A portion of the city walls remain and you enter through the Lion Gate, with a lion relief on the wall. We first came to the Fire temple. This predated the city and all that remains are 4 thick circular columns that are not very tall. Then we came to the one remaining wall of a large Georgian church with lots of interior columns. The Seljuk Palace was built into the city's walls and is the only building that has been restored and as such looks out of place.
The Church of St. Gregory is very well-preserved and from it you can see the cave village cut out of the cliffs across the river in what is now Armenia. Below on the riverbank are farms. The Menucer mosque is one of the two best-preserved and largest buildings on site. The minaret has an inscription, "in the name of Allah," and has alternating red and black stone work. The other remaining big and well-preserved structure is the Cathedral. It was built by the Armenians, but was converted to a mosque under the Seljuks, restored as a church under the Georgians, and then back to a mosque under the Kurds and successive Muslim rulers. ( I wonder if a new God took over with each change in regime.)
We met a Canadian couple at the Cathedral. She is a teacher who took a year off from her position with the Toronto school district to teach at a private school in Istanbul. While she liked Turkey, she was not happy with either the school, or the rich Turkish students whom she felt lacked discipline. Her husband was only permitted to remain in Turkey for 90 days and then had to go back to Canada for 90 days before being permitted to return. They said they were able to take lots of low-cost vacations throughout Europe during her year in Turkey.
The most intriguing ruin to me was the ruined Silk Road bridge that spanned the river now separating Turkey and Armenia. All that remain are the two towers of what was probably a suspension bridge that linked central Asia to Anatolia. One could imagine the caravans and merchants, as well as other travelers crossing that bridge and the excitement in town as a new caravan arrived. Now there is only silence, broken by the seemingly few tourists that wander through and the Armenian farmers on the other side of the river.
We checked out of the Konak Hotel after a good breakfast with an omelet and lots of cold watermelon. As an aside, I have never seen so many watermelons as we have seen in eastern Turkey. India had a lot of them and Georgia had some, but everywhere we go in eastern Turkey, even in the smallest markets, there are mountains of watermelons stacked in front of the store. Pushcarts have even more of them, and the next morning we saw from our hotel window the wholesale market in Dogubayazit where several large truckloads of watermelons were being sold, and in some cases, the watermelons tossed to retail vendors. Every breakfast has watermelon. I do not know how they all get eaten.
We packed up, left on time and got out of town without getting lost. On the way out of Kars we stopped for gasoline. The attendant took one look at the car and motioned us over to the car wash. The car was pretty dusty, and after the wash we could see out of all the windows.
It was a relatively short drive to Ani, about an hour on a relatively good road, about 45 km east of Kars. Ani is a ghost town. What was once a thriving metropolis of over 100,000 people, probably rivaling Constantinople in power and wealth, and the capital of the Armenian empire, has been reduced to about a dozen major ruins in a sea of wind-swept grass. Where there was once great commerce, there is now kids on bicycles and very few tourists.
Ani was founded in the mid 10th century by the Armenians servicing the east-west trade routes from which it grew wealthy. It was successively conquered by the Byzantines, Seljuks, the Georgians, and finally the Kurds. Its downfall began when it was conquered by the Mongols in the mid 13th century. They were nomads, so they had no use for city life and did little to rebuild the city following an earthquake 80 years later. What life was left in the city after that was completely crushed when Tamerlane swept through later that century who, as was his practice, destroyed everything in his path. (He probably had a group of pre-teen boys as soldiers.)
A portion of the city walls remain and you enter through the Lion Gate, with a lion relief on the wall. We first came to the Fire temple. This predated the city and all that remains are 4 thick circular columns that are not very tall. Then we came to the one remaining wall of a large Georgian church with lots of interior columns. The Seljuk Palace was built into the city's walls and is the only building that has been restored and as such looks out of place.
The Church of St. Gregory is very well-preserved and from it you can see the cave village cut out of the cliffs across the river in what is now Armenia. Below on the riverbank are farms. The Menucer mosque is one of the two best-preserved and largest buildings on site. The minaret has an inscription, "in the name of Allah," and has alternating red and black stone work. The other remaining big and well-preserved structure is the Cathedral. It was built by the Armenians, but was converted to a mosque under the Seljuks, restored as a church under the Georgians, and then back to a mosque under the Kurds and successive Muslim rulers. ( I wonder if a new God took over with each change in regime.)
We met a Canadian couple at the Cathedral. She is a teacher who took a year off from her position with the Toronto school district to teach at a private school in Istanbul. While she liked Turkey, she was not happy with either the school, or the rich Turkish students whom she felt lacked discipline. Her husband was only permitted to remain in Turkey for 90 days and then had to go back to Canada for 90 days before being permitted to return. They said they were able to take lots of low-cost vacations throughout Europe during her year in Turkey.
The most intriguing ruin to me was the ruined Silk Road bridge that spanned the river now separating Turkey and Armenia. All that remain are the two towers of what was probably a suspension bridge that linked central Asia to Anatolia. One could imagine the caravans and merchants, as well as other travelers crossing that bridge and the excitement in town as a new caravan arrived. Now there is only silence, broken by the seemingly few tourists that wander through and the Armenian farmers on the other side of the river.
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