Ani

Ani is a medieval city, a thriving Armenian capital of the 1st millenium that survived Seljuk and Mongol invasions but has been empty since an earthquake in 1331. It sits just on the Turkish side of the Turkey-Armenia border, in the midst of a vast steppe-- picture the biggest, emptiest part of Montana, scatter around some reddish-brown fragments of magnificent buildings, add a Russian army base and barbed wire fence, and you've got an image of what Ani looks and feels like. (The army base, though an ugly intrusion, is really so dwarfed by the landscape as to be almost insignificant-- as long as you're not trying to sneak across the border anyway). Unlike any of the ruins we visited in Mexico or western Turkey, Ani is virtually untouristed, due partly to the inconvenience of reaching the site (there is no public transportation available), but probably more to the history of turbulence in eastern Turkey and the border region in particular. For us, the absence of other people for the hours we spent exploring the ruins was an awesome gift; I've never had the same feeling of being in a real place, and not some type of more-authentic Disneyworld, in any other ruin I've been to. But for the sake of the region's economy and all the travelers who are missing out on some incredible places, I hope tourism to the area goes up in the future.

The standing (or partly standing) buildings at Ani are mainly religious, for the reason that their arches protected them from the ravages of that 14th century earthquake, while most of the commercial and residential buildings were turned completely to rubble. Because of this, no two buildings were close together, and although you can see many of them across the steppe standing just at the city gate, the distance between them is actually quite large. There were a few Armenian and Georgian churches, with Armenian inscriptions carved into the outside walls. One of these had frescoes, including one with a man bound to a board and hanging upside down-- not sure if it was a Christian being tortured, or some Christians doing the torturing-- that we've never seen anywhere else. Another distinctive feature of the churches was the hive-like carved stone design of the ceilings. The Convent of the Virgins was set down a long path on the edge of a cliff overhanging the river, a location apparently chosen to keep those virgins virginal. But Christianity was not the only religion that thrived in Ani. There are also the remains of a Zoroastrian temple that was the oldest structure in the city, as well as a completely intact mosque built by the Seljuks that was the first mosque in all of Anatolia.

Our only disappointing moment in Ani came when we arrived at the last structure on our circuit, the palace, and found that it had been almost completely 'restored'-- which actually meant rebuilt using ugly new concrete blocks, entirely eclipsing what few pieces of the original remained. (The same was true of the city wall). Our guide told us that this thoughtless work had been planned for all of Ani, but thankfully a group of archeologists challenged the plan in court and won, saving the majority of the ruins in their proper ruined state.