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Middle East 2012 Photos Turkey

Photo Essay: Inside Enigmatic Ani

I’m fairly loose with my travel planning, but when I stopped by the bookstore before going to Turkey, a was flipping through a guidebook and saw this photo:

Half of a Dome

So strange. Just a wall, sitting there in a field of debris. I knew I had to make to make it there. So I made my way to the city of Kars, about as far east as you can go in Turkey, with one destination in mind…Ani.

Field

Enigmatic. Ruined. And a slice of ancient Armenia, right here in modern-day Turkey. Those were the thoughts going through my head as we drove through the rolling green hills into what felt like another world. We arrived at a very modern-looking city wall, literally a stones throw from modern-day Armenia (yaaaaaay restored ruins…you know how I feel about that)

City Walls of Ani

But a walk through the gate showed hints of the surreal field of debris and churches that lay ahead…

Looking Back at Ani

In its heyday in the 10th Century, Ani was a powerful, medieval city-state, whose population topped 100,000. And, of course, those people needed places of worship. In medieval Armenian society, that was Christianity and virtually at that remains today are bits of and pieces of the thousands of churches that once dotted this city.

Church of Saint Gregory

Some are brilliantly preserved, both on the outside and inside, with brilliant, yet faded frescoes depicting the life of Jesus Christ. Their exterior walls depicting inscriptions in Armenian text.

Church of Saint Gregory

Church of Saint Gregory

Others are eerily not…

Ani

Given the tensions between Armenia and Turkey (there is not an open border between the two countries), it has not always been this easy to visit Ani. In the not-so-distant past, visitors had to be escorted and all cameras had to be checked at the gate. But reminders of the ongoing tensions remain, like this sign, which stopped me from going towards the castle…

Military Zone at Ani

Thankfully, those days have passed and, for me, it was Ani in ruin that was so spectacular. Something I discovered when I wandered over towards an otherwise normal looking building.

Church of the Redeemer, Ani

But this building held perhaps the biggest surprise of all…

Church of the Redeemer, Ani

This was the 10th Century Church of the Holy Redeemer, which, if you can believe it, was a whole building until 1955 when it was struck by lightning. Then half of it literally collapsed… See it there on the ground?

Church of the Redeemer, Ani

The nearby grand Cathedral fared much better, looking fairly ordinary from the outside.

Cathedral at Ani

But it too held an interior secret…

Cathedral at Ani

Some exquisite detail work caught my eye, especially in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Church of the Holy Apostles

But in the end, it was the buildings in complete ruin that really stood out to me…

Ani

Collapsed Dome

Collapsed Dome

The beauty of Ani is its ruin. The sensation that you’re stumbling into an ancient place. Not one that’s been beautifully presented just for tourists. One that you can explore and discover for yourself. For what you might discover around that next bend is exciting, as structures rise out of the rubble. Enigmatic, indeed!

Ani

And what can I say? My visit to Ani was definitely one of the true highlights of my time in Turkey!

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By Aaron

Hey there! I'm Aaron and this is my travel site, where I document my adventures to all corners of the world. My love for travel started at the ripe old age of four, when a midlife crisis uprooted my family to Ecuador for five years. Since then, I've been to countries on 4 different continents. When I'm not blissfully on the road, I reside in New York City, where I become the ultimate travel junkie and spend my days dreaming up my next great adventure! Read More...

8 replies on “Photo Essay: Inside Enigmatic Ani”

Wow Aaron! An amazing place – and your photography is incredible.
I’ve read through this post twice and I’m sure I’ll pour over it a few more times before I can move on to anything else today. Thanks for introducing me to enigmatic Ani

That doesn’t surprise me. I read that the Turkish army used to use some of the monuments as target practice! I hope one day there will be a greater appreciation for the site!

It really was an incredible place! Yes the collapsed dome was striking, but nothing was quite as iconic to me as the Church of St. Gregory, which was literally split in half! It’s eerie, enigmatic and one of those places that still hasn’t been fully overrun with tourists!

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