Konya is the spiritual soul of Turkey. In this quiet, religious city on the Anatolian plateau lived, in the 13th century, one of humanity's greatest and most beloved poets: Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, a Sufi master whose verses on divine love are still read, translated, sung and quoted all over the world eight hundred years later. His mausoleum, crowned by an unmistakable dome of green tiles, is today one of the most visited places in the country, a destination for pilgrims and travellers who come to pause in reflection before the poet's tomb.
Konya also gave the world one of Turkey's most hypnotic images: the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order, founded by Rumi's followers. Dressed in long white robes and tall felt hats, they spin and spin in a sacred dance called the sema, a meditation in motion through which they seek to draw closer to God. Seeing a sema ceremony in Konya, where it was born, is a serene and moving experience, very different from the tourist shows in other cities.
But Konya is more than Rumi. It was the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, and from that golden age it keeps mosques, madrasas and palaces with exquisite tilework and carved stone. And just a short trip away is Çatalhöyük, one of the first town-cities in human history, nine thousand years old. This guide helps you plan your visit: what to see, when and where to watch the sema, how much things cost, how to get there by fast train and how to get around. Konya rewards travellers looking for history, art and spirituality, far from the tourist bustle.
Konya is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world: nearby is Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement from some nine thousand years ago considered one of humanity's first proto-towns. Under the name Iconium it was a Phrygian, Greek, Roman (the apostle Paul visited it) and Byzantine city. Its great heyday came in the 12th and 13th centuries, when it became the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, the Turkish power that ruled central Anatolia: it filled with exquisitely decorated mosques, madrasas and palaces. It was to this cosmopolitan, cultured Konya that the family of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi came, fleeing the Mongols; the Persian poet and mystic lived, taught and died there in 1273, and his followers founded the Sufi order of the whirling dervishes (Mevlevi). After the Seljuks came the beyliks and the Ottoman Empire, and Konya remained a major religious and pilgrimage centre. All of that history, from Çatalhöyük to Rumi and the Ottomans, is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The heart of the Anatolian plateau: the land of Hittites and Phrygians, Atatürk's capital of Ankara, the Christian Cappadocia of the rock-cut churches, the Konya of the dervishes and Ottoman Safranbolu.
Read the history of Central Anatolia and the Black Sea →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Few cities can claim to be as old as Konya. A few kilometres from today's city lies Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement inhabited about nine thousand years ago (between 7400 and 5200 BC). It is considered one of the first proto-towns or 'cities' in human history. People there lived at a turning point, when humans were giving up the nomadic life and becoming farmers. Thousands of them lived in mud-brick houses packed tightly against one another, with no streets, and they entered their homes through the roof. Their wall paintings, bull reliefs and 'mother goddess' figurines are among the oldest surviving evidence of art and religion.
The city proper, on the hill now known as Alâeddin Hill, also has thousands of years of continuous history. It was a centre in the Bronze Age, and in classical antiquity it was called Iconium (Ikónion), a city in the region of Lycaonia. It came under Phrygian rule, then Persian, then Hellenistic after Alexander the Great, and finally Roman. Through all of this, Iconium was an important stop on the routes across central Anatolia. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle Paul visited it on his missionary journeys, and the city had an early Christian community.
As part of the Byzantine Empire, Iconium remained a frontier city, exposed to raids. Over time its name changed from Iconium to Konya. But its great moment, the one that would make it one of the cultural capitals of the Islamic world, was still to come. It would arrive with a people new to Anatolia: the Seljuk Turks.
At the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine army and opened Anatolia to Turkish settlement. Afterwards a new state took shape on the peninsula: the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum (meaning 'of Rome', because these lands had been Byzantine). In the early 12th century the sultans chose Konya as their capital, and the city enjoyed its greatest splendour between the late 12th century and the 13th century.
Under sultans such as Alâeddin Keykubad I, Konya became a great cultured and cosmopolitan capital, one of the intellectual and artistic centres of the medieval Islamic world. Mosques, madrasas (schools), palaces, caravanserais and city walls went up. Their turquoise tiles, carved stone and calligraphy defined the refined, elegant Seljuk style. Gems from that era still survive today: the Alâeddin Mosque, the Karatay Madrasa (with its star-patterned tiled dome), the İnce Minare Madrasa (with its carved stone portal) and the sultans' mausoleums.
This prosperous and tolerant Konya was a refuge for scholars, poets, craftsmen and mystics from all over the Islamic world. Many of them were fleeing the Mongol advance across Central Asia and Persia. In the early 13th century, a family of scholars from the city of Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan) arrived there. Among them was a boy named Celaleddin, who would one day be known all over the world as Mevlana Rumi, and who would link Konya's name to poetry and spirituality forever.
