Konya is one of Turkey's oldest continuously inhabited cities,and was the capital of the Seljuk Turks. It ranks as one of the great cultural centres of Turkey. This is also where the mystic Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi founded a Sufi Order known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes. There are a number of historic monuments and museums in Konya, deifinitely worth seeing.

SITES OF INTEREST: Çamlıköy, Yakamanastır, Kale, Huğlu, Karaburun and Kızılören forest recreation areas, Meram vinyards, hot springs, İvriz stone relief, Beyşehir Castle, Akmanastır (monastry), Hagia Eleni Church, Sırçalı old theological school (medrese), Tacül Vezir old theological school (medrese) and Mausoleum, İnce Minareli Medrese, Ali Gav, Küçük Karatay, Karatay and İsmail Aka (Taş Medrese) old theological schools (medrese), Has Bey and Nasuh Bey Quran schools for children (darülhuffaz), Seydişehir school for teachers (muallimhane), İplikçi Mosque and school, Sadreddin Konevi Mosque and Mausoleum, Alaeddin Dursunoğlu, Selimiye, Kapı, Aziziye, Eşrefoğlu and Pir Hüseyin mosques, Sahip Ata, Karabaş Veli and Lala Mustafa Pasha mosque complexes, Akşehir and Ereğli Grand Mosques, Mevlana Mausoleum and Dervish Lodge, Nasreddin Hoca Mausoleum, the small mosques (mescit) - Taş Mescit, Sırçalı Mescit, Karatay, Tahir and Zühre, Altunkalem, Güdük Minare and Küçük Ayasofya mescits, Yusuf Ağa Library, Kubadabad Palace, Seyyid Mahmud Hayran and Şeyh Şahabeddin lodges, Kızılviran, Sultan, Zazadin, Horozlu, Kadın, İshaklı and Kuruçeşme inns, Rüstem Pasha inn (caravansary), Konya Archeology, Karatay Tile Works, Konya Stone and Wood Works, Konya Monument Graves, Atatürk's House and Culture, Konya Ethnography, Konya Mevlana, Koyunoğlu, Akşehir Stone Works, Akşehir, Atatürk and Ethnography, Ereğli Museums.