Ani

Ani was the capital of Bagratid Armenia and, around the year 1000, one of the largest cities in the world, with a population said to rival Constantinople's and a reputation as the city of a thousand and one churches. It sits on a triangular plateau above the Akhurian river, which now forms the closed border with Armenia.

Earthquake, invasion and the shifting of trade routes emptied it. What remains is spread across a kilometre of open grassland: the great cathedral of 1001, its pointed arches anticipating Gothic by a century; the church of St. Gregory with its cycle of frescoes; the walls and the Lion Gate.

The site was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016. Standing among the ruins with the wind coming off the plateau and Armenia visible across the gorge, it is one of the most affecting places in the region — a city that simply stopped.