[5][7][8] Ani stood on various trade routes and its many religious buildings, palaces, and sophisticated fortifications distinguished it from other contemporary urban centers in the Armenian kingdom.

[18] The city took its name from the Armenian fortress-city and pre-Christian religious center of Ani-Kamakh located in the region of Daranaghi in Upper Armenia.

[12] Ani was also previously known as Khnamk, although historians are uncertain as to why it was called so; according to philologist and Armenologist Heinrich Hübschmann, this name has nothing to do with the ordinary Armenian verb khnamel ("to care for").

[12] According to the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam: "A suggestion has been made that the town may owe its name to a temple of the Iranian goddess Anāhita (the Greek Anaďtis)".

[12] In 1064, a large Seljuk army under Alp Arslan attacked Ani; after a siege of 25 days, they captured the city and slaughtered its population.

[4] The Shaddadids generally pursued a conciliatory policy towards the city's overwhelmingly Armenian and Christian population and married several members of the Bagratid nobility.

[36] Following this disastrous campaign of 1238–1239, the Armenians and Georgians made peace with the Mongols and agreed to pay them tribute and supply their troops (Georgian–Mongolian treaty of 1239).

[38] By the end of the 14th century, the city was ruled by a succession of local Turkish dynasties, including the Jalayrids and the Kara Koyunlu (Black Sheep clan) who made Ani their capital.

A small town remained within its walls at least until the middle of the seventeenth century, but the site was entirely abandoned by 1735 when the last monks left the monastery in the Virgin's Fortress or Kizkale.

[5] In 1892 the first archaeological excavations were conducted at Ani, sponsored by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and supervised by the Georgian archaeologist and orientalist Nicholas Marr (1864–1934).

Large sectors of the city were professionally excavated, numerous buildings were uncovered and measured, the finds were studied and published in academic journals, guidebooks for the monuments and the museum were written, and the whole site was surveyed for the first time.

[43] In 1918, during the latter stages of World War I, the armies of the Ottoman Empire were fighting their way across the territory of the newly declared Republic of Armenia, capturing Kars in April 1918.

[46] In May 1921, the government minister Rıza Nur ordered the commander of the Eastern Front, Kazım Karabekir, for the monuments of Ani to "be wiped off the face of the earth.

Today, according to Lonely Planet and Frommer's travel guides to Turkey: Official permission to visit Ani is no longer needed.

[54] From the Armenian side of the border, in Shirak Province, an observation post has been set up near the village of Haykadzor, complete with an information panel, but the view is very poor.

"[9] Another commentator said: Ani is now a ghost city, uninhabited for over three centuries and marooned inside a Turkish military zone on Turkey's decaying closed border with the modern Republic of Armenia.

Neglect, earthquakes, cultural cleansing, vandalism, quarrying, amateurish restorations and excavations – all these and more have taken a heavy toll on Ani's monuments.

In May 2011, WMF announced it was beginning conservation work on the cathedral and Church of the Holy Redeemer in partnership with the Turkish Ministry of Culture.

[60] In 2023, with the support of the WMF and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Anadolu Kültür brought together experts from worldwide to launch a mobile application which allows virtual exploration of Ani.

[66] According to art historian Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh the addition "would secure significant benefits in protection, research expertise, and funding.

"[67] It gained this status due to its amazing representation of medieval Armenian architecture, however, there were three main criteria that further explain why this aspect of Ani is significant.

[68] The first of these criteria is that "Ani was a meeting place for Armenian, Georgian, and diverse Islamic cultural traditions that were reflected in the architectural design, material, and decorative details of the monuments".

[68] This unique combination of residents in the city led many of the buildings in Ani to have a never-before-seen architectural style that is distinct to this region of the world.

[68] The second criterion that caused Ani to gain the status of "outstanding universal value" from UNESCO is the fact that "Ani bears exceptional testimony to Armenian cultural, artistic, architectural, and urban design development and it is an extremely extraordinary representation of Armenian religious architecture known as the 'Ani school', reflecting its techniques, style, and material characteristics".

Its buildings have beautiful stone working and architectural designs that were very ahead of their time, this is a major source of pride for the Armenian people.

[68] When inscribing Ani Archaeological Site on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the 40th Session of the World Heritage Committee Member States highlighted: "…...the cosmopolitan setting of medieval Ani is a potential model for the improvement of the contemporary international relations in the region, starting from the involvement of the international community in the efforts to preserve this exceptional multi-cultural archaeological site.

It is important to note that throughout the attacks and natural disasters Ani has faced throughout the years, all of the buildings have at least significant structural damages, or have otherwise been completely destroyed.

The interior contains several progressive features (such as the use of pointed arches and clustered piers) that give to it the appearance of Gothic architecture (a style which the Ani cathedral predates by several centuries).

Ornate stone carvings of real and imaginary animals fill the spandrels between blind arcade that runs around all four sides of the church.

"Tesnem Anin u nor mernem" (Տեսնեմ Անին ու նոր մեռնեմ, Let me see Ani before I die) is a famous poem by Hovhannes Shiraz.