Traveling in Turkey During the Corona Restrictions – Part 3

Konya has a population of over 1.1 million and has retained its name for centuries. According to one legend, the name comes from the event when Perseus beheaded a dragon, and the inhabitants carved an icon with his image in a stone obelisk in gratitude and honor. And it's from this event – the carving of the icon (Ikonyon, Ikonyum, Iconium) that the name of the city – Konya – is said to have originated. But there's another legend that speaks about the origin of the name. Two dervishes, friends of Allah, flew over central Anatolia on horseback, after which one asked the other: "Should we land? (“Konayim mi?”) And the latter replied: "Of course, land!" (“Kon ya!”) And so they landed and founded the city.

Regardless of the city’s origins, in Konya everything revolves, almost literally, around Mevlana. Celaleddin Rumi, the Seljuk Sultan, is one of the world’s greatest mystical philosophers, and his poems and religious writings, mostly in Persian, speak of the most beloved and respected in Islam. The nickname Mevlana (translated as “Our Guide”) was given to him by his followers. Mevlana was born in 1207 in Balkh (Afghanistan), from where the family took refuge in Mecca fleeing from the Mongol attacks, and then from there moved to the Sultanate of Rum, and finally to Konya 1228.

For all of you who are wondering why I dedicate such a large part of my travelogue to Mevlana, you’ll have to wait for a bit this time, as it’s worth mentioning that after schooling in Damascus and Aleppo in 1244 he met Shams of Tabriz in Konya, one of his father's Sufis (Islamic mystics), who had such a strong influence on Mevlana that he was executed in 1447 by jealous followers of Mevlana. In shock of the tragic event, Mevlana withdrew and meditated and devoted himself to writing. It was during this period that his greatest poetic work in 25,000 verses, Mathnawi, was written.

Mevlana – personified tolerance

Mevlana was a great teacher of tolerance, as we would undoubtedly need today. Tolerance is best written in his famous verse:

»Come, whoever you might be. Even if you may be an infidel, a pagan or a fire-worshiper (Zoroastrian), come. Ours is not a brotherhood of despair. Even if you have broken your vows of repentance a houndred times, come.«

Mevlana died on December 17 1273, and this day is better known as his wedding night with Allah. After his death, his son, Sultan Veled, gathered Mevlana's followers into a fraternity called the Mevlevi, who are still known throughout the world as whirling dervishes. In the following centuries, over a hundred dervish lodges or orders emerged in the Ottoman world, which were quite conservative politically, socially and economically. Given that many Ottoman sultans were Mevlev Sufis, Kemal Atartürk understood them as an obstacle to the development of Turkey and banned them in 1925, but many nevertheless survived as religious fraternities. In Konya, the tradition of whirling dervishes was revived in 1957, when they organized themselves as a cultural society to preserve historical traditions.

The whirling dervishes are one of Konya’s main attractions, but unfortunately their performances were canceled at the time of my visit due to the coronavirus.

At least in part, the Mevlana Museum was opened, located on the premises of a former dervish lodge. So, I was able to visit a very well-kept park which we entered through a dervish gate. There was a courtyard with a beautiful fountain in the middle and under the mighty dome, the Mevlana's tomb, the tomb of Sultan Veled's son, and the tombs of some eminent dervishes in a sanctuary where many believers gather to pray for Mevlana's help. The inscription on the silver door leading to the tomb, however, couldn’t be more eloquent: "Those who enter here incomplete will come out perfect." This pilgrimage site is visited annually by more than one and a half million visitors, mostly Turkish believers, but at the time of my visit there were only a few due to travel restrictions around the country. These same restrictions, however, thwarted my plans on visiting the rest of the museum.

If you don't visit at least one bazaar, it's like you haven't been to Turkey

In addition to the main reason for visiting Konya, there are some other sights in the city and its surroundings that are worth visiting. One of these is the central bazaar where we can find everything we can imagine. It’s located not far from the Mevlana Museum and the central mosque in front of which we can enjoy the performances of whirling dervishes in normal times.

Among the other attractions of Konya, it’s necessary to mention at least the Alaeddin Tepesi Park, which also houses the Seljuk or Alaeddin Mosque. The park is especially attractive in the spring when it’s covered with carpets of blooming tulips. In addition to the sights, Konya is also attractive because of its pulse, which was almost intact, at least in the bazaar, if we disregard the masks and disinfectants.

There are also two other, completely different sights near Konya that are worth visiting in any case.

