Konya: One of the great cultural centres of Turkey

Konya is one of Turkey's oldest continuously inhabited cities and was known as Iconium in Roman times. As the capital of the Seljuk Turks from the 12th to the 13th centuries, it ranks as one of the great cultural centres of Turkey. During that period of cultural, political and religious growth, the mystic Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi founded a Sufi order known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes. The striking green-tiled mausoleum of Mevlana is Konya's most famous building. Attached to the mausoleum, the former dervish seminary now serves as a museum housing manucripts of Mevlana's works and various artefacts related to the mysticism of the sect. Every year during the first half of December, a ceremony is held in commemoration of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, with the controlled, trance-like turning or sema of the white-robed men creating a fascinating performance for the viewer. The Alaeddin Mosque was built on the site of Konya's old citadel dating from 1221 during the reign of the great Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubat, and today commands the Konya skyline. To one side of the mosque are the remains of the Seljuk Imperial Palace. The Karatay Madrasah, now a museum, displays bold and striking Seljuk ceramics. On the other side of the mosque, the İnce Minareli Madrasah of 1264 is remarkable for its marvellous baroque Seljuk portal. Other Seljuk works include the Sırçalı Madrasah and the Sahip Ata Complex. Sille, 8km north of Konya, has the Byzantine Aya Eleni church and several rock chapels with frescoes. Akşehir, to the northwest, is thought to have been as the birthplace of the 13th- century humorist Nasreddin Hodja, whose mausoleum stands in the town. On the way to Beyşehir, stop at Eflatun Pınar next to the lake to see this unusual Hittite monumental fountain. Several interesting Seljuk buildings are scattered around lovely Beyşehir found on the shores of the lake of the same name, Turkey's third largest lake. Forty-five kilometres south of Konya, Çatalhöyük is renowned as one of the earliest settlements of the Neolithic era, shedding light on the dawn of human settlement with unique examples of the earliest domestic architecture and landscape painting as well as sacred objects of the mother-goddess cult. Surrounding Karapınar, 94km southeast of Konya, are numerous crater lakes, the most famous being the lovely Meke Crater Lake with an island in the middle. On the north side of the road to Ereğli, 10km from Karapınar, lies Acı Crater Lake. Surrounding Ereğli, one of the largest counties in Konya, are yellow cherry trees. At İvriz, a Hittite site 180km east of Konya and 18km south of Ereğli, you can see one of Turkey's finest neo-Hittite reliefs of a king and god of bountiful crops.