Thursday, May 24

This morning we head towards the region the Romans called (Southern) Galatia and (most probably) the location of the cities to whom the Apostle Paul directd his letter fo that name.  Along the way we will cross north through a pass in the mountains known as the Cilician Gates.  Passing by Derbe, and Lystra, we will stop in Iconium, known to modern Turks as Konya.

Derbe and Lystra today are archaeological sites where the search for earlier civilization goes on.  Little is thus far unearthed, and the side trip to see these sites wouldn't yet repay the detour.

Konya is an elevated city, both geographically and historically, lying near one of humanity's oldest known population centers, Catal Huyuk (ca 7500 BC)

Konya became a center of the Muslim Sufis, thanks in large part to its being the residence of the Sufi poet Rumi (1207-1273), whose shrine stands prominently in the city.  His shrine was once a monastery of his Mevlevi Brotherhood, an order of the Sufi, famous now for their mystical dance: the "Whirling Dervishes" banned by the secular state in 1925.  The Mevlana Mausoleum serves now as the Museum of the Whirling Dervishes, where again, since 1953, their dances have been allowed.

Overnight: Konya