Konya - Mevlana's Museum

KONYA

Size	11th largest city
Altitude	1,028 m / 3,372 ft
Industry	Aluminum, chrome, textiles, sugar, cement, animal foods, salt
Agriculture	Grain (90%), chickpeas, sugar beets, apples, grapes
Animal husbandry	Sheep
History	Chalcolithic, Hittite, Phrygian, Cimmerian, Lydian, Persian, Alexander the Great, Pergamum, Roman, Seljuk, Ottoman, Turkish Republic

The entire Konya basin was a lake 18 thousand years ago. Over 10 thousand years, it had drained to form a rich alluvial plain with fertile grazing land in the east and thick forest to the west and south.

In the days of the Roman Empire, Konya was called Iconium, "the city of icons". Konya has become a place of pilgrimage for Moslems because the leader of the Mevlevis, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi was buried there.

*Mevlana Museum*
This place has been used as a museum since 1926. Inside the courtyard after the main portal, on both sides the cells of dervishes, kitchens and other buildings are located. The pool on the right is symbolically the Night of Union around which Sema dance performances took place each year on December 17. The ante-room before entering into the main tomb building was used as a place to read from the Koran by dervishes. Today fine examples of famous calligraphy artists are on display. Inside the building on the right hand side of the hall, which is roofed by three domes, there are 55 graves belonging to Mevlana’s male relatives and dignitaries. Right under the center of the green dome lies a sarcophagus of blue marble made for Mevlana and his son Sultan Veled, made as a present by Suleyman the Magnificent. The blue marble sarcophagus is covered with a fine cloth with verses of the Koran embroidered in gold thread, a gift of Sultan Abdulhamit II in 1894.

The semahane is the hall where the Sema dance ceremonies took place. The lodges for men and women and partitions for musicians are also in this section. There is a selection of the instruments used to accompany the Sema dance-the ney, rebab, tef and tambur- and some of Mevlana’s garments which have been preserved. The small mosque section which is entered through a small door, was built during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. Valuable samples of calligraphy, illuminated manuscripts and book bindings as well as fine examples of Turkish carpets are on display. There is one silk carpet in the collection with 144 knots per square centimeter (924 knots per square inch) which is considered to be the most expensive carpet in the world.	A fine example of Calligraphy, Mevlana Museum, Konya

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