Daily Mevlana Museum & Sille Aya Helena Church Tour from Konya

Konya Day Trip to the Mevlana Museum, Meram and the Aya Helena Church in Sille

This daily Konya tour to the Mevlana Museum and Sille Aya Helena Church follows two faiths that shaped the city: the Sufi legacy of Rumi and the early Christian heritage of the old village of Sille. Starting from Konya with hotel pickup, the guided daily excursion also includes lunch at a traditional restaurant and a panoramic drive through the Meram district.

• Mevlana Museum – Rumi's mausoleum and the former lodge of the Mevlevi order
• Inside the museum – the Matbah kitchen, the tombs, the Tilavet chamber and the Sema-Hane hall
• Selimiye Mosque – the Ottoman mosque beside the museum
• Lunch at an authentic local restaurant
• Panoramic Meram tour through Konya's green district
• Aya Helena Church in Sille – a stone church linked to Empress Helena

The day opens at the Mevlana Museum, the tomb of the 13th-century mystic poet Rumi, also called Mevlana. The complex was once the tekke of the Mevlevi order, known around the world as the Whirling Dervishes. Your guide shows you the sections open to visitors: the Matbah where novices served in the kitchen, the tombs, the Tilavet chamber for Quran recitation and the Sema-Hane, the ritual hall of the whirling ceremony. Next door, the Selimiye Mosque was commissioned by Selim II; building began in 1558 when he was a prince and finished in 1567, shortly after he became sultan.

In the afternoon this Konya day tour moves on to Meram for a panoramic drive, then to Sille, a village where Christians and Muslims lived side by side for centuries. The Aya Helena Church is built of neatly cut local Sille stone, with rock-carved rooms in its courtyard and an outer narthex entered from the north door. Tradition says that in 327 AD Helena, mother of the Byzantine emperor, passed through Konya on her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, saw the early Christian rock-cut temples and decided to found a church here, attending the foundation ceremony herself; it was dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Restored many times over the centuries, the building still carries a repair inscription in Turkish written in Greek letters. The pace is easy and suits all ages, making it a well-rounded daily tour from Konya.