Things to do in Konya
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Ikonium
Konya was traditionally a felt-making centre but the art is fast dying out in Turkey. Passionate keçeki (felt- maker) Mehmet and his Argentinean wife Silvia offer treats including op-art-style patterns and what might be the world's largest hand-decorated piece of felt.
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Museum of Wooden Artefacts & Stone Carving
On the western side of the Alaaddin Tepesi ring road is the İnce Minare Medresesi (Seminary of the Slender Minaret), now the Museum of Wooden Artefacts & Stone Carving. This religious school was built in 1264 for Sahip Ata, a powerful Seljuk vizier, who may have been trying to outdo the patron of the Karatay Medresesi, built only seven years earlier.
The extraordinarily elaborate doorway, with bands of Arabic inscription running all round it, is far more impressive than the small building behind it. The octagonal minaret in turquoise relief is over 600 years old and gave the seminary its popular name. If it looks a bit short, this is because the top was sliced off by lig…
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Alaaddin Camii
Konya's most important religious building after the Mevlâna shrine, this Seljuk mosque bestrides Alaaddin Tepesi. You may be able to wander in outside the listed opening hours. Built for Alaeddin Keykubad I, Sultan of Rum from 1219 to 1231, the rambling 13th-century building was designed by a Damascene architect in Arab style. Over the centuries it was embellished, refurbished, ruined and restored. Today, the mosque is entered from the east. The grand original entrance on the northern side incorporates decoration from earlier Byzantine and Roman buildings. The courtyard here features two huge Seljuk türbes (tombs), the left of which is the most impressive part of the co…
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Koyunoğlu Museum
This little-visited museum contains the legacy of Izzet Koyunoğlu. The railway inspector built up his esoteric collection of rare, er, collectables on his travels through Turkey. Our heart goes out to the tired-looking stuffed pelican, but there is a wonderful variety of exhibits, encompassing prehistoric bones, rhinoceros-horn rosaries, boxwood spoons bearing words of wisdom about food, 19th-century carriage clocks, and old photos of Konya and whirling dervishes. Ask the guards to unlock the recreated Koyunoğlu Konya Evi, which shows how a well-heeled Konyalı family lived a century ago. Izzet lived in the original building with US$3 million of art around him. The quick…
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Konya's Bazaar
Konya's bazaar sprawls virtually all the way to the Mevlâna Museum, cramming the narrow streets with stalls, roving vendors and the occasional horse-drawn cart. The streets are divided up in very medieval fashion: here a section for coils of rope, there one for gold jewellery, nearby one for mobile-phone accessories. There's a concentration of shops selling religious paraphernalia and tacky souvenirs at the Mevlâna Museum end.
It is the most exciting place to shop for fresh fruit, vegetables, cheese etc.
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Sahib-i Ata Külliyesi
A few blocks south of the Tombstone Museum, along Sırçalı Medrese Caddesi, is this mosque complex. Behind its requisite grand entrance with built-in minaret is the Sahib-i Ata Camii, originally constructed during the reign of Alaaddin Keykavus. Destroyed by fire in 1871, it was rebuilt in 13th-century style. The mihrab is a fine example of blue Seljuk tile work. Alongside the mosque another grand gateway once led to a dervish lodge.
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Archaeological Museum
The small but interesting Archaeological Museum, beside the Sahib-i Ata Külliyesi, houses local Iron Age artefacts, Byzantine mosaics from Sille and Çorum, some bizarre lumpy Assyrian lamps, and several impressive, intact sarcophagi decorated with high-relief carvings. However, the unusually informative displays on Neolithic Çatalhöyük, 50km southeast of Konya are the top draw, combining a good explanation of the site with finds including necklaces, rings and a fragment of wall painting.
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Tile Museum
Housed in a former Seljuk theological school, this museum was closed for restoration when we visited. The building was constructed in 1251–52 by Emir Celaleddin Karatay, a Seljuk general, vizier and statesman who is buried in one of the corner rooms. The museum is well worth a look if it reopens before your visit; the outstanding collection of ceramics includes interesting octagonal Seljuk tiles.