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (1207-1273) is one of the greatest and best-loved figures in human history. He was probably born in Balkh, in Central Asia. His family moved west to escape the Mongol invasion and finally settled in Konya, then the Seljuk capital. There Rumi trained as an Islamic teacher and jurist, and he became respected, with many disciples. Around 1244 his life took a decisive turn when he met a wandering dervish called Shams of Tabriz. Shams was an intense and enigmatic mystic who became Rumi's soulmate and spiritual guide.
Meeting Shams transformed Rumi: the wise, sober teacher became an ecstatic poet, intoxicated with divine love. Shams then vanished mysteriously (he was probably murdered by jealous disciples). His disappearance plunged Rumi into a deep grief, and a torrent of poetry poured out of it. Rumi wrote the Divan-e Shams (dedicated to his friend) and, above all, the Masnavi. This long Persian poem runs to thousands of verses full of stories, parables and teachings. It has been called 'the Qur'an in Persian' and is one of the high points of the world's mystical literature.
Rumi's message went far beyond his own time, religion and language: love as the path to God, tolerance, the unity of all things and the search within. His verses have been translated into countless languages and are still read, sung and quoted around the world eight hundred years later. Today Rumi is one of the most widely read poets on the planet. He died in Konya on 17 December 1273. His followers call that date Şeb-i Arus, the 'wedding night', because they believe it was the day the master's soul was finally united with the divine. Every year on that date, Konya fills with pilgrims who come to remember him.
After Rumi's death, his son Sultan Veled and his disciples organised his teachings into a Sufi brotherhood: the Mevlevi order (from Mevlana, 'our master'), known in the West as the whirling dervishes. The order's mother house was established around Rumi's tomb in Konya, where the mausoleum with its famous green-tiled dome was built. From there the order spread throughout the Ottoman world, with lodges (tekke) in Istanbul, the Balkans, Syria and Egypt.
The best-known feature of the Mevlevi is their ceremony, the sema. In this ritual dance the dervishes turn slowly on the spot with their arms open, one hand raised to the sky to receive divine grace and the other turned to the earth to pass it on. They wear long white robes and tall felt hats, and they turn to Sufi music and the sound of the ney flute. It is not a dance for entertainment but a meditation in motion. It is a form of prayer through which the dervish seeks to let go of the ego and unite with God, turning as the planets and everything in the universe turn. Unesco has recognised the sema ceremony as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
For centuries the Mevlevi order had enormous cultural influence in the Ottoman world. It was a centre of music, poetry and calligraphy, and several sultans were its patrons. But in 1925 Atatürk's young Republic of Turkey, as part of its secularisation policy, closed all Sufi orders and their lodges, including the Mevlevi, and the Konya tekke became a museum. The dance survived as a cultural tradition, and over the years its ceremonial side was revived too. Today the dervishes whirl in Konya again, especially at the December festival, keeping an eight-hundred-year-old tradition alive.
The Seljuk sultanate declined in the 13th century, weakened by pressure from the Mongols. Konya then passed through the hands of several beyliks (Turkish principalities), such as the Karamanids, until it was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. Under the Ottomans, Konya was no longer a capital, but it remained an important religious and farming centre and a place of pilgrimage. Much of this was thanks to the prestige of the Mevlana shrine, which drew the faithful from across the empire. Ottoman mosques went up, such as the elegant Aziziye, and the city kept its devout and traditional character.
In the Republican era, Konya became one of the major cities of central Anatolia. It is the farming capital of a vast grain-growing plain (it is known as 'the breadbasket of Turkey'), an industrial and university centre, and a stronghold of conservative, religious Turkey. At the same time it kept its spiritual identity. The closure of the Mevlevi order in 1925 did not erase devotion to Rumi, and his mausoleum became one of the most visited museums in the country, part museum and part place of pilgrimage.
Today's Konya is a large, modern city with a tram, universities and a thriving economy, but it remains deeply tied to its heritage. Every December, around the anniversary of Rumi's death, it holds the Şeb-i Arus festival. Thousands of visitors from Turkey and around the world come to attend the sema ceremonies. All year round, pilgrims and travellers come to pause in reflection at the tomb of the poet who preached love and tolerance. Konya offers travellers a unique journey through the history, art and spirituality of Anatolia. It takes in the Çatalhöyük site, at the very origins of urban life, the Seljuk monuments and the universal legacy of Rumi.
