Konya Travel Guide

Roman Iconium Konya, the largest city of Turkiye (Turkey) in size, was a very important stop along the Silk Road with housing the first settlement of mankind in Çatalhöyük. After 1084 it became the capital of Seljuk Empire, and Seljuk architecture still gives the city its flavour. It became a religious centre after the Sufi poet and saint, Rumi, was buried here in the 13th century, and the lodge of the whirling dervishes he founded is now a museum. It is the meeting point of great philosophers and scholars such as Mevlana Rumi, Muhiddin Arabi, Sems-i Tabrizi, Kadı Burhaneddin and Sadreddin Konevi. A proliferation of mosques and seminaries make the city one of the most religious, and conservative, in Turkiye (Turkey).

It is not only famous for its rich industry and fertile agriculture but also has a fame with its culture, tradition, economy and amazing unique masterpieces taking a place in the list of UNESCO World Heritage.

During the period of cultural, political and religious growth if Seljuks, 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 month of December, dervish ceremonies are 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 Ince Minareli Madrasah of 1264 is remarkable for its marvellous baroque Seljuk portal.

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. Catalhöyük, one of the oldest(or the oldest according to some historians) human settlement in the world. It contains a cave painting of a volcanic eruption, which dates back to 6500 BC. Although there aren’t huge amounts to see, the settlement mound of Çatalhöyük is one of the most important excavation sites in the world. Here, archaeologists have uncovered the largest Neolithic site ever found, with settlement here dating to approximately 9,000 years ago. Excavations are ongoing, and if you visit in summer, you can sometimes watch archaeologists working at the site.

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.

Extolled by Marco Polo, Konya, or Seljuk rugs and carpets were famous during the Renaissance, and are the oldest surviving examples of carpets woven with the symmetrical ghiordes knot.