Konya Tour & Sema Ceremony — Mevlâna Day Tour

Konya Tour & Sema Ceremony — Mevlâna and the Whirling Dervishes

Step into the spiritual heart of Turkey on this full-day Konya tour with a Sema ceremony, a journey through the city of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rûmî, the great Sufi poet, and an evening before the mesmerising whirling of the dervishes. With a professional guide and private transport, you explore Konya's Seljuk heritage by day and witness an authentic Mevlevi ritual by night.

Highlights of the Konya Day Tour

• Mevlâna Museum — the green-domed mausoleum and resting place of Rûmî, heart of the Mevlevi order.
• Seljuk Konya — historic mosques and madrasas from the city's golden age as a Seljuk capital.
• Authentic Sema Ceremony — the full ritual performed by a 13-member Sema group led by the Postnişin (head dervish).
• Live Sufi music — a six-person mutrip ensemble accompanies the whirling.
• Evening performance — a peaceful, spiritual close to the day.

Welcome to Konya, the spiritual capital of Turkey and the city where the thirteenth-century mystic Mevlâna Rûmî lived, taught and is buried. Your tour centres on the serene Mevlâna Museum, the green-tiled mausoleum that draws pilgrims and travellers from around the world, and takes in the elegant mosques and Seljuk madrasas that fill the old city with carved stone and turquoise tilework.

As evening falls you take your seat for an authentic Sema ceremony, the sacred ritual of the Mevlevi order in which the dervishes whirl in white robes to the sound of the reed flute, drum and chant, their right hands raised to heaven and their left turned to the earth. Performed by a thirteen-member Sema group and a six-person musical delegation, it is a profound and moving experience and a perfect introduction to the soul of Sufism and Turkish culture before you return to your hotel.