Japanese tourists visit Mevlana Museum most

KONYA - Anatolia News Agency

Rumi’s shrine has been the most popular section in Konya’s Mevlana Museum.

The Mevlana Museum in the central Anatolian province of Konya received a total of 120,000 tourists during the month of Ramadan, 87,000 of which were Turks. The museum is one of Turkey’s most visited sights after Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace, the Hagia Sophia and İzmir’s ancient site of Ephesus, and the largest number of visitors to the museum came from Japan.

Visitors to the museum pray in front of Mevlana Celaddiin-i Rumi’s shrine. Despite the hot weather in the region, many tourists visited, especially during the month of Ramadan.
 
The Mevlana Museum Deputy Director Naci Bakırcı said the museum was visited by 733,353 people in the first half of the year, while the number increased a great deal during the holy month. He said that mostly Japanese tourists visited the museum, as every year.

The museum, which has been fully renovated in recent years, was visited by 1,735,424 people last year.