The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the results of attendance at museum sites under its jurisdiction for 7 months of 2023.
According to the Turkish Ministry, the first place in terms of the number of visitors in January-July is the Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi Museum Complex in Konya (1,664,437 visitors in January-July).
Jalaluddin Rumi Mevlana is the most famous Islamic theologian of the Sufi persuasion, mystic philosopher, writer and poet of Persian origin, invited by the Seljuk Sultan of Konya to the city in the 13th century.
His life and main works are connected with Turkey. Mevlana’s poetry and language are believed to have influenced all Ottoman literature.
Mevlana’s philosophy boils down to the following principles: a minimum of food, a minimum of talking, a minimum of sleep, victory over passions, perseverance in the face of suffering caused by people, establishing contacts with positive people and avoiding contacts with bad (toxic, as they would say now).
According to Mevlana, happiness for a person is possible if he lives a simple life, away from everything superficial and superficial, is friendly with people and is grateful for what he has in earthly life.
The Mevlana order was founded in Turkey by Mevlana’s son; it is partially familiar to Russians from the famous “dervish dance”.
After Mevlana’s death, his mausoleum complex (now a museum) was created in Konya. The ensemble of the Mevlana Museum was created over seven centuries. For example, the tomb of Hurrem Pasha was built during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, 17 dervish cells were built under Sultan Murad III, and the fountain of ablutions was built under Selim I.
In the museum you can look at collections of ancient books, musical instruments of the Mevlevi order, prayer instruments, some personal belongings of Mevlana, get information about the culture of the Sufis, the process of preparing and teaching dervishes. Among the museum’s exhibits, a special place belongs to a mother-of-pearl box in which a fragment of the Prophet Muhammad’s beard is stored – therefore, the museum attracts many pilgrims.
In second place in terms of attendance in January-July among museum sites in Turkey are the ruins (museumized excavations) of ancient Ephesus in the province of Izmir. They were visited by 1,151,511 people in January-July.
In third place is Pamukkale with its famous limestone terraces and ruins of ancient Hierapolis (1,149,843 visitors in 7 months). It is also a very popular place that is visited with excursions and on your own.
In 4th place is the Galata Tower in Istanbul (749,950 visitors in 7 months).
In fifth place is the Goreme Open Air Museum in Cappadocia (528,030 visits in January-July).