Kemah, Erzincan

Kemah (Zazaki: Kemax, Armenian: Անի-Կամախ Ani-Kamakh), known historically as Gamakh, Kamacha or Kamachon (Greek: Κάμαχα, Κάμαχον) is a town and district of Erzincan Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey.

Map of 24400 Kemah%2FErzincan, Turkey

Kemah is a town with a present population of 2141 (2010 est.). The town is located almost in the centre of Erzincan Province.

The necropolis of Armenia's Arsacid Dynasty was located in Kemah, including the tomb of Tiridates III who was instrumental in the conversion of the Armenian people to Christianity.

During the early Middle Ages, Kemah was a strategically important border fortress in the border wars between the Byzantines and the Ummayads and Abbasids. It first fell to the Muslims in 679 and changed hands frequently until the mid-9th century (cf. Siege of Kamacha (766)), when Byzantine control was consolidated. According to Constantine VII, in the late 9th century Kemah formed a tourma in the thema of Koloneia. Under Emperor Leo VI the Wise, Kemah was joined together with the district of Keltzene to form the new thema of Mesopotamia. Little is known of the site thereafter, except that it was the seat of a bishopric named "Armenia". The Byzantines lost control of the area following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

Kemah was the scene of massacres during the Armenian Genocide. In one instance, 25,000 Armenians were killed in one day by throwing the victims off a steep gorge and into the Euphrates river.