By Cuneyt Celik
KARS, Turkey
A large section of a wall has been excavated at the archaeological site Ani also known "world city" and "cradle of civilization" in northeast Turkey.
According to the UNESCO website, Ani, which is next to the closed border with Armenia, was the capital of medieval Armenian kingdom of the Bagratides in the 10th century.
"This medieval city embodies residential, religious and military structures, characteristic of a medieval urbanism built over the centuries by Christian and then Muslim dynasties," it said.
"The site presents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of medieval architecture through examples of almost all the different architectural innovations of the region between the 7th and 13th centuries," it said.
The ancient city was mentioned in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2016.
"The number of tourists increased by 300 percent after Ani was added to the UNESCO list," Kars Province Culture and Tourism Director Hakan Doganay told Anadolu Agency.
Pamukkale University Archaeological Department Professor Fahriye Bayram said: "We have been doing excavation work since 2012 in Ani. A large part of the walls were unearthed recently.
"The mound of dirt usually goes down to 5-6 meters. Therefore, the excavation work is going a little slow. We clean both the bastions and the walls," Bayram added.
