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Konya - Bazaar
“Kirazlibahche” restaurant
“Kirazlibahche” restaurant
“Sema” - whirling dervishes danceKonya: Overview
In...
Konya: Overview
In the guise of a modern city, set alone in the midst of fertile Anatolian steppelands about 220 kilometers southwest of Nevsehir, is Konya. This is one of the oldest and most conservative places in the whole of Turkey.
Konya was first known and inhabited as 'Kuwanna' by the Hittites 4000 years ago, and has been an important provincial trading center since ever then. The Romans knew it as Iconium - a city in which the Apostle Paul once preached. In the 13th century it achieved political maturity as the capital of one of the selfgoverning states within the Seljuk empire, the Sultanate of Rum.
The city's religious reputation, which has persisted to the present day (Konya is the stronghold of current religious political parties and administered by a fundamentalist mayor), was inspired during the sultanate. At that time it became home to one of the most famous of the Islamic 'Sufi' mystics, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (1207-1273), the founder of the Order of Whirling Dervishes, whose influence quickly spread throughout the entire Muslim world.
Dervish worship consisted of a dance, the sema, which symbolized the unity of man and God. Disciples would whirl, accompanied by a music of the drum and ney (a reed flute) or sometimes a bigger orchestra with a choir. Ataturk banned the order in 1923 as part of his secular reforms, although every December a Dervish festival commemorating Rumi's death takes place. Officially, it is a 'cultural' and not a religious exercise.
Rumi's presence still dominates the modern city. Built originally as a mausoleum by the Seljuks, the Mevlana Museum in the center of the town is also the site of his tomb. Secular or not, it remains a shrine in character. On the tomb itself, shrouded in thick green velvet, is an extract of Rumi's poetry:
Come, Come! Whoever Whatever
you may be, Come! Heathen, Fire
Worshipper, Sinful of Idolatry,
Come! Come even if you have
broken your vows a hundred times -
Ours is not the Door Of Misery and
Despair, Come!
At the entrance to the tomb is exhibited the oldest manuscript of Rumi's most famous work, the epic Mesnevi, and other collections of his lyric poetry.
The sema itself was performed in the Semahane, an Ottoman structure to the north of the Green Dome. It now houses a fine collection of dervish paraphernalia ranging from music instruments to calligraphy. Across the street from the museum are the sprawling slum tenements and the market center of the city, which is worth strolling around.
From the museum it is not far to the impressive 13th-century Alaettin Camii, and the Biiyiik Karatay Medresesi. The latter was finished in the middle of the thirteenth century and today houses a remarkable collection of ceramics and wall tiles from the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Just as magnificent is the blueand-white marbled portal of the school.
Close by is the Seljuk Ince Minare Dar'ul Hadis which features another extravagant door and houses the Museum of Seljuk Stone and Wood Carving. The most interesting displays are the figurative stone decorations and bas-reliefs taken from the Konya Castle, which include depictions of animals such as rhinoceros and elephants. Technically, at least, these break strict Islamic bans on the drawing of creatures possessed of souls as idolatry. On Ressam Sarni Sokak is the Archaeological Museum, which displays a Roman sarcophagus with an immaculate stucco frieze of the twelve labors of Hercules.
Fifty kilometers to the south along the Silifke/Mersin road is fatal Hiiyiik which is said to be the site of the earliest human urban habitation on earth, dated back to around 7500 B.C. Not much remains for those who are not professional archaeologists. The road south continues through the flat plain, punctuated only by the town of Karaman (named after the Karamanid Turkish clan who were the last rivals of the Ottomans) and then plunges over the 1600 meter Sertavul Pass towards the town of Mut.
Suddenly, there are trees again. Mut is a debarkation point for rafts along the Goksu River, which empties into the Mediterranean at Silifke. Those traveling by car might like to stop off at Alahan, a Byzantine monastery with a dramatic view over the southern slopes of the Taurus Mountains.
Several westward options are also available from Konya. Beysehir and the lake of the same name lie about an hour by car over lower mountain passes. Nearly hidden by the muddy streets and general gloom of the contemporary town is the 13th-century Esrefpasa Cami, with elegant, carved wooden columns within and a splendid tile mirhab, which alone is worth a detour.
South of the lake, a new highway leads to the Mediterranean coast through the forests of the Taurus Mountains. A curiosity along the way is the town of Huglu, where the entire population devotes its energy to the manufacture of quality shotguns.
Turkish Lakes
Another trunk road cuts north of Beysehir Lake through lovely farm and apple orchard country towards Isparta and Afyon, and into Turkey's lake region.
Egridir is an old Seljuk city with the ruins of a grand mosque and bazaar located near the shore. A causeway in the middle of town heads to a small island where there are a number of pansiyons and small hotels.
More a swamp than a lake is Ebir Golu, between the towns of Sultandagi, day and Bolvidin. Bird watchers in summer and hunters in winter make use of flat-bottomed boats that are similar to British punts to wend their way through the two-meter reeds of the bird and duck filled marsh.
