Eastern Anatolia - Discover Turkey: Experience the Best of Turkey - page 582

Need to Know
TOP TIP Visiting from Kars, tell your taxi driver you want 2½ to three hours at
Ani. ROCK-CUT HOUSES Spot them in the river cliffs. For further coverage,
Click here
Ani Don't Miss List
BY CELIL ERSOĞLU, GUIDE
1 CHURCH OF ST GREGORY
When this Gregorian church was built, Ani was an important Silk Road business
centre, with over 100,000 inhabitants and no land available, so they built it on the val-
ley slopes. It was built in 1215 by Tigran Honentz, one of Ani's wealthy merchants and
self-styled 'barons'. The Georgians used it as a customs office and in 1255 the Seljuks
gave it to the Armenians, who added the narthex and baptism room. The interior and
facade were covered in frescoes, which remain some of the region's best preserved.
Look out for the animal carvings.
2 CONVENT OF THE VIRGINS
Tigran Honentz also built this chapel, which is the next church you see perching dra-
matically above the Arpa Çay gorge. Nearby is a ruined Silk Road bridge; both are off
limits but you get good views from the Menüçer Camii.
3 CATHEDRAL
Byzantine Orthodox missionaries built the imposing cathedral, Ani's largest building
and a world-famous structure, for the Armenians. Begun in 989, it is the work of the
celebrated medieval architect Trdat, who restored the dome of İstanbul's Aya Sofya.
When the Seljuks took Ani in 1064, they converted and renamed the building Fethiye
Camii (Victory Mosque), before building Menüçer Camii and returning the cathedral to
the Armenians.