The first is the village of Sille, where Cappadocian Greek was spoken until 1922, and Greeks and Turks lived here for 800 years in coexistence thanks to a miracle witnessed by Mevlana himself. In 1923, the Turks and the Greeks agreed on an exchange of inhabitants on religious grounds, and by 1924 all Orthodox Greeks had left the village of Sille. The village has only 2,000 inhabitants, but it’s a popular destination for excursions for both visitors and residents of Konya. Beneath the mighty Byzantine church of St. Helena, a romantic village stretches along the river, where almost every house is intended for visitors. Unfortunately, there weren’t many visitors at the time of my visit, and only a few shops and restaurants were open, again offering only take-away, but even here they kindly showed me where I could sit down for a lunch, without disregarding the coronavirus restrictions.

If you’re visiting the village of Sille in the summer months, it also makes sense to visit the huge, newly arranged park with a water place, although there’ll be a lot of people there looking for refreshment, especially on weekends.

A tribute to a 9,000-year-old civilization before crossing the Tarsus Pass

More attractions include the archeological sites of Çatalhöyük, Karahöyük, Çukurkent and Küçükköy, which prove that the area was inhabited during the Neolithic or the last Stone Age 7,000 years BC. The first mentioned Catalhöyük site, which I also visited, has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012 and, in addition to the site itself, also includes a museum and copies of the residences of the inhabitants of that time.

I visited Catalhöyük on the way from Konya to the Mediterranean coast, where I also visited the town of Karaman at the foot of the Taurus mountain range and saw the famous fortress that protected the first city in Anatolia, where Turkish was introduced as the official language in 1277, more precisely on May 13, which is celebrated today in Anatolia as a language day.

And if I almost got used to the fact that cultural and natural sights can mostly be found in the same place in Capaddocia, this was no longer the case in the Turkish part of the eastern Mediterranean, where I made my way through a 1,650-meter-high pass in the Taurus Mountains. Fortunately, making my way through the mountain pass on a modern and well-maintained road was very easy, but due to the high temperatures, of course, I wasn’t able to take photos of the snowy pass wearing short sleeves. But, fortunately, there are many photos online that testify that the weather and snow conditions at the pass can also be significantly different. Next to the town of Mut, just a few kilometers from the route, the last kilometers of which require a lot of attention due to many potholes and rocks on the road, there are Yerkörpü waterfalls, which are worth all your invested time, caution and kilometers. In the nicely arranged park, where it was quite warm on the last day of the 2020 coronavirus year, rest areas with drinking fountains are set up along the arranged paths, which is even more welcome in the summer months. The canyon of the Ermenek River is extremely impressive, and bridges additionally contribute to this. However, waterfalls are the ones that take your breath away.

When I return to the main road and occasionally curse the road saint, or at least the controller of that road who forgot to bless the road to the waterfall with at least an asphalt-like coating, I remember again that we live in a time of coronavirus measures. Although COVID-19 shouldn’t be underestimated, it still makes your skin crawl a bit when you see a local farmer alone on a tractor and far away from people with a mask on his face, which is supposed to protect you from others and especially others from you, but there were no others 1.5, 2, 5 or even 500 m away. But apparently, the Turkish media and politicians have also extended a certain measure, which is otherwise sensible in urban centers, to places where it makes no sense at all.

Wearing short sleeves on New Year's Eve

Thinking that I was actually in a country that has a curfew every night, and additionally all weekend, the path led me to the coast, more precisely to the famous Maiden's castle in the seaside village of Kızkalesi, which is located on its very own islet about 300 m from the coast. Unfortunately, apart from the castle, the coast in Kızkalesi, especially outside the bathing season and with closed restaurants and clubs, doesn’t offer much. Yet the weather allowed, if not dictated, short sleeves.

But spoiled by the history of previous millennia and the beautiful nature of Cappadocia, and tired of the road, I wasn’t fascinated by Tarsus with its 250,000 inhabitants, although I’m aware that it’s only a subjective opinion. Tarsus offers a lot of history, but it’s also a great starting point for hiking in the Taurus Mountains. In the old part of the city, which begins with Cleopatra's Gate, you can admire the unique combination of Greek and Turkish and so you can see the birthplace of St. Paul under glass, and a church of the same name and many mosques and a hammam, a traditional Turkish bath.

After visiting Tarsus, my trip in 2020 ended at a hotel which I certainly wouldn’t have been able to afford during normal times. In addition to the government’s support to tourism by reducing the tax to only 1%, the low season and, of course, a large drop in tourists due to the coronavirus crisis also contributed to the favorable price, so I decided to move to a five-star hotel with thermal pampering in 2021. But already at the check-in, my heart sank a bit, as all the pools, despite advertising at the time of booking, were closed and there was no expected dinner buffet. On New Year's Eve, the coronavirus measures deprived me not only of a happy celebration, but also of thermal and, to a large extent, culinary delights. But, the same as 2020, we’ll also complete the penultimate part of the travelogue, and together enter into the year 2021 and return to Europe with new insights and experiences in the last part of the travelogue.