Overview
Other Places in Central Anatolia
Ankara
Bogazkale
Cappadocia
Konya
Konya: Overview
In the guise of a modern city, set alone in the midst of fertile Anatolian steppelands about 220 kilometers southwest of Nevsehir, is Konya. This is one of the oldest and most conservative places in the whole of Turkey.
Konya was first known and inhabited as 'Kuwanna' by the Hittites 4000 years ago, and has been an important provincial trading center since ever then. The Romans knew it as Iconium - a city in which the Apostle Paul once preached. In the 13th century it achieved political maturity as the capital of one of the selfgoverning states within the Seljuk empire, the Sultanate of Rum.
The city's religious reputation, which has persisted to the present day (Konya is the stronghold of current religious political parties and administered by a fundamentalist mayor), was inspired during the sultanate. At that time it became home to one of the most famous of the Islamic 'Sufi' mystics, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (1207-1273), the founder of the Order of Whirling Dervishes, whose influence quickly spread throughout the entire Muslim world.
Dervish worship consisted of a dance, the sema, which symbolized the unity of man and God. Disciples would whirl, accompanied by a music of the drum and ney (a reed flute) or sometimes a bigger orchestra with a choir. Ataturk banned the order in 1923 as part of his secular reforms, although every December a Dervish festival commemorating Rumi's death takes place. Officially, it is a 'cultural' and not a religious exercise.
Rumi's presence still dominates the modern city. Built originally as a mausoleum by the Seljuks, the Mevlana Museum in the center of the town is also the site of his tomb. Secular or not, it remains a shrine in character. On the tomb itself, shrouded in thick green velvet, is an extract of Rumi's poetry:
Come, Come! Whoever Whatever
you may be, Come! Heathen, Fire
Worshipper, Sinful of Idolatry,
Come! Come even if you have
broken your vows a hundred times -
Ours is not the Door Of Misery and
Despair, Come!
At the entrance to the tomb is exhibited the oldest manuscript of Rumi's most famous work, the epic Mesnevi, and other collections of his lyric poetry.
The sema itself was performed in the Semahane, an Ottoman structure to the north of the Green Dome. It now houses a fine collection of dervish paraphernalia ranging from music instruments to calligraphy. Across the street from the museum are the sprawling slum tenements and the market center of the city, which is worth strolling around.
From the museum it is not far to the impressive 13th-century Alaettin Camii, and the Biiyiik Karatay Medresesi. The latter was finished in the middle of the thirteenth century and today houses a remarkable collection of ceramics and wall tiles from the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Just as magnificent is the blueand-white marbled portal of the school.
Close by is the Seljuk Ince Minare Dar'ul Hadis which features another extravagant door and houses the Museum of Seljuk Stone and Wood Carving. The most interesting displays are the figurative stone decorations and bas-reliefs taken from the Konya Castle, which include depictions of animals such as rhinoceros and elephants. Technically, at least, these break strict Islamic bans on the drawing of creatures possessed of souls as idolatry. On Ressam Sarni Sokak is the Archaeological Museum, which displays a Roman sarcophagus with an immaculate stucco frieze of the twelve labors of Hercules.
Fifty kilometers to the south along the Silifke/Mersin road is fatal Hiiyiik which is said to be the site of the earliest human urban habitation on earth, dated back to around 7500 B.C. Not much remains for those who are not professional archaeologists. The road south continues through the flat plain, punctuated only by the town of Karaman (named after the Karamanid Turkish clan who were the last rivals of the Ottomans) and then plunges over the 1600 meter Sertavul Pass towards the town of Mut.
Suddenly, there are trees again. Mut is a debarkation point for rafts along the Goksu River, which empties into the Mediterranean at Silifke. Those traveling by car might like to stop off at Alahan, a Byzantine monastery with a dramatic view over the southern slopes of the Taurus Mountains.
Several westward options are also available from Konya. Beysehir and the lake of the same name lie about an hour by car over lower mountain passes. Nearly hidden by the muddy streets and general gloom of the contemporary town is the 13th-century Esrefpasa Cami, with elegant, carved wooden columns within and a splendid tile mirhab, which alone is worth a detour.
South of the lake, a new highway leads to the Mediterranean coast through the forests of the Taurus Mountains. A curiosity along the way is the town of Huglu, where the entire population devotes its energy to the manufacture of quality shotguns.
Turkish Lakes
Another trunk road cuts north of Beysehir Lake through lovely farm and apple orchard country towards Isparta and Afyon, and into Turkey's lake region.
Egridir is an old Seljuk city with the ruins of a grand mosque and bazaar located near the shore. A causeway in the middle of town heads to a small island where there are a number of pansiyons and small hotels.
More a swamp than a lake is Ebir Golu, between the towns of Sultandagi, day and Bolvidin. Bird watchers in summer and hunters in winter make use of flat-bottomed boats that are similar to British punts to wend their way through the two-meter reeds of the bird and duck filled marsh.
Overview
Other Places in Central Anatolia
Ankara
Bogazkale
Cappadocia
Konya
Thanks to TravelWizard.Com Travel And Cruise Consultants: Konya Vacations
