The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-09-21
AMI REMARKABLE RUIN
N HEART Of CAUCASUS
Is the American Posnpeai-Once
City With the 1,OO1
Churches.

Washington, d. c.. Sept. 20--"Ani
in the heart of the Caucasus battle
fields" begins a statement issued to-
day by the National Geographic So
cfety. Its thick. crumbling walls and
the ragged foundations of its ancient
buildings. mayhap. have served. since
the outbreak of the great war. as
defenses for the Russian or Turkish
soldiers. It's desolate, decaying out
lines type the Caucasus. the country
that has well and fairly earned the
name of the land of fire and sword
Ami is the Armenian Pempea
The ruins lie in rolling, parched
upland country, almost deserted. They
arc near the lexandropol- Erivan
miles south of Alexandropol, and some
thirty-five miles from the Russo OF
toman boundary There is steep hill
to the south and east of the stored
capital of the old Armenian kingdom.
and through a tortous gorge beside
the dead city flows the Arpa C,aai,
a weird, hright-grecn river, This Is
the site of the last great city of free
Armenian people.
Ami was once famous, splendid
capital, the city with the l.0o1
churches whose influence extended
throughout the Caucasus and as far
as England, in the West. All that re-
main of its population are an aged
American monk. the director of ex-
cavations and the pleasant host to
stray antiquarians and other tourists
to places Out of t'hc way. and few
4xs... t,x n..f
this population lived in peaceful iso-
iation among the memorials of their
nations former greatness.
"A visitors book was kept by the
monk, and its early entries reach back
many years. The home of the monk.
headquarters and guest-ho of the
dead city, was a one-storied. stone
structure. near the cathedral. 1t con-
tanned one large, bare and rather dirty
room devoted to the accommodation
of occasional guests. Its four beds
constituted ii a bedroom; its benches
made it into dining-room.
The ancient capital was built upon
a promontory. out of the Arpa Chai
and small tributary stream. Across
the third side. its founders had cut
ditch. making their city-floor a
raised platform, which gave 1t great
advantages for defense in the days
before cannon could hurl their des-
truCtion from the netgntorfng heights.
Ami was strong fortress in its hey
day and its powerful walls with their
many towers. are still standing. strung
around the plain. The walls have
largely decayed however. through
the centuries in which the city has
lain quiet and unpeopled.
Back of the walls, in uneven, in
coherent distribution, lie the remains
Of churches, palaces and public
places without number. some Just the
heavy ground work, suggesting the
old time structure, while other build
ing survive in high. ragged masonry.
The cathedral stands unbroken, a SOL
itary, weather-torn edtfice, a red and
brown growth out of the red and
brown plain.
THE history OF the latter years of
the Armenian Kingdom is bound up
In the history of Ami. The stronghold
city became the capital OF the Bag
ratid kings of Armenia in ISL. The
Byzar'tum emperor captured 1t in
l04s, and II was then hive of many
scores of thousands, a wealthy city
and an inviting one. 1he SeiJuN
Turks carried fire and sword through
out its confines eighteen years later:
the warike Georgians took It five
times between i125 and 1909; the
Mnngols oyerran II in 1888 and on
earthquake in 1919 completed the
work of ruin The great cathedral
the most perfect survival, was found
ed in 1910, just at the beginning OF
the citys long chain OF misfortunes."