The medieval city of Ani combines the residential, religious and military structures built over the centuries by the Christian and then Islamic dynasties, and the city flourished in the tenth and eleventh centuries AD when it became the capital of the Armenian kingdom of Bagratids in the Middle Ages, and benefited from the control of one branch of the Silk Road It also maintained its position under Byzantine, Seljuk and Georgian dominion as an important crossroads for trade caravans, and the Mongol invasion and devastating earthquake in 1319 marked the beginning of the city's decline. The archaeological site of Ani was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016.