Turkey is home to the ancient city of Ani, known as the “city of 1,001 churches.”
Ani is a medieval archaeological site in eastern Turkey’s Kars Province, close to the modern border with Armenia. It was the capital of the Bagratid Armenian kingdom and became a major political, commercial, and religious centre during the 10th and 11th centuries.
The nickname “city of 1,001 churches” is traditional rather than a precise surviving count. Ani’s ruins include churches, a cathedral, defensive walls, a mosque, and other structures representing centuries of Armenian, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Georgian influence.
The city declined after earthquakes, warfare, and changing trade routes. Its borderland location has also made it a sensitive site in regional history. Ani is sometimes assumed to be in Armenia because of its Armenian heritage, but the archaeological site itself is within present-day Turkey. UNESCO added Ani to its World Heritage List in 2016.