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Mevlâna Museum
For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the main reason to come to Konya is to visit the Mevlâna Museum, the former lodge of the whirling dervishes. On religious holidays the museum (really a shrine) may keep longer hours.
Celaleddin Rumi, the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, produced one of the world's great mystic philosophers. His poetry and religious writings, mostly in Persian, the literary language of the day, are among the most beloved and respected in the Islamic world. Rumi later became known as Mevlâna (Our Guide) to his followers.
Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh (Afghanistan). His family fled the impending Mongol invasion by moving to Mecca and then to the Sultanate of Rum, …
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Köşk Konya Mutfağı
Southeast of the centre, this excellent traditional restaurant is run by the well-known food writer Nevin Halıcı, who puts her personal twist on Turkish classics. The service is excellent and the outside tables rub shoulders with vine-draped pillars and a fragrant rose garden. The menu features some unusual dishes like the mouth-clogging dessert höşmerim.
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Tombstone Museum
Several other Seljuk monuments lurk in the narrow warren of streets to the south of Alaaddin Tepesi. Look for the pint-sized Kadı Mürsel Camii, then turn down the side of it, opposite the brown school building with the blue sign. After a few minutes you'll come to another Seljuk seminary, the Sırçalı Medrese (Glass Seminary), named after its tiled exterior. Sponsored by the Seljuk vizier Bedreddin Muhlis, the 13th-century building houses a small Tombstone Museum, with a collection of tombstones featuring finely carved inscriptions. The eyvan on the western side of the courtyard was used for classes; it is decorated with blue tiles and its arch has a band of particula…
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Konya Cadde Restaurant
Beside the İnce Minare, this restaurant is a low-lit, 1st-floor place which will do for a night out as well as a meal. On a good night the place is packed with an unconservative slice of the populace seeking beer and live music.
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Akça Konak
This is a neat restored house near the Hotel Balıkçılar with tables inside and outside, live music and post-prandial nargilehs (water pipes). The menu is pretty standard but does feature a few regional specialities.
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Aziziye Camii
Originally built in the 1670s and destroyed in a fire, this was rebuilt in 1875 in late- Ottoman, baroque and rococo styles. Located in the bazaar, it has twin minarets with sheltered balconies, and a sign pointing out its interesting features.
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Osmanlı Çarşısı
An early-20th-century house serving çay, coffee and nargilehs. It's popular with Turkish students, there's a rustic toast wagon outside and the whole place has more character than a whirlpool full of dervishes.
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Aydın Et Lokantası
This lokanta's decor centres on a fake green oak tree with an ailing goldfish in the pool at its base, but the open kitchen is reassuring. You can try etli ekmek here and the menu has English translations.
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Şemsi Tebrizi Camii
Contains the elegant 14th-century tomb of Rumi's spiritual mentor, in a park just northwest of Hükümet Meydanı.
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Şifa Lokantası
Tandır kebap tops Şifa's bill of standards. Service can be pretty rushed when it's busy, but at least there's a good view of the main drag.
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Sema Lokantası
In the backstreets north of the centre, the Sema is a cheery place that serves the usual kebaps and stews as well as a good range of desserts - try the aşure (Noah's ark pudding).
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İplikçi Camii
The İplikçi Camii, perhaps Konya's oldest mosque (1202), was built for the Seljuk vizier Şemseddin Altun-Aba in unadorned style: a forest of columns, arches and vaults.
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Konya Fuarı
In the evening it's fun to duck into the grounds of the Konya Fuarı, where you can sip tea while watching the locals navigate pedaloes round an artificial lake.
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Café Zeugma
With its backlit carvings and strobes, this cavernous cultural centre is quite popular with students for its live music.
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Selimiye Camii
Across from the museum entrance is the Selimiye Camii, endowed by Sultan Selim II in 1567 when he was the governor of Konya.
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Tarihi Mahkeme Hamamı
The Tarihi Mahkeme Hamamı, behind the Şerafettin Camii, is the city's most interesting hamam.
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Sürüm
Sugar addicts can spoil their sweet teeth at Sürüm, a chocolate shop established in 1926.
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