Konya Holidays

Konya is located in the heart of the Anatolian plateau, 260 km to the south of capital city of Ankara and it is one of Turkey's oldest continuously inhabited sites. Today its population is slightly over 1.5 million.

Konya is known throughout the world as the home of the whirling dervishes. Konya also is the trade center of a rich agricultural and livestock-raising region. Manufactures include cement, kilims/carpets, cookies and other flour products, leather, cotton, sugar, aluminium, silk goods and agricultural fertilizer. From the 12th to the 13th century, the Moslem mystic Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi founded the sect of Whirling Dervishes. Mevlana Celaledin Rumi was born in 1207 in the town of Balkh in Khurasan (near Mazar-I-Sharif in Afghanistan), then in 1228 he settled in Konya.After his death (1273), his disciples founded an Sufi order by his son(Veled) which became known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes, who sought to achieve ecstasy and unity with God through controlled trance-like spinning.
The city is very rich in Seljuk and Ottoman history. The most famous building in Konya is the Green Mausoleum of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi. The former dervish seminary attached to the mausoleum is now a museum devoted to manuscripts of Mevlana's works and various accoutrements of the sect. Also of interest is the Selimiye Mosque, located near the mausoleum of Mevlana. It is a beautiful example of classical Ottoman architecture. The construction began during the prince hood of Sultan Selim II when he was governor of Konya in 1558, and it was finished in 1587.