After three wonderful nights at Villa Tulip, we boarded the bus and headed to Konya, the home to Rumi's Tomb and the birthplace of Sufism. We enjoyed a nice evening wandering about the modern city center and having a scrumptious dinner with a few of our friends. The next morning we walked through the market area to Rumi's Tomb, a sprawling complex of beautiful buildings and grounds. If you have the chance, check out the Turkish Series called "Ertugrul", it's a great series on Turkish history with English subtitles. Some of the goodies we saw at the market are directly from that series. We also saw tons of blue cheeses and comb honey and fresh leeches, among many other things for sale. There's a particular blue cheese made locally that is sewn into a sheep's stomach to cure. It's was surprising to see it displayed still in the stomach at the markets!
The museum is filled with excellent explanations of everything in Turkish and English. It was a very pleasant morning spent poking around the grounds. The Sufi Monks made lovely embellished copies of the Koran, many of which are on display at the museum.
There's a particular item of note at this museum - not only does it house the remains of Rumi, and other important Sufi leaders, it also has the whisker of The Prophet Mohamed on display. It is not actually on display, but the beautiful box that it resides in is on display. The box is encased in plexiglass, however there are two vent holes near the painted stand as the legend goes that it continues to emit a delightful floral scent always and forever. The paint worn off the area surrounding the holes is testament to the millions of noses checking to see if the scent is still there... Yes, I did get close enough to determine that there is a floral scent, but not close enough to touch the stand or the plexiglass!
Check out this link for more info: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/greece-turkey/turkey