Our first stop was in Konya to visit the Mevlana Museum. Konya is the spiritual home of Sufism. The main belief of Sufism is that unification with Allah is the most important goal of an individual's life. They believe that mysticism and its methods are the best way to achieve that. The founder of the mystic brotherhood ritual dance was Mevlana Cealeddin-i Rumi, most commonly called Rumi. He was a poet and believed that the use of music, dance, and poetry as a path to reach God. He thought music helped his devotees focus on the Devine. It was from these ideas that the practice of whirling Dervishes developed into a ritual form.
As we entered, we went first into the Tilavat Chamber, where Tumi's tomb is located. He died in 1273AD. This is where the Dervishes read the Koran when it was used when the Mevlevi Lodge was functioning. There were several tombs of Dervishes in the museum.
Rumi is actually buried underground here, but this is his sarcophagus in the museum. The turquoise blue tower outside is the "tomb." The turquoise color symbolizes wisdom, skill, and strength for the Turkish people.
Other tombs
The calligraphy and books on display were amazing.
Outside in the courtyard were several rooms with examples of the Dervish life and artifacts from the 1200s.
We really were amazed at everything we saw. It's hard to grasp the magnitude of everything in just a couple of hours.
After our museum stop we had lunch in town and it was pretty delicious. Tobey and I shared the Tirit Tandir. It was a baked lamb and beef dish with potato and bread chunks underneath and wonderful spices. The restaurant also had really great bread to eat with it.
After lunch it was back on the bus and drive, drive, drive to Cappadocia. We went by one of the volcanos in Turkey.
And on and on we went until we started to enter Cappadocia. Cappadocia means "Land of Beautiful Horses" in Persian. The name reflects the region's historical significance as a major equine center under Persian rule.
We finally arrived at our hotel about 7:00pm and were tired. After a quick (but very noisy) dinner in the hotel dining room we are settling in for the night. It will be a VERY early morning because we have a hot air balloon ride scheduled and our pick up time is 5:25am. The internet at the hotel is terrible, so it will be a couple days before this will post. Good night!
We finally arrived at our hotel about 7:00pm and were tired. After a quick (but very noisy) dinner in the hotel dining room we are settling in for the night. It will be a VERY early morning because we have a hot air balloon ride scheduled and our pick up time is 5:25am. The internet at the hotel is terrible, so it will be a couple days before this will post. Good night!
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