Konya · a Light

The green dome over Rumi covers a museum, not a lodge

Rumi died in Konya in December 1273 and was buried beside his father. A tomb was raised over him with Seljuk patronage, crowned by a fluted cone of turquoise glazed tiles that the city has been repairing ever since. Around it grew the mother lodge of the Mevlevi order, with cells, a kitchen where novices were trained for a thousand and one days, and a hall for the turning ceremony. In 1925 the Turkish Republic closed all dervish lodges. The building reopened in 1926 as a museum and remains one, receiving well over a million visitors a year, more than any other museum in the country in some years. The ceremony is now performed as a cultural programme, most fully in the week of his death.

Konya, Turkey · tomb from 1274