History of Ani
The Bagratids Dynasty bought the castle of Ani and its nearby estates from the Kamsarakans, and in the year 971 the Bagratid king Ashot III transferred his capital from Kars to Ani. At this time Ani was probably little more than a fortress town built around the citadel hill. King Ashot constructed new city walls across the narrowest point of the site, below and a little to the north of the citadel (there may have been older earthen ramparts along the same route). The city grew so quickly that the much larger outer walls to the north were completed by the year 989. The ruins that still extend beyond these walls prove that even they did not enclose a large enough area to contain the whole population.
Ani became an important crossroads for merchant caravans and the city controlled trade routes between Byzantium, Persia, Syria and central Asia. Merchants and craftsmen flocked to Ani from Armenia's older cities, accompanied by a flow of population from the rural areas of Armenia. In 992 the Armenian Katholikosat moved its seat to Ani: at the start of the 11th century there were 12 bishops, 40 monks and 500 priests in the city. By the 11th century the population of Ani was well over 100 000, perhaps as high as 200 000, and its wealth and renown was such that it was known as "the city of a thousand and one churches".
Raiding parties of Turks, originating from central Asia, began to reach Armenia and Byzantine Anatolia in the second half of the eleventh century. The Byzantine Empire was not successful in stopping the advance of the Turkish Seljuk armies that were ever increasing in size and in confidence. In the summer of 1064 a large Seljuk Turkish army attacked Ani, and after a siege of 25 days they captured the city.
In the year 1071, at the Battle of Manzikert, the Turkish armies won a decisive victory over a combined Byzantium and Armenian force, and the Byzantine emperor Romanus Diogenese was taken prisoner. There was now nothing to protect Armenia, and much of the Byzantine Empire, from the waves of Turkish invasions.
Kars is Turkey's eastern frontier city at an altitude of 1750 meters characterized with severe winters and cool pleasant summers. The city underwent Russian occupation of 42 years starting with the troubled years of the First World War. Elegant stone houses left from Russian era are fine examples of the recent past history.
