Mevlana Museum gaining popularity during summer

KONYA - Anatolia News Agency

The museum has drawn 395,460 foreign and 50,549 local tourists in three months. DHA photo

As the summer months’ high temperatures drive people indoors, Konya’s Mevlana Museum, already one of Turkey’s most visited museums with 1,735 million visitors, becomes even more popular.

Konya Museum Director Yusuf Benli said that the Mevlana Museum in the central Anatolian province of Konya was Turkey’s third most visited museum after Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum and Topkapı Palace Museum. The museum was visited by 1,735,424 people last year and interest had increased with the opening of this year’s tourism season, Benli said. Between April 1 and June 22 the museum has opened its doors for 395,460 foreign tourists and 50,549 local tourists, according to Benli.

Japanese tourists have the highest interest

“The museum most recently received Japanese tourists. They were followed by French tourists. The museum has been fully renovated in recent years. Visitors used to visit inside of the museum in the past without waiting in its yard [to get in]. Lastly, the Dervish Lodge section of the museum has been renewed and opened to visitors. Sixteen dervish lodges, where artifacts from Mevlevi history are being exhibited, draw big interest. This is why tourists are able to visit the yard of the museum along with inside the museum for the last six months,” Benli said. Renewal work for the museum’s dervish statues used technology from Hollywood films to make the statues lifelike.