A reconstruction of what Ani might have looked like. A DRAWING DEPICTING A RECONSTRUCTION OF ANI On Display Within the Architecture Museum, Yerevan In Armenia it is forbidden to take photographs of Ani from the Armenian side of the border. It is also forbidden to take photographs of the two reproductions of Ani in Yerevan: the three-dimensional model of the ruins of Ani, on display within the State Museum of Armenian History, and the drawing depicting Ani as it might have appeared before its fall, on display within the Architecture museum. However, I recently braved the Architecture Museum's harridan of a gatekeeper to take the following photographs. I do not know the history of this very large and detailed drawing, or who created it. It may have been produced in connection with the 1000th anniversary of the completion of the Cathedral of Ani (the drawing appears in the design of the Armenian postage stamp issued to commemorate that event). Much of the reconstruction is very speculative of course, and it also displays some nationalistic self-censorship (the Minuchihr mosque is shown depicted without its minaret and the Abu'l Muamran mosque is not shown at all). It is also an idealised view: for example, the Gagikashen church collapsed almost 200 years before the church of Tigran Honents was built - yet both are depicted in the drawing. Click inside the red rectangles to get a detailed view of that section of the drawing.

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	All text, images, designs, and intellectual materials are © VirtualANI. This page was first published on the 1st October 2005. It was last modified on the 1st October 2005.