Konya, one of Turkey's oldest continuously inhabited cities was known as Iconium in Roman times. The capital of the Seljuk Turks from the 12th to the 13th century, it ranks as one of the great cultural centres of Turkey. During this period of artistic, political and religious growth, the mystic Mevlana Celaleddin 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 serves now as a museum devoted to manuscripts of Mevlana's works and various artifacts related to the mysticism of the sect.. Every year, in the first half of December, this still active religious order holds a ceremony commemorating the Whirling Dervishes. The controlled, almost trance-like turning of the white robed men creates a mystical experience for the viewer.
Visitors find Konya's Archaeological Museum of exceptional interest. The collection of the KPlayingoglu Museum is a varied one, and among its displays one is devoted to natural history while another to old kilims. Within the museum complex the restored Izzettin KPlayingoglu house illustrates the way of life of a prosperous Konya family.
Catalhoyuk, 45 km south of Konya, is a fascinating Neolithic site dating from the eight millennium B.C., which makes it one of the world's oldest towns. Archaeologists have determined that holes in the roofs of the mud houses were the entrance doors. Ankara's Museum of Anatolian Civilisations displays the famous temple, mother-goddess figures and Neolithic frescoes from the site. At Ivriz, a Hittite site 168 km east of Konya, you can see one of Turkey's finest neo-Hittite reliefs of a king and fertility god.