Ancient Armenian City of Ani Included in UNESCO World Heritage list

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440px-Ani_saint_gregory_churchPARIS (PanARMENIAN.Net) — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)  cultural agency on Friday, July 15 added a ruined Armenian city inside Turkey’s border to its World Heritage list, as it elevated eight other sites across the world to the list ranking, AFP reports.

The ruins of Ani, which lie outside the Turkish city of Kars, was the capital of an Armenian kingdom around the end of the first millennium, before its conquest in 1064 by Seljuk forces hastened a decline then completed by the Mongol conquest and an earthquake.

In another sensitive inscription, UNESCO elevated to World Heritage status caves once inhabited by Neanderthals in Britain’s overseas territory of Gibraltar, which is claimed by Spain.

They joined seven other sites including in Iran, India, China, Micronesia and Spain in being added to the World Heritage list at the meeting of UNESCO in Istanbul.

The ruined churches and secular buildings of Ani are a hugely sensitive site, lying directly on the other side of Turkey’s completely closed border with Armenia.

 

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