Daily Mevlana Museum & Kilistra Tour from Konya – Meram & Selimiye

Konya Day Trip to Rumi's Mausoleum and the Ancient Settlement of Kilistra

This daily Mevlana Museum and Kilistra tour from Konya links the city's great Sufi shrine with a quiet Hellenistic and Roman settlement in the countryside, offering two very different chapters of Anatolian history in one relaxed day. Hotel pickup, an English-speaking guide, lunch in a traditional restaurant and entrance fees are all arranged for you, so this daily Konya tour runs smoothly from start to finish.

• Mevlana Museum – the mausoleum of Rumi and former lodge of the Mevlevi order
• Museum interiors – the Matbah kitchen, the tombs, the Tilavet Chamber and the Sema-Hane
• Selimiye Mosque – a 16th-century Ottoman mosque right next to the museum
• Lunch in an authentic local restaurant
• Panoramic Meram drive through Konya's green district
• Kilistra – an ancient settlement on the King's Road linked with St Paul

The Mevlana Museum is where Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, the Sufi mystic remembered as Mevlana, is buried, and it served as the tekke of the Whirling Dervishes. During this day tour you see all of its open sections, from the Matbah where dervishes began their training to the Tilavet Chamber for Quran recitation and the Sema-Hane, the hall of the whirling ceremony. Next door, the Selimiye Mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II: work started in 1558 while he was a prince and finished in 1567, shortly after his accession.

The second half of this daily excursion heads into the countryside to Kilistra. The settlement was first established in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, between the 2nd century BC and the 3rd century AD, and lies on the historic King's Road. St Paul, whose journeys are told in the Bible, is said to have stayed here for a while, which gives the site a special place on early Christian routes.

Practical notes: the programme suits all ages with easy walking. Comfortable shoes are useful at Kilistra, and modest dress is needed in the mosque and